¹⁹ I am one who is peace loving and faithful in Israel. But you are destroying an important town in Israel.^[a] Why do you want to devour what belongs to the Lord?”

¹³ Greet Rufus, whom the Lord picked out to be his very own; and also his dear mother, who has been a mother to me.

¹⁹ So to this day, rural Jews living in remote villages celebrate an annual festival and holiday on the appointed day in late winter,^[a] when they rejoice and send gifts of food to each other.

⁴ Deborah, the wife of Lappidoth, was a prophet who was judging Israel at that time. ⁵ She would sit under the Palm of Deborah, between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites would go to her for judgment. ⁶ One day she sent for Barak son of Abinoam, who lived in Kedesh in the land of Naphtali. She said to him, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, commands you: Call out 10,000 warriors from the tribes of Naphtali and Zebulun at Mount Tabor.