¹⁴ Now Jesus was driving out a demon that was dumb; and it occurred that when the demon had gone out, the dumb man spoke. And the crowds marveled.

¹⁵ But some of them said, He drives out demons [because He is in league with and] by Beelzebub, the prince of demons,

¹⁶ While others, to try and test and tempt Him, demanded a sign of Him from heaven.

¹⁷ But He, [well] aware of their intent and purpose, said to them, Every kingdom split up against itself is doomed and brought to desolation, and so house falls upon house. [The disunited household will collapse.]

¹⁸ And if Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom last? For you say that I expel demons with the help of and by Beelzebub.

¹⁹ Now if I expel demons with the help of and by Beelzebub, with whose help and by whom do your sons drive them out? Therefore they shall be your judges.

²⁰ But if I drive out the demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has [already] come upon you.

²¹ When the strong man, fully armed, [^[a]from his courtyard] guards his own dwelling, his belongings are undisturbed [his property is at peace and is secure].

²² But when one stronger than he attacks him and conquers him, he robs him of his whole armor on which he had relied and divides up and distributes all his goods as plunder (spoil).

²³ He who is not with Me [siding and believing with Me] is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me [engage in My interest], scatters.

²⁴ When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it roams through waterless places in search [of a place] of rest (release, refreshment, ease); and finding none it says, I will go back to my house from which I came.

²⁵ And when it arrives, it finds [the place] swept and put in order and furnished and decorated.

²⁶ And it goes and brings other spirits, seven [of them], more evil than itself, and they enter in, settle down, and dwell there; and the last state of that person is worse than the first.

²⁷ Now it occurred that as He was saying these things, a certain woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to Him, Blessed (happy and ^[b]to be envied) is the womb that bore You and the breasts that You sucked!

²⁸ But He said, Blessed (happy and ^[c]to be envied) rather are those who hear the Word of God and obey and practice it!

²⁹ Now as the crowds were [increasingly] thronging Him, He began to say, This present generation is a wicked one; it seeks and demands a sign (miracle), but no sign shall be given to it except the sign of Jonah [the prophet].^(A)

³⁰ For [just] as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so will also the Son of Man be [a sign] to this age and generation.^(B)

³¹ The queen of the South will arise in the judgment with the people of this age and generation and condemn them; for she came from the ends of the [inhabited] earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon, and notice, ^[d]here is more than Solomon.^(C)

³² The men of Nineveh will appear as witnesses at the judgment with this generation and will condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, ^[e]here is more than Jonah.^(D)

³³ No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or crypt or under a bushel measure, but on a lampstand, that those who are coming in may see the light.

³⁴ Your eye is the lamp of your body; when your eye (^[f]your conscience) is sound and fulfilling its office, your whole body is full of light; but when it is not sound and is not fulfilling its office, your body is full of darkness.

³⁵ Be careful, therefore, that the light that is in you is not darkness.

³⁶ If then your entire body is illuminated, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright [with light], as when a lamp with its bright rays gives you light.

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3 Now these are the nations which the Lord left to prove Israel by them, that is, all in Israel who had not previously experienced war in Canaan;

² It was only that the generations of the Israelites might know and be taught war, at least those who previously knew nothing of it.

³ The remaining nations are: the five lords of the Philistines, all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites who dwelt on Mount Lebanon from Mount Baal-hermon to the entrance of Hamath.

⁴ They were for the testing and proving of Israel to know whether Israel would listen and obey the commandments of the Lord, which He commanded their fathers by Moses.

⁵ And the Israelites dwelt among the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites;

⁶ And they married their daughters and gave their own daughters to their sons, and served their gods.^(A)

⁷ And the Israelites did evil in the sight of the Lord and forgot the Lord their God and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth.^(B)

⁸ So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and He sold them into the hand of Chushan-rishathaim king of Mesopotamia; and the Israelites served Chushan-rishathaim eight years.

⁹ But when the Israelites cried to the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer for the people of Israel to deliver them, Othniel son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother.

¹⁰ The Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he judged Israel. He went out to war, and the Lord delivered Chushan-rishathaim king of Mesopotamia into his hand and his hand prevailed over Chushan-rishathaim.

¹¹ And the land had rest forty years. Then Othniel son of Kenaz died.

¹² And the Israelites again did evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord strengthened Eglon king of Moab against Israel because they had done what was evil in the sight of the Lord.

¹³ And [Eglon] gathered to him the men of Ammon and Amalek, and went and smote Israel, and they possessed the City of Palm Trees (Jericho).

¹⁴ And the Israelites served Eglon king of Moab eighteen years.

¹⁵ But when the Israelites cried to the Lord, the Lord raised them up a deliverer, Ehud son of Gera, a Benjamite, a left-handed man; and by him the Israelites sent tribute to Eglon king of Moab.

¹⁶ Ehud made for himself a sword, a cubit long, which had two edges, and he girded it on his right thigh under his clothing.

¹⁷ And he brought the tribute to Eglon king of Moab. Now Eglon was a very fat man.

¹⁸ And when Ehud had finished presenting the tribute, he sent away the people who had carried it.

