¹⁷ Yet they did not listen to their judges, for ^(A)they whored after other gods and bowed down to them. ^(B)They soon turned aside from the way in which their fathers had walked, who had obeyed the commandments of the Lord, and they did not do so.

^12 (A)And they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. ^(B)They went after other gods, from among the gods of the peoples who were around them, and ^(C)bowed down to them. ^(D)And they provoked the Lord to anger.

^19 (A)Now there was no blacksmith to be found throughout all the land of Israel, for the Philistines said, “Lest the Hebrews make themselves swords or spears.” ²⁰ But every one of the Israelites went down to the Philistines to sharpen his plowshare, his mattock, his axe, or his sickle,^{[a] 21} and the charge was two-thirds of a shekel^[b] for the plowshares and for the mattocks, and a third of a shekel^[c] for sharpening the axes and for setting the goads.^{[d] 22} So on the day of the battle ^(B)there was neither sword nor spear found in the hand of any of the people with Saul and Jonathan, but Saul and Jonathan his son had them.

³ Then the people of Israel ^(A)cried out to the Lord for help, for he had ^(B)900 chariots of iron and he oppressed the people of Israel cruelly for twenty years.