^5 (A)And she would sit under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the mountains of Ephraim. And the children of Israel came up to her for judgment.

Mercy on Ephraim

¹⁵ Thus says the Lord:

The Family of Elkanah

1 Now there was a certain man of Ramathaim Zophim, of the ^(A)mountains of Ephraim, and his name was ^(B)Elkanah the son of Jeroham, the son of ^[a]Elihu, the son of ^[b]Tohu, the son of Zuph, ^(C)an Ephraimite.

^25 (A)Gibeon, ^(B)Ramah, Beeroth,

²² Beth Arabah, Zemaraim, Bethel,

² then went out ^[a]from ^(A)Bethel to Luz, passed along to the border of the Archites at Ataroth,

^8 (A)“If a matter arises which is too hard for you to judge, between degrees of guilt for bloodshed, between one judgment or another, or between one punishment or another, matters of controversy within your gates, then you shall arise and go up to the ^(B)place which the Lord your God chooses. ⁹ And ^(C)you shall come to the priests, the Levites, and ^(D)to the judge there in those days, and inquire of them; ^(E)they shall pronounce upon you the sentence of judgment. ¹⁰ You shall do according to the sentence which they pronounce upon you in that place which the Lord chooses. And you shall be careful to do according to all that they order you. ¹¹ According to the sentence of the law in which they instruct you, according to the judgment which they tell you, you shall do; you shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left from the sentence which they pronounce upon you. ¹² Now ^(F)the man who acts presumptuously and will not heed the priest who stands to minister there before the Lord your God, or the judge, that man shall die. So you shall put away the evil from Israel.

²⁶ So they judged the people at all times; the ^(A)hard^[a] cases they brought to Moses, but they judged every small case themselves.

¹⁹ Listen now to my voice; I will give you ^[a]counsel, and God will be with you: Stand ^(A)before God for the people, so that you may ^(B)bring the difficulties to God.