¹⁹ He himself went [with them] as far as the sculptured [boundary] stones near Gilgal, and then turned back and came to Eglon and said, I have a secret errand to you, O king. Eglon commanded silence, and all who stood by him went out from him.

²⁰ When Ehud had come [near] to him as he was sitting alone in his cool upper apartment, Ehud said, I have a commission from God to execute to you. And the king arose from his seat.

²¹ Then Ehud put forth his left hand and took the sword from his right thigh and thrust it into Eglon’s belly.

²² And the hilt also went in after the blade, and the fat closed upon the blade, for [Ehud] did not draw the sword out of his belly, and the dirt came out.

²³ Then Ehud went out into the vestibule and shut the doors of the upper room upon [Eglon] and locked them.

²⁴ When [Ehud] had gone out, [Eglon’s] servants came. And when they saw the doors of the upper room were locked, they thought, Surely he [is seeking privacy while he] relieves himself in the closet of the cool chamber.

²⁵ They waited a long time until they became embarrassed and uneasy, but when he still did not open the doors of the upper room, they took the key and opened them, and there lay their master fallen to the floor, dead!

²⁶ Ehud escaped while they delayed and passed beyond the sculptured [boundary] stones (images) and escaped to Seirah.

²⁷ When he arrived, he blew a trumpet in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites went down from the hill country, with him at their head.

²⁸ And he said to them, Follow me, for the Lord has delivered your enemies the Moabites into your hand. So they went down after him and seized the fords of the Jordan against the Moabites and permitted not a man to pass over.

²⁹ They slew at that time about 10,000 Moabites, all strong, courageous men; not a man escaped.

³⁰ So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel, and the land had peace and rest for eighty years.

³¹ After [Ehud] was Shamgar son of Anath, who slew 600 Philistine men with an oxgoad. He also delivered Israel.

4 But after Ehud died the Israelites again did evil in the sight of the Lord.

² So the Lord sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. The commander of his army was Sisera, who dwelt in Harosheth-hagoiim [fortress or city of the nations].

³ Then the Israelites cried to the Lord, for [Jabin] had 900 chariots of iron and had severely oppressed the Israelites for twenty years.

⁴ Now Deborah, a ^[a]prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, judged Israel at that time.

⁵ She sat under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites came up to her for judgment.

⁶ And she sent and called Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali and said to him, Has not the Lord, the God of Israel, commanded [you], Go, gather your men at Mount Tabor, taking 10,000 men from the tribes of Naphtali and Zebulun?

⁷ And I will draw out Sisera, the general of Jabin’s army, to meet you at the river Kishon with his chariots and his multitude, and I will deliver him into your hand?

⁸ And Barak said to her, If you will go with me, then I will go; but if you will not go with me, I will not go.

⁹ And she said, I will surely go with you; nevertheless, the trip you take will not be for your glory, for the Lord will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman. And Deborah arose and went with Barak to Kedesh. [Fulfilled in Judg. 4:22.]

¹⁰ And Barak called Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh, and he went up with 10,000 men at his heels, and Deborah went up with him.

¹¹ Now Heber the Kenite, of the descendants of Hobab, the father-in-law of Moses, had separated from the Kenites and encamped as far away as the oak in Zaanannim, which is near Kedesh.

¹² When it was told Sisera that Barak son of Abinoam had gone up to Mount Tabor,

¹³ Sisera gathered together all his chariots, even 900 chariots of iron, and all the men who were with him from Harosheth-hagoiim to the river Kishon.

¹⁴ And Deborah said to Barak, Up! For this is the day when the Lord has given Sisera into your hand. Is not the Lord gone out before you? So Barak went down from Mount Tabor with 10,000 men following him.

¹⁵ And the Lord confused and terrified Sisera and all his chariot drivers and all his army before Barak with the sword. And Sisera alighted from his chariot and fled on foot.

¹⁶ But Barak pursued after the chariots and the army to Harosheth-hagoiim, and all the army of Sisera fell by the sword; not a man was left.

¹⁷ But Sisera fled on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, for there was peace between Jabin the king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite.

¹⁸ And Jael went out to meet Sisera and said to him, Turn aside, my lord, turn aside to me; have no fear. So he turned aside to her into the tent, and she covered him with a rug.

¹⁹ And he said to her, Give me, I pray you, a little water to drink for I am thirsty. And she opened a skin of milk and gave him a drink and covered him.

²⁰ And he said to her, Stand at the door of the tent, and if any man comes and asks you, Is there any man here? Tell him, No.

²¹ But Jael, Heber’s wife, took a tent pin and a hammer in her hand and went softly to him and drove the pin through his temple and into the ground; for he was in a deep sleep from weariness. So he died.

²² And behold, as Barak pursued Sisera, Jael came out to meet him and said to him, Come, and I will show you the man you seek. And when he came into her tent, behold, Sisera lay dead, and the tent pin was in his temples.

²³ So God subdued on that day Jabin king of Canaan before the Israelites.

²⁴ And the hand of the Israelites bore more and more upon Jabin king of Canaan until they had destroyed [him].