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## Shoftim

### Chapter 1

1After the death of Yehoshua, the children of Yisrael asked of YHWH, saying, “Who should go up for us first against the Kna'anim, to fight against them?” 2YHWH said, “Yehudah shall go up. Behold, I have delivered the land into his hand.” 3Yehudah said to Shimon his brother, “Come up with me into my lot, that we may fight against the Kna'anim; and I likewise will go with you into your lot.” So Shimon went with him. 4Yehudah went up, and YHWH delivered the Kna'anim and the Perizim into their hand. They struck ten thousand men in Bezek. 5They found Adoni-Bezek in Bezek, and they fought against him. They struck the Kna'anim and the Perizim. 6But Adoni-Bezek fled. They pursued him, caught him, and cut off his thumbs and his big toes. 7Adoni-Bezek said, “Seventy kings, having their thumbs and their big toes cut off, scavenged under my table. As I have done, so Elohim has done to me.” They brought him to Jerusalem, and he died there. 8The children of Yehudah fought against Jerusalem, took it, struck it with the edge of the sword, and set the city on fire. 9After that, the children of Yehudah went down to fight against the Kna'anim who lived in the hill country, and in the South, and in the lowland. 10Yehudah went against the Kna'anim who lived in Hebron. (The name of Hebron before that was Kiryat Arba.) They struck Sheshai, Ahiman, and Talmai. 11From there he went against the inhabitants of Devir. (The name of Devir before that was Kiryat Sepher.) 12Calev said, “I will give Achsah my daughter as wife to the man who strikes Kiryat Sepher, and takes it.” 13Otni'el the son of Kenaz, Calev’s younger brother, took it, so he gave him Achsah his daughter as his wife. 14When she came, she got him to ask her father for a field. She got off her donkey; and Calev said to her, “What would you like?” 15She said to him, “Give me a blessing; because you have set me in the land of the South, give me also springs of water.” Then Calev gave her the upper springs and the lower springs. 16The children of the Kenite, Moshe’s brother-in-law, went up out of the city of palm trees with the children of Yehudah into the wilderness of Yehudah, which is in the south of Arad; and they went and lived with the people. 17Yehudah went with Shimon his brother, and they struck the Kna'anim who inhabited Zephath, and utterly destroyed it. The name of the city was called Chormah. 18Also Yehudah took Gaza with its border, and Ashkelon with its border, and Ekron with its border. 19YHWH was with Yehudah, and drove out the inhabitants of the hill country; for he could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron. 20They gave Hebron to Calev, as Moshe had said, and he drove the three sons of Anak out of there. 21The children of Binyamin didn’t drive out the Yevusim who inhabited Jerusalem, but the Yevusim dwell with the children of Binyamin in Jerusalem to this day. 22The house of Yosef also went up against Beit El, and YHWH was with them. 23The house of Yosef sent to spy out Beit El. (The name of the city before that was Luz.) 24The watchers saw a man come out of the city, and they said to him, “Please show us the entrance into the city, and we will deal kindly with you.” 25He showed them the entrance into the city, and they struck the city with the edge of the sword; but they let the man and all his family go. 26The man went into the land of the Chitim, built a city, and called its name Luz, which is its name to this day. 27Menashe didn’t drive out the inhabitants of Beit She'an and its towns, nor Taanach and its towns, nor the inhabitants of Dor and its towns, nor the inhabitants of Yivle'am and its towns, nor the inhabitants of Megiddo and its towns; but the Kna'anim would dwell in that land. 28When Yisrael had grown strong, they put the Kna'anim to forced labour, and didn’t utterly drive them out. 29Ephraim didn’t drive out the Kna'anim who lived in Gezer, but the Kna'anim lived in Gezer amongst them. 30Zevulun didn’t drive out the inhabitants of Kitron, nor the inhabitants of Nahalol; but the Kna'anim lived amongst them, and became subject to forced labour. 31Asher didn’t drive out the inhabitants of Acco, nor the inhabitants of Tzidon, nor of Ahlab, nor of Akhziv, nor of Helbah, nor of Aphik, nor of Rechov; 32but the Asherites lived amongst the Kna'anim, the inhabitants of the land, for they didn’t drive them out. 33Naftali didn’t drive out the inhabitants of Beit Shemesh, nor the inhabitants of Beit Anat; but he lived amongst the Kna'anim, the inhabitants of the land. Nevertheless the inhabitants of Beit Shemesh and of Beit Anat became subject to forced labour. 34The Emorim forced the children of Dan into the hill country, for they would not allow them to come down to the valley; 35but the Emorim would dwell in Har Cheres, in Ayalon, and in Shaalbim. Yet the hand of the house of Yosef prevailed, so that they became subject to forced labour. 36The border of the Emorim was from the ascent of Akrabbim, from the rock, and upward.

### Chapter 2

1YHWH’s malak came up from Gilgal to Bochim. He said, “I brought you out of Mitzrayim, and have brought you to the land which I swore to give your fathers. I said, ‘I will never break my Brit with you. 2You shall make no Brit with the inhabitants of this land. You shall break down their altars.’ But you have not listened to my voice. Why have you done this? 3Therefore I also said, ‘I will not drive them out from before you; but they shall be in your sides, and their gods will be a snare to you.’” 4When YHWH’s malak spoke these words to all the children of Yisrael, the people lifted up their voice and wept. 5They called the name of that place Bochim, and they sacrificed there to YHWH. 6Now when Yehoshua had sent the people away, the children of Yisrael each went to his inheritance to possess the land. 7The people served YHWH all the days of Yehoshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Yehoshua, who had seen all the great work of YHWH that he had worked for Yisrael. 8Yehoshua the son of Nun, the servant of YHWH, died, being one hundred and ten years old. 9They buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnath Cheres, in the hill country of Ephraim, on the north of the mountain of Gaash. 10After all that generation were gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them who didn’t know YHWH, nor the work which he had done for Yisrael. 11The children of Yisrael did that which was evil in YHWH’s sight, and served the Baals. 12They abandoned YHWH, the Elohim of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Mitzrayim, and followed other gods, of the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed themselves down to them; and they provoked YHWH to anger. 13They abandoned YHWH, and served Ba'al and the Ashtarot. 14YHWH’s anger burnt against Yisrael, and he delivered them into the hands of raiders who plundered them. He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, so that they could no longer stand before their enemies. 15Wherever they went out, YHWH’s hand was against them for evil, as YHWH had spoken, and as YHWH had sworn to them; and they were very distressed. 16YHWH raised up judges, who saved them out of the hand of those who plundered them. 17Yet they didn’t listen to their judges; for they prostituted themselves to other gods, and bowed themselves down to them. They quickly turned away from the way in which their fathers walked, obeying YHWH’s mitzvot. They didn’t do so. 18When YHWH raised up judges for them, then YHWH was with the judge, and saved them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge; for it grieved YHWH because of their groaning by reason of those who oppressed them and troubled them. 19But when the judge was dead, they turned back, and dealt more corruptly than their fathers in following other gods to serve them and to bow down to them. They didn’t cease what they were doing, or give up their stubborn ways. 20YHWH’s anger burnt against Yisrael; and he said, “Because this nation transgressed my Brit which I commanded their fathers, and has not listened to my voice, 21I also will no longer drive out any of the nations that Yehoshua left when he died from before them; 22that by them I may test Yisrael, to see if they will keep YHWH’s way to walk therein, as their fathers kept it, or not.” 23So YHWH left those nations, without driving them out hastily. He didn’t deliver them into Yehoshua’s hand.

### Chapter 3

1Now these are the nations which YHWH left, to test Yisrael by them, even as many as had not known all the wars of Kna'an; 2only that the generations of the children of Yisrael might know, to teach them war, at least those who knew nothing of it before: 3the five lords of the Pelishtim, all the Kna'anim, the Tzidonim, and the Chivim who lived on Har Lebanon, from Har Ba'al Chermon to the entrance of Chamat. 4They were left to test Yisrael by them, to know whether they would listen to YHWH’s mitzvot, which he commanded their fathers by Moshe. 5The children of Yisrael lived amongst the Kna'anim, the Chitim, the Emorim, the Perizim, the Chivim, and the Yevusim. 6They took their daughters to be their wives, and gave their own daughters to their sons and served their gods. 7The children of Yisrael did that which was evil in YHWH’s sight, and forgot YHWH their Elohim, and served the Baals and the Asheroth. 8Therefore YHWH’s anger burnt against Yisrael, and he sold them into the hand of Cushan Rish'atayim king of Mesopotamia; and the children of Yisrael served Cushan Rish'atayim eight years. 9When the children of Yisrael cried to YHWH, YHWH raised up a saviour to the children of Yisrael, who saved them, even Otni'el the son of Kenaz, Calev’s younger brother. 10YHWH’s Ruach came on him, and he judged Yisrael; and he went out to war, and YHWH delivered Cushan Rish'atayim king of Mesopotamia into his hand. His hand prevailed against Cushan Rish'atayim. 11The land had rest forty years, then Otni'el the son of Kenaz died. 12The children of Yisrael again did that which was evil in YHWH’s sight, and YHWH strengthened Eglon the king of Moab against Yisrael, because they had done that which was evil in YHWH’s sight. 13He gathered the children of Ammon and Amalek to himself; and he went and struck Yisrael, and they possessed the city of palm trees. 14The children of Yisrael served Eglon the king of Moab eighteen years. 15But when the children of Yisrael cried to YHWH, YHWH raised up a saviour for them: Ehud the son of Gera, the Binyamini, a left-handed man. The children of Yisrael sent tribute by him to Eglon the king of Moab. 16Ehud made himself a sword which had two edges, a cubit in length; and he wore it under his clothing on his right thigh. 17He offered the tribute to Eglon king of Moab. Now Eglon was a very fat man. 18When Ehud had finished offering the tribute, he sent away the people who carried the tribute. 19But he himself turned back from the stone idols that were by Gilgal, and said, “I have a secret message for you, O king.” The king said, “Keep silence!” All who stood by him left him. 20Ehud came to him; and he was sitting by himself alone in the cool upper room. Ehud said, “I have a message from Elohim to you.” He arose out of his seat. 21Ehud put out his left hand, and took the sword from his right thigh, and thrust it into his body. 22The handle also went in after the blade; and the fat closed on the blade, for he didn’t draw the sword out of his body; and it came out behind. 23Then Ehud went out onto the porch, and shut the doors of the upper room on him, and locked them. 24After he had gone, his servants came and saw that the doors of the upper room were locked. They said, “Surely he is covering his feet in the upper room.” 25They waited until they were ashamed; and behold, he didn’t open the doors of the upper room. Therefore they took the key and opened them, and behold, their Adonai had fallen down dead on the floor. 26Ehud escaped while they waited, passed beyond the stone idols, and escaped to Seirah. 27When he had come, he blew a trumpet in the hill country of Ephraim; and the children of Yisrael went down with him from the hill country, and he led them. 28He said to them, “Follow me; for YHWH has delivered your enemies the Moavim into your hand.” They followed him, and took the fords of the Jordan against the Moavim, and didn’t allow any man to pass over. 29They struck at that time about ten thousand men of Moab, every strong man and every man of valour. No man escaped. 30So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Yisrael. Then the land had rest eighty years. 31After him was Shamgar the son of Anath, who struck six hundred men of the Pelishtim with an ox goad. He also saved Yisrael.

