Judges 1-16

Good News Translation

The Tribes of Judah and Simeon Capture Adonibezek

1 After Joshua's death the people of Israel asked the Lord, “Which of our tribes should be the first to go and attack the Canaanites?”

² The Lord answered, “The tribe of Judah will go first. I am giving them control of the land.”

³ The people of Judah said to the people of Simeon, “Go with us into the territory assigned to us, and we will fight the Canaanites together. Then we will go with you into the territory assigned to you.” So the tribes of Simeon ⁴ and Judah went into battle together. The Lord gave them victory over the Canaanites and the Perizzites, and they defeated ten thousand men at Bezek. ⁵ They found Adonibezek there and fought him. ⁶ He ran away, but they chased him, caught him, and cut off his thumbs and big toes. ⁷ Adonibezek said, “Seventy kings with their thumbs and big toes cut off have picked up scraps under my table. God has now done to me what I did to them.” He was taken to Jerusalem, where he died.

The Tribe of Judah Conquers Jerusalem and Hebron

⁸ The people of Judah attacked Jerusalem and captured it. They killed its people and set fire to the city. ⁹ After this they went on to fight the Canaanites who lived in the hill country, in the foothills, and in the dry country to the south. ¹⁰ They marched against the Canaanites living in the city of Hebron, which used to be called Kiriath Arba. There they defeated the clans of Sheshai, Ahiman, and Talmai.

Othniel Conquers the City of Debir^(A)

¹¹ From there the men of Judah marched against the city of Debir, at that time called Kiriath Sepher. ¹² One of them, called Caleb, said, “I will give my daughter Achsah in marriage to the man who succeeds in capturing Kiriath Sepher.” ¹³ Othniel, the son of Caleb's younger brother Kenaz, captured the city, so Caleb gave him his daughter Achsah in marriage. ¹⁴ On the wedding day Othniel urged her^[a] to ask her father for a field. She got down from her donkey, and Caleb asked her what she wanted. ¹⁵ She answered, “I want some water holes. The land you have given me is in the dry country.” So Caleb gave her the upper and lower springs.

The Victories of the Tribes of Judah and Benjamin

¹⁶ The descendants of Moses' father-in-law, the Kenite, went on with the people of Judah from Jericho, the city of palm trees, into the barren country south of Arad in Judah. There they settled among the Amalekites.^{[b] 17} The people of Judah went with the people of Simeon, and together they defeated the Canaanites who lived in the city of Zephath. They put a curse on the city, destroyed it, and named it Hormah.^{[c] 18-19} The Lord helped the people of Judah, and they took possession of the hill country. But they did not capture^[d] Gaza, Ashkelon, or Ekron, with their surrounding territories. These people living along the coast had iron chariots, and so the people of Judah were not able to drive them out. ^20 (B)As Moses had commanded, Hebron was given to Caleb, who drove out of the city the three clans descended from Anak. ^21 (C)But the people of the tribe of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites living in Jerusalem, and the Jebusites have continued to live there with the people of Benjamin ever since.

The Tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh Conquer Bethel

^22-23 The tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh went to attack the city of Bethel, at that time called Luz. The Lord helped them. They sent spies to the city, ²⁴ who saw a man leaving and said to him, “Show us how to get into the city, and we won't hurt you.” ²⁵ So he showed them, and the people of Ephraim and Manasseh killed everyone in the city, except this man and his family. ²⁶ He later went to the land of the Hittites, built a city there, and named it Luz, which is still its name.

People Who Were Not Driven Out by the Israelites

^27 (D)The tribe of Manasseh did not drive out the people living in the cities of Beth Shan, Taanach, Dor, Ibleam, Megiddo, and the nearby towns; the Canaanites continued to live there. ²⁸ When the Israelites became stronger, they forced the Canaanites to work for them, but still they did not drive them all out.

^29 (E)The tribe of Ephraim did not drive out the Canaanites living in the city of Gezer, and so the Canaanites continued to live there with them.

³⁰ The tribe of Zebulun did not drive out the people living in the cities of Kitron and Nahalal, and so the Canaanites continued to live there with them and were forced to work for them.

³¹ The tribe of Asher did not drive out the people living in the cities of Acco, Sidon, Ahlab, Achzib, Helbah, Aphek, and Rehob. ³² The people of Asher lived with the local Canaanites, since they had not been driven out.

