The Tetragrammaton = hwhy = YaHuWaH
Shophetim [Judges]
1:1 It happened after the death of Yahuwshuwa, the children of Ysra'al asked of YaHuWaH, saying, “Who should go up for us first against the Kena'aniy, to fight against them?”
1:2YaHuWaH said, “Yahuwdah shall go up. Behold, I have delivered the land into his hand.”
1:3 Yahuwdah said to Shim'own his brother, “Come up with me into my lot, that we may fight against the Kena'aniy; and I likewise will go with you into your lot.” So Shim'own went with him. 1:4 Yahuwdah went up; and YaHuWaH delivered the Kena'aniy and the Perizziy into their hand: and they struck of them in Bezek ten thousand men. 1:5 They found Adoni-Bezek in Bezek; and they fought against him, and they struck the Kena'aniy and the Perizziy. 1:6 But Adoni-Bezek fled; and they pursued after him, and caught him, and cut off his thumbs and his great toes. 1:7 Adoni-Bezek said, “Seventy kings, having their thumbs and their great toes cut off, gathered their food under my table: as I have done, so Aluahiym has requited me.” They brought him to Yahrushalom, and he died there. 1:8 The children of Yahuwdah fought against Yahrushalom, and took it, and struck it with the edge of the sword, and set the city on fire. 1:9 Afterward the children of Yahuwdah went down to fight against the Kena'aniy who lived in the hill country, and in the South, and in the lowland. 1:10 Yahuwdah went against the Kena'aniy who lived in Chebrown (now the name of Chebrown before was Qiriath Arba); and they struck Sheshay, and Achiyman, and Talmay.
1:11 From there he went against the inhabitants of Debyir. (Now the name of Debyir before was Qiryath Sepher.) 1:12 Kaleb said, “He who strikes Qiryath Sepher, and takes it, to him will I give Aksah my daughter as wife.” 1:13 Othniy'el the son of Qenaz, Kaleb’s younger brother, took it: and he gave him Acksah his daughter as wife.
1:14 It happened, when she came to him, that she moved him to ask of her father a field: and she alighted from off her donkey; and Kaleb said to her, “What would you like?”
1:15 She said to him, “Give me a blessing; for that you have set me in the land of the South, give me also springs of water.” Then Kaleb gave her the upper springs and the lower springs. 1:16 The children of the Qeyniy, Moshah’ brother-in-law, went up out of the city of palm trees with the children of Yahuwdah into the wilderness of Yahuwdah, which is in the south of Arad; and they went and lived with the people. 1:17 Yahuwdah went with Shim'own his brother, and they struck the Kena'aniy who inhabited Tsephath, and utterly destroyed it. The name of the city was called Chormah. 1:18 Also Yahuwdah took Azza with its border, and Ashqelown with its border, and Eqrown with its border. 1:19YaHuWaH was with Yahuwdah; 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. 1:20 They gave Chebrown to Kaleb, as Moshah had spoken: and he drove out there the three sons of Anaq. 1:21 The children of Binyamin did not drive out the Yebuwsiy who inhabited Yahrushalom; but the Yebuwsiy dwell with the children of Binyamin in Yahrushalom to this day.
1:22 The House of Yowseph, they also went up against Bayith'Al; and YaHuWaH was with them. 1:23 The house of Yowseph sent to spy out Bayith'Al. (Now the name of the city before was Luwz.) 1:24 The watchers saw a man come forth out of the city, and they said to him, “Show us, we pray you, the entrance into the city, and we will deal kindly with you.” 1:25 He showed them the entrance into the city; and they struck the city with the edge of the sword; but they let the man go and all his family. 1:26 The man went into the land of the Chitty, and built a city, and called its name Luwz, which is its name to this day.
1:27 Menashsheh did not drive out the inhabitants of Bayith Shean and its towns, nor of Ta'anak and its towns, nor the inhabitants of Dowr and its towns, nor the inhabitants of Yible'am and its towns, nor the inhabitants of Megiddown and its towns; but the Kena'aniy would dwell in that land. 1:28 It happened, when Ysra'al had grown strong, that they put the Kena'aniy to forced labor, and did not utterly drive them out. 1:29 Ephraiym didn’t drive out the Kena'aniy who lived in Gezer; but the Kena'aniy lived in Gezer among them. 1:30 Zebuwluwm didn’t drive out the inhabitants of Qitrown, nor the inhabitants of Nahalal; but the Kena'aniy lived among them, and became subject to forced labor. 1:31 Asher didn’t drive out the inhabitants of Akkow, nor the inhabitants of Tsiydown, nor of Achlab, nor of Akziyb, nor of Chelbah, nor of Apheq, nor of Rechob; 1:32 but the Asheriy lived among the Kena'aniy, the inhabitants of the land; for they did not drive them out. 1:33 Naphtaliy didn’t drive out the inhabitants of Bayith Shemesh, nor the inhabitants of Bayith Anath; but he lived among the Kena'aniy, the inhabitants of the land: nevertheless the inhabitants of Bayith Shemesh and of Bayith Anath became subject to forced labor. 1:34 The Emoriy forced the children of Dan into the hill country; for they would not allow them to come down to the valley; 1:35 but the Emoriy would dwell in Mount Cheres, in Ayalown, and in Sha'albiym: yet the hand of the House of Yowseph prevailed, so that they became subject to forced labor. 1:36 The border of the Emoriy was from the ascent of Akrabbim, from the rock, and upward.
2:1 The Malak YaHuWaH came up from Gilgal to Bokim. He said, “I made you to go up out of Mitsrayim, and have brought you to the Land which I swore to your fathers; and I said, ‘I will never break My Covenant with you: 2:2 and you shall make no covenant 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? 2:3 Therefore I also said, I will not drive them out from before you; but they shall be as thorns in your sides, and their mighty ones shall be a snare to you.”
2:4 It happened, when the Malak YaHuWaH spoke these words to all the children of Ysra'al, that the people lifted up their voice, and wept. 2:5 They called the name of that place Bokiym: and they slaughterd there to YaHuWaH. Now when Yahuwshuwa had sent the people away, the children of Ysra'al went every man to his inheritance to possess the land. 2:7 The people served YaHuWaH all the days of Yahuwshuwa (yod-heh-waw-shin-waw-ayin), and all the days of the elders who outlived Yahuwshuwa, who had seen all the great work of YaHuWaH that He had worked for Ysra'al. 2:8 Yahuwshuwa the son of Nuwn, the servant of YaHuWaH, died, being one hundred ten years old. 2:9 They buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnath Cheres, in the hill country of Ephrayim, on the north of the mountain of Ga'ash. 2:10 Also all that generation were gathered to their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, who didn’t know YaHuWaH, nor yet the work which He had worked for Ysra'al. 2:11 The children of Ysra'al did that which was evil in the sight of YaHuWaH, and served the ba'liym; 2:12 and they forsook YaHuWaH, the Aluahiym of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Mitsrayim, and followed other mighty ones, of the mighty ones of the peoples who were around them, and bowed themselves down to them: and they provoked YaHuWaH to anger. 2:13 They forsook YaHuWaH, and served Ba'al and the Ashtarowth. 2:14 The anger of YaHuWaH was kindled against Ysra'al, and He delivered them into the hands of spoilers who despoiled them; and He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies. 2:15 Wherever they went out, the Hand of YaHuWaH was against them for evil, as YaHuWaH had spoken, and as YaHuWaH had sworn to them: and they were sore distressed. 2:16YaHuWaH raised up judges, who saved them out of the hand of those who despoiled them. 2:17 Yet they didn’t listen to their judges; for they played the prostitute after other mighty ones, and bowed themselves down to them: they turned aside quickly out of the way in which their fathers walked, obeying the Commandments of YaHuWaH; but they didn’t do so. 2:18 When YaHuWaH raised them up judges, then YaHuWaH was with the judge, and saved them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge: for it grieved YaHuWaH because of their groaning by reason of those who oppressed them and troubled them. 2:19 But it happened, when the judge was dead, that they turned back, and dealt more corruptly than their fathers, in following other mighty ones to serve them, and to bow down to them; they didn’t cease from their doings, nor from their stubborn way. 2:20 The anger of YaHuWaH was kindled against Ysra'al; and he said, “Because this nation have transgressed My Covenant which I commanded their fathers, and have not listened to My Voice; 2:21 I also will not henceforth drive out any from before them of the nations that Yahuwshuwa left when he died; 2:22 that by them I may prove Ysra'al, whether they will keep the Way of YaHuWaH to walk therein, as their fathers did keep it, or not.” 2:23 SoYaHuWaH left those nations, without driving them out hastily; neither delivered He them into the hand of Yahuwshuwa.
3:1 Now these are the nations which YaHuWaH left, to prove Ysra'al by them, even as many of Ysra'al as had not known all the wars of Kena'an; 3:2 only that the generations of the children of Ysra'al might know, to teach them war, at the least such as before knew nothing of it: 3:3 namely, the five lords of the Pelishtiym, and all the Kena'aniy, and the Tsiydowniy, and the Chiwiy who lived on Mount Lebanown, from Mount Ba'al Chermown to the entrance of Chamath. 3:4 They were left, to prove Ysra'al by them, to know whether they would listen to the Commandments of YaHuWaH, which He commanded their fathers by Moshah. 3:5 The children of Ysra'al lived among the Kena'aniy, the Chitty, and the Emoriy, and the Perizziy, and the Chiwiy, and the Yebuwsiy: 3:6 and they took their daughters to be their wives, and gave their own daughters to their sons and served their mighty ones. 3:7 The children of Ysra'al did that which was evil in the sight of YaHuWaH, and forgot YaHuWaH their Aluahiym, and served the ba'liym and the groves. 3:8 Therefore the anger of YaHuWaH was kindled against Ysra'al, and He sold them into the hand of Kuwshan Rish'athayim king of Aram Naharayim: and the children of Ysra'al served Kuwshan Rish'athayim eight years. 3:9 When the children of Ysra'al cried toYaHuWaH, YaHuWaH raised up a savior to the children of Ysra'al, who saved them, even Othniy'el the son of Qenaz, Kaleb’s younger brother. 3:10 The Ruwach of YaHuWaH came on him, and he judged Ysra'al; and he went out to war, and YaHuWaH delivered Kuwshan Rish'athayim king of Aram Naharayim into his hand: and his hand prevailed against Kuwshan Rish'athayim. 3:11 The land had rest forty years. Othniy'el the son of Qenaz died. 3:12 The children of Ysra'al again did that which was evil in the sight of YaHuWaH: and YaHuWaH strengthened Eglown the king of Mow'ab against Ysra'al, because they had done that which was evil in the sight of YaHuWaH. He gathered to him the children of Ammown and Amaleq; and he went and struck Ysra'al, and they possessed the city of palm trees. 3:14 The children of Ysra'al served Eglown the king of Mow'ab eighteen years. 3:15 But when the children of Ysra'al cried to YaHuWaH, YaHuWaH raised them up a savior, Ehuwd the son of Gera, the Binyamite, a man left-handed. The children of Ysra'al sent tribute by him to Eglown the king of Mow'ab. 3:16 Ehud made him a sword which had two edges, a cubit in length; and he girded it under his clothing on his right thigh. 3:17 He offered the tribute to Eglown king of Mow'ab: now Eglown was a very fat man. 3:18 When he had made an end of offering the tribute, he sent away the people who bore the tribute. 3:19 But he himself turned back from the quarries that were by Gilgal, and said, “I have a secret errand to you, king.”
