⁵ She used to sit under the palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in ^(A)the hill country of Ephraim, and the people of Israel came up to her for judgment.

⁸ And ^(A)Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, died, and she was buried under an oak below Bethel. So he called its name Allon-bacuth.^[a]

¹⁶ And when ^(A)the five lords of the Philistines saw it, they returned that day to Ekron.

¹⁷ These are the golden tumors that the Philistines returned as a ^(B)guilt offering to the Lord: one for Ashdod, one for Gaza, one for Ashkelon, one for Gath, one for Ekron,

¹⁹ They rose early in the morning and worshiped before the Lord; then they went back to their house at ^(A)Ramah. And Elkanah knew Hannah his wife, and the Lord ^(B)remembered her.

The Birth of Samuel

1 There was a certain man of ^(A)Ramathaim-zophim of ^(B)the hill country of Ephraim whose name was Elkanah the son of Jeroham, son of Elihu, son of Tohu, son of Zuph, ^(C)an Ephrathite.

²⁵ Gibeon, Ramah, Beeroth,

²² Beth-arabah, Zemaraim, Bethel,

² Then ^(A)going from Bethel to Luz, it passes along to Ataroth, the territory of the Archites.

Legal Decisions by Priests and Judges

⁸ “If any case arises requiring decision between one kind of homicide and another, one kind of legal right and another, or one kind of assault and another, any case within your towns that is too difficult for you, then you shall arise and go up to ^(A)the place that the Lord your God will choose. ^9 (B)And you shall come to the Levitical priests and to the judge who is in office in those days, and you shall consult them, and ^(C)they shall declare to you the decision. ¹⁰ Then you shall do according to what they declare to you from that place that the Lord will choose. And you shall be careful to do according to all that they direct you. ¹¹ According to the instructions that they give you, and according to the decision which they pronounce to you, you shall do. You shall not turn aside from the verdict that they declare to you, either to the right hand or to the left. ¹² The man who ^(D)acts presumptuously by not obeying the priest ^(E)who stands to minister there before the Lord your God, or the judge, that man shall die. So ^(F)you shall purge the evil from Israel.

²⁶ And ^(A)they judged the people at all times. Any hard case they brought to Moses, but any small matter they decided themselves.