### Chapter 4

1The children of Yisrael again did that which was evil in YHWH’s sight, when Ehud was dead. 2YHWH sold them into the hand of Yavin king of Kna'an, who reigned in Chatzor; the captain of whose army was Sisra, who lived in Harosheth of the Goyim. 3The children of Yisrael cried to YHWH, for he had nine hundred chariots of iron; and he mightily oppressed the children of Yisrael for twenty years. 4Now Devorah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, judged Yisrael at that time. 5She lived under Devorah’s palm tree between Ramah and Beit El in the hill country of Ephraim; and the children of Yisrael came up to her for judgement. 6She sent and called Barak the son of Avino'am out of Kedesh Naftali, and said to him, “Hasn’t YHWH, the Elohim of Yisrael, commanded, ‘Go and lead the way to Har Tavor, and take with you ten thousand men of the children of Naftali and of the children of Zevulun? 7I will draw to you, to the river Kishon, Sisra, the captain of Yavin’s army, with his chariots and his multitude; and I will deliver him into your hand.’” 8Barak 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.” 9She said, “I will surely go with you. Nevertheless, the journey that you take won’t be for your honour; for YHWH will sell Sisra into a woman’s hand.” Devorah arose, and went with Barak to Kedesh. 10Barak called Zevulun and Naftali together to Kedesh. Ten thousand men followed him; and Devorah went up with him. 11Now Chever the Kenite had separated himself from the Kenites, even from the children of Chovav, Moshe’s brother-in-law, and had pitched his tent as far as the oak in Zaanannim, which is by Kedesh. 12They told Sisra that Barak the son of Avino'am had gone up to Har Tavor. 13Sisra gathered together all his chariots, even nine hundred chariots of iron, and all the people who were with him, from Harosheth of the Goyim, to the river Kishon. 14Devorah said to Barak, “Go; for this is the day in which YHWH has delivered Sisra into your hand. Hasn’t YHWH gone out before you?” So Barak went down from Har Tavor, and ten thousand men after him. 15YHWH confused Sisra, all his chariots, and all his army, with the edge of the sword before Barak. Sisra abandoned his chariot and fled away on his feet. 16But Barak pursued the chariots and the army to Harosheth of the Goyim; and all the army of Sisra fell by the edge of the sword. There was not a man left. 17However Sisra fled away on his feet to the tent of Yael the wife of Chever the Kenite; for there was peace between Yavin the king of Chatzor and the house of Chever the Kenite. 18Yael went out to meet Sisra, and said to him, “Turn in, my adonai, turn in to me; don’t be afraid.” He came in to her into the tent, and she covered him with a rug. 19He said to her, “Please give me a little water to drink; for I am thirsty.” She opened a container of milk, and gave him a drink, and covered him. 20He said to her, “Stand in the door of the tent, and if any man comes and enquires of you, and says, ‘Is there any man here?’ you shall say, ‘No.’” 21Then Yael, Chever’s wife, took a tent peg, and took a hammer in her hand, and went softly to him, and struck the pin into his Battei HaMikdash, and it pierced through into the ground, for he was in a deep sleep; so he fainted and died. 22Behold, as Barak pursued Sisra, Yael came out to meet him, and said to him, “Come, and I will show you the man whom you seek.” He came to her; and behold, Sisra lay dead, and the tent peg was in his Battei HaMikdash. 23So Elohim subdued Yavin the king of Kna'an before the children of Yisrael on that day. 24The hand of the children of Yisrael prevailed more and more against Yavin the king of Kna'an, until they had destroyed Yavin king of Kna'an.

### Chapter 5

1Then Devorah and Barak the son of Avino'am sang on that day, saying, 2“Because the leaders took the lead in Yisrael, because the people offered themselves willingly, be blessed, YHWH! 3“Hear, you kings! Give ear, you princes! I, even I, will sing to YHWH. I will sing praise to YHWH, the Elohim of Yisrael. 4“YHWH, when you went out of Seir, when you marched out of the field of Edom, the earth trembled, the sky also dropped. Yes, the clouds dropped water. 5The mountains quaked at YHWH’s presence, even Sinai at the presence of YHWH, the Elohim of Yisrael. 6“In the days of Shamgar the son of Anath, in the days of Yael, the highways were unoccupied. The travellers walked through byways. 7The rulers ceased in Yisrael. They ceased until I, Devorah, arose; Until I arose a mother in Yisrael. 8They chose new gods. Then war was in the gates. Was there a shield or spear seen amongst forty thousand in Yisrael? 9My heart is towards the governors of Yisrael, who offered themselves willingly amongst the people. Bless YHWH! 10“Speak, you who ride on white donkeys, you who sit on rich carpets, and you who walk by the way. 11Far from the noise of archers, in the places of drawing water, there they will rehearse YHWH’s righteous acts, the righteous acts of his rule in Yisrael. “Then YHWH’s people went down to the gates. 12‘Awake, awake, Devorah! Awake, awake, utter a song! Arise, Barak, and lead away your captives, you son of Avino'am.’ 13“Then a remnant of the nobles and the people came down. YHWH came down for me against the mighty. 14Those whose root is in Amalek came out of Ephraim, after you, Binyamin, amongst your peoples. Governors come down out of Machir. Those who handle the marshal’s staff came out of Zevulun. 15The princes of Yissachar were with Devorah. As was Yissachar, so was Barak. They rushed into the valley at his feet. By the watercourses of Reuven, there were great resolves of heart. 16Why did you sit amongst the sheepfolds? To hear the whistling for the flocks? At the watercourses of Reuven, there were great searchings of heart. 17Gilead lived beyond the Jordan. Why did Dan remain in ships? Asher sat still at the haven of the sea, and lived by his creeks. 18Zevulun was a people that jeopardised their lives to the death; Naftali also, on the high places of the field. 19“The kings came and fought, then the kings of Kna'an fought at Taanach by the waters of Megiddo. They took no plunder of silver. 20From the sky the stars fought. From their courses, they fought against Sisra. 21The river Kishon swept them away, that ancient river, the river Kishon. My soul, march on with strength. 22Then the horse hoofs stamped because of the prancing, the prancing of their strong ones. 23‘Curse Meroz,’ said YHWH’s malak. ‘Curse bitterly its inhabitants, because they didn’t come to help YHWH, to help YHWH against the mighty.’ 24“Yael shall be blessed above women, the wife of Chever the Kenite; blessed shall she be above women in the tent. 25He asked for water. She gave him milk. She brought him butter in a lordly dish. 26She put her hand to the tent peg, and her right hand to the workmen’s hammer. With the hammer she struck Sisra. She struck through his head. Yes, she pierced and struck through his Battei HaMikdash. 27At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay. At her feet he bowed, he fell. Where he bowed, there he fell down dead. 28“Through the window she looked out, and cried: Sisra’s mother looked through the lattice. ‘Why is his chariot so long in coming? Why do the wheels of his chariots wait?’ 29Her wise ladies answered her, Yes, she returned answer to herself, 30‘Have they not found, have they not divided the plunder? A lady, two ladies to every man; to Sisra a plunder of dyed garments, a plunder of dyed garments embroidered, of dyed garments embroidered on both sides, on the necks of the plunder?’ 31“So let all your enemies perish, YHWH, but let those who love him be as the sun when it rises in its strength.” Then the land had rest forty years.