The king said, “Keep silence!” All who stood by him went out from him.
3:20 Ehuwd came to him; and he was sitting by himself alone in the cool upper room. Ehuwd said, “I have a message from Aluahiym to you.” He arose out of his seat. 3:21 Ehuwd put forth his left hand, and took the sword from his right thigh, and thrust it into his body: 3:22 and the haft 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. 3:23 Then Ehuwd went forth into the porch, and shut the doors of the upper room on him, and locked them.
3:24 Now when he was gone out, his servants came; and they saw, and behold, the doors of the upper room were locked; and they said, “Surely he is covering his feet in the upper chamber.” 3:25 They 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 lord was fallen down dead on the earth.
3:26 Ehuwd escaped while they waited, and passed beyond the quarries, and escaped to Se'iyrah. 3:27 It happened, when he had come, that he blew a shofar in the hill country of Ephrayim; and the children of Ysra'al went down with him from the hill country, and he before them.
3:28 He said to them, “Follow me; for YaHuWaH has delivered your enemies the Mow'abites into your hand.” They followed him, and took the fords of the Yarden against the Mow'abites, and didn’t allow any man to pass over. 3:29 They struck of Mow'ab at that time about ten thousand men, every lusty man, and every man of valor; and there escaped not a man. 3:30 So Mow'ab was subdued that day under the hand of Ysra'al. The land had rest eighty years.
3:31 After him was Shamgar the son of Anath, who struck of the Pelishtiym six hundred men with an oxgoad: and he also saved Ysra'al.
4:1 The children of Ysra'al again did that which was evil in the sight of YaHuWaH, when Ehuwd was dead. 4:2 YaHuWaH sold them into the hand of Yabiyn king of Kean'an, who reigned in Chatsowr; the captain of whose army was Siysera, who lived in Charosheth of the heathen. 4:3 The children of Ysra'al cried to YaHuWaH: for he had nine hundred chariots of iron; and twenty years he mightily oppressed the children of Ysra'al. 4:4 Now Debowrah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappiydowth, she judged Ysra'al at that time. 4:5 She lived under the palm tree of Debowrah between Ramah and Bayith'Al in the hill country of Ephrayim: and the children of Ysra'al came up to her for judgment. 4:6 She sent and called Baraq the son of Abiyno'am out of Qedesh Naphtaliyy, and said to him, “Hasn’t YaHuWaH, the Aluahiym of Ysra'al, commanded, ‘Go and draw to Mount Tabowr, and take with you ten thousand men of the children of Naphtaliyy and of the children of Zebuwluwm? 4:7 I will draw to you, to the river Qiyshown, Siysera, the captain of Yabiyn’s army, with his chariots and his multitude; and I will deliver him into your hand.’”
4:8 Baraq 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.”
4:9 She said, “I will surely go with you: nevertheless, the journey that you take shall not be for your esteem; for YaHuWaH will sell Siysera into the hand of a woman.” Debowrah arose, and went with Baraq to Qedesh.
4:10 Baraq called Zebuwluwm and Naphtaliy together to Qedesh; and there went up ten thousand men at his feet: and Debowrah went up with him. 4:11 Now Cheber the Qeyniy had separated himself from the Qeyniys, even from the children of Chobab the brother-in-law of Moshah, and had pitched his tent as far as the oak in Tsa'ananniym, which is by Qedesh. 4:12 They told Siysera that Baraq the son of Abiyno'am was gone up to Mount Tabowr. 4:13 Siysera gathered together all his chariots, even nine hundred chariots of iron, and all the people who were with him, from Charosheth of the Gentiles, to the river Qiyshown.
4:14 Debowrah said to Baraq, “Go; for this is the day in which YaHuWaH has delivered Siysera into your hand. Hasn’t YaHuWaH gone out before you?” So Baraq went down from Mount Tabowr, and ten thousand men after him. 4:15 YaHuWaH confused Siysera, and all his chariots, and all his army, with the edge of the sword before Baraq; and Siysera alighted from his chariot, and fled away on his feet. 4:16 But Baraq pursued after the chariots, and after the army, to Charosheth of the Gentiles: and all the army of Siysera fell by the edge of the sword; there was not a man left.
4:17 However Siysera fled away on his feet to the tent of Ya'el the wife of Cheber the Qeyniy; for there was peace between Yabiyn the king of Chatsowr and the house of Cheber the Qeyniy. 4:18 Ya'el went out to meet Siysera, and said to him, “Turn in, my lord, turn in to me; don’t be afraid.” He came in to her into the tent, and she covered him with a rug.
4:19 He said to her, “Please give me a little water to drink; for I am thirsty.”
She opened a bottle of milk, and gave him drink, and covered him.
4:20 He said to her, “Stand in the door of the tent, and it shall be, when any man comes and inquires of you, and says, ‘Is there any man here?’ that you shall say, ‘No.’”
4:21 Then Ya'el Cheber’s wife took a tent peg, and took a hammer in her hand, and went softly to him, and struck the pin into his temples, and it pierced through into the ground; for he was in a deep sleep; so he swooned and died. 4:22 Behold, as Baraq pursued Siysera, Ya'el 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, Siysera lay dead, and the tent peg was in his temples. 4:23 So Aluahiym subdued on that day Yabiyn the king of Kean'an before the children of Ysra'al. 4:24 The hand of the children of Ysra'al prevailed more and more against Yabiyn the king of Kean'an, until they had destroyed Yabiyn king of Kean'an.
5:1 Then Debowrah and Baraq the son of Abiyno'am sang on that day, saying,
5:2 “Because the leaders took the lead in Ysra'al,
because the people offered themselves willingly, be blessed,YaHuWaH !
5:3 “Hear, you kings!
Give ear, you princes!
I, even I, will sing toYaHuWaH.
I will sing praise to YaHuWaH, the Aluahiym of Ysra'al.
5:4 “YaHuWaH, when You went forth out of Se'iyr,
when You marched out of the field of Edom,
the earth trembled, the sky also dropped.
Yes, the clouds dropped water.
5:5 The mountains quaked at the presence of YaHuWaH,
even Siynay, at the presence of YaHuWaH, the Aluahiym of Ysra'al.
5:6 “In the days of Shamgar the son of Anath,
in the days of Ya'el, the highways were unoccupied.
The travelers walked through byways.
5:7 The rulers ceased in Ysra'al.
They ceased until I, Debowrah, arose;
Until I arose a mother in Ysra'al.
5:8 They chose new mighty ones.
Then war was in the gates.
Was there a shield or spear seen among forty thousand in Ysra'al?
5:9 My heart is toward the governors of Ysra'al,
who offered themselves willingly among the people.
Bless YaHuWaH!
5:10 “Tell of it, you who ride on white donkeys,
you who sit on rich carpets, and you who walk by the way.
5:11 Far from the noise of archers, in the places of drawing water,
there they will rehearse the righteous acts of YaHuWaH,
Even the righteous acts of His rule in Ysra'al.
“Then the people of YaHuWaH went down to the gates.
5:12 ‘Awake, awake, Debowrah!
Awake, awake, utter a song!
Arise, Baraq, and lead away your captives, you son of Abiyno'am.’
5:13 “Then a remnant of the nobles and the people came down.
YaHuWaH came down for me against the mighty.
5:14 Those whose root is in Amaleq came out of Ephrayim,
after you, Binyamin, among your peoples.
Governors come down out of Makiyr.
Those who handle the marshal’s staff came out of Zebuwluwm.
5:15 The princes of Yissaskar were with Debowrah.
As was Yissaskar, so was Baraq.
They rushed into the valley at his feet.
By the watercourses of Re'uwben,
there were great resolves of heart.
5:16 Why did you sit among the sheepfolds,
To hear the whistling for the flocks?
At the watercourses of Re'uwben
There were great searchings of heart.
5:17 Gil'ad lived beyond the Yarden.
Why did Dan remain in ships?
Asher sat still at the haven of the sea, and lived by his creeks.
5:18 Zebuwluwm was a people that jeopardized their lives to the deaths;
Naphtaliy also, on the high places of the field.
5:19 “The kings came and fought,
then the kings of Kean'an fought at Ta'anach by the waters of Megiddown.
They took no plunder of silver.
5:20 From the sky the stars fought.
From their courses, they fought against Siysera.
5:21 The river Qiyshown swept them away,
that ancient river, the river Qiyshown.
My soul, march on with strength.
5:22 Then the horse hoofs stamped because of the prancings, the prancings of their strong ones.
5:23 ‘Curse Merowz,’ said the Malak YaHuWaH.
‘Curse bitterly its inhabitants,
because they didn’t come to help YaHuWaH,
to help YaHuWaH against the mighty.’
5:24 “Ya'el shall be blessed above women,
the wife of Cheber the Qeyniy;
blessed shall she be above women in the tent.
5:25 He asked for water.
She gave him milk.
She brought him butter in a lordly dish.
5:26 She put her hand to the tent peg,
and her right hand to the workmen’s hammer.
With the hammer she struck Siysera.
She struck through his head.
Yes, she pierced and struck through his temples.
5:27 At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay.
At her feet he bowed, he fell.
Where he bowed, there he fell down dead.
5:28 “Through the window she looked out, and cried:
Siysera’s mother looked through the lattice.
‘Why is his chariot so long in coming?
Why do the wheels of his chariots wait?’
5:29 Her wise ladies answered her,
Yes, she returned answer to herself,
5:30 ‘Have they not found, have they not divided the spoil?
A lady, two ladies to every man;
to Siysera a spoil of dyed garments,
a spoil of dyed garments embroidered,
of dyed garments embroidered on both sides, on the necks of the spoil?’
5:31 “So let all Your enemies perish,YaHuWaH,
but let those who love Him be as the sun when it rises forth in its strength.”
Then the land had rest forty years.
