¹⁹ I am among the peaceable and faithful in Israel. You seek to destroy a city and a mother in Israel. Why would you swallow up ^(A)the inheritance of the Lord?”

¹⁹ Therefore the Jews of the villages who dwelt in the unwalled towns celebrated the fourteenth day of the month of Adar ^(A)with gladness and feasting, ^(B)as a holiday, and for ^(C)sending presents to one another.

¹³ Greet Rufus, ^(A)chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine.

⁴ Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, was judging Israel at that time. ^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. ⁶ Then she sent and called for ^(B)Barak the son of Abinoam from ^(C)Kedesh in Naphtali, and said to him, “Has not the Lord God of Israel commanded, ‘Go and ^[a]deploy troops at Mount ^(D)Tabor; take with you ten thousand men of the sons of Naphtali and of the sons of Zebulun;