### Chapter 6

1The children of Yisrael did that which was evil in YHWH’s sight, so YHWH delivered them into the hand of Midyan seven years. 2The hand of Midyan prevailed against Yisrael; and because of Midyan the children of Yisrael made themselves the dens which are in the mountains, the caves, and the strongholds. 3So it was, when Yisrael had sown, that the Midyanim, the Amalekim, and the children of the east came up against them. 4They encamped against them, and destroyed the increase of the earth, until you come to Gaza. They left no sustenance in Yisrael, and no sheep, ox, or donkey. 5For they came up with their livestock and their tents. They came in as locusts for multitude. Both they and their camels were without number; and they came into the land to destroy it. 6Yisrael was brought very low because of Midyan; and the children of Yisrael cried to YHWH. 7When the children of Yisrael cried to YHWH because of Midyan, 8YHWH sent a prophet to the children of Yisrael; and he said to them, “YHWH, the Elohim of Yisrael, says, ‘I brought you up from Mitzrayim, and brought you out of the house of bondage. 9I delivered you out of the hand of the Mitzrim and out of the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out from before you, and gave you their land. 10I said to you, “I am YHWH your Elohim. You shall not fear the gods of the Emorim, in whose land you dwell.” But you have not listened to my voice.’” 11YHWH’s malak came and sat under the oak which was in Ofrah, that belonged to Yoash the Abiezrite. His son Gidon was beating out wheat in the wine press, to hide it from the Midyanim. 12YHWH’s malak appeared to him, and said to him, “YHWH is with you, you mighty man of valour!” 13Gidon said to him, “Oh, my adonai, if YHWH is with us, why then has all this happened to us? Where are all his wondrous works which our fathers told us of, saying, ‘Didn’t YHWH bring us up from Mitzrayim?’ But now YHWH has cast us off, and delivered us into the hand of Midyan.” 14YHWH looked at him, and said, “Go in this your might, and save Yisrael from the hand of Midyan. Haven’t I sent you?” 15He said to him, “O Adonai, how shall I save Yisrael? Behold, my family is the poorest in Menashe, and I am the least in my father’s house.” 16YHWH said to him, “Surely I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midyanim as one man.” 17He said to him, “If now I have found favour in your sight, then show me a sign that it is you who talk with me. 18Please don’t go away until I come to you, and bring out my present, and lay it before you.” He said, “I will wait until you come back.” 19Gidon went in and prepared a young goat and unleavened cakes of an ephah of meal. He put the meat in a basket and he put the broth in a pot, and brought it out to him under the oak, and presented it. 20The malak of Elohim said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened cakes, and lay them on this rock, and pour out the broth.” He did so. 21Then YHWH’s malak stretched out the end of the staff that was in his hand, and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes; and fire went up out of the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes. Then YHWH’s malak departed out of his sight. 22Gidon saw that he was YHWH’s malak; and Gidon said, “Alas, Adonai YHWH! Because I have seen YHWH’s malak face to face!” 23YHWH said to him, “Peace be to you! Don’t be afraid. You shall not die.” 24Then Gidon built an altar there to YHWH, and called it “YHWH Shalom.” To this day it is still in Ofrah of the Abiezrites. 25That same night, YHWH said to him, “Take your father’s bull, even the second bull seven years old, and throw down the altar of Ba'al that your father has, and cut down the Asherah that is by it. 26Then build an altar to YHWH your Elohim on the top of this stronghold, in an orderly way, and take the second bull, and offer a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah which you shall cut down.” 27Then Gidon took ten men of his servants, and did as YHWH had spoken to him. Because he feared his father’s household and the men of the city, he could not do it by day, but he did it by night. 28When the men of the city arose early in the morning, behold, the altar of Ba'al was broken down, and the Asherah was cut down that was by it, and the second bull was offered on the altar that was built. 29They said to one another, “Who has done this thing?” When they enquired and asked, they said, “Gidon the son of Yoash has done this thing.” 30Then the men of the city said to Yoash, “Bring out your son, that he may die, because he has broken down the altar of Ba'al, and because he has cut down the Asherah that was by it.” 31Yoash said to all who stood against him, “Will you contend for Ba'al? Or will you save him? He who will contend for him, let him be put to death by morning! If he is a god, let him contend for himself, because someone has broken down his altar!” 32Therefore on that day he named him Yeruba'al, saying, “Let Ba'al contend against him, because he has broken down his altar.” 33Then all the Midyanim and the Amalekim and the children of the east assembled themselves together; and they passed over, and encamped in the valley of Yizre'el. 34But YHWH’s Ruach came on Gidon, and he blew a trumpet; and Avi'ezer was gathered together to follow him. 35He sent messengers throughout all Menashe, and they also were gathered together to follow him. He sent messengers to Asher, to Zevulun, and to Naftali; and they came up to meet them. 36Gidon said to Elohim, “If you will save Yisrael by my hand, as you have spoken, 37behold, I will put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If there is dew on the fleece only, and it is dry on all the ground, then I’ll know that you will save Yisrael by my hand, as you have spoken.” 38It was so; for he rose up early on the next day, and pressed the fleece together, and wrung the dew out of the fleece, a bowl full of water. 39Gidon said to Elohim, “Don’t let your anger be kindled against me, and I will speak but this once. Please let me make a trial just this once with the fleece. Let it now be dry only on the fleece, and on all the ground let there be dew.” 40Elohim did so that night; for it was dry on the fleece only, and there was dew on all the ground.

### Chapter 7

1Then Yeruba'al, who is Gidon, and all the people who were with him, rose up early and encamped beside the spring of Harod. Midyan’s camp was on the north side of them, by the hill of Moreh, in the valley. 2YHWH said to Gidon, “The people who are with you are too many for me to give the Midyanim into their hand, lest Yisrael brag against me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’ 3Now therefore proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, ‘Whoever is fearful and trembling, let him return and depart from Har Gilead.’” So twenty-two thousand of the people returned, and ten thousand remained. 4YHWH said to Gidon, “There are still too many people. Bring them down to the water, and I will test them for you there. It shall be, that those whom I tell you, ‘This shall go with you,’ shall go with you; and whoever I tell you, ‘This shall not go with you,’ shall not go.” 5So he brought down the people to the water; and YHWH said to Gidon, “Everyone who laps of the water with his tongue, like a dog laps, you shall set him by himself; likewise everyone who bows down on his knees to drink.” 6The number of those who lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, was three hundred men; but all the rest of the people bowed down on their knees to drink water. 7YHWH said to Gidon, “I will save you by the three hundred men who lapped, and deliver the Midyanim into your hand. Let all the other people go, each to his own place.” 8So the people took food in their hand, and their trumpets; and he sent all the rest of the men of Yisrael to their own tents, but retained the three hundred men; and the camp of Midyan was beneath him in the valley. 9That same night, YHWH said to him, “Arise, go down into the camp, for I have delivered it into your hand. 10But if you are afraid to go down, go with Purah your servant down to the camp. 11You will hear what they say; and afterward your hands will be strengthened to go down into the camp.” Then went he down with Purah his servant to the outermost part of the armed men who were in the camp. 12The Midyanim and the Amalekim and all the children of the east lay along in the valley like locusts for multitude; and their camels were without number, as the sand which is on the seashore for multitude. 13When Gidon had come, behold, there was a man telling a dream to his fellow. He said, “Behold, I dreamt a dream; and behold, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midyan, came to the tent, and struck it so that it fell, and turned it upside down, so that the tent lay flat.” 14His fellow answered, “This is nothing other than the sword of Gidon the son of Yoash, a man of Yisrael. Elohim has delivered Midyan into his hand, with all the army.” 15It was so, when Gidon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation, that he worshipped. Then he returned into the camp of Yisrael and said, “Arise, for YHWH has delivered the army of Midyan into your hand!” 16He divided the three hundred men into three companies, and he put into the hands of all of them trumpets and empty pitchers, with torches within the pitchers. 17He said to them, “Watch me, and do likewise. Behold, when I come to the outermost part of the camp, it shall be that, as I do, so you shall do. 18When I blow the trumpet, I and all who are with me, then blow the trumpets also on every side of all the camp, and shout, ‘For YHWH and for Gidon!’” 19So Gidon and the hundred men who were with him came to the outermost part of the camp in the beginning of the middle watch, when they had but newly set the watch. Then they blew the trumpets and broke in pieces the pitchers that were in their hands. 20The three companies blew the trumpets, broke the pitchers, and held the torches in their left hands and the trumpets in their right hands with which to blow; and they shouted, “The sword of YHWH and of Gidon!” 21They each stood in his place around the camp, and all the army ran; and they shouted, and put them to flight. 22They blew the three hundred trumpets, and YHWH set every man’s sword against his fellow and against all the army; and the army fled as far as Beit Shitah towards Zererah, as far as the border of Abel Meholah, by Tabbath. 23The men of Yisrael were gathered together out of Naftali, out of Asher, and out of all Menashe, and pursued Midyan. 24Gidon sent messengers throughout all the hill country of Ephraim, saying, “Come down against Midyan and take the waters before them as far as Beit Barah, even the Jordan!” So all the men of Ephraim were gathered together and took the waters as far as Beit Barah, even the Jordan. 25They took the two princes of Midyan, Oreb and Zeeb. They killed Oreb at Oreb’s rock, and Zeeb they killed at Zeeb’s wine press, as they pursued Midyan. Then they brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gidon beyond the Jordan.

### Chapter 8

1The men of Ephraim said to him, “Why have you treated us this way, that you didn’t call us when you went to fight with Midyan?” They rebuked him sharply. 2He said to them, “What have I now done in comparison with you? Isn’t the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of Avi'ezer? 3Elohim has delivered into your hand the princes of Midyan, Oreb and Zeeb! What was I able to do in comparison with you?” Then their anger was abated towards him when he had said that. 4Gidon came to the Jordan and passed over, he and the three hundred men who were with him, faint, yet pursuing. 5He said to the men of Succoth, “Please give loaves of bread to the people who follow me; for they are faint, and I am pursuing after Zevach and Zalmunna, the kings of Midyan.” 6The princes of Succoth said, “Are the hands of Zevach and Zalmunna now in your hand, that we should give bread to your army?” 7Gidon said, “Therefore when YHWH has delivered Zevach and Zalmunna into my hand, then I will tear your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness and with briers.” 8He went up there to Penuel, and spoke to them in the same way; and the men of Penuel answered him as the men of Succoth had answered. 9He spoke also to the men of Penuel, saying, “When I come again in peace, I will break down this tower.” 10Now Zevach and Zalmunna were in Karkor, and their armies with them, about fifteen thousand men, all who were left of all the army of the children of the east; for there fell one hundred and twenty thousand men who drew sword. 11Gidon went up by the way of those who lived in tents on the east of Nobah and Yogbehah, and struck the army; for the army felt secure. 12Zevach and Zalmunna fled and he pursued them. He took the two kings of Midyan, Zevach and Zalmunna, and confused all the army. 13Gidon the son of Yoash returned from the battle from the ascent of Cheres. 14He caught a young man of the men of Succoth, and enquired of him; and he described for him the princes of Succoth, and its elders, seventy-seven men. 15He came to the men of Succoth, and said, “See Zevach and Zalmunna, concerning whom you taunted me, saying, ‘Are the hands of Zevach and Zalmunna now in your hand, that we should give bread to your men who are weary?’” 16He took the elders of the city, and thorns of the wilderness and briers, and with them he taught the men of Succoth. 17He broke down the tower of Penuel, and killed the men of the city. 18Then he said to Zevach and Zalmunna, “What kind of men were they whom you killed at Tavor?” They answered, “They were like you. They all resembled the children of a king.” 19He said, “They were my brothers, the sons of my mother. As YHWH lives, if you had saved them alive, I would not kill you.” 20He said to Yeter his firstborn, “Get up and kill them!” But the youth didn’t draw his sword; for he was afraid, because he was yet a youth. 21Then Zevach and Zalmunna said, “You rise and fall on us; for as the man is, so is his strength.” Gidon arose, and killed Zevach and Zalmunna, and took the crescents that were on their camels’ necks. 22Then the men of Yisrael said to Gidon, “Rule over us, both you, your son, and your son’s son also; for you have saved us out of the hand of Midyan.” 23Gidon said to them, “I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you. YHWH shall rule over you.” 24Gidon said to them, “I do have a request: that you would each give me the earrings of his plunder.” (For they had golden earrings, because they were Yishmaelim.) 25They answered, “We will willingly give them.” They spread a garment, and every man threw the earrings of his plunder into it. 26The weight of the golden earrings that he requested was one thousand and seven hundred shekels of gold, in addition to the crescents, and the pendants, and the purple clothing that was on the kings of Midyan, and in addition to the chains that were about their camels’ necks. 27Gidon made an ephod out of it, and put it in Ofrah, his city. Then all Yisrael played the prostitute with it there; and it became a snare to Gidon and to his house. 28So Midyan was subdued before the children of Yisrael, and they lifted up their heads no more. The land had rest forty years in the days of Gidon. 29Yeruba'al the son of Yoash went and lived in his own house. 30Gidon had seventy sons conceived from his body, for he had many wives. 31His concubine who was in Shechem also bore him a son, and he named him Avimelech. 32Gidon the son of Yoash died in a good old age, and was buried in the tomb of Yoash his father, in Ofrah of the Abiezrites. 33As soon as Gidon was dead, the children of Yisrael turned again and played the prostitute following the Baals, and made Ba'al Berith their god. 34The children of Yisrael didn’t remember YHWH their Elohim, who had delivered them out of the hand of all their enemies on every side; 35neither did they show kindness to the house of Yeruba'al, that is, Gidon, according to all the goodness which he had shown to Yisrael.