6:1 The children of Ysra'al did that which was evil in the sight of YaHuWaH: and YaHuWaH delivered them into the hand of Midyan seven years. 6:2 The hand of Midyan prevailed against Ysra'al; and because of Midyan the children of Ysra'al made them the dens which are in the mountains, and the caves, and the strongholds. 6:3 So it was, when Ysra'al had sown, that the Midyaniy came up, and the Amaleqiy, and the children of the east; they came up against them; 6:4 and they encamped against them, and destroyed the increase of the earth, until you come to Azza, and left no sustenance in Ysra'al, neither sheep, nor ox, nor donkey. 6:5 For 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. 6:6 Ysra'al was brought very low because of Midyan; and the children of Ysra'al cried to YaHuWaH.
6:7 It happened, when the children of Ysra'al cried to YaHuWaH because of Midyan, 6:8 that YaHuWaH sent a prophet to the children of Ysra'al: and he said to them, “Thus saysYaHuWaH, the Aluahiym of Ysra'al, ‘I brought you up from Mitsrayim, and brought you forth out of the house of bondage; 6:9 and I delivered you out of the hand of the Mitsriy, and out of the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out from before you, and gave you their land; 6:10 and I said to you, “I am YaHuWaH your Aluahiym; you shall not fear the mighty ones of the Emoriy, in whose land you dwell.” But you have not listened to My voice.’”
6:11 The Malak YaHuWaH came, and sat under the oak which was in Ophrah, that pertained to Yow'ash the Abiy ha-Ezriy: and his son Gid'own was beating out wheat in the winepress, to hide it from the Midyaniy. 6:12 The Malak YaHuWaH appeared to him, and said to him, “ YaHuWaH is with you, you mighty man of valor!”
6:13 Gid'own said to Him, “Oh, my Master, if YaHuWaH 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 YaHuWaH bring us up from Mitsrayim?’ But now YaHuWaH has cast us off, and delivered us into the hand of Midyan.”
6:14 YaHuWaH looked at him, and said, “Go in this your might, and save Ysra'al from the hand of Midyan. Haven’t I sent you?”
6:15 He said to Him, “O YaHuWaH, how shall I save Ysra'al? Behold, my family is the poorest in Menashsheh, and I am the least in my father’s house.”
6:16 YaHuWaH said to him, “Surely I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midyaniy as one man.”
6:17 He said to Him, “If now I have found favor in Your sight, then show me a sign that it is You who talk with me. 6:18 Please 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.”
6:19 Gid'own went in, and prepared a young goat, and unleavened cakes of an efah 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.
6:20 The Malak Aluahiym said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened cakes, and lay them on this rock, and pour out the broth.”
He did so. 6:21 Then the Malak YaHuWaH 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; and the Malak YaHuWaH departed out of his sight.
6:22 Gid'own saw that He was the Malak YaHuWaH; and Gid'own said, “Alas, Master YaHuWaH! Because I have seen the Malak YaHuWaH face to face!”
6:23 YaHuWaH said to him, “Peace be to you! Don’t be afraid. You shall not die.”
6:24 Then Gid'own built an altar there to YaHuWaH, and called it “ YaHuWaH is Shalom.” To this day it is still in Ophrah of the Abiy ha-Ezriy.
6:25 It happened the same night, that YaHuWaH 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 [wooden image] that is by it; 6:26 and build an altar toYaHuWaH your Aluahiym on the top of this stronghold, in the orderly manner, and take the second bull, and offer a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah which you shall cut down.”
6:27 Then Gid'own took ten men of his servants, and did as YaHuWaH had spoken to him: and it happened, because he feared his father’s household and the men of the city, so that he could not do it by day, that he did it by night.
6:28 When 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. 6:29 They said one to another, “Who has done this thing?”
When they inquired and asked, they said, “Gid'own the son of Yow'ash has done this thing.”
6:30 Then the men of the city said to Yow'ash, “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.” 6:31 Yow'ash said to all who stood against him, “Will you plead for Ba'al? Or will you save him? He who will plead for him, let him be put to death while it is yet morning. If he is a mighty one, let him plead for himself, because someone has broken down his altar.” 6:32 Therefore on that day he named him Yerubba'al, saying, “Let Ba'al plead against him, because he has broken down his altar.”
6:33 Then all the Midyaniy and the Amaleqiy and the children of the east assembled themselves together; and they passed over, and encamped in the valley of Yizre'e'l. 6:34 But the Ruwach of YaHuWaH came on Gid'own; and he blew a shofar; and Abiy'ezer was gathered together after him. 6:35 He sent messengers throughout all Menashsheh; and they also were gathered together after him: and he sent messengers to Asher, and to Zebuwluwm, and to Naphtaliy; and they came up to meet them.
6:36 Gid'own said to Aluahiym, “If You will save Ysra'al by my hand, as You have spoken, 6:37 behold, I will put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor; if there be dew on the fleece only, and it be dry on all the ground, then shall I know that You will save Ysra'al by my hand, as You have spoken.”
6:38 It 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.
6:39 Gid'own said to Aluahiym, “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.”
6:40 Aluahiym did so that night: for it was dry on the fleece only, and there was dew on all the ground.
7:1 Then Yerubba'al, (that is Gid'own), and all the people who were with him, rose up early, and encamped beside the spring of Charod: and the camp of Midyan was on the north side of them, by the hill of Mowreh, in the valley. 7:2 YaHuWaH said to Gid'own, “The people who are with you are too many for Me to give the Midyaniy into their hand, lest Ysra'al vaunt themselves against Me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’ 7:3 Now therefore proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, ‘Whoever is fearful and trembling, let him return and depart from Mount Gil'ad.’” Twenty-two thousand of the people returned, and ten thousand remained.
7:4 YaHuWaH said to Gid'own, “The people are still too many. Bring them down to the water, and I will test them for you there. It shall be, that of whom I tell you, ‘This shall go with you,’ the same shall go with you; and of whoever I tell you, ‘This shall not go with you,’ the same shall not go.” 7:5 So he brought down the people to the water; and YaHuWaH said to Gid'own, “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.” 7:6 The 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. 7:7 YaHuWaH said to Gid'own, “By the three hundred men who lapped will I save you, and deliver the Midyaniy into your hand. Let all the other people go, each to his own place.”
7:8 So the people took food in their hand, and their shofars; and he sent all the men of Ysra'al every man to his tent, but retained the three hundred men: and the camp of Midyan was beneath him in the valley. 7:9 It happened the same night, that YaHuWaH said to him, “Arise, go down into the camp; for I have delivered it into your hand. 7:10 But if you are afraid to go down, go with Purah your servant down to the camp: 7:11 and you shall 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.
7:12 The Midyaniy and the Amaleqiy 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.
7:13 When Gid'own had come, behold, there was a man telling a dream to his fellow; and he said, “Behold, I dreamed a dream; and behold, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midyan, and came to the tent, and struck it so that it fell, and turned it upside down, so that the tent lay flat.”
7:14 His fellow answered, “This is nothing else save the sword of Gid'own the son of Yow'ash, a man of Ysra'al. Aluahiym has delivered Midyan into his hand, with all the army.”
7:15 It was so, when Gid'own heard the telling of the dream, and its interpretation, that he worshiped; and he returned into the camp of Ysra'al, and said, “Arise; for YaHuWaH has delivered the army of Midyan into your hand!”
7:16 He divided the three hundred men into three companies, and he put into the hands of all of them shofars, and empty pitchers, with torches within the pitchers.
7:17 He 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. 7:18 When I blow the shofar, I and all who are with me, then blow the shofars also on every side of all the camp, and shout, ‘For YaHuWaH and for Gid'own!’”
7:19 So Gid'own, 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: and they blew the shofars, and broke in pieces the pitchers that were in their hands. 7:20 The three companies blew the shofars, and broke the pitchers, and held the torches in their left hands, and the shofars in their right hands with which to blow; and they shouted, “The sword of YaHuWaH and of Gid'own!” 7:21 They stood every man in his place around the camp; and all the army ran; and they shouted, and put them to flight. 7:22 They blew the three hundred shofars, and YaHuWaH set every man’s sword against his fellow, and against all the army; and the army fled as far as Bayith haShittah toward Tsererah, as far as the border of Abel Mechowlah, by Tabbath. 7:23 The men of Ysra'al were gathered together out of Naphtaliy, and out of Asher, and out of all Menashsheh, and pursued after Midyan. 7:24 Gid'own sent messengers throughout all the hill country of Ephraiym, saying, “Come down against Midyan, and take before them the waters, as far as Bayith Barah, even the Yarden!” So all the men of Ephrayim were gathered together, and took the waters as far as Bayith Barah, even the Yarden. 7:25 They took the two princes of Midyan, Oreb and Ze'eb; and they killed Oreb at the rock of Oreb, and Ze'eb they killed at the winepress of Ze'eb, and pursued Midyan: and they brought the heads of Oreb and Ze'eb to Gid'own beyond the Yarden.
8:1 The men of Ephrayim 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. 8:2 He said to them, “What have I now done in comparison with you? Isn’t the gleaning of the grapes of Ephrayim better than the vintage of Abiy'ezer? 8:3 Aluahiym has delivered into your hand the princes of Midyan, Oreb and Ze'eb! What was I able to do in comparison with you?” Then their anger was abated toward him, when he had said that.
8:4 Gid'own came to the Yarden, and passed over, he, and the three hundred men who were with him, faint, yet pursuing. 8:5 He said to the men of Sukkowth, “Please give loaves of bread to the people who follow me; for they are faint, and I am pursuing after Zebach and Tsalmunna, the kings of Midyan.”
8:6 The princes of Sukkowth said, “Are the hands of Zebach and Tsalmunna now in your hand, that we should give bread to your army?”
8:7 Gid'own said, “Therefore when YaHuWaH has delivered Zebach and Tsalmunna into my hand, then I will tear your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness and with briers.”
8:8 He went up there to Penuw'el, and spoke to them in like manner; and the men of Penuw'el answered him as the men of Sukkowth had answered. 8:9 He spoke also to the men of Penuw'el, saying, “When I come again in peace, I will break down this tower.”
8:10 Now Zebach and Tslumunna were in Qarkor, 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 twenty thousand men who drew sword. 8:11 Gid'own went up by the way of those who lived in tents on the east of Nobach and Yogbehah, and struck the army; for the army was secure. 8:12 Zebach and Tslumunna fled; and he pursued after them; and he took the two kings of Midyan, Zebach and Tslumunna, and confused all the army. 8:13 Gid'own the son of Yow'ash returned from the battle from the ascent of Heres. 8:14 He caught a young man of the men of Succoth, and inquired of him: and he described for him the princes of Succoth, and its elders, seventy-seven men. 8:15 He came to the men of Succoth, and said, “See Zebach and Tslumunna, concerning whom you taunted me, saying, ‘Are the hands of Zebach and Tslumunna now in your hand, that we should give bread to your men who are weary?’” 8:16 He took the elders of the city, and thorns of the wilderness and briers, and with them he taught the men of Succoth a lesson. 8:17 He broke down the tower of Penuel, and killed the men of the city.