³³ The tribe of Naphtali did not drive out the people living in the cities of Beth Shemesh and Bethanath. The people of Naphtali lived with the local Canaanites, but forced them to work for them.

³⁴ The Amorites forced the people of the tribe of Dan into the hill country and did not let them come down to the plain. ³⁵ The Amorites continued to live at Aijalon, Shaalbim, and Mount Heres, but the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh kept them under their rule and forced them to work for them.

³⁶ North of Sela, the Edomite^[e] border ran through Akrabbim Pass.

The Angel of the Lord at Bochim

2 The angel of the Lord went from Gilgal to Bochim and said to the Israelites, “I took you out of Egypt and brought you to the land that I promised to your ancestors. I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you. ^2 (F)You must not make any covenant with the people who live in this land. You must tear down their altars.’ But you have not done what I told you. You have done just the opposite! ³ So I tell you now that I will not drive these people out as you advance. They will be your enemies,^[f] and you will be trapped by the worship of their gods.” ⁴ When the angel had said this, all the people of Israel began to cry, ⁵ and that is why the place is called Bochim.^[g] There they offered sacrifices to the Lord.

The Death of Joshua

⁶ Joshua sent the people of Israel on their way, and each man went to take possession of his own share of the land. ⁷ As long as Joshua lived, the people of Israel served the Lord, and even after his death they continued to do so as long as the leaders were alive who had seen for themselves all the great things that the Lord had done for Israel. ⁸ The Lord's servant Joshua son of Nun died at the age of a hundred and ten. ^9 (G)He was buried in his own part of the land at Timnath Serah in the hill country of Ephraim north of Mount Gaash. ¹⁰ That whole generation also died, and the next generation forgot the Lord and what he had done for Israel.

Israel Stops Worshiping the Lord

¹¹ Then the people of Israel sinned against the Lord and began to serve the Baals. ¹² They stopped worshiping the Lord, the God of their ancestors, the God who had brought them out of Egypt, and they began to worship other gods, the gods of the peoples around them. They bowed down to them and made the Lord angry. ¹³ They stopped worshiping the Lord and served the Baals and the Astartes. ¹⁴ And so the Lord became furious with Israel and let raiders attack and rob them. He let the enemies all around overpower them, and the Israelites could no longer protect themselves. ¹⁵ Every time they would go into battle, the Lord was against them, just as he had said he would be. They were in great distress.

¹⁶ Then the Lord gave the Israelites leaders who saved them from the raiders. ¹⁷ But the Israelites paid no attention to their leaders. Israel was unfaithful to the Lord and worshiped other gods. Their fathers had obeyed the Lord's commands, but this new generation soon stopped doing so. ¹⁸ Whenever the Lord gave Israel a leader, the Lord would help that leader and would save the people from their enemies as long as that leader lived. The Lord would have mercy on them because they groaned under their suffering and oppression. ¹⁹ But when the leader died, the people would return to the old ways and behave worse than the previous generation. They would serve and worship other gods, and stubbornly continue their own evil ways. ²⁰ Then the Lord would become furious with Israel and say, “This nation has broken the covenant that I commanded their ancestors to keep. Because they have not obeyed me, ²¹ I will no longer drive out any of the nations that were still in the land when Joshua died. ²² I will use them to find out whether or not these Israelites will follow my ways, as their ancestors did.” ²³ So the Lord allowed these nations to remain in the land; he did not give Joshua victory over them, nor did he drive them out soon after Joshua's death.

The Nations Remaining in the Land

3 So then, the Lord left some nations in the land to test the Israelites who had not been through the wars in Canaan. ² He did this only in order to teach each generation of Israelites about war, especially those who had never been in battle before. ³ Those left in the land were the five Philistine cities, all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites who lived in the Lebanon Mountains from Mount Baal Hermon as far as Hamath Pass. ⁴ They were to be a test for Israel, to find out whether or not the Israelites would obey the commands that the Lord had given their ancestors through Moses. ⁵ And so the people of Israel settled down among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. ⁶ They intermarried with them and worshiped their gods.

Othniel

⁷ The people of Israel forgot the Lord their God; they sinned against him and worshiped the idols of Baal and Asherah. ⁸ So the Lord became angry with Israel and let King Cushan Rishathaim of Mesopotamia conquer them. They were subject to him for eight years. ⁹ Then the Israelites cried out to the Lord, and he sent someone to free them. This was Othniel, the son of Caleb's younger brother Kenaz. ¹⁰ The spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he became Israel's leader. Othniel went to war, and the Lord gave him the victory over the king of Mesopotamia. ¹¹ There was peace in the land for forty years, and then Othniel died.

