²⁶ And Ga′al the son of Ebed moved into Shechem with his kinsmen; and the men of Shechem put confidence in him. ²⁷ And they went out into the field, and gathered the grapes from their vineyards and trod them, and held festival, and went into the house of their god, and ate and drank and reviled Abim′elech. ²⁸ And Ga′al the son of Ebed said, “Who is Abim′elech, and who are we of Shechem, that we should serve him? Did not the son of Jerubba′al and Zebul his officer serve the men of Hamor the father of Shechem? Why then should we serve him? ²⁹ Would that this people were under my hand! then I would remove Abim′elech. I would say^[a] to Abim′elech, ‘Increase your army, and come out.’”

³⁰ When Zebul the ruler of the city heard the words of Ga′al the son of Ebed, his anger was kindled. ³¹ And he sent messengers to Abim′elech at Aru′mah,^[b] saying, “Behold, Ga′al the son of Ebed and his kinsmen have come to Shechem, and they are stirring up^[c] the city against you. ³² Now therefore, go by night, you and the men that are with you, and lie in wait in the fields. ³³ Then in the morning, as soon as the sun is up, rise early and rush upon the city; and when he and the men that are with him come out against you, you may do to them as occasion offers.”

³⁴ And Abim′elech and all the men that were with him rose up by night, and laid wait against Shechem in four companies. ³⁵ And Ga′al the son of Ebed went out and stood in the entrance of the gate of the city; and Abim′elech and the men that were with him rose from the ambush. ³⁶ And when Ga′al saw the men, he said to Zebul, “Look, men are coming down from the mountain tops!” And Zebul said to him, “You see the shadow of the mountains as if they were men.” ³⁷ Ga′al spoke again and said, “Look, men are coming down from the center of the land, and one company is coming from the direction of the Diviners’ Oak.” ³⁸ Then Zebul said to him, “Where is your mouth now, you who said, ‘Who is Abim′elech, that we should serve him?’ Are not these the men whom you despised? Go out now and fight with them.” ³⁹ And Ga′al went out at the head of the men of Shechem, and fought with Abim′elech. ⁴⁰ And Abim′elech chased him, and he fled before him; and many fell wounded, up to the entrance of the gate. ⁴¹ And Abim′elech dwelt at Aru′mah; and Zebul drove out Ga′al and his kinsmen, so that they could not live on at Shechem.

⁴² On the following day the men went out into the fields. And Abim′elech was told. ⁴³ He took his men and divided them into three companies, and laid wait in the fields; and he looked and saw the men coming out of the city, and he rose against them and slew them. ⁴⁴ Abim′elech and the company^[d] that was with him rushed forward and stood at the entrance of the gate of the city, while the two companies rushed upon all who were in the fields and slew them. ⁴⁵ And Abim′elech fought against the city all that day; he took the city, and killed the people that were in it; and he razed the city and sowed it with salt.

⁴⁶ When all the people of the Tower of Shechem heard of it, they entered the stronghold of the house of El-be′rith. ⁴⁷ Abim′elech was told that all the people of the Tower of Shechem were gathered together. ⁴⁸ And Abim′elech went up to Mount Zalmon, he and all the men that were with him; and Abim′elech took an axe in his hand, and cut down a bundle of brushwood, and took it up and laid it on his shoulder. And he said to the men that were with him, “What you have seen me do, make haste to do, as I have done.” ⁴⁹ So every one of the people cut down his bundle and following Abim′elech put it against the stronghold, and they set the stronghold on fire over them, so that all the people of the Tower of Shechem also died, about a thousand men and women.

⁵⁰ Then Abim′elech went to Thebez, and encamped against Thebez, and took it. ⁵¹ But there was a strong tower within the city, and all the people of the city fled to it, all the men and women, and shut themselves in; and they went to the roof of the tower. ⁵² And Abim′elech came to the tower, and fought against it, and drew near to the door of the tower to burn it with fire. ⁵³ And a certain woman threw an upper millstone upon Abim′elech’s head, and crushed his skull. ⁵⁴ Then he called hastily to the young man his armor-bearer, and said to him, “Draw your sword and kill me, lest men say of me, ‘A woman killed him.’” And his young man thrust him through, and he died. ⁵⁵ And when the men of Israel saw that Abim′elech was dead, they departed every man to his home. ⁵⁶ Thus God requited the crime of Abim′elech, which he committed against his father in killing his seventy brothers; ⁵⁷ and God also made all the wickedness of the men of Shechem fall back upon their heads, and upon them came the curse of Jotham the son of Jerubba′al.

¹⁵ Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred which redeems them from the transgressions under the first covenant.^{[a] 16} For where a will^[b] is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established. ¹⁷ For a will^[c] takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive. ¹⁸ Hence even the first covenant was not ratified without blood. ¹⁹ For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, ²⁰ saying, “This is the blood of the covenant which God commanded you.” ²¹ And in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent^[d] and all the vessels used in worship. ²² Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.