8:18 Then said he to Zebach and Tslumunna, “What kind of men were they whom you killed at Tabowr?”
They answered, “They were like you. Each one resembled the children of a king.”
8:19 He said, “They were my brothers, the sons of my mother. As YaHuWaH lives, if you had saved them alive, I would not kill you.”
8:20 He said to Yether 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.
8:21 Then Zebach and Tslumunna said, “Rise and fall on us; for as the man is, so is his strength.” Gid'own arose, and killed Zebach and Tslumunna, and took the crescents that were on their camels’ necks.
8:22 Then the men of Ysra'al said to Gid'own, “Rule over us, both you, and your son, and your son’s son also; for you have saved us out of the hand of Midyan.”
8:23 Gid'own said to them, “I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you.YaHuWaH shall rule over you.” 8:24 Gid'own said to them, “I would make a request of you, that you would give me every man the earrings of his spoil.” (For they had golden earrings, because they were Yishma'e'liy.)
8:25 They answered, “We will willingly give them.” They spread a garment, and every man threw the earrings of his spoil into it. 8:26 The weight of the golden earrings that he requested was one thousand and seven hundred shekels of gold, besides the crescents, and the pendants, and the purple clothing that was on the kings of Midyan, and besides the chains that were about their camels’ necks. 8:27 Gid'own made a shoulder garment of it, and put it in his city, even in Ophrah: and all Ysra'al played the prostitute after it there; and it became a snare to Gid'own, and to his house. 8:28 So Midyan was subdued before the children of Ysra'al, and they lifted up their heads no more. The land had rest forty years in the days of Gid'own. 8:29 Yerubba'al the son of Yow'ash went and lived in his own house. 8:30 Gid'own had seventy sons conceived from his body; for he had many wives. 8:31 His concubine who was in Shekem, she also bore him a son, and he named him Abiymelek. 8:32 Gid'own the son of Yow'ash died in a good old age, and was buried in the tomb of Yow'ash his father, in Ophrah of the Abiy ha-Ezriy. 8:33 It happened, as soon as Gid'own was dead, that the children of Ysra'al turned again, and played the prostitute after the ba'liym, and made Ba'al Berith their mighty one. 8:34 The children of Ysra'al didn’t remember YaHuWaH their Aluahiym, Who had delivered them out of the hand of all their enemies on every side; 8:35 neither did they show kindness to the house of Yerubba'al, who is Gid'own, according to all the goodness which he had shown to Ysra'al.
9:1 Abiymelek the son of Yerubba'al went to Shekem to his mother’s brothers, and spoke with them, and with all the family of the house of his mother’s father, saying, 9:2 “Please speak in the ears of all the men of Shekem, ‘Is it better for you that all the sons of Yerubba'al, who are seventy persons, rule over you, or that one rule over you?’ Remember also that I am your bone and your flesh.”
9:3 His mother’s brothers spoke of him in the ears of all the men of Shekem all these words: and their hearts inclined to follow Abiymelek; for they said, “He is our brother.” 9:4 They gave him seventy pieces of silver out of the house of Ba'al Berith, with which Abiymelek hired vain and light fellows, who followed him. 9:5 He went to his father’s house at Ophrah, and killed his brothers the sons of Yerubba'al, being seventy persons, on one stone: but Yowtham the youngest son of Yerubba'al was left; for he hid himself. 9:6 All the men of Shekem assembled themselves together, and all the house of Millo, and went and made Abiymelek king, by the oak of the pillar that was in Shekem. 9:7 When they told it to Yowtham, he went and stood on the top of Mount Gerizim, and lifted up his voice, and cried, and said to them, “Listen to me, you men of Shekem, that Aluahiym may listen to you. 9:8 The trees went forth on a time to anoint a king over them; and they said to the olive tree, ‘Reign over us.’
9:9 “But the olive tree said to them, ‘Should I leave my fatness, with which by me they honor Aluahiym and man, and go to wave back and forth over the trees?’
9:10 “The trees said to the fig tree, ‘Come and reign over us.’
9:11 “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?’
9:12 “The trees said to the vine, ‘Come and reign over us.’
9:13 “The vine said to them, ‘Should I leave my new wine, which cheers Aluahiym and man, and go to wave back and forth over the trees?’
9:14 “Then said all the trees to the bramble, ‘Come and reign over us.’
9:15 “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 Lebanown.’
9:16 “Now therefore, if you have dealt truly and righteously, in that you have made Abiymelek king, and if you have dealt well with Yerubba'al and his house, and have done to him according to the deserving of his hands 9:17 (for my father fought for you, and risked his life, and delivered you out of the hand of Midyan: 9:18 and you have risen up against my father’s house this day, and have slain his sons, seventy persons, on one stone, and have made Abiymelek, the son of his female servant, king over the men of Shekem, because he is your brother); 9:19 if you then have dealt truly and righteously with Yerubba'al and with his house this day, then rejoice in Abiymelek, and let him also rejoice in you: 9:20 but if not, let fire come out from Abiymelek, and devour the men of Shekem, and the house of Millo; and let fire come out from the men of Shekem, and from the house of Millo, and devour Abiymelek.”
9:21 Yowtham ran away, and fled, and went to Be'er, and lived there, for fear of Abiymelek his brother.
9:22 Abiymelek was prince over Ysra'al three years. 9:23 Aluahiym sent an evil spirit between Abiymelek and the men of Shekem; and the men of Shekem dealt treacherously with Abiymelek: 9:24 that the violence done to the seventy sons of Yerubba'al might come, and that their blood might be laid on Abiymelek their brother, who killed them, and on the men of Shekem, who strengthened his hands to kill his brothers. 9:25 The men of Shekem set an ambush for him on the tops of the mountains, and they robbed all who came along that way by them: and it was told Abiymelek. 9:26 Ga'al the son of Ebed came with his brothers, and went over to Shekem; and the men of Shekem put their trust in him. 9:27 They went out into the field, and gathered their vineyards, and trod the grapes, and held festival, and went into the house of their mighty one, and did eat and drink, and cursed Abiymelek. 9:28 Ga'al the son of Ebed said, “Who is Abiymelek, and who is Shekem, that we should serve him? Isn’t he the son of Yerubba'al? and Zebul his officer? Serve the men of Chamor the father of Shekem: but why should we serve him? 9:29 Would that this people were under my hand! Then I would remove Abiymelek.” He said to Abiymelek, “Increase your army, and come out!”
9:30 When Zebul the ruler of the city heard the words of Ga'al the son of Ebed, his anger was kindled. 9:31 He sent messengers to Abiymelek craftily, saying, “Behold, Ga'al the son of Ebed and his brothers are come to Shekem; and behold, they constrain the city to take part against you. 9:32 Now therefore, go up by night, you and the people who are with you, and lie in wait in the field: 9:33 and it shall be, that in the morning, as soon as the sun is up, you shall rise early, and rush on the city; and 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.”
9:34 Abiymelek rose up, and all the people who were with him, by night, and they laid wait against Shekem in four companies. 9:35 Ga'al the son of Ebed went out, and stood in the entrance of the gate of the city: and Abiymelek rose up, and the people who were with him, from the ambush.
9:36 When Ga'al saw the people, he said to Zebul, “Behold, people are coming down from the tops of the mountains.”
Zebul said to him, “You see the shadow of the mountains as if they were men.”
9:37 Ga'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.”
9:38 Then Zebul said to him, “Now where is your mouth, that you said, ‘Who is Abiymelek, that we should serve him?’ Isn’t this the people that you have despised? Go out now, please, and fight with them.”
9:39 Ga'al went out before the men of Shekem, and fought with Abiymelek. 9:40 Abiymelek chased him, and he fled before him, and many fell wounded, even to the entrance of the gate. 9:41 Abiymelek lived at Aruwmah: and Zebul drove out Ga'al and his brothers, that they should not dwell in Shekem. 9:42 It happened on the next day, that the people went out into the field; and they told Abiymelek. 9:43 He took the people, and divided them into three companies, and laid wait in the field; and he looked, and behold, the people came forth out of the city; He rose up against them, and struck them. 9:44 Abiymelek, 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. 9:45 Abiymelek fought against the city all that day; and he took the city, and killed the people who were therein: and he beat down the city, and sowed it with salt.
9:46 When all the men of the tower of Shekem heard of it, they entered into the stronghold of the house of el'Beriyth. 9:47 It was told Abiymelek that all the men of the tower of Shekem were gathered together. 9:48 Abiymelek got him up to Mount Tsalmown, he and all the people who were with him; and Abiymelek took an axe in his hand, and cut down a bough from the trees, and took it up, and laid it on his shoulder: and he said to the people who were with him, “What you have seen me do, make haste, and do as I have done!” 9:49 All the people likewise each cut down his bough, and followed Abiymelek, and put them at the base of the stronghold, and set the stronghold on fire on them; so that all the people of the tower of Shekem died also, about a thousand men and women. 9:50 Then went Abiymelek to Tebets, and encamped against Tebets, and took it. 9:51 But there was a strong tower within the city, and there fled all the men and women, and all they of the city, and shut themselves in, and got them up to the roof of the tower. 9:52 Abiymelek came to the tower, and fought against it, and drew near to the door of the tower to burn it with fire. 9:53 A certain woman cast an upper millstone on Abimelech’s head, and broke his skull.
9:54 Then he called hastily to the young man his armor 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.”
9:55 When the men of Ysra'al saw that Abiymelek was dead, they departed every man to his place. 9:56 Thus Aluahiym requited the wickedness of Abiymelek, which he did to his father, in killing his seventy brothers; 9:57 and all the wickedness of the men of Shekem did Aluahiym requite on their heads: and on them came the curse of Yowtham the son of Yerubba'al.
10:1 After Abiymelek there arose to save Ysra'al Towla the son of Puwah, the son of Dowdow, a man of Yissaskar; and he lived in Shamiyr in the hill country of Ephrayim. 10:2 He judged Ysra'al twenty-three years, and died, and was buried in Shamir. 10:3 After him arose Ya'iyr, the Gil'adiy; and he judged Ysra'al twenty-two years. 10:4 He had thirty sons who rode on thirty donkey colts, and they had thirty cities, which are called Chawoth Ya'iyr to this day, which are in the land of Gil'ad. 10:5 Yair died, and was buried in Qamown. 10:6 The children of Ysra'al again did that which was evil in the sight of YaHuWaH, and served the ba'liym, and the Ashtarowth, and the mighty ones of Aram, and the mighty ones of Tsiydown, and the mighty ones of Mow'ab, and the mighty ones of the children of Ammown, and the mighty ones of the Pelishtiym; and they forsook YaHuWaH, and didn’t serve him. 10:7 The anger of YaHuWaH was kindled against Ysra'al, and he sold them into the hand of the Pelishtiym, and into the hand of the children of Ammown. 10:8 They troubled and oppressed the children of Ysra'al that year: eighteen years oppressed they all the children of Ysra'al that were beyond the Yarden in the land of the Emoriy, which is in Gil'ad. 10:9 The children of Ammown passed over the Yarden to fight also against Yahuwdah, and against Binyamin, and against the house of Ephraiym; so that Ysra'al was sore distressed. 10:10 The children of Ysra'al cried to YaHuWaH, saying, “We have sinned against You, even because we have forsaken our Aluahiym, and have served the ba'liym.”
