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“Seventy kings,” said Adonibezek, “used to pick up scraps under my table with their thumbs and big toes cut off. As I have done, so has God repaid me.” He was brought to Jerusalem, and he died there.
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Chapter 6
The Call of Gideon. The Israelites did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, who therefore delivered them into the power of Midian for seven years,
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That same night the Lord said to him: Take your father’s bull, the bull fattened for seven years, and pull down your father’s altar to Baal. As for the asherah beside it, cut it down
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He captured a young man of Succoth and questioned him, and he wrote down for him the seventy-seven princes and elders of Succoth.
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The gold rings he had requested weighed seventeen hundred gold shekels, apart from the crescents and pendants, the purple garments worn by the kings of Midian, and apart from the trappings that were on the necks of their camels.
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Now Gideon had seventy sons, his own offspring, for he had many wives.
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“Put this question to all the lords of Shechem: ‘Which is better for you: that seventy men, all Jerubbaal’s sons, rule over you, or that one man rule over you?’ You must remember that I am your own flesh and bone.”
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They also gave him seventy pieces of silver from the temple of Baal-berith, with which Abimelech hired worthless men and outlaws as his followers.
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He then went to his father’s house in Ophrah, and killed his brothers, the seventy sons of Jerubbaal, on one stone. Only the youngest son of Jerubbaal, Jotham, escaped, for he was hidden.
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but you have risen against my father’s house today and killed his seventy sons upon one stone and made Abimelech, the son of his maidservant, king over the lords of Shechem, because he is your kin—
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This was to repay the violence done to the seventy sons of Jerubbaal and to avenge their blood upon their brother Abimelech, who killed them, and upon the lords of Shechem, who encouraged him to kill his brothers.
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Thus did God repay the evil that Abimelech had done to his father in killing his seventy brothers.
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He had thirty sons and thirty daughters whom he gave in marriage outside the family, while bringing in thirty wives for his sons from outside the family. He judged Israel for seven years.
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He had forty sons and thirty grandsons, who rode on seventy donkeys. He judged Israel for eight years.
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Samson said to them, “Let me propose a riddle to you. If within the seven days of the feast you solve it for me, I will give you thirty linen tunics and thirty sets of garments.
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But she wept beside him during the seven days the feast lasted, and on the seventh day, he told her the answer, because she pressed him, and she explained the riddle to her people.
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On the seventh day, before the sun set, the men of the city said to him, “What is sweeter than honey, what is stronger than a lion?” He replied to them, “If you had not plowed with my heifer, you would not have solved my riddle.”
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“If they bind me with seven fresh bowstrings that have not dried,” Samson answered her, “I shall grow weaker and be like anyone else.”
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So the lords of the Philistines brought her seven fresh bowstrings that had not dried, and she bound him with them.
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Delilah said to Samson again, “Up to now you have mocked me and told me lies. Tell me how you may be bound.” He said to her, “If you weave the seven locks of my hair into the web and fasten them with the pin, I shall grow weaker and be like anyone else.”
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So when he went to bed, Delilah took the seven locks of his hair and wove them into the web, and fastened them with the pin. Then she said, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” Awakening from his sleep, he pulled out both the loom and the web.
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She put him to sleep on her lap, and called for a man who shaved off the seven locks of his hair. He immediately became helpless, for his strength had left him.
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On that day the Benjaminites mustered from their cities twenty-six thousand swordsmen, in addition to the inhabitants of Gibeah, who mustered seven hundred picked men