The Daily Audio Bible

¹⁰ When that entire generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation arose that knew neither Adonai nor the work he had done for Isra’el. ¹¹ Then the people of Isra’el did what was evil from Adonai’s perspective and served the ba‘alim. ¹² They abandoned Adonai, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, selected from the gods of the peoples around them, and worshipped them; this made Adonai angry. ¹³ They abandoned Adonai and served Ba‘al and the ‘ashtarot. ¹⁴ The anger of Adonai blazed against Isra’el; and he handed them over to pillagers, who plundered them, and to their enemies around them; so that they could no longer resist their enemies. ¹⁵ Whenever they launched an attack, the power of Adonai was against them, so that things turned out badly — just as Adonai had said would happen and had sworn to them. They were in dire distress.

¹⁶ But then Adonai raised up judges, who rescued them from the power of those who were plundering them. ¹⁷ Yet they did not pay attention to their judges, but made whores of themselves to other gods and worshipped them; they quickly turned away from the path on which their ancestors had walked, the way of obeying Adonai’s mitzvot — they failed to do this. ¹⁸ When Adonai raised up judges for them, Adonai was with the judge and delivered them from the hands of their enemies throughout the lifetime of the judge; for Adonai was moved to pity by their groaning under those oppressing and crushing them. ¹⁹ But after the judge died, they would relapse into worse behavior than that of their ancestors, following other gods to serve and worship them; they abandoned none of their practices or stubborn ways. ²⁰ So the anger of Adonai blazed against Isra’el; he said, “Because this nation violates my covenant, which I ordered their fathers to obey; and they don’t pay attention to what I say; ²¹ in the future, I will not expel ahead of them any of the nations that Y’hoshua left when he died. ²² This is how I will test Isra’el, to see whether or not they will keep the way of Adonai, living according to it, as their ancestors did.” ²³ So Adonai allowed those nations to remain where they were, without quickly driving them out; he did not hand them over to Y’hoshua.

3 These are the nations which Adonai allowed to remain, in order to put to the test all the people of Isra’el who had not known any of the wars with Kena‘an. ² This was only so that the generations of Isra’el who had previously known nothing of war might learn about it. ³ These nations consisted of the five chiefs of the P’lishtim, all the Kena‘ani, the Tzidoni, and the Hivi who lived in the hills of the L’vanon between Mount Ba‘al-Hermon and the entrance to Hamat. ⁴ They stayed there to test whether Isra’el would pay attention to the mitzvot of Adonai, which, through Moshe, he had ordered their ancestors to obey. ⁵ So the people of Isra’el lived among the Kena‘ani, Hitti, Emori, P’rizi, Hivi and Y’vusi; ⁶ taking their daughters as their wives, giving their own daughters to their sons and serving their gods.

⁷ Thus the people of Isra’el did what was evil from Adonai’s perspective, forgot Adonai their God, and served the ba‘alim and asherim. ⁸ Therefore the anger of Adonai blazed against Isra’el, and he gave them over into the hands of Kushan-Rish‘atayim king of Aram-Naharayim; and the people of Isra’el served Kushan-Rish‘atayim eight years. ⁹ But when the people of Isra’el cried out to Adonai, Adonai raised up a savior for the people of Isra’el; and he rescued them; this was ‘Otni’el, the son of Kalev’s younger brother K’naz. ¹⁰ The spirit of Adonai came upon him, and he judged Isra’el. Then he went out to war, and Adonai gave Kushan-Rish‘atayim king of Aram into his hands; his power prevailed against Kushan-Rish‘atayim. ¹¹ So the land had rest for forty years, until ‘Otni’el the son of K’naz died.

¹² But the people of Isra’el again did what was evil from Adonai’s perspective, so Adonai strengthened ‘Eglon the king of Mo’av against Isra’el, because they had done what was evil from Adonai’s perspective. ¹³ In confederation with the people of ‘Amon and ‘Amalek, ‘Eglon went out and defeated Isra’el, capturing the City of Date-Palms; ¹⁴ and the people of Isra’el served ‘Eglon the king of Mo’av eighteen years.

