¹⁶ Then the Lord raised up judges who delivered them out of the power of those who plundered them.^{(A) 17} Yet they did not listen even to their judges, for they lusted after other gods and bowed down to them. They soon turned aside from the way in which their ancestors had walked, who had obeyed the commandments of the Lord; they did not follow their example.^{(B) 18} Whenever the Lord raised up judges for them, the Lord was with the judge, and he delivered them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge, for the Lord would be moved to pity by their groaning because of those who persecuted and oppressed them.

Psalm 1

The Two Ways

¹⁹ Now there was no smith to be found throughout all the land of Israel, for the Philistines said, “The Hebrews must not make swords or spears for themselves,”^(A)

⁹ But they forgot the Lord their God, and he sold them into the hand of Sisera, commander of the army of King Jabin of^[a] Hazor, and into the hand of the Philistines, and into the hand of the king of Moab, and they fought against them.^{(A) 10} Then they cried to the Lord and said, ‘We have sinned, for we have forsaken the Lord and have served the Baals and the Astartes, but now rescue us out of the hand of our enemies, and we will serve you.’^{(B) 11} And the Lord sent Jerubbaal and Barak,^[b] and Jephthah, and Samson^[c] and rescued you out of the hand of your enemies on every side, and you lived in safety.^(C)

⁵ For they and their livestock would come up, and they would even bring their tents, as thick as locusts; neither they nor their camels could be counted, so they wasted the land as they came in.^(A)