10:11 YaHuWaH said to the children of Ysra'al, “Didn’t I save you from the Mitsriy, and from the Emoriy, from the children of Ammown, and from the Pelishtiym? 10:12 The Tsiydowniy also, and the Amaleqiy, and the Maoniy, did oppress you; and you cried to Me, and I saved you out of their hand. 10:13 Yet you have forsaken Me, and served other mighty ones: therefore I will save you no more. 10:14 Go and cry to the mighty ones which you have chosen. Let them save you in the time of your distress!”
10:15 The children of Ysra'al said to YaHuWaH, “We have sinned: do You to us whatever seems good to You; only deliver us, we pray You, this day.”
10:16 They put away the foreign mighty ones from among them, and served YaHuWaH; and His soul was grieved for the misery of Ysra'al.
10:17 Then the children of Ammown were gathered together, and encamped in Gil'ad. The children of Ysra'al assembled themselves together, and encamped in Mitspah. 10:18 The people, the princes of Gil'ad, said one to another, “What man is he who will begin to fight against the children of Ammown? He shall be head over all the inhabitants of Gil'ad.”
11:1 Now Yiphtach the Gil'adiy was a mighty man of valor, and he was the son of a prostitute: and Gil'ad became the father of Yiphtach. 11:2 Gil'ad’s wife bore him sons; and when his wife’s sons grew up, they drove out Yiphtach, and said to him, “You shall not inherit in our father’s house; for you are the son of another woman.” 11:3 Then Yiphtach fled from his brothers, and lived in the land of Towb: and there were gathered vain fellows to Yiphtach, and they went out with him. 11:4 It happened after a while, that the children of Ammown made war against Ysra'al. 11:5 It was so, that when the children of Ammown made war against Ysra'al, the elders of Gil'ad went to get Yiphtach out of the land of Towb; 11:6 and they said to Yiphtach, “Come and be our chief, that we may fight with the children of Ammown.”
11:7 Yiphtach said to the elders of Gil'ad, “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?”
11:8 The elders of Gil'ad said to Yiphtach, “Therefore we have turned again to you now, that you may go with us, and fight with the children of Ammown; and you shall be our head over all the inhabitants of Gil'ad.”
11:9 Yiphtach said to the elders of Gil'ad, “If you bring me home again to fight with the children of Ammown, and YaHuWaH deliver them before me, shall I be your head?”
11:10 The elders of Gil'ad said to Yiphtach, “ YaHuWaH shall be witness between us; surely according to your word so will we do.”
11:11 Then Yiphtach went with the elders of Gil'ad, and the people made him head and chief over them: and Yiphtach spoke all his words before YaHuWaH in Mitspah.
11:12 Yiphtach sent messengers to the king of the children of Ammown, saying, “What have you to do with me, that you have come to me to fight against my land?”
11:13 The king of the children of Ammown answered to the messengers of Yiphtach, “Because Ysra'al took away my land, when he came up out of Mitsrayim, from the Arnown even to the Yabboq, and to the Yarden: now therefore restore those lands again peaceably.”
11:14 Yiphtach sent messengers again to the king of the children of Ammown; 11:15 and he said to him, “Thus says Yiphtach: Ysra'al didn’t take away the land of Mow'ab, nor the land of the children of Ammown, 11:16 but when they came up from Mitsrayim, and Ysra'al went through the wilderness to the Sea of Suf, and came to Qadesh; 11:17 then Ysra'al 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 Mow'ab; but he would not: and Ysra'al abode in Qadesh. 11:18 Then they went through the wilderness, and went around the land of Edom, and the land of Mow'ab, and came by the east side of the land of Mow'ab, and they encamped on the other side of the Arnown; but they didn’t come within the border of Mow'ab, for the Arnown was the border of Mow'ab. 11:19 Ysra'al sent messengers to Siychown king of the Emoriy, the king of Cheshbown; and Ysra'al said to him, ‘Let us pass, please, through your land to my place.’ 11:20 But Siychown didn’t trust Ysra'al to pass through his border; but Siychown gathered all his people together, and encamped in Yahats, and fought against Ysra'al. 11:21YaHuWaH, the Aluahiym of Ysra'al, delivered Siychown and all his people into the hand of Ysra'al, and they struck them: so Ysra'al possessed all the land of the Emoriy, the inhabitants of that country. 11:22 They possessed all the border of the Emoriy, from the Arnown even to the Yabboq, and from the wilderness even to the Yarden. 11:23 So nowYaHuWaH, the Aluahiym of Ysra'al, has dispossessed the Emoriy from before his people Ysra'al, and should you possess them? 11:24 Won’t you possess that which Kemowsh your mighty one gives you to possess? So whoever YaHuWaH our Aluahiym has dispossessed from before us, them will we possess. 11:25 Now are you anything better than Balaq the son of Tsippowr, king of Mow'ab? Did he ever strive against Ysra'al, or did he ever fight against them? 11:26 While Ysra'al lived in Cheshbown and its towns, and in Arow'er and its towns, and in all the cities that are along by the side of the Arnown, three hundred years; why didn’t you recover them within that time? 11:27 I therefore have not sinned against you, but you do me wrong to war against me.YaHuWaH, the Judge, be judge this day between the children of Ysra'al and the children of Ammown.”
11:28 However the king of the children of Ammown didn’t listen to the words of Yiphtach which he sent him. 11:29 Then the Ruwach of YaHuWaH came on Yiphtach, and he passed over Gil'ad and Menashsheh, and passed over Mizpeh of Gil'ad, and from Mizpeh of Gil'ad he passed over to the children of Ammown.
11:30 Yiphtach vowed a vow to YaHuWaH, and said, “If you will indeed deliver the children of Ammown into my hand, 11:31 then it shall be, that whatever comes forth from the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammown, it shall be YaHuWaH’s, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering.”
11:32 So Yiphtach passed over to the children of Ammown to fight against them; and YaHuWaH delivered them into his hand. 11:33 He struck them from Arow'er until you come to Minniyth, even twenty cities, and to Abelcheramim, with a very great slaughter. So the children of Ammown were subdued before the children of Ysra'al.
11:34 Yiphtach came to Mitspah to his house; and behold, his daughter came out to meet him with tambourines and with dances: and she was his only child; besides her he had neither son nor daughter. 11:35 It happened, when he saw her, that 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 YaHuWaH, and I can’t go back.”
11:36 She said to him, “My father, you have opened your mouth toYaHuWaH; do to me according to that which has proceeded out of your mouth, because YaHuWaH has taken vengeance for you on your enemies, even on the children of Ammown.” 11:37 She said to her father, “Let this thing be done for me: let me alone two months, that I may depart and go down on the mountains, and bewail my virginity, I and my companions.”
11:38 He said, “Go.” He sent her away for two months: and she departed, she and her companions, and mourned her virginity on the mountains. 11:39 It happened at the end of two months, that she returned to her father, who did with her according to his vow which he had vowed: and she was a virgin. It was a custom in Ysra'al, 11:40 that the daughters of Ysra'al went yearly to celebrate the daughter of Yiphtach the Gil'adiy four days in a year.
12:1 The men of Ephrayim were gathered together, and passed northward; and they said to Yiphtach, “Why did you pass over to fight against the children of Ammown, and didn’t call us to go with you? We will burn your house around you with fire!”
12:2 Yiphtach said to them, “I and my people were at great strife with the children of Ammown; and when I called you, you didn’t save me out of their hand. 12:3 When I saw that you didn’t save me, I put my life in my hand, and passed over against the children of Ammown, and YaHuWaH delivered them into my hand. Why then have you come up to me this day, to fight against me?”
12:4 Then Yiphtach gathered together all the men of Gil'ad, and fought with Ephrayim; and the men of Gil'ad struck Ephrayim, because they said, “You are fugitives of Ephrayim, you Gil'adiys, in the midst of Ephrayim, and in the midst of Menashsheh.” 12:5 The Gil'adiys took the fords of the Yarden against the Ephrayimites. It was so, that when any of the fugitives of Ephrayim said, Let me go over, the men of Gil'ad said to him, “Are you an Ephrayim?” If he said, “No;” 12:6 then they said to him, “Now say ‘Shibboleth;’” and he said “Sibboleth;” for he couldn’t manage to pronounce it right: then they laid hold of him, and killed him at the fords of the Yarden. At that time, forty-two thousand of Ephrayim fell. 12:7 Yiphtach judged Ysra'al six years. Then died Yiphtach the Gil'adiy, and was buried in one of the cities of Gil'ad. 12:8 After him Ibstan of Bayith Lechem judged Ysra'al. 12:9 He had thirty sons; and thirty daughters he sent abroad, and thirty daughters he brought in from abroad for his sons. He judged Ysra'al seven years. 12:10 Ibstan died, and was buried at Bayith Lechem. 12:11 After him Elown the Zebuwloniy judged Ysra'al; and he judged Ysra'al ten years. 12:12 Elown the Zebuwloniy died, and was buried in Ayalown in the land of Zebuwluwm. 12:13 After him Abdown the son of Hillel the Pir'athoniy judged Ysra'al. 12:14 He had forty sons and thirty sons’ sons, who rode on seventy donkey colts: and he judged Ysra'al eight years. 12:15 Abdown the son of Hillel the Pir'athoniy died, and was buried in Pir'athown in the land of Ephrayim, in the hill country of the Amaleqiy.
13:1 The children of Ysra'al again did that which was evil in the sight of YaHuWaH; and YaHuWaH delivered them into the hand of the Pelishtiym forty years. 13:2 There was a certain man of Tsor'ah, of the family of the Daniy, whose name was Manowach; and his wife was barren, and didn’t bear. 13:3 The Malak YaHuWaH appeared to the woman, and said to her, “See now, you are barren, and don’t bear; but you shall conceive, and bear a son. 13:4 Now therefore please beware and drink no wine nor strong drink, and don’t eat any unclean thing: 13:5 for, behold, you shall conceive, and bear a son; and no razor shall come on his head; for the child shall be a Naziyr to Aluahiym from the womb: and he shall begin to save Ysra'al out of the hand of the Pelishtiym.”