Christ’s Sacrifice Takes Away Sin

²³ Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. ²⁴ For Christ has entered, not into a sanctuary made with hands, a copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. ²⁵ Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the Holy Place yearly with blood not his own; ²⁶ for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the age to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. ²⁷ And just as it is appointed for men to die once, and after that comes judgment, ²⁸ so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

¹⁷ Then the Ammonites were called to arms, and they encamped in Gilead; and the people of Israel came together, and they encamped at Mizpah. ¹⁸ And the people, the leaders of Gilead, said one to another, “Who is the man that will begin to fight against the Ammonites? He shall be head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.”

Jephthah

11 Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty warrior, but he was the son of a harlot. Gilead was the father of Jephthah. ² And Gilead’s wife also bore him sons; and when his wife’s sons grew up, they thrust Jephthah out, and said to him, “You shall not inherit in our father’s house; for you are the son of another woman.” ³ Then Jephthah fled from his brothers, and dwelt in the land of Tob; and worthless fellows collected round Jephthah, and went raiding with him.

⁴ After a time the Ammonites made war against Israel. ⁵ And when the Ammonites made war against Israel, the elders of Gilead went to bring Jephthah from the land of Tob; ⁶ and they said to Jephthah, “Come and be our leader, that we may fight with the Ammonites.” ⁷ But Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, “Did you not hate me, and drive me out of my father’s house? Why have you come to me now when you are in trouble?” ⁸ And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “That is why we have turned to you now, that you may go with us and fight with the Ammonites, and be our head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.” ⁹ Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, “If you bring me home again to fight with the Ammonites, and the Lord gives them over to me, I will be your head.” ¹⁰ And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “The Lord will be witness between us; we will surely do as you say.” ¹¹ So Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and leader over them; and Jephthah spoke all his words before the Lord at Mizpah.

¹² Then Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites and said, “What have you against me, that you have come to me to fight against my land?” ¹³ And the king of the Ammonites answered the messengers of Jephthah, “Because Israel on coming from Egypt took away my land, from the Arnon to the Jabbok and to the Jordan; now therefore restore it peaceably.” ¹⁴ And Jephthah sent messengers again to the king of the Ammonites ¹⁵ and said to him, “Thus says Jephthah: Israel did not take away the land of Moab or the land of the Ammonites, ¹⁶ but when they came up from Egypt, Israel went through the wilderness to the Red Sea and came to Kadesh. ¹⁷ Israel then sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, ‘Let us pass, we pray, through your land’; but the king of Edom would not listen. And they sent also to the king of Moab, but he would not consent. So Israel remained at Kadesh. ¹⁸ Then they journeyed through the wilderness, and went around the land of Edom and the land of Moab, and arrived on the east side of the land of Moab, and camped on the other side of the Arnon; but they did not enter the territory of Moab, for the Arnon was the boundary of Moab. ¹⁹ Israel then sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, king of Heshbon; and Israel said to him, ‘Let us pass, we pray, through your land to our country.’ ²⁰ But Sihon did not trust Israel to pass through his territory; so Sihon gathered all his people together, and encamped at Jahaz, and fought with Israel. ²¹ And the Lord, the God of Israel, gave Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they defeated them; so Israel took possession of all the land of the Amorites, who inhabited that country. ²² And they took possession of all the territory of the Amorites from the Arnon to the Jabbok and from the wilderness to the Jordan. ²³ So then the Lord, the God of Israel, dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel; and are you to take possession of them? ²⁴ Will you not possess what Chemosh your god gives you to possess? And all that the Lord our God has dispossessed before us, we will possess. ²⁵ Now are you any better than Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever strive against Israel, or did he ever go to war with them? ²⁶ While Israel dwelt in Heshbon and its villages, and in Aro′er and its villages, and in all the cities that are on the banks of the Arnon, three hundred years, why did you not recover them within that time? ²⁷ I therefore have not sinned against you, and you do me wrong by making war on me; the Lord, the Judge, decide this day between the people of Israel and the people of Ammon.” ²⁸ But the king of the Ammonites did not heed the message of Jephthah which he sent to him.

Christ’s Sacrifice Once for All

10 For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices which are continually offered year after year, make perfect those who draw near. ² Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered? If the worshipers had once been cleansed, they would no longer have any consciousness of sin. ³ But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sin year after year. ⁴ For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins.

⁵ Consequently, when Christ^[a] came into the world, he said,

⁸ When he said above, “Thou hast neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law), ⁹ then he added, “Lo, I have come to do thy will.” He abolishes the first in order to establish the second. ¹⁰ And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

¹¹ And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. ¹² But when Christ^[b] had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, ¹³ then to wait until his enemies should be made a stool for his feet. ¹⁴ For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. ¹⁵ And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying,

¹⁷ then he adds,

¹⁸ Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.