### Chapter 9

1Avimelech the son of Yeruba'al went to Shechem to his mother’s brothers, and spoke with them and with all the family of the house of his mother’s father, saying, 2“Please speak in the ears of all the men of Shechem, ‘Is it better for you that all the sons of Yeruba'al, who are seventy persons, rule over you, or that one rule over you?’ Remember also that I am your bone and your flesh.” 3His mother’s brothers spoke of him in the ears of all the men of Shechem all these words. Their hearts inclined to follow Avimelech; for they said, “He is our brother.” 4They gave him seventy pieces of silver out of the house of Ba'al Berith, with which Avimelech hired vain and reckless fellows who followed him. 5He went to his father’s house at Ofrah, and killed his brothers the sons of Yeruba'al, being seventy persons, on one stone; but Yotam the youngest son of Yeruba'al was left, for he hid himself. 6All the men of Shechem assembled themselves together with all the house of Millo, and went and made Avimelech king by the oak of the pillar that was in Shechem. 7When they told it to Yotam, he went and stood on the top of Har Gerizim and lifted up his voice, cried out, and said to them, “Listen to me, you men of Shechem, that Elohim may listen to you. 8The trees set out to anoint a king over themselves. They said to the olive tree, ‘Reign over us.’ 9“But the olive tree said to them, ‘Should I stop producing my oil, with which they honour Elohim and man by me, and go to wave back and forth over the trees?’ 10“The trees said to the fig tree, ‘Come and reign over us.’ 11“But the fig tree said to them, ‘Should I leave my sweetness, and my good fruit, and go to wave back and forth over the trees?’ 12“The trees said to the vine, ‘Come and reign over us.’ 13“The vine said to them, ‘Should I leave my new wine, which cheers Elohim and man, and go to wave back and forth over the trees?’ 14“Then all the trees said to the bramble, ‘Come and reign over us.’ 15“The bramble said to the trees, ‘If in truth you anoint me king over you, then come and take refuge in my shade; and if not, let fire come out of the bramble, and devour the cedars of Lebanon.’ 16“Now therefore, if you have dealt truly and righteously, in that you have made Avimelech king, and if you have dealt well with Yeruba'al and his house, and have done to him according to the deserving of his hands 17(for my father fought for you, risked his life, and delivered you out of the hand of Midyan; 18and you have risen up against my father’s house today and have slain his sons, seventy persons, on one stone, and have made Avimelech, the son of his female servant, king over the men of Shechem, because he is your brother); 19if you then have dealt truly and righteously with Yeruba'al and with his house today, then rejoice in Avimelech, and let him also rejoice in you; 20but if not, let fire come out from Avimelech and devour the men of Shechem and the house of Millo; and let fire come out from the men of Shechem and from the house of Millo and devour Avimelech.” 21Yotam ran away and fled, and went to Beer and lived there, for fear of Avimelech his brother. 22Avimelech was prince over Yisrael three years. 23Then Elohim sent an evil spirit between Avimelech and the men of Shechem; and the men of Shechem dealt treacherously with Avimelech, 24that the violence done to the seventy sons of Yeruba'al might come, and that their blood might be laid on Avimelech their brother who killed them, and on the men of Shechem who strengthened his hands to kill his brothers. 25The men of Shechem set an ambush for him on the tops of the mountains, and they robbed all who came along that way by them; and Avimelech was told about it. 26Ga'al the son of Ebed came with his brothers and went over to Shechem; and the men of Shechem put their trust in him. 27They went out into the field, harvested their vineyards, trod the grapes, celebrated, and went into the house of their god and ate and drank, and cursed Avimelech. 28Ga'al the son of Ebed said, “Who is Avimelech, and who is Shechem, that we should serve him? Isn’t he the son of Yeruba'al? Isn’t Zevul his officer? Serve the men of Hamor the father of Shechem, but why should we serve him? 29I wish that this people were under my hand! Then I would remove Avimelech.” He said to Avimelech, “Increase your army and come out!” 30When Zevul the ruler of the city heard the words of Ga'al the son of Ebed, his anger burnt. 31He sent messengers to Avimelech craftily, saying, “Behold, Ga'al the son of Ebed and his brothers have come to Shechem; and behold, they incite the city against you. 32Now therefore, go up by night, you and the people who are with you, and lie in wait in the field. 33It shall be that in the morning, as soon as the sun is up, you shall rise early and rush on the city. Behold, when he and the people who are with him come out against you, then may you do to them as you shall find occasion.” 34Avimelech rose up, and all the people who were with him, by night, and they laid wait against Shechem in four companies. 35Ga'al the son of Ebed went out, and stood in the entrance of the gate of the city. Avimelech rose up, and the people who were with him, from the ambush. 36When Ga'al saw the people, he said to Zevul, “Behold, people are coming down from the tops of the mountains.” Zevul said to him, “You see the shadows of the mountains as if they were men.” 37Ga'al spoke again and said, “Behold, people are coming down by the middle of the land, and one company comes by the way of the oak of Meonenim.” 38Then Zevul said to him, “Now where is your mouth, that you said, ‘Who is Avimelech, that we should serve him?’ Isn’t this the people that you have despised? Please go out now and fight with them.” 39Ga'al went out before the men of Shechem, and fought with Avimelech. 40Avimelech chased him, and he fled before him, and many fell wounded, even to the entrance of the gate. 41Avimelech lived at Arumah; and Zevul drove out Ga'al and his brothers, that they should not dwell in Shechem. 42On the next day, the people went out into the field; and they told Avimelech. 43He took the people and divided them into three companies, and laid wait in the field; and he looked, and behold, the people came out of the city. So, he rose up against them and struck them. 44Avimelech and the companies that were with him rushed forward and stood in the entrance of the gate of the city; and the two companies rushed on all who were in the field and struck them. 45Avimelech fought against the city all that day; and he took the city and killed the people in it. He beat down the city and sowed it with salt. 46When all the men of the tower of Shechem heard of it, they entered into the stronghold of the house of Elberith. 47Avimelech was told that all the men of the tower of Shechem were gathered together. 48Avimelech went up to Har Zalmon, he and all the people who were with him; and Avimelech took an axe in his hand, and cut down a bough from the trees, and took it up, and laid it on his shoulder. Then he said to the people who were with him, “What you have seen me do, make haste, and do as I have done!” 49All the people likewise each cut down his bough, followed Avimelech, and put them at the base of the stronghold, and set the stronghold on fire over them, so that all the people of the tower of Shechem died also, about a thousand men and women. 50Then Avimelech went to Tevetz and encamped against Tevetz, and took it. 51But there was a strong tower within the city, and all the men and women of the city fled there, and shut themselves in, and went up to the roof of the tower. 52Avimelech came to the tower and fought against it, and came near to the door of the tower to burn it with fire. 53A certain woman cast an upper millstone on Avimelech’s head, and broke his skull. 54Then he called hastily to the young man, his armour bearer, and said to him, “Draw your sword and kill me, that men not say of me, ‘A woman killed him.’ His young man thrust him through, and he died.” 55When the men of Yisrael saw that Avimelech was dead, they each departed to his place. 56Thus Elohim repaid the wickedness of Avimelech, which he did to his father in killing his seventy brothers; 57and Elohim repaid all the wickedness of the men of Shechem on their heads; and the curse of Yotam the son of Yeruba'al came on them.

### Chapter 10

1After Avimelech, Tola the son of Puah, the son of Dodo, a man of Yissachar, arose to save Yisrael. He lived in Shamir in the hill country of Ephraim. 2He judged Yisrael twenty-three years, and died, and was buried in Shamir. 3After him Ya'ir, the Gil'adi, arose. He judged Yisrael twenty-two years. 4He had thirty sons who rode on thirty donkey colts. They had thirty cities, which are called Havvoth Ya'ir to this day, which are in the land of Gilead. 5Ya'ir died, and was buried in Kamon. 6The children of Yisrael again did that which was evil in YHWH’s sight, and served the Baals, the Ashtarot, the gods of Aram, the gods of Tzidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the children of Ammon, and the gods of the Pelishtim. They abandoned YHWH, and didn’t serve him. 7YHWH’s anger burnt against Yisrael, and he sold them into the hand of the Pelishtim and into the hand of the children of Ammon. 8They troubled and oppressed the children of Yisrael that year. For eighteen years they oppressed all the children of Yisrael that were beyond the Jordan in the land of the Emorim, which is in Gilead. 9The children of Ammon passed over the Jordan to fight also against Yehudah, and against Binyamin, and against the house of Ephraim, so that Yisrael was very distressed. 10The children of Yisrael cried to YHWH, saying, “We have sinned against you, even because we have forsaken our Elohim, and have served the Baals.” 11YHWH said to the children of Yisrael, “Didn’t I save you from the Mitzrim, and from the Emorim, from the children of Ammon, and from the Pelishtim? 12The Tzidonim also, and the Amalekim, and the Maonites, oppressed you; and you cried to me, and I saved you out of their hand. 13Yet you have forsaken me and served other gods. Therefore I will save you no more. 14Go and cry to the gods which you have chosen. Let them save you in the time of your distress!” 15The children of Yisrael said to YHWH, “We have sinned! Do to us whatever seems good to you; only deliver us, please, today.” 16They put away the foreign gods from amongst them and served YHWH; and his soul was grieved for the misery of Yisrael. 17Then the children of Ammon were gathered together and encamped in Gilead. The children of Yisrael assembled themselves together and encamped in Mitzpah. 18The people, the princes of Gilead, said to one another, “Who is the man who will begin to fight against the children of Ammon? He shall be head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.”