13:6 Then the woman came and told her husband, saying, “A man of Aluahiym came to me, and his face was like the face of the Malak Aluahiym, very awesome; and I didn’t ask him whence he was, neither did he tell me his name: 13:7 but he said to me, ‘Behold, you shall conceive, and bear a son; and now drink no wine nor strong drink, and eat not any unclean thing; for the child shall be a Naziyr to Aluahiym from the womb to the day of his death.’”
13:8 Then Manowach entreated YaHuWaH, and said, “Oh, Master, please let the man of Aluahiym whom you did send come again to us, and teach us what we shall do to the child who shall be born.”
13:9 Aluahiym listened to the voice of Manowach; and the Malak Aluahiym came again to the woman as she sat in the field: but Manowach, her husband, wasn’t with her. 13:10 The woman made haste, and ran, and told her husband, and said to him, “Behold, the man has appeared to me, who came to me the other day.”
13:11 Manowach arose, and went after his wife, and came to the man, and said to him, “Are you the man who spoke to the woman?”
He said, “I am.”
13:12 Manowach said, “Now let your words happen. What shall be the ordering of the child, and how shall we do to him?”
13:13 The Malak YaHuWaH said to Manowach, “Of all that I said to the woman let her beware. 13:14 She may not eat of anything that comes of the vine, neither let her drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing; all that I commanded her let her observe.”
13:15 Manowach said to the Malak YaHuWaH, “I pray you, let us detain You, that we may make a young goat ready for You.”
13:16 The Malak YaHuWaH said to Manowach, “Though you detain me, I won’t eat of your bread; and if you will make ready a burnt offering, you must offer it to YaHuWaH.” For Manowach didn’t know that He was the Malak YaHuWaH.
13:17 Manowach said to the Malak YaHuWaH, “What is Your name, that when Your words happen, we may honor You?”
13:18 The Malak YaHuWaH said to him, “Why do you ask about My Name, seeing it is Wonderful?”
13:19 So Manowach took the young goat with the meal offering, and offered it on the rock to YaHuWaH: and the Messenger did wondrously, and Manowach and his wife looked on. 13:20 For it happened, when the flame went up toward the sky from off the altar, that the Malak YaHuWaH ascended in the flame of the altar: and Manowach and his wife looked on; and they fell on their faces to the ground. 13:21 But the Malak YaHuWaH did no more appear to Manowach or to his wife. Then Manowach knew that He was the Malak YaHuWaH. Manowach said to his wife, “We shall surely die, because we have seen Aluahiym.”
13:23 But his wife said to him, “If YaHuWaH were pleased to kill us, He wouldn’t have received a burnt offering and a meal offering at our hand, neither would He have shown us all these things, nor would at this time have told such things as these.” 13:24 The woman bore a son, and named him Shimshon: and the child grew, and YaHuWaH blessed him. 13:25 The Ruwach of YaHuWaH began to move him in Mahaneh Dan, between Tsor'ah and Eshta'ol.
14:1 Shimshon went down to Timnah, and saw a woman in Timnah of the daughters of the Pelishtiym. 14:2 He came up, and told his father and his mother, and said, “I have seen a woman in Timnah of the daughters of the Pelishtiym: now therefore get her for me as wife.”
14:3 Then his father and his mother said to him, “Is there never a woman among the daughters of your brothers, or among all my people, that you go to take a wife of the uncircumcised Pelishtiym?”
Shimshon said to his father, “Get her for me; for she pleases me well.”
14:4 But his father and his mother didn’t know that it was of YaHuWaH; for He sought an occasion against the Pelishtiym. Now at that time the Pelishtiym had rule over Ysra'al. 14:5 Then went Shimshon down, and his father and his mother, to Timnah, and came to the vineyards of Timnah: and behold, a young lion roared against him. 14:6 The Ruwach of YaHuWaH came mightily on him, and he tore him as he would have torn a young goat; and he had nothing in his hand: but he didn’t tell his father or his mother what he had done. 14:7 He went down, and talked with the woman, and she pleased Shimshon well. 14:8 After a while he returned to take her; and he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion: and behold, there was a swarm of bees in the body of the lion, and honey. 14:9 He took it into his hands, and went on, eating as he went; and 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 body of the lion. 14:10 His father went down to the woman: and Shimshon made there a feast; for so used the young men to do. 14:11 It happened, when they saw him, that they brought thirty companions to be with him.
14:12 Shimshon said to them, “Let me tell you a riddle now. If you can declare it to me within the seven days of the feast, and find it out, then I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothing; 14:13 but if you can’t declare it to me, then you shall give me thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothing.”
They said to him, “Put forth your riddle, that we may hear it.” 14:14 He said to them,
“Out of the eater came forth food.
Out of the strong came forth sweetness.”
They couldn’t in three days declare the riddle. 14:15 It happened on the seventh day, that 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? Is it not so?”
14:16 Shimshon’s wife wept before him, and said, “You just hate me, and don’t love me. You have put forth a riddle to the children of my people, and haven’t told it me.”
He said to her, “Behold, I haven’t told it my father nor my mother, and shall I tell you?”
14:17 She wept before him the seven days, while their feast lasted: and it happened on the seventh day, that he told her, because she pressed him sore; and she told the riddle to the children of her people. 14:18 The 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 plowed with my heifer,
you wouldn’t have found out my riddle.”
14:19 The Ruwach of YaHuWaH came mightily on him, and he went down to Ashqelown, and struck thirty men of them, and took their spoil, and gave the changes of clothing to those who declared the riddle. His anger was kindled, and he went up to his father’s house. 14:20 But Shimshon’s wife was given to his companion, whom he had used as his friend.
15:1 But it happened after a while, in the time of wheat harvest, that Shimshon visited his wife with a young goat; and he said, “I will go in to my wife into the chamber.”
But her father wouldn’t allow him to go in. 15:2 Her father said, “I most certainly thought that you had utterly hated her; therefore I gave her to your companion. Isn’t her younger sister more beautiful than she? Please take her, instead.”
15:3 Shimshon said to them, “This time I will be blameless in regard of the Pelishtiym, when I harm them.” 15:4 Shimshon went and caught three hundred foxes, and took torches, and turned tail to tail, and put a torch in the midst between every two tails. 15:5 When he had set the brands on fire, he let them go into the standing grain of the Pelishtiym, and burnt up both the shocks and the standing grain, and also the olive groves.
15:6 Then the Pelishtiym said, “Who has done this?”
They said, “Shimshon, the son-in-law of the Timniy, because he has taken his wife, and given her to his companion.” The Pelishtiym came up, and burnt her and her father with fire.
15:7 Shimshon said to them, “If you behave like this, surely I will be avenged of you, and after that I will cease.” 15:8 He struck them hip and thigh with a great slaughter: and he went down and lived in the cleft of the rock of Eytam. 15:9 Then the Pelishtiym went up, and encamped in Yahuwdah, and spread themselves in Lechiy.
15:10 The men of Yahuwdah 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.”
15:11 Then three thousand men of Yahuwdah went down to the cleft of the rock of Eytam, and said to Shimshon, “Don’t you know that the Pelishtiym are rulers over us? What then is this that you have done to us?”
He said to them, “As they did to me, so have I done to them.”
15:12 They said to him, “We have come down to bind you, that we may deliver you into the hand of the Pelishtiym.”
Shimshon said to them, “Swear to me that you will not fall on me yourselves.”
15:13 They spoke to him, saying, “No; but we will bind you fast, and deliver you into their hand; but surely we will not kill you.” They bound him with two new ropes, and brought him up from the rock.
15:14 When he came to Lechiy, the Pelishtiym shouted as they met him: and the Ruwach of YaHuWaH 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. 15:15 He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, and put forth his hand, and took it, and struck a thousand men therewith. 15:16 Shimshon said, “With the jawbone of a donkey, heaps on heaps; with the jawbone of a donkey I have struck a thousand men.” 15:17 It happened, when he had made an end of speaking, that he cast away the jawbone out of his hand; and that place was called Ramath Lechiy. 15:18 He was very thirsty, and called on YaHuWaH, and said, “You have given this great deliverance by the hand of your servant; and now shall I die for thirst, and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised?”
15:19 But Aluahiym split the hollow place that is in Lechiy, and water came out of it. When he had drunk, his spirit came again, and he revived: therefore its name was called Eyn ha-Qowre, which is in Lechiy, to this day. 15:20 He judged Ysra'al in the days of the Pelishtiym twenty years.
16:1 Shimshon went to Azza, and saw there a prostitute, and went in to her. 16:2 It was told the Azzatiym, saying, “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, Let be until morning light, then we will kill him. 16:3 Shimshon lay until midnight, and arose at midnight, and laid hold of the doors of the gate of the city, and 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 Chebrown.
16:4 It came to pass afterward, that he loved a woman in the valley of Sowreq, whose name was Deliylah. 16:5 The lords of the Pelishtiym 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.”
16:6 Deliylah said to Shimshon, “Tell me, please, where your great strength lies, and what you might be bound to afflict you.”
16:7 Shimshon 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.”
16:8 Then the lords of the Pelishtiym brought up to her seven green cords which had not been dried, and she bound him with them. 16:9 Now she had an ambush waiting in the inner chamber. She said to him, “The Pelishtiym are on you, Shimshon!” He broke the cords, as a string of tow is broken when it touches the fire. So his strength was not known.
16:10 Deliylah said to Shimshon, “Behold, you have mocked me, and told me lies: now tell me, please, with which you might be bound.”
16:11 He said to her, “If they only bind me with new ropes with which no work has been done, then shall I become weak, and be as another man.”
16:12 So Deliylah took new ropes, and bound him therewith, and said to him, “The Pelishtiym are on you, Shimshon!” The ambush was waiting in the inner chamber. He broke them off his arms like a thread.
16:13 Deliylah 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 web.”
16:14 She fastened it with the pin, and said to him, “The Pelishtiym are on you, Shimshon!” He awakened out of his sleep, and plucked away the pin of the beam, and the web.
16:15 She 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.”
16:16 It happened, when she pressed him daily with her words, and urged him, that his soul was troubled to death. 16:17 He told her all his heart, and said to her, “No razor has ever come on my head; for I have been a Naziyr to Aluahiym 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.”
16:18 When Deliylah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called for the lords of the Pelishtiym, saying, “Come up this once, for he has told me all his heart.” Then the lords of the Pelishtiym came up to her, and brought the money in their hand. 16:19 She 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. 16:20 She said, “The Pelishtiym 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 YaHuWaH had departed from him. 16:21 The Pelishtiym laid hold on him, and put out his eyes; and they brought him down to Azza, and bound him with fetters of brass; and he ground at the mill in the prison. 16:22 However the hair of his head began to grow again after he was shaved.