¹⁵ But when the people of Isra’el cried out to Adonai, Adonai raised up for them a savior, Ehud the son of Gera, from the tribe of Binyamin, a left-handed man. The people of Isra’el appointed him to take their tribute to ‘Eglon the king of Mo’av. ¹⁶ Ehud made himself a double-edged sword eighteen inches long and strapped it to his right thigh under his clothes. ¹⁷ Then he presented the tribute to ‘Eglon king of Mo’av. Now ‘Eglon was a very fat man. ¹⁸ When he had finished presenting the tribute, he dismissed the people who had brought it. ¹⁹ But he himself, after reaching the quarries at Gilgal, went back and said, “King, I have a secret message for you.” The king commanded silence, and all his attendants withdrew. ²⁰ Ehud came to him; he was sitting alone by himself in his upstairs room, where it was cool. Ehud said: “I have a message from God for you.” As the king arose from his seat, ²¹ Ehud reached out with his left hand, took the sword from his right thigh, and thrust it into the king’s belly. ²² The hilt too went in after the blade, and the fat closed around the blade, for he did not draw the sword out of his belly, so that it came out behind. ²³ Then Ehud went out onto the porch, shut the doors of the upstairs room behind him and locked them. ²⁴ After Ehud had left, the king’s servants came. Seeing that the doors of the upper room were locked, they said, “He must be relieving himself in the inner part of the cool room.” ²⁵ They waited until they became embarrassed, but he still didn’t open the doors of the upstairs room. So they took the key and opened them; and there before them lay their master, dead on the ground.

²⁶ But while they were delaying, Ehud escaped — he passed beyond the quarries and arrived safely in Se‘irah. ²⁷ Upon arrival in the hills of Efrayim, he began sounding the call on the shofar; and the people of Isra’el went down with him from the hill-country; he himself took the lead. ²⁸ He said to them: “Follow me, because Adonai has given your enemy Mo’av into your hands. They went down after him, seized the fords of the Yarden opposite Mo’av and permitted no one to cross. ²⁹ On that occasion they defeated Mo’av, some ten thousand men, all tough, experienced soldiers; not one of them escaped. ³⁰ Thus was Mo’av subdued that day under the power of Isra’el. Then the land had rest for eighty years.

³¹ After Ehud came Shamgar the son of ‘Anat, who killed 600 P’lishtim with an oxgoad; and he too rescued Isra’el.

¹⁴ When the time came, Yeshua and the emissaries reclined at the table, ¹⁵ and he said to them, “I have really wanted so much to celebrate this Seder with you before I die! ¹⁶ For I tell you, it is certain that I will not celebrate it again until it is given its full meaning in the Kingdom of God.”

¹⁷ Then, taking a cup of wine, he made the b’rakhah and said, “Take this and share it among yourselves. ¹⁸ For I tell you that from now on, I will not drink the ‘fruit of the vine’ until the Kingdom of God comes.” ¹⁹ Also, taking a piece of matzah, he made the b’rakhah, broke it, gave it to them and said, “This is my body, which is being given for you; do this in memory of me.” ²⁰ He did the same with the cup after the meal, saying, “This cup is the New Covenant, ratified by my blood, which is being poured out for you.

²¹ “But look! The person who is betraying me is here at the table with me! ²² The Son of Man is going to his death according to God’s plan, but woe to that man by whom he is being betrayed!” ²³ They began asking each other which of them could be about to do such a thing.

²⁴ An argument arose among them as to which of them should be considered the greatest. ²⁵ But Yeshua said to them, “The kings of the Goyim lord it over them; and those in authority over them are given the title, ‘Benefactor.’ ²⁶ But not so with you! On the contrary, let the greater among you become like the younger, and one who rules like one who serves. ²⁷ For who is greater? The one reclining at the table? or the one who serves? It’s the one reclining at the table, isn’t it? But I myself am among you like one who serves.

²⁸ “You are the ones who have stayed with me throughout my trials. ²⁹ Just as my Father gave me the right to rule, so I give you an appointment, ³⁰ namely, to eat and drink at my table in my Kingdom and to sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Isra’el.

³¹ “Shim‘on, Shim‘on, listen! The Adversary demanded to have you people for himself, to sift you like wheat! ³² But I prayed for you, Shim‘on, that your trust might not fail. And you, once you have turned back in repentance, strengthen your brothers!” ³³ Shim‘on said to him, “Lord, I am prepared to go with you both to prison and to death!” ³⁴ Yeshua replied, “I tell you, Kefa, the rooster will not crow today until you have denied three times that you know me.”