### Chapter 11

1Now Yiftach the Gil'adi was a mighty man of valour. He was the son of a prostitute. Gilead became the father of Yiftach. 2Gilead’s wife bore him sons. When his wife’s sons grew up, they drove Yiftach out and said to him, “You will not inherit in our father’s house, for you are the son of another woman.” 3Then Yiftach fled from his brothers and lived in the land of Tob. Outlaws joined up with Yiftach, and they went out with him. 4After a while, the children of Ammon made war against Yisrael. 5When the children of Ammon made war against Yisrael, the elders of Gilead went to get Yiftach out of the land of Tob. 6They said to Yiftach, “Come and be our chief, that we may fight with the children of Ammon.” 7Yiftach said to the elders of Gilead, “Didn’t you hate me, and drive me out of my father’s house? Why have you come to me now when you are in distress?” 8The elders of Gilead said to Yiftach, “Therefore we have turned again to you now, that you may go with us and fight with the children of Ammon. You will be our head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.” 9Yiftach said to the elders of Gilead, “If you bring me home again to fight with the children of Ammon, and YHWH delivers them before me, will I be your head?” 10The elders of Gilead said to Yiftach, “YHWH will be witness between us. Surely we will do what you say.” 11Then Yiftach went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and chief over them. Yiftach spoke all his words before YHWH in Mitzpah. 12Yiftach sent messengers to the king of the children of Ammon, saying, “What do you have to do with me, that you have come to me to fight against my land?” 13The king of the children of Ammon answered the messengers of Yiftach, “Because Yisrael took away my land when he came up out of Mitzrayim, from the Arnon even to the Yabok, and to the Jordan. Now therefore restore that territory again peaceably.” 14Yiftach sent messengers again to the king of the children of Ammon; 15and he said to him, “Yiftach says: Yisrael didn’t take away the land of Moab, nor the land of the children of Ammon; 16but when they came up from Mitzrayim, and Yisrael went through the wilderness to the Yam Suf, and came to Kadesh, 17then Yisrael sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, ‘Please let me pass through your land;’ but the king of Edom didn’t listen. In the same way, he sent to the king of Moab, but he refused; so Yisrael stayed in Kadesh. 18Then they went through the wilderness, and went around the land of Edom, and the land of Moab, and came by the east side of the land of Moab, and they encamped on the other side of the Arnon; but they didn’t come within the border of Moab, for the Arnon was the border of Moab. 19Yisrael sent messengers to Sihon king of the Emorim, the king of Cheshbon; and Yisrael said to him, ‘Please let us pass through your land to my place.’ 20But Sihon didn’t trust Yisrael to pass through his border; but Sihon gathered all his people together, and encamped in Yahatz, and fought against Yisrael. 21YHWH, the Elohim of Yisrael, delivered Sihon and all his people into the hand of Yisrael, and they struck them. So Yisrael possessed all the land of the Emorim, the inhabitants of that country. 22They possessed all the border of the Emorim, from the Arnon even to the Yabok, and from the wilderness even to the Jordan. 23So now YHWH, the Elohim of Yisrael, has dispossessed the Emorim from before his people Yisrael, and should you possess them? 24Won’t you possess that which Chemosh your god gives you to possess? So whoever YHWH our Elohim has dispossessed from before us, them will we possess. 25Now are you anything better than Balak the son of Tzipor, king of Moab? Did he ever strive against Yisrael, or did he ever fight against them? 26Yisrael lived in Cheshbon and its towns, and in Aro'er and its towns, and in all the cities that are along the side of the Arnon for three hundred years! Why didn’t you recover them within that time? 27Therefore I have not sinned against you, but you do me wrong to war against me. May YHWH the Judge be judge today between the children of Yisrael and the children of Ammon.” 28However, the king of the children of Ammon didn’t listen to the words of Yiftach which he sent him. 29Then YHWH’s Ruach came on Yiftach, and he passed over Gilead and Menashe, and passed over Mitzpah of Gilead, and from Mitzpah of Gilead he passed over to the children of Ammon. 30Yiftach vowed a vow to YHWH, and said, “If you will indeed deliver the children of Ammon into my hand, 31then it shall be, that whatever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, it shall be YHWH’s, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering.” 32So Yiftach passed over to the children of Ammon to fight against them; and YHWH delivered them into his hand. 33He struck them from Aro'er until you come to Minnith, even twenty cities, and to Abelcheramim, with a very great slaughter. So the children of Ammon were subdued before the children of Yisrael. 34Yiftach came to Mitzpah to his house; and behold, his daughter came out to meet him with tambourines and with dances. She was his only child. Besides her he had neither son nor daughter. 35When he saw her, he tore his clothes, and said, “Alas, my daughter! You have brought me very low, and you are one of those who trouble me; for I have opened my mouth to YHWH, and I can’t go back.” 36She said to him, “My father, you have opened your mouth to YHWH; do to me according to that which has proceeded out of your mouth, because YHWH has taken vengeance for you on your enemies, even on the children of Ammon.” 37Then she said to her father, “Let this thing be done for me. Leave me alone two months, that I may depart and go down on the mountains, and bewail my virginity, I and my companions.” 38He said, “Go.” He sent her away for two months; and she departed, she and her companions, and mourned her virginity on the mountains. 39At the end of two months, she returned to her father, who did with her according to his vow which he had vowed. She was a virgin. It became a custom in Yisrael 40that the daughters of Yisrael went yearly to celebrate the daughter of Yiftach the Gil'adi four days in a year.

### Chapter 12

1The men of Ephraim were gathered together, and passed northward; and they said to Yiftach, “Why did you pass over to fight against the children of Ammon, and didn’t call us to go with you? We will burn your house around you with fire!” 2Yiftach said to them, “I and my people were at great strife with the children of Ammon; and when I called you, you didn’t save me out of their hand. 3When I saw that you didn’t save me, I put my life in my hand, and passed over against the children of Ammon, and YHWH delivered them into my hand. Why then have you come up to me today, to fight against me?” 4Then Yiftach gathered together all the men of Gilead, and fought with Ephraim. The men of Gilead struck Ephraim, because they said, “You are fugitives of Ephraim, you Gil'adim, in the middle of Ephraim, and in the middle of Menashe.” 5The Gil'adim took the fords of the Jordan against the Ephraimites. Whenever a fugitive of Ephraim said, “Let me go over,” the men of Gilead said to him, “Are you an Efrati?” If he said, “No;” 6then they said to him, “Now say ‘Shibboleth;’” and he said “Sibboleth”; for he couldn’t manage to pronounce it correctly, then they seized him and killed him at the fords of the Jordan. At that time, forty-two thousand of Ephraim fell. 7Yiftach judged Yisrael six years. Then Yiftach the Gil'adi died, and was buried in the cities of Gilead. 8After him Ibzan of Beit Lechem judged Yisrael. 9He had thirty sons. He sent his thirty daughters outside his clan, and he brought in thirty daughters from outside his clan for his sons. He judged Yisrael seven years. 10Ibzan died, and was buried at Beit Lechem. 11After him, Eilon the Zevuluni judged Yisrael; and he judged Yisrael ten years. 12Eilon the Zevuluni died, and was buried in Ayalon in the land of Zevulun. 13After him, Abdon the son of Hillel the Pir'atoni judged Yisrael. 14He had forty sons and thirty sons’ sons who rode on seventy donkey colts. He judged Yisrael eight years. 15Abdon the son of Hillel the Pir'atoni died, and was buried in Pirathon in the land of Ephraim, in the hill country of the Amalekim.

### Chapter 13

1The children of Yisrael again did that which was evil in YHWH’s sight; and YHWH delivered them into the hand of the Pelishtim forty years. 2There was a certain man of Tyre'a, of the family of the Danim, whose name was Manoach; and his wife was barren, and childless. 3YHWH’s malak appeared to the woman, and said to her, “See now, you are barren and childless; but you shall conceive and bear a son. 4Now therefore please beware and drink no wine nor strong drink, and don’t eat any unclean thing; 5for, behold, you shall conceive and give birth to a son. No razor shall come on his head, for the child shall be a Nazirite to Elohim from the womb. He shall begin to save Yisrael out of the hand of the Pelishtim.” 6Then the woman came and told her husband, saying, “A man of Elohim came to me, and his face was like the face of the malak of Elohim, very awesome. I didn’t ask him where he was from, neither did he tell me his name; 7but he said to me, ‘Behold, you shall conceive and bear a son; and now drink no wine nor strong drink. Don’t eat any unclean thing, for the child shall be a Nazirite to Elohim from the womb to the day of his death.’” 8Then Manoach entreated YHWH, and said, “Oh, Adonai, please let the man of Elohim whom you sent come again to us, and teach us what we should do to the child who shall be born.” 9Elohim listened to the voice of Manoach, and the malak of Elohim came again to the woman as she sat in the field; but Manoach, her husband, wasn’t with her. 10The woman hurried and ran, and told her husband, saying to him, “Behold, the man who came to me that day has appeared to me.” 11Manoach arose and followed his wife, and came to the man, and said to him, “Are you the man who spoke to my wife?” He said, “I am.” 12Manoach said, “Now let your words happen. What shall the child’s way of life and mission be?” 13YHWH’s malak said to Manoach, “Of all that I said to the woman let her beware. 14She may not eat of anything that comes of the vine, neither let her drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing. Let her observe all that I commanded her.” 15Manoach said to YHWH’s malak, “Please stay with us, that we may make a young goat ready for you.” 16YHWH’s malak said to Manoach, “Though you detain me, I won’t eat your bread. If you will prepare a burnt offering, you must offer it to YHWH.” For Manoach didn’t know that he was YHWH’s malak. 17Manoach said to YHWH’s malak, “What is your name, that when your words happen, we may honour you?” 18YHWH’s malak said to him, “Why do you ask about my name, since it is incomprehensible?” 19So Manoach took the young goat with the meal offering, and offered it on the rock to YHWH. Then the malak did an amazing thing as Manoach and his wife watched. 20For when the flame went up towards the sky from off the altar, YHWH’s malak ascended in the flame of the altar. Manoach and his wife watched; and they fell on their faces to the ground. 21But YHWH’s malak didn’t appear to Manoach or to his wife any more. Then Manoach knew that he was YHWH’s malak. 22Manoach said to his wife, “We shall surely die, because we have seen Elohim.” 23But his wife said to him, “If YHWH were pleased to kill us, he wouldn’t have received a burnt offering and a meal offering at our hand, and he wouldn’t have shown us all these things, nor would he have told us such things as these at this time.” 24The woman bore a son and named him Shimshon. The child grew, and YHWH blessed him. 25YHWH’s Ruach began to move him in Mahaneh Dan, between Tyre'a and Eshtaol.