16:23 The lords of the Pelishtiym gathered them together to offer a great slaughter to Dagon their mighty one, and to rejoice; for they said, “Our mighty one has delivered Shimshon our enemy into our hand.” 16:24 When the people saw him, they praised their mighty one; for they said, “Our mighty one has delivered our enemy and the destroyer of our country, who has slain many of us, into our hand.”
16:25 It happened, when their hearts were merry, that 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; 16:26 and Shimshon said to the boy who held him by the hand, “Allow me to feel the pillars whereupon the house rests, that I may lean on them.”
16:27 Now the house was full of men and women; and all the lords of the Pelishtiym were there; and there were on the roof about three thousand men and women, who saw while Shimshon performed. 16:28 Shimshon called to YaHuWaH, and said, “Master YaHuWaH, remember me, please, and strengthen me, please, only this once, Aluahiym, that I may be at once avenged of the Pelishtiym for my two eyes.” 16:29 Shimshon 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. 16:30 Shimshon said, “Let me die with the Pelishtiym!” He bowed himself with all his might; and the house fell on the lords, and on all the people who were therein. So the dead that he killed at his death were more than those who he killed in his life. 16:31 Then his brothers and all the house of his father came down, and took him, and brought him up, and buried him between Tsor'ah and Eshta'ol in the burial site of Manowach his father. He judged Ysra'al twenty years.
17:1 There was a man of the hill country of Ephrayim, whose name was Miykah. 17:2 He 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, “Blessed be my son of YaHuWaH.”
17:3 He restored the eleven hundred pieces of silver to his mother; and his mother said, “I most certainly dedicate the silver to YaHuWaH from my hand for my son, to make an engraved image and a molten image. Now therefore I will restore it to you.”
17:4 When he restored the money to his mother, his mother took two hundred pieces of silver, and gave them to the founder, who made of it an engraved image and a molten image: and it was in the house of Miykah.
17:5 The man Miykah had a house of mighty ones, and he made an ephowd, and teraphim, and consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest. 17:6 In those days there was no king in Ysra'al: every man did that which was right in his own eyes. 17:7 There was a young man out of Bayith Lechem Yahuwdah, of the family of Yahuwdah, who was a Lewiy; and he sojourned there. 17:8 The man departed out of the city, out of Bayith Lechem Yahuwdah, to sojourn where he could find a place, and he came to the hill country of Ephrayim to the house of Miykah, as he traveled. 17:9 Miykah said to him, “Where did you come from?”
He said to him, “I am a Lewiy of Bayith Lechem Yahuwdah, and I am looking for a place to live.” 17:10 Miykah 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 Lewiy went in. 17:11 The Lewiy was content to dwell with the man; and the young man was to him as one of his sons. 17:12 Miykah consecrated the Lewiy, and the young man became his priest, and was in the house of Miykah. 17:13 Then said Miykah, “ I now know that YaHuWaH will do good to me, seeing I have a Lewiy to my priest.”
18:1 In those days there was no king in Ysra'al: and in those days the tribe of the Daniy sought them an inheritance to dwell in; for to that day their inheritance had not fallen to them among the tribes of Ysra'al. 18:2 The children of Dan sent of their family five men from their whole number, men of valor, from Tsor'ah, and from Eshta'ol, to spy out the land, and to search it; and they said to them, “Go, explore the land!”
They came to the hill country of Ephrayim, to the house of Miykah, and lodged there. 18:3 When they were by the house of Miykah, they knew the voice of the young man the Lewiy; and they turned aside there, and said to him, “Who brought you here? What do you do in this place? What do you have here?”
18:4 He said to them, “Thus and thus has Miykah dealt with me, and he has hired me, and I am become his priest.”
18:5 They said to him, “Ask counsel, please, of Aluahiym, that we may know whether our way which we go shall be prosperous.”
18:6 The priest said to them, “Go in peace. Your way in which you go is before YaHuWaH.”
18:7 Then the five men departed, and came to Layish, and saw the people who were therein, how they lived in security, after the manner of the Tsiydowniy, quiet and secure; for there was none in the land, possessing authority, that might put them to shame in anything, and they were far from the Tsiydowniy, and had no dealings with any man. 18:8 They came to their brothers to Tsor'ah and Eshta'ol: and their brothers said to them, “What do you say?”
18:9 They said, “Arise, and let us 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. 18:10 When you go, you shall come to a secure people, and the land is large; for Aluahiym has given it into your hand, a place where there is no want of anything that is in the earth.”
18:11 There set forth from there of the family of the Daniy, out of Tsor'ah and out of Eshta'ol, six hundred men girt with weapons of war. 18:12 They went up, and encamped in Qiryath Ye'ariym, in Yahuwdah: therefore they called that place Mahaneh Dan, to this day; behold, it is behind Qiryath Ye'ariym. 18:13 They passed there to the hill country of Ephrayim, and came to the house of Miykah.
18:14 Then the five men who went to spy out the country of Layish answered, and said to their brothers, “Do you know that there is in these houses an ephowd, and teraphim, and an engraved image, and a molten image? Now therefore consider what you have to do.” 18:15 They turned aside there, and came to the house of the young man the Lewiy, even to the house of Miykah, and asked him of his welfare. 18:16 The six hundred men girt with their weapons of war, who were of the children of Dan, stood by the entrance of the gate. 18:17 The five men who went to spy out the land went up, and came in there, and took the engraved image, and the ephod, and the teraphim, and the molten image: and the priest stood by the entrance of the gate with the six hundred men girt with weapons of war.
18:18 When these went into Miykah’s house, and fetched the engraved image, the ephod, and the teraphim, and the molten image, the priest said to them, “What are you doing?”
18:19 They said to him, “Hold your peace, put your hand on your mouth, and go with us, and be to us a father and a priest. 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 Ysra'al?”
18:20 The priest’s heart was glad, and he took the ephod, and the teraphim, and the engraved image, and went in the midst of the people. 18:21 So they turned and departed, and put the little ones and the livestock and the goods before them. 18:22 When they were a good way from the house of Miykah, the men who were in the houses near to Miykah’s house were gathered together, and overtook the children of Dan. 18:23 They cried to the children of Dan. They turned their faces, and said to Miykah, “What ails you, that you come with such a company?”
18:24 He said, “You have taken away my mighty ones which I made, and the priest, and have gone away, and what more do I have? How then do you say to me, ‘What ails you?’”
18:25 The children of Dan said to him, “Don’t let your voice be heard among us, lest angry fellows fall on you, and you lose your life, with the lives of your household.”
18:26 The children of Dan went their way: and when Miykah saw that they were too strong for him, he turned and went back to his house. 18:27 They took that which Miykah had made, and the priest whom he had, and came to Layish, to a people quiet and secure, and struck them with the edge of the sword; and they burnt the city with fire. 18:28 There was no deliverer, because it was far from Tsiydown, and they had no dealings with any man; and it was in the valley that lies by Bayith Rechob. They built the city, and lived therein. 18:29 They called the name of the city Dan, after the name of Dan their father, who was born to Ysra'al: however the name of the city was Layish at the first. 18:30 The children of Dan set up for themselves the engraved image: and Yahuwnathan, the son of Gershown, the son of Menashsheh, he and his sons were priests to the tribe of the Daniy until the day of the captivity of the land. 18:31 So they set them up Miykah’s engraved image which he made, all the time that the house of Aluahiym was in Shiyloh.
19:1 It happened in those days, when there was no king in Ysra'al, that there was a certain Lewiy sojourning on the farther side of the hill country of Ephrayim, who took to him a concubine out of Bayith Lechem Yahuwdah. 19:2 His concubine played the prostitute against him, and went away from him to her father’s house to Bayith Lechem Yahuwdah, and was there the space of four months. 19:3 Her 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: and she brought him into her father’s house; and when the father of the young lady saw him, he rejoiced to meet him. 19:4 His father-in-law, the young lady’s father, retained him; and he abode with him three days: so they ate and drink, and lodged there.
19:5 It happened on the fourth day, that they arose early in the morning, and he rose up to depart: and 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.” 19:6 So they sat down, ate, and drank, both of them together: and the young lady’s father said to the man, “Please be pleased to stay all night, and let your heart be merry.” 19:7 The man rose up to depart; but his father-in-law urged him, and he lodged there again. 19:8 He 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.
19:9 When 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 toward evening, please stay all night: behold, the day grows to an end, lodge here, that your heart may be merry; and tomorrow go on your way early, that you may go home.” 19:10 But the man wouldn’t stay that night, but he rose up and departed, and came over against Yebuwsiy (the same is Yahrushalom): and there were with him a couple of donkeys saddled; his concubine also was with him.
19:11 When they were by Yebuwsiy, the day was far spent; and the servant said to his master, “Please come and let us turn aside into this city of the Yebuwsiy, and lodge in it.”
19:12 His master said to him, “We won’t turn aside into the city of a foreigner, that is not of the children of Ysra'al; but we will pass over to Gib'ah.” 19:13 He said to his servant, “Come and let us draw near to one of these places; and we will lodge in Gib'ah, or in Ramah.” 19:14 So they passed on and went their way; and the sun went down on them near to Gib'ah, which belongs to Binyamin. 19:15 They turned aside there, to go in to lodge in Gib'ah: and he went in, and sat him down in the street of the city; for there was no man who took them into his house to lodge.
19:16 Behold, there came an old man from his work out of the field at even: now the man was of the hill country of Ephrayim, and he sojourned in Gib'ah; but the men of the place were Binyaminy. 19:17 He 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?”
19:18 He said to him, “We are passing from Bayith Lechem Yahuwdah to the farther side of the hill country of Ephrayim. I am from there, and I went to Bayith Lechem Yahuwdah. I am going to the house of YaHuWaH; and there is no man who takes me into his house. 19:19 Yet there is both straw and provender for our donkeys; and there is bread and wine also for me, and for your handmaid, and for the young man who is with your servants: there is no want of anything.”
19:20 The old man said, “Peace be to you; howsoever let all your wants lie on me; only don’t lodge in the street.” 19:21 So he brought him into his house, and gave the donkeys fodder; and they washed their feet, and ate and drink. 19:22 As they were making their hearts merry, behold, the men of the city, certain base 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 may have sex with him!”
19:23 The man, the master of the house, went out to them, and said to them, “No, my brothers, please don’t act so wickedly; seeing that this man is come into my house, don’t do this folly. 19:24 Behold, 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.”
19:25 But the men wouldn’t listen to him: so the man laid hold of his concubine, and brought her out to them; and they had sex with her, and abused her all night until the morning: and when the day began to dawn, they let her go. 19:26 Then came the woman in the dawning of the day, and fell down at the door of the man’s house where her lord was, until it was light. 19:27 Her lord 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 was fallen down at the door of the house, with her hands on the threshold.
