¹⁷ Yet they would not listen to their judges, but they ^(A)played the harlot with other gods, and bowed down to them. They turned quickly from the way in which their fathers walked, in obeying the commandments of the Lord; they did not do so.

¹² and they ^(A)forsook the Lord God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt; and they followed ^(B)other gods from among the gods of the people who were all around them, and they ^(C)bowed down to them; and they provoked the Lord to anger.

¹⁹ Now ^(A)there was no blacksmith to be found throughout all the land of Israel, for the Philistines said, “Lest the Hebrews make swords or spears.” ²⁰ But all the Israelites would go down to the Philistines to sharpen each man’s plowshare, his mattock, his ax, and his sickle; ²¹ and the charge for a sharpening was a ^[a]pim for the plowshares, the mattocks, the forks, and the axes, and to set the points of the goads. ²² So it came about, on the day of battle, that ^(B)there was neither sword nor spear found in the hand of any of the people who were with Saul and Jonathan. But they were found with Saul and Jonathan his son.

³ And the children of Israel cried out to the Lord; for Jabin had nine hundred ^(A)chariots of iron, and for twenty years ^(B)he had harshly oppressed the children of Israel.