### Chapter 14

1Shimshon went down to Timnah, and saw a woman in Timnah of the daughters of the Pelishtim. 2He came up, and told his father and his mother, saying, “I have seen a woman in Timnah of the daughters of the Pelishtim. Now therefore get her for me as my wife.” 3Then his father and his mother said to him, “Isn’t there a woman amongst your brothers’ daughters, or amongst all my people, that you go to take a wife of the uncircumcised Pelishtim?” Shimshon said to his father, “Get her for me, for she pleases me well.” 4But his father and his mother didn’t know that it was of YHWH; for he sought an occasion against the Pelishtim. Now at that time the Pelishtim ruled over Yisrael. 5Then Shimshon went down to Timnah with his father and his mother, and came to the vineyards of Timnah; and behold, a young lion roared at him. 6YHWH’s Ruach came mightily on him, and he tore him as he would have torn a young goat with his bare hands, but he didn’t tell his father or his mother what he had done. 7He went down and talked with the woman, and she pleased Shimshon well. 8After a while he returned to take her, and he went over to see the carcass of the lion; and behold, there was a swarm of bees in the body of the lion, and honey. 9He took it into his hands, and went on, eating as he went. He came to his father and mother and gave to them, and they ate, but he didn’t tell them that he had taken the honey out of the lion’s body. 10His father went down to the woman; and Shimshon made a feast there, for the young men used to do so. 11When they saw him, they brought thirty companions to be with him. 12Shimshon said to them, “Let me tell you a riddle now. If you can tell me the answer within the seven days of the feast, and find it out, then I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothing; 13but if you can’t tell me the answer, then you shall give me thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothing.” They said to him, “Tell us your riddle, that we may hear it.” 14He said to them, “Out of the eater came out food. Out of the strong came out sweetness.” They couldn’t in three days declare the riddle. 15On the seventh day, they said to Shimshon’s wife, “Entice your husband, that he may declare to us the riddle, lest we burn you and your father’s house with fire. Have you called us to impoverish us? Isn’t that so?” 16Shimshon’s wife wept before him, and said, “You just hate me, and don’t love me. You’ve told a riddle to the children of my people, and haven’t told it to me.” He said to her, “Behold, I haven’t told my father or my mother, so why should I tell you?” 17She wept before him the seven days, while their feast lasted; and on the seventh day, he told her, because she pressed him severely; and she told the riddle to the children of her people. 18The men of the city said to him on the seventh day before the sun went down, “What is sweeter than honey? What is stronger than a lion?” He said to them, “If you hadn’t ploughed with my heifer, you wouldn’t have found out my riddle.” 19YHWH’s Ruach came mightily on him, and he went down to Ashkelon and struck thirty men of them. He took their plunder, then gave the changes of clothing to those who declared the riddle. His anger burnt, and he went up to his father’s house. 20But Shimshon’s wife was given to his companion, who had been his friend.

### Chapter 15

1But after a while, in the time of wheat harvest, Shimshon visited his wife with a young goat. He said, “I will go in to my wife’s room.” But her father wouldn’t allow him to go in. 2Her father said, “I most certainly thought that you utterly hated her; therefore I gave her to your companion. Isn’t her younger sister more beautiful than she? Please, take her instead.” 3Shimshon said to them, “This time I will be blameless in the case of the Pelishtim when I harm them.” 4Shimshon went and caught three hundred foxes, and took torches, and turned tail to tail, and put a torch in the middle between every two tails. 5When he had set the torches on fire, he let them go into the standing grain of the Pelishtim, and burnt up both the shocks and the standing grain, and also the olive groves. 6Then the Pelishtim said, “Who has done this?” They said, “Shimshon, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he has taken his wife and given her to his companion.” The Pelishtim came up, and burnt her and her father with fire. 7Shimshon said to them, “If you behave like this, surely I will take revenge on you, and after that I will cease.” 8He struck them hip and thigh with a great slaughter; and he went down and lived in the cave in Etam’s rock. 9Then the Pelishtim went up, encamped in Yehudah, and spread themselves in Lehi. 10The men of Yehudah said, “Why have you come up against us?” They said, “We have come up to bind Shimshon, to do to him as he has done to us.” 11Then three thousand men of Yehudah went down to the cave in Etam’s rock, and said to Shimshon, “Don’t you know that the Pelishtim are rulers over us? What then is this that you have done to us?” He said to them, “As they did to me, so I have done to them.” 12They said to him, “We have come down to bind you, that we may deliver you into the hand of the Pelishtim.” Shimshon said to them, “Swear to me that you will not attack me yourselves.” 13They spoke to him, saying, “No, but we will bind you securely and deliver you into their hands; but surely we will not kill you.” They bound him with two new ropes, and brought him up from the rock. 14When he came to Lehi, the Pelishtim shouted as they met him. Then YHWH’s Ruach came mightily on him, and the ropes that were on his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire; and his bands dropped from off his hands. 15He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, put out his hand, took it, and struck a thousand men with it. 16Shimshon said, “With the jawbone of a donkey, heaps on heaps; with the jawbone of a donkey I have struck a thousand men.” 17When he had finished speaking, he threw the jawbone out of his hand; and that place was called Ramath Lehi. 18He was very thirsty, and called on YHWH and said, “You have given this great deliverance by the hand of your servant; and now shall I die of thirst, and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?” 19But Elohim split the hollow place that is in Lehi, and water came out of it. When he had drunk, his spirit came again, and he revived. Therefore its name was called En Hakkore, which is in Lehi, to this day. 20He judged Yisrael twenty years in the days of the Pelishtim.

### Chapter 16

1Shimshon went to Gaza, and saw there a prostitute, and went in to her. 2The Gazites were told, “Shimshon is here!” They surrounded him and laid wait for him all night in the gate of the city, and were quiet all the night, saying, “Wait until morning light; then we will kill him.” 3Shimshon lay until midnight, then arose at midnight and took hold of the doors of the gate of the city, with the two posts, and plucked them up, bar and all, and put them on his shoulders and carried them up to the top of the mountain that is before Hebron. 4It came to pass afterward that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. 5The lords of the Pelishtim came up to her and said to her, “Entice him, and see in which his great strength lies, and by what means we may prevail against him, that we may bind him to afflict him; and we will each give you eleven hundred pieces of silver.” 6Delilah said to Shimshon, “Please tell me where your great strength lies, and what you might be bound to afflict you.” 7Shimshon said to her, “If they bind me with seven green cords that were never dried, then shall I become weak, and be as another man.” 8Then the lords of the Pelishtim brought up to her seven green cords which had not been dried, and she bound him with them. 9Now she had an ambush waiting in the inner room. She said to him, “The Pelishtim are on you, Shimshon!” He broke the cords as a flax thread is broken when it touches the fire. So his strength was not known. 10Delilah said to Shimshon, “Behold, you have mocked me, and told me lies. Now please tell me how you might be bound.” 11He said to her, “If they only bind me with new ropes with which no work has been done, then I will become weak, and be as another man.” 12So Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them, then said to him, “The Pelishtim are on you, Shimshon!” The ambush was waiting in the inner room. He broke them off his arms like a thread. 13Delilah said to Shimshon, “Until now, you have mocked me and told me lies. Tell me with what you might be bound.” He said to her, “If you weave the seven locks of my head with the fabric on the loom.” 14She fastened it with the pin, and said to him, “The Pelishtim are on you, Shimshon!” He awakened out of his sleep, and plucked away the pin of the beam and the fabric. 15She said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when your heart is not with me? You have mocked me these three times, and have not told me where your great strength lies.” 16When she pressed him daily with her words and urged him, his soul was troubled to death. 17He told her all his heart and said to her, “No razor has ever come on my head; for I have been a Nazirite to Elohim from my mother’s womb. If I am shaved, then my strength will go from me and I will become weak, and be like any other man.” 18When Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called for the lords of the Pelishtim, saying, “Come up this once, for he has told me all his heart.” Then the lords of the Pelishtim came up to her and brought the money in their hand. 19She made him sleep on her knees; and she called for a man and shaved off the seven locks of his head; and she began to afflict him, and his strength went from him. 20She said, “The Pelishtim are upon you, Shimshon!” He awoke out of his sleep, and said, “I will go out as at other times, and shake myself free.” But he didn’t know that YHWH had departed from him. 21The Pelishtim laid hold on him and put out his eyes; and they brought him down to Gaza and bound him with fetters of bronze; and he ground at the mill in the prison. 22However, the hair of his head began to grow again after he was shaved. 23The lords of the Pelishtim gathered together to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god, and to rejoice; for they said, “Our god has delivered Shimshon our enemy into our hand.” 24When the people saw him, they praised their god; for they said, “Our god has delivered our enemy and the destroyer of our country, who has slain many of us, into our hand.” 25When their hearts were merry, they said, “Call for Shimshon, that he may entertain us.” They called for Shimshon out of the prison; and he performed before them. They set him between the pillars; 26and Shimshon said to the boy who held him by the hand, “Allow me to feel the pillars on which the house rests, that I may lean on them.” 27Now the house was full of men and women; and all the lords of the Pelishtim were there; and there were on the roof about three thousand men and women, who saw while Shimshon performed. 28Shimshon called to YHWH, and said, “Adonai YHWH, remember me, please, and strengthen me, please, only this once, Elohim, that I may be at once avenged of the Pelishtim for my two eyes.” 29Shimshon took hold of the two middle pillars on which the house rested and leaned on them, the one with his right hand and the other with his left. 30Shimshon said, “Let me die with the Pelishtim!” He bowed himself with all his might; and the house fell on the lords, and on all the people who were in it. So the dead that he killed at his death were more than those who he killed in his life. 31Then his brothers and all the house of his father came down and took him, and brought him up and buried him between Tyre'a and Eshtaol in the burial site of Manoach his father. He judged Yisrael twenty years.