Ehud

¹² The people of Israel sinned against the Lord again. Because of this the Lord made King Eglon of Moab stronger than Israel. ¹³ Eglon joined the Ammonites and the Amalekites; they defeated Israel and captured Jericho, the city of palm trees. ¹⁴ The Israelites were subject to Eglon for eighteen years.

¹⁵ Then the Israelites cried out to the Lord, and he sent someone to free them. This was Ehud, a left-handed man, who was the son of Gera, from the tribe of Benjamin. The people of Israel sent Ehud to King Eglon of Moab with gifts for him. ¹⁶ Ehud had made himself a double-edged sword about a foot and a half long. He had it fastened on his right side under his clothes. ¹⁷ Then he took the gifts to Eglon, who was a very fat man. ¹⁸ When Ehud had given him the gifts, he told the men who had carried them to go back home. ¹⁹ But Ehud himself turned back at the carved stones near Gilgal, went back to Eglon, and said, “Your Majesty, I have a secret message for you.”

So the king ordered his servants, “Leave us alone!” And they all went out.

²⁰ Then, as the king was sitting there alone in his cool room on the roof, Ehud went over to him and said, “I have a message from God for you.” The king stood up. ²¹ With his left hand Ehud took the sword from his right side and plunged it into the king's belly. ²² The whole sword went in, handle and all, and the fat covered it up. Ehud did not pull it out of the king's belly, and it stuck out behind, between his legs.^{[h] 23} Then Ehud went outside, closed the doors behind him, locked them, ²⁴ and left. The servants came and saw that the doors were locked, but they only thought that the king was inside, relieving himself. ²⁵ They waited as long as they thought they should, but when he still did not open the door, they took the key and opened it. And there was their master, lying dead on the floor.

²⁶ Ehud got away while they were waiting. He went past the carved stones and escaped to Seirah. ²⁷ When he arrived there in the hill country of Ephraim, he blew a trumpet to call the people of Israel to battle; then he led them down from the hills. ²⁸ He told them, “Follow me! The Lord has given you victory over your enemies, the Moabites.” So they followed Ehud down and captured the place where the Moabites were to cross the Jordan; they did not allow anyone to cross. ²⁹ That day they killed about ten thousand of the best Moabite soldiers; none of them escaped. ³⁰ That day the Israelites defeated Moab, and there was peace in the land for eighty years.

Shamgar

³¹ The next leader was Shamgar son of Anath. He too rescued Israel, and did so by killing six hundred Philistines with an oxgoad.

Deborah and Barak

4 After Ehud died, the people of Israel sinned against the Lord again. ² So the Lord let them be conquered by Jabin, a Canaanite king who ruled in the city of Hazor. The commander of his army was Sisera, who lived at Harosheth-of-the-Gentiles. ³ Jabin had nine hundred iron chariots, and he ruled the people of Israel with cruelty and violence for twenty years. Then the people of Israel cried out to the Lord for help.

⁴ Now Deborah, the wife of Lappidoth, was a prophet, and she was serving as a judge for the Israelites at that time. ⁵ She would sit under a certain palm tree between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the people of Israel would go there for her decisions. ⁶ One day she sent for Barak son of Abinoam from the city of Kedesh in Naphtali and said to him, “The Lord, the God of Israel, has given you this command: ‘Take ten thousand men from the tribes of Naphtali and Zebulun and lead them to Mount Tabor. ⁷ I will bring Sisera, the commander of Jabin's army, to fight you at the Kishon River. He will have his chariots and soldiers, but I will give you victory over him.’”

⁸ Then Barak replied, “I will go if you go with me, but if you don't go with me, I won't go either.”

⁹ She answered, “All right, I will go with you, but you won't get any credit for the victory, because the Lord will hand Sisera over to a woman.” So Deborah set off for Kedesh with Barak. ¹⁰ Barak called the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh, and ten thousand men followed him. Deborah went with him.

¹¹ In the meantime Heber the Kenite had set up his tent close to Kedesh near the oak tree at Zaanannim. He had moved away from the other Kenites, the descendants of Hobab, the brother-in-law of Moses.