19:28 He said to her, “Get up, and let us be going!” but no one answered. Then he took her up on the donkey; and the man rose up, and went to his place.
19:29 When he was come into his house, he took a knife, and laid hold on his concubine, and divided her, limb by limb, into twelve pieces, and sent her throughout all the borders of Ysra'al. 19:30 It was so, that all who saw it said, “There was no such deed done nor seen from the day that the children of Ysra'al came up out of the land of Mitsrayim to this day! Consider it, take counsel, and speak.”
20:1 Then all the children of Ysra'al went out, and the congregation was assembled as one man, from Dan even to Beersheba, with the land of Gil'ad, to YaHuWaH at Mitspah. 20:2 The chiefs of all the people, even of all the tribes of Ysra'al, presented themselves in the assembly of the people of Aluahiym, four hundred thousand footmen who drew sword. 20:3 (Now the children of Binyamin heard that the children of Ysra'al had gone up to Mitspah.) The children of Ysra'al said, “Tell us, how did this wickedness happen?”
20:4 The Lewiy, the husband of the woman who was murdered, answered, “I came into Gib'ah that belongs to Binyamin, I and my concubine, to lodge. 20:5 The men of Gib'ah rose against me, and surrounded the house by night. They thought to have slain me, and they forced my concubine, and she is dead. 20:6 I took my concubine, and cut her in pieces, and sent her throughout all the country of the inheritance of Ysra'al; for they have committed lewdness and folly in Ysra'al. 20:7 Behold, you children of Ysra'al, all of you, give here your advice and counsel.”
20:8 All the people arose as one man, saying, “We will not any of us go to his tent, neither will we any of us turn to his house. 20:9 But now this is the thing which we will do to Gib'ah: we will go up against it by lot; 20:10 and we will take ten men of one hundred throughout all the tribes of Ysra'al, 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 Gib'ah of Binyamin, according to all the folly that they have worked in Ysra'al.” 20:11 So all the men of Ysra'al were gathered against the city, knit together as one man.
20:12 The tribes of Ysra'al sent men through all the tribe of Binyamin, saying, “What wickedness is this that is happen among you? 20:13 Now therefore deliver up the men, the base fellows, who are in Gib'ah, that we may put them to death, and put away evil from Ysra'al.”
But Binyamin would not listen to the voice of their brothers the children of Ysra'al. 20:14 The children of Binyamin gathered themselves together out of the cities to Gib'ah, to go out to battle against the children of Ysra'al. 20:15 The children of Binyamin were numbered on that day out of the cities twenty-six thousand men who drew the sword, besides the inhabitants of Gib'ah, who were numbered seven hundred chosen men. 20:16 Among all this people there were seven hundred chosen men left-handed; everyone could sling stones at a hair-breadth, and not miss. 20:17 The men of Ysra'al, besides Binyamin, were numbered four hundred thousand men who drew sword: all these were men of war.
20:18 The children of Ysra'al arose, and went up to Bayith'Al, and asked counsel of Aluahiym; and they said, “Who shall go up for us first to battle against the children of Binyamin?”
YaHuWaH said, “Yahuwdah shall go up first.”
20:19 The children of Ysra'al rose up in the morning, and encamped against Gib'ah. 20:20 The men of Ysra'al went out to battle against Binyamin; and the men of Ysra'al set the battle in array against them at Gib'ah. 20:21 The children of Binyamin came forth out of Gib'ah, and destroyed down to the ground of the Ysra'alites on that day Twenty-two thousand men. 20:22 The people, the men of Ysra'al, encouraged themselves, and set the battle again in array in the place where they set themselves in array the first day. 20:23 The children of Ysra'al went up and wept before YaHuWaH until even; and they asked of YaHuWaH, saying, “Shall I again draw near to battle against the children of Binyamin my brother?”
YaHuWaH said, “Go up against him.”
20:24 The children of Ysra'al came near against the children of Binyamin the second day. 20:25 Binyamin went forth against them out of Gib'ah the second day, and destroyed down to the ground of the children of Ysra'al again eighteen thousand men; all these drew the sword.
20:26 Then all the children of Ysra'al, and all the people, went up, and came to Bayith'Al, and wept, and sat there before YaHuWaH, and fasted that day until even; and they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before YaHuWaH. The children of Ysra'al asked of YaHuWaH (for the ark of the covenant of Aluahiym was there in those days, 20:28 and Piynechas, the son of El'azar, the son of Aharown, 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?”
YaHuWaH said, “Go up; for tomorrow I will deliver him into your hand.”
20:29 Ysra'al set ambushes all around Gib'ah. 20:30 The children of Ysra'al went up against the children of Binyamin on the third day, and set themselves in array against Gib'ah, as at other times. 20:31 The 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 Bayith'Al, and the other to Gib'ah, in the field, about thirty men of Ysra'al.
20:32 The children of Binyamin said, “They are struck down before us, as at the first.” But the children of Ysra'al said, “Let us flee, and draw them away from the city to the highways.”
20:33 All the men of Ysra'al rose up out of their place, and set themselves in array at Ba'al Tamar: and the ambushers of Ysra'al broke forth out of their place, even out of the plain of Geba. 20:34 There came over against Gib'ah ten thousand chosen men out of all Ysra'al, and the battle was sore; but they didn’t know that evil was close on them. 20:35 YaHuWaH struck Binyamin before Ysra'al; and the children of Ysra'al destroyed of Binyamin that day twenty-five thousand one hundred men: all these drew the sword. 20:36 So the children of Binyamin saw that they were struck; for the men of Ysra'al gave place to Binyamin, because they trusted the ambushers whom they had set against Gib'ah. 20:37 The ambushers hurried, and rushed on Gib'ah; and the ambushers drew themselves along, and struck all the city with the edge of the sword. 20:38 Now the appointed sign between the men of Ysra'al and the ambushers was that they should make a great cloud of smoke rise up out of the city. 20:39 The men of Ysra'al turned in the battle, and Binyamin began to strike and kill of the men of Ysra'al about thirty persons; for they said, “Surely they are struck down before us, as in the first battle.” 20:40 But when the cloud began to arise up out of the city in a pillar of smoke, the Binyaminy looked behind them; and behold, the whole of the city went up in smoke to the sky. 20:41 The men of Ysra'al turned, and the men of Binyamin were dismayed; for they saw that evil had come on them. 20:42 Therefore they turned their backs before the men of Ysra'al to the way of the wilderness; but the battle followed hard after them; and those who came out of the cities destroyed them in its midst. 20:43 They surrounded the Binyaminy, chased them, and trod them down at their resting place, as far as over against Gib'ah toward the sunrise. 20:44 There fell of Binyamin eighteen thousand men; all these were men of valor. 20:45 They turned and fled toward the wilderness to the rock of Rimmown: and they gleaned of them in the highways five thousand men, and followed hard after them to Gidom, and struck of them two thousand men. 20:46 So that all who fell that day of Binyamin were twenty-five thousand men who drew the sword; all these were men of valor. 20:47 But six hundred men turned and fled toward the wilderness to the rock of Rimmown, and abode in the rock of Rimmown four months. 20:48 The men of Ysra'al turned again on the children of Binyamin, and struck them with the edge of the sword, both the entire city, and the livestock, and all that they found: moreover all the cities which they found they set on fire.
21:1 Now the men of Ysra'al had sworn in Mitspah, saying, “There shall not any of us give his daughter to Binyamin as wife.” 21:2 The people came to Bayith'Al, and sat there until evening before Aluahiym, and lifted up their voices, and wept sore. 21:3 They said, “ YaHuWaH, the Aluahiym of Ysra'al, why has this happened in Ysra'al, that there should be today one tribe lacking in Ysra'al?”
21:4 It happened on the next day that the people rose early, and built there an altar, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. 21:5 The children of Ysra'al said, “Who is there among all the tribes of Ysra'al who didn’t come up in the assembly to YaHuWaH ?” For they had made a great oath concerning him who didn’t come up to YaHuWaH to Mitspah, saying, “He shall surely be put to death.” 21:6 The children of Ysra'al grieved for Binyamin their brother, and said, “There is one tribe cut off from Ysra'al this day. 21:7 How shall we provide wives for those who remain, seeing we have sworn by YaHuWaH that we will not give them of our daughters to wives?” 21:8 They said, “What one is there of the tribes of Ysra'al who didn’t come up to YaHuWaH to Mitspah?” Behold, there came none to the camp from Yabesh Gil'ad to the assembly. 21:9 For when the people were numbered, behold, there were none of the inhabitants of Yabesh Gil'ad there. 21:10 The congregation sent there twelve thousand men of the most valiant, and commanded them, saying, “Go and strike the inhabitants of Yabesh Gil'ad with the edge of the sword, with the women and the little ones. 21:11 This is the thing that you shall do: you shall utterly destroy every male, and every woman who has lain with a man.” 21:12 They found among the inhabitants of Yabesh Gil'ad four hundred young virgins, who had not known man by lying with him; and they brought them to the camp to Shiyloh, which is in the land of Kean'an. 21:13 The whole congregation sent and spoke to the children of Binyamin who were in the rock of Rimmown, and proclaimed peace to them. 21:14 Binyamin returned at that time; and they gave them the women whom they had saved alive of the women of Yabesh Gil'ad: and yet so they weren’t enough for them. 21:15 The people grieved for Binyamin, because that YaHuWaH had made a breach in the tribes of Ysra'al. 21:16 Then the elders of the congregation said, “How shall we provide wives for those who remain, seeing the women are destroyed out of Binyamin?” 21:17 They said, “There must be an inheritance for those who are escaped of Binyamin, that a tribe not be blotted out from Ysra'al. 21:18 However we may not give them wives of our daughters, for the children of Ysra'al had sworn, saying, ‘Cursed is he who gives a wife to Binyamin.’” 21:19 They said, “Behold, there is a feast of YaHuWaH from year to year in Shiyloh, which is on the north of Bayith'Al, on the east side of the highway that goes up from Bayith'Al to Shekem, and on the south of Lebownah.” 21:20 They commanded the children of Binyamin, saying, “Go and lie in wait in the vineyards, 21:21 and see, and behold, if the daughters of Shiyloh come out to dance in the dances, then come out of the vineyards, and each man catch his wife of the daughters of Shiyloh, and go to the land of Binyamin. 21:22 It 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.’”
21:23 The children of Binyamin did so, and took them wives, 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. 21:24 The children of Ysra'al departed there at that time, every man to his tribe and to his family, and they went out from there every man to his inheritance. 21:25 In those days there was no king in Ysra'al: every man did that which was right in his own eyes. [As a result: Ruth 1:1 It happened in the days when the judges ruled, that there was a famine in the land. ]