### Chapter 17

1There was a man of the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Michah. 2He said to his mother, “The eleven hundred pieces of silver that were taken from you, about which you uttered a curse, and also spoke it in my ears—behold, the silver is with me. I took it.” His mother said, “May YHWH bless my son!” 3He restored the eleven hundred pieces of silver to his mother, then his mother said, “I most certainly dedicate the silver to YHWH from my hand for my son, to make a carved image and a molten image. Now therefore I will restore it to you.” 4When he restored the money to his mother, his mother took two hundred pieces of silver, and gave them to a silversmith, who made a carved image and a molten image out of it. It was in the house of Michah. 5The man Michah had a house of gods, and he made an ephod, and teraphim, and consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest. 6In those days there was no king in Yisrael. Everyone did that which was right in his own eyes. 7There was a young man out of Beit Lechem Yehudah, of the family of Yehudah, who was a Levi'i; and he lived there. 8The man departed out of the city, out of Beit Lechem Yehudah, to live where he could find a place, and he came to the hill country of Ephraim, to the house of Michah, as he travelled. 9Michah said to him, “Where did you come from?” He said to him, “I am a Levi'i of Beit Lechem Yehudah, and I am looking for a place to live.” 10Michah said to him, “Dwell with me, and be to me a father and a priest, and I will give you ten pieces of silver per year, a suit of clothing, and your food.” So the Levi'i went in. 11The Levi'i was content to dwell with the man; and the young man was to him as one of his sons. 12Michah consecrated the Levi'i, and the young man became his priest, and was in the house of Michah. 13Then Michah said, “Now I know that YHWH will do good to me, since I have a Levi'i as my priest.”

### Chapter 18

1In those days there was no king in Yisrael. In those days the tribe of the Danim sought an inheritance to dwell in; for to that day, their inheritance had not fallen to them amongst the tribes of Yisrael. 2The children of Dan sent five men of their family from their whole number, men of valour, from Tyre'a and from Eshtaol, to spy out the land and to search it. They said to them, “Go, explore the land!” They came to the hill country of Ephraim, to the house of Michah, and lodged there. 3When they were by the house of Michah, they knew the voice of the young man the Levi'i; so they went over there and said to him, “Who brought you here? What do you do in this place? What do you have here?” 4He said to them, “Thus and thus has Michah dealt with me, and he has hired me, and I have become his priest.” 5They said to him, “Please ask counsel of Elohim, that we may know whether our way which we go shall be prosperous.” 6The priest said to them, “Go in peace. Your way in which you go is before YHWH.” 7Then the five men departed and came to Laish and saw the people who were there, how they lived in safety, in the way of the Tzidonim, quiet and secure; for there was no one in the land possessing authority, that might put them to shame in anything, and they were far from the Tzidonim, and had no dealings with anyone else. 8They came to their brothers at Tyre'a and Eshtaol; and their brothers asked them, “What do you say?” 9They said, “Arise, and let’s go up against them; for we have seen the land, and behold, it is very good. Do you stand still? Don’t be slothful to go and to enter in to possess the land. 10When you go, you will come to an unsuspecting people, and the land is large; for Elohim has given it into your hand, a place where there is no lack of anything that is in the earth.” 11The family of the Danim set out from Tyre'a and Eshtaol with six hundred men armed with weapons of war. 12They went up and encamped in Kiryat Ye'arim in Yehudah. Therefore they call that place Mahaneh Dan to this day. Behold, it is behind Kiryat Ye'arim. 13They passed from there to the hill country of Ephraim, and came to the house of Michah. 14Then the five men who went to spy out the country of Laish answered and said to their brothers, “Do you know that there is in these houses an ephod, and teraphim, and a carved image, and a molten image? Now therefore consider what you have to do.” 15They went over there and came to the house of the young Levi'i man, even to the house of Michah, and asked him how he was doing. 16The six hundred men armed with their weapons of war, who were of the children of Dan, stood by the entrance of the gate. 17The five men who went to spy out the land went up, and came in there, and took the engraved image, the ephod, the teraphim, and the molten image; and the priest stood by the entrance of the gate with the six hundred men armed with weapons of war. 18When these went into Michah’s house, and took the engraved image, the ephod, the teraphim, and the molten image, the priest said to them, “What are you doing?” 19They said to him, “Hold your peace, put your hand on your mouth, and go with us. Be a father and a priest to us. Is it better for you to be priest to the house of one man, or to be priest to a tribe and a family in Yisrael?” 20The priest’s heart was glad, and he took the ephod, the teraphim, and the engraved image, and went with the people. 21So they turned and departed, and put the little ones, the livestock, and the goods before them. 22When they were a good way from the house of Michah, the men who were in the houses near Michah’s house gathered together and overtook the children of Dan. 23As they called to the children of Dan, they turned their faces, and said to Michah, “What ails you, that you come with such a company?” 24He said, “You have taken away my gods which I made, and the priest, and have gone away! What more do I have? How can you ask me, ‘What ails you?’” 25The children of Dan said to him, “Don’t let your voice be heard amongst us, lest angry fellows fall on you, and you lose your life, with the lives of your household.” 26The children of Dan went their way; and when Michah saw that they were too strong for him, he turned and went back to his house. 27They took that which Michah had made, and the priest whom he had, and came to Laish, to a people quiet and unsuspecting, and struck them with the edge of the sword; then they burnt the city with fire. 28There was no deliverer, because it was far from Tzidon, and they had no dealings with anyone else; and it was in the valley that lies by Beit Rechov. They built the city and lived in it. 29They called the name of the city Dan, after the name of Dan their father, who was born to Yisrael; however the name of the city used to be Laish. 30The children of Dan set up for themselves the engraved image; and Yonatan, the son of Gershom, the son of Moshe, and his sons were priests to the tribe of the Danim until the day of the captivity of the land. 31So they set up for themselves Michah’s engraved image which he made, and it remained all the time that Elohim’s house was in Shilo.

### Chapter 19

1In those days, when there was no king in Yisrael, there was a certain Levi'i living on the farther side of the hill country of Ephraim, who took for himself a concubine out of Beit Lechem Yehudah. 2His concubine played the prostitute against him, and went away from him to her father’s house to Beit Lechem Yehudah, and was there for four months. 3Her husband arose and went after her to speak kindly to her, to bring her again, having his servant with him and a couple of donkeys. She brought him into her father’s house; and when the father of the young lady saw him, he rejoiced to meet him. 4His father-in-law, the young lady’s father, kept him there; and he stayed with him three days. So they ate and drank, and stayed there. 5On the fourth day, they got up early in the morning, and he rose up to depart. The young lady’s father said to his son-in-law, “Strengthen your heart with a morsel of bread, and afterward you shall go your way.” 6So they sat down, ate, and drank, both of them together. Then the young lady’s father said to the man, “Please be pleased to stay all night, and let your heart be merry.” 7The man rose up to depart; but his father-in-law urged him, and he stayed there again. 8He arose early in the morning on the fifth day to depart; and the young lady’s father said, “Please strengthen your heart and stay until the day declines;” and they both ate. 9When the man rose up to depart, he, and his concubine, and his servant, his father-in-law, the young lady’s father, said to him, “Behold, now the day draws towards evening, please stay all night. Behold, the day is ending. Stay here, that your heart may be merry; and tomorrow go on your way early, that you may go home.” 10But the man wouldn’t stay that night, but he rose up and went near Yevus (also called Jerusalem). With him were a couple of saddled donkeys. His concubine also was with him. 11When they were by Yevus, the day was far spent; and the servant said to his master, “Please come and let’s enter into this city of the Yevusim, and stay in it.” 12His master said to him, “We won’t enter into the city of a foreigner that is not of the children of Yisrael; but we will pass over to Giv'ah.” 13He said to his servant, “Come and let’s draw near to one of these places; and we will lodge in Giv'ah, or in Ramah.” 14So they passed on and went their way; and the sun went down on them near Giv'ah, which belongs to Binyamin. 15They went over there, to go in to stay in Giv'ah. He went in, and sat down in the street of the city; for there was no one who took them into his house to stay. 16Behold, an old man came from his work out of the field at evening. Now the man was from the hill country of Ephraim, and he lived in Giv'ah; but the men of the place were Binyaminim. 17He lifted up his eyes, and saw the wayfaring man in the street of the city; and the old man said, “Where are you going? Where did you come from?” 18He said to him, “We are passing from Beit Lechem Yehudah to the farther side of the hill country of Ephraim. I am from there, and I went to Beit Lechem Yehudah. I am going to YHWH’s house; and there is no one who has taken me into his house. 19Yet there is both straw and feed for our donkeys; and there is bread and wine also for me, and for your servant, and for the young man who is with your servants. There is no lack of anything.” 20The old man said, “Peace be to you! Just let me supply all your needs, but don’t sleep in the street.” 21So he brought him into his house, and gave the donkeys fodder. Then they washed their feet, and ate and drank. 22As they were making their hearts merry, behold, the men of the city, certain wicked fellows, surrounded the house, beating at the door; and they spoke to the master of the house, the old man, saying, “Bring out the man who came into your house, that we can have sex with him!” 23The man, the master of the house, went out to them, and said to them, “No, my brothers, please don’t act so wickedly; since this man has come into my house, don’t do this folly. 24Behold, here is my virgin daughter and his concubine. I will bring them out now. Humble them, and do with them what seems good to you; but to this man don’t do any such folly.” 25But the men wouldn’t listen to him; so the man grabbed his concubine, and brought her out to them; and they had sex with her, and abused her all night until the morning. When the day began to dawn, they let her go. 26Then the woman came in the dawning of the day, and fell down at the door of the man’s house where her Adonai was, until it was light. 27Her Adonai rose up in the morning and opened the doors of the house, and went out to go his way; and behold, the woman his concubine had fallen down at the door of the house, with her hands on the threshold. 28He said to her, “Get up, and let’s get going!” but no one answered. Then he took her up on the donkey; and the man rose up, and went to his place. 29When he had come into his house, he took a knife and cut up his concubine, and divided her, limb by limb, into twelve pieces, and sent her throughout all the borders of Yisrael. 30It was so, that all who saw it said, “Such a deed has not been done or seen from the day that the children of Yisrael came up out of the land of Mitzrayim to this day! Consider it, take counsel, and speak.”