¹² When Sisera learned that Barak had gone up to Mount Tabor, ¹³ he called out his nine hundred iron chariots and all his men, and sent them from Harosheth-of-the-Gentiles to the Kishon River.

¹⁴ Then Deborah said to Barak, “Go! The Lord is leading you! Today he has given you victory over Sisera.” So Barak went down from Mount Tabor with his ten thousand men. ¹⁵ When Barak attacked with his army, the Lord threw Sisera into confusion together with all his chariots and men. Sisera got down from his chariot and fled on foot. ¹⁶ Barak pursued the chariots and the army to Harosheth-of-the-Gentiles, and Sisera's whole army was killed. Not a man was left.

¹⁷ Sisera ran away to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, because King Jabin of Hazor was at peace with Heber's family. ¹⁸ Jael went out to meet Sisera and said to him, “Come in, sir; come into my tent. Don't be afraid.” So he went in, and she hid him behind a curtain.^{[i] 19} He said to her, “Please give me a drink of water; I'm thirsty.” She opened a leather bag of milk, gave him a drink, and hid him again. ²⁰ Then he told her, “Stand at the door of the tent, and if anyone comes and asks you if anyone is here, say no.”

²¹ Sisera was so tired that he fell sound asleep. Then Jael took a hammer and a tent peg, quietly went up to him, and killed him by driving the peg right through the side of his head and into the ground. ²² When Barak came looking for Sisera, Jael went out to meet him and said to him, “Come here! I'll show you the man you're looking for.” So he went in with her, and there was Sisera on the ground, dead, with the tent peg through his head.

²³ That day God gave the Israelites victory over Jabin, the Canaanite king. ²⁴ They pressed harder and harder against him until they destroyed him.

The Song of Deborah and Barak

5 On that day Deborah and Barak son of Abinoam sang this song:

And there was peace in the land for forty years.

Gideon

6 Once again the people of Israel sinned against the Lord, so he let the people of Midian rule them for seven years. ² The Midianites were stronger than Israel, and the people of Israel hid from them in caves and other safe places in the hills. ³ Whenever the Israelites would plant their crops, the Midianites would come with the Amalekites and the desert tribes and attack them. ⁴ They would camp on the land and destroy the crops as far south as the area around Gaza. They would take all the sheep, cattle, and donkeys, and leave nothing for the Israelites to live on. ⁵ They would come with their livestock and tents, as thick as locusts. They and their camels were too many to count. They came and devastated the land, ⁶ and Israel was helpless against them.

⁷ Then the people of Israel cried out to the Lord for help against the Midianites, ⁸ and he sent them a prophet who brought them this message from the Lord, the God of Israel: “I brought you out of slavery in Egypt. ⁹ I rescued you from the Egyptians and from the people who fought you here in this land. I drove them out as you advanced, and I gave you their land. ¹⁰ I told you that I am the Lord your God and that you should not worship the gods of the Amorites, whose land you are now living in. But you have not listened to me.”

¹¹ Then the Lord's angel came to the village of Ophrah and sat under the oak tree that belonged to Joash, a man of the clan of Abiezer. His son Gideon was threshing some wheat secretly in a wine press, so that the Midianites would not see him. ¹² The Lord's angel appeared to him there and said, “The Lord is with you, brave and mighty man!”

¹³ Gideon said to him, “If I may ask, sir, why has all this happened to us if the Lord is with us? What happened to all the wonderful things that our fathers told us the Lord used to do—how he brought them out of Egypt? The Lord has abandoned us and left us to the mercy of the Midianites.”

¹⁴ Then the Lord ordered him, “Go with all your great strength and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I myself am sending you.”

¹⁵ Gideon replied, “But Lord, how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest in the tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least important member of my family.”

¹⁶ The Lord answered, “You can do it because I will help you. You will crush the Midianites as easily as if they were only one man.”

¹⁷ Gideon replied, “If you are pleased with me, give me some proof that you are really the Lord. ¹⁸ Please do not leave until I bring you an offering of food.”

He said, “I will stay until you come back.”

¹⁹ So Gideon went into his house and cooked a young goat and used a bushel of flour to make bread without any yeast. He put the meat in a basket and the broth in a pot, brought them to the Lord's angel under the oak tree, and gave them to him. ²⁰ The angel told him, “Put the meat and the bread on this rock, and pour the broth over them.” Gideon did so. ²¹ Then the Lord's angel reached out and touched the meat and the bread with the end of the stick he was holding. Fire came out of the rock and burned up the meat and the bread. Then the angel disappeared.