### Chapter 20

1Then all the children of Yisrael went out, and the congregation was assembled as one man, from Dan even to Be'er Sheva, with the land of Gilead, to YHWH at Mitzpah. 2The chiefs of all the people, even of all the tribes of Yisrael, presented themselves in the assembly of the people of Elohim, four hundred thousand footmen who drew sword. 3(Now the children of Binyamin heard that the children of Yisrael had gone up to Mitzpah.) The children of Yisrael said, “Tell us, how did this wickedness happen?” 4The Levi'i, the husband of the woman who was murdered, answered, “I came into Giv'ah that belongs to Binyamin, I and my concubine, to spend the night. 5The men of Giv'ah rose against me, and surrounded the house by night. They intended to kill me and they raped my concubine, and she is dead. 6I took my concubine and cut her in pieces, and sent her throughout all the country of the inheritance of Yisrael; for they have committed lewdness and folly in Yisrael. 7Behold, you children of Yisrael, all of you, give here your advice and counsel.” 8All the people arose as one man, saying, “None of us will go to his tent, neither will any of us turn to his house. 9But now this is the thing which we will do to Giv'ah: we will go up against it by lot; 10and we will take ten men of one hundred throughout all the tribes of Yisrael, and one hundred of one thousand, and a thousand out of ten thousand to get food for the people, that they may do, when they come to Giv'ah of Binyamin, according to all the folly that the men of Giv'ah have done in Yisrael.” 11So all the men of Yisrael were gathered against the city, knit together as one man. 12The tribes of Yisrael sent men through all the tribe of Binyamin, saying, “What wickedness is this that has happened amongst you? 13Now therefore deliver up the men, the wicked fellows who are in Giv'ah, that we may put them to death and put away evil from Yisrael.” But Binyamin would not listen to the voice of their brothers, the children of Yisrael. 14The children of Binyamin gathered themselves together out of the cities to Giv'ah, to go out to battle against the children of Yisrael. 15The children of Binyamin were counted on that day out of the cities twenty-six thousand men who drew the sword, in addition to the inhabitants of Giv'ah, who were counted seven hundred chosen men. 16Amongst all these soldiers there were seven hundred chosen men who were left-handed. Every one of them could sling a stone at a hair and not miss. 17The men of Yisrael, besides Binyamin, were counted four hundred thousand men who drew sword. All these were men of war. 18The children of Yisrael arose, went up to Beit El, and asked counsel of Elohim. They asked, “Who shall go up for us first to battle against the children of Binyamin?” YHWH said, “Yehudah first.” 19The children of Yisrael rose up in the morning and encamped against Giv'ah. 20The men of Yisrael went out to battle against Binyamin; and the men of Yisrael set the battle in array against them at Giv'ah. 21The children of Binyamin came out of Giv'ah, and on that day destroyed twenty-two thousand of the Yisra'eli men down to the ground. 22The people, the men of Yisrael, encouraged themselves, and set the battle again in array in the place where they set themselves in array the first day. 23The children of Yisrael went up and wept before YHWH until evening; and they asked of YHWH, saying, “Shall I again draw near to battle against the children of Binyamin my brother?” YHWH said, “Go up against him.” 24The children of Yisrael came near against the children of Binyamin the second day. 25Binyamin went out against them out of Giv'ah the second day, and destroyed down to the ground of the children of Yisrael again eighteen thousand men. All these drew the sword. 26Then all the children of Yisrael and all the people went up, and came to Beit El, and wept, and sat there before YHWH, and fasted that day until evening; then they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before YHWH. 27The children of Yisrael asked YHWH (for the Aron HaBrit of Elohim was there in those days, 28and Pinchas, the son of El'azar, the son of Aharon, stood before it in those days), saying, “Shall I yet again go out to battle against the children of Binyamin my brother, or shall I cease?” YHWH said, “Go up; for tomorrow I will deliver him into your hand.” 29Yisrael set ambushes all around Giv'ah. 30The children of Yisrael went up against the children of Binyamin on the third day, and set themselves in array against Giv'ah, as at other times. 31The children of Binyamin went out against the people, and were drawn away from the city; and they began to strike and kill of the people as at other times, in the highways, of which one goes up to Beit El and the other to Giv'ah, in the field, about thirty men of Yisrael. 32The children of Binyamin said, “They are struck down before us, as at the first.” But the children of Yisrael said, “Let’s flee, and draw them away from the city to the highways.” 33All the men of Yisrael rose up out of their place and set themselves in array at Ba'al Tamar. Then the ambushers of Yisrael broke out of their place, even out of Maareh Geva. 34Ten thousand chosen men out of all Yisrael came over against Giv'ah, and the battle was severe; but they didn’t know that disaster was close to them. 35YHWH struck Binyamin before Yisrael; and the children of Yisrael destroyed of Binyamin that day twenty-five thousand and one hundred men. All these drew the sword. 36So the children of Binyamin saw that they were struck, for the men of Yisrael yielded to Binyamin because they trusted the ambushers whom they had set against Giv'ah. 37The ambushers hurried, and rushed on Giv'ah; then the ambushers spread out, and struck all the city with the edge of the sword. 38Now the appointed sign between the men of Yisrael and the ambushers was that they should make a great cloud of smoke rise up out of the city. 39The men of Yisrael turned in the battle, and Binyamin began to strike and kill of the men of Yisrael about thirty persons; for they said, “Surely they are struck down before us, as in the first battle.” 40But when the cloud began to arise up out of the city in a pillar of smoke, the Binyaminim looked behind them; and behold, the whole city went up in smoke to the sky. 41The men of Yisrael turned, and the men of Binyamin were dismayed; for they saw that disaster had come on them. 42Therefore they turned their backs before the men of Yisrael to the way of the wilderness, but the battle followed hard after them; and those who came out of the cities destroyed them in the middle of it. 43They surrounded the Binyaminim, chased them, and trod them down at their resting place, as far as near Giv'ah towards the sunrise. 44Eighteen thousand men of Binyamin fell; all these were men of valour. 45They turned and fled towards the wilderness to the rock of Rimon. They gleaned five thousand men of them in the highways, and followed hard after them to Gidom, and struck two thousand men of them. 46So that all who fell that day of Binyamin were twenty-five thousand men who drew the sword. All these were men of valour. 47But six hundred men turned and fled towards the wilderness to the rock of Rimon, and stayed in the rock of Rimon four months. 48The men of Yisrael turned again on the children of Binyamin, and struck them with the edge of the sword—including the entire city, the livestock, and all that they found. Moreover they set all the cities which they found on fire.

### Chapter 21

1Now the men of Yisrael had sworn in Mitzpah, saying, “None of us will give his daughter to Binyamin as a wife.” 2The people came to Beit El and sat there until evening before Elohim, and lifted up their voices, and wept severely. 3They said, “YHWH, the Elohim of Yisrael, why has this happened in Yisrael, that there should be one tribe lacking in Yisrael today?” 4On the next day, the people rose early and built an altar there, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. 5The children of Yisrael said, “Who is there amongst all the tribes of Yisrael who didn’t come up in the assembly to YHWH?” For they had made a great oath concerning him who didn’t come up to YHWH to Mitzpah, saying, “He shall surely be put to death.” 6The children of Yisrael grieved for Binyamin their brother, and said, “There is one tribe cut off from Yisrael today. 7How shall we provide wives for those who remain, since we have sworn by YHWH that we will not give them of our daughters to wives?” 8They said, “What one is there of the tribes of Yisrael who didn’t come up to YHWH to Mitzpah?” Behold, no one came from Yavesh Gilead to the camp to the assembly. 9For when the people were counted, behold, there were none of the inhabitants of Yavesh Gilead there. 10The congregation sent twelve thousand of the most valiant men there, and commanded them, saying, “Go and strike the inhabitants of Yavesh Gilead with the edge of the sword, with the women and the little ones. 11This is the thing that you shall do: you shall utterly destroy every male, and every woman who has lain with a man.” 12They found amongst the inhabitants of Yavesh Gilead four hundred young virgins who had not known man by lying with him; and they brought them to the camp to Shilo, which is in the land of Kna'an. 13The whole congregation sent and spoke to the children of Binyamin who were in the rock of Rimon, and proclaimed peace to them. 14Binyamin returned at that time; and they gave them the women whom they had saved alive of the women of Yavesh Gilead. There still weren’t enough for them. 15The people grieved for Binyamin, because YHWH had made a breach in the tribes of Yisrael. 16Then the elders of the congregation said, “How shall we provide wives for those who remain, since the women are destroyed out of Binyamin?” 17They said, “There must be an inheritance for those who are escaped of Binyamin, that a tribe not be blotted out from Yisrael. 18However, we may not give them wives of our daughters, for the children of Yisrael had sworn, saying, ‘Cursed is he who gives a wife to Binyamin.’” 19They said, “Behold, there is a feast of YHWH from year to year in Shilo, which is on the north of Beit El, on the east side of the highway that goes up from Beit El to Shechem, and on the south of Lebonah.” 20They commanded the children of Binyamin, saying, “Go and lie in wait in the vineyards, 21and see, and behold, if the daughters of Shilo come out to dance in the dances, then come out of the vineyards, and each man catch his wife of the daughters of Shilo, and go to the land of Binyamin. 22It shall be, when their fathers or their brothers come to complain to us, that we will say to them, ‘Grant them graciously to us, because we didn’t take for each man his wife in battle, neither did you give them to them; otherwise you would now be guilty.’” 23The children of Binyamin did so, and took wives for themselves according to their number, of those who danced, whom they carried off. They went and returned to their inheritance, built the cities, and lived in them. 24The children of Yisrael departed from there at that time, every man to his tribe and to his family, and they each went out from there to his own inheritance. 25In those days there was no king in Yisrael. Everyone did that which was right in his own eyes.

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