²² Gideon then realized that it was the Lord's angel he had seen, and he said in terror, “Sovereign Lord! I have seen your angel face-to-face!”

²³ But the Lord told him, “Peace. Don't be afraid. You will not die.” ²⁴ Gideon built an altar to the Lord there and named it “The Lord is Peace.” (It is still standing at Ophrah, which belongs to the clan of Abiezer.)

²⁵ That night the Lord told Gideon, “Take your father's bull and another bull seven years old,^[r] tear down your father's altar to Baal, and cut down the symbol of the goddess Asherah, which is beside it. ²⁶ Build a well-constructed altar to the Lord your God on top of this mound. Then take the second bull^[s] and burn it whole as an offering, using for firewood the symbol of Asherah you have cut down.” ²⁷ So Gideon took ten of his servants and did what the Lord had told him. He was too afraid of his family and the people in town to do it by day, so he did it at night.

²⁸ When the people in town got up early the next morning, they found that the altar to Baal and the symbol of Asherah had been cut down, and that the second bull had been burned on the altar that had been built there. ²⁹ They asked each other, “Who did this?” They investigated and found out that Gideon son of Joash had done it. ³⁰ Then they said to Joash, “Bring your son out here, so that we can kill him! He tore down the altar to Baal and cut down the symbol of Asherah beside it.”

³¹ But Joash said to all those who confronted him, “Are you arguing for Baal? Are you defending him? Anyone who argues for him will be killed before morning. If Baal is a god, let him defend himself. It is his altar that was torn down.” ³² From then on Gideon was known as Jerubbaal,^[t] because Joash said, “Let Baal defend himself; it is his altar that was torn down.”

³³ Then all the Midianites, the Amalekites, and the desert tribes assembled, crossed the Jordan River, and camped in Jezreel Valley. ³⁴ The spirit of the Lord took control of Gideon, and he blew a trumpet to call the men of the clan of Abiezer to follow him. ³⁵ He sent messengers throughout the territory of both parts of Manasseh to call them to follow him. He sent messengers to the tribes of Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, and they also came to join him.

³⁶ Then Gideon said to God, “You say that you have decided to use me to rescue Israel. ³⁷ Well, I am putting some wool on the ground where we thresh the wheat. If in the morning there is dew only on the wool but not on the ground, then I will know that you are going to use me to rescue Israel.” ³⁸ That is exactly what happened. When Gideon got up early the next morning, he squeezed the wool and wrung enough dew out of it to fill a bowl with water. ³⁹ Then Gideon said to God, “Don't be angry with me; let me speak just once more. Please let me make one more test with the wool. This time let the wool be dry, and the ground be wet.” ⁴⁰ That night God did that very thing. The next morning the wool was dry, but the ground was wet with dew.

Gideon Defeats the Midianites

7 One day Gideon and all his men got up early and camped beside Harod Spring. The Midianite camp was in the valley to the north of them by Moreh Hill.

² The Lord said to Gideon, “The men you have are too many for me to give them victory over the Midianites. They might think that they had won by themselves, and so give me no credit. ^3 (I)Announce to the people, ‘Anyone who is afraid should go back home, and we will stay here at Mount Gilead.’” So twenty-two thousand went back, but ten thousand stayed.

⁴ Then the Lord said to Gideon, “You still have too many men. Take them down to the water, and I will separate them for you there. If I tell you a man should go with you, he will go. If I tell you a man should not go with you, he will not go.” ⁵ Gideon took the men down to the water, and the Lord told him, “Separate everyone who laps up the water with his tongue like a dog, from everyone who gets down on his knees to drink.” ⁶ There were three hundred men who scooped up water in their hands and lapped it; all the others got down on their knees to drink. ⁷ The Lord said to Gideon, “I will rescue you and give you victory over the Midianites with the three hundred men who lapped the water. Tell everyone else to go home.” ⁸ So Gideon sent all the Israelites home, except the three hundred, who kept all the supplies and trumpets. The Midianite camp was below them in the valley.

⁹ That night the Lord commanded Gideon, “Get up and attack the camp; I am giving you victory over it. ¹⁰ But if you are afraid to attack, go down to the camp with your servant Purah. ¹¹ You will hear what they are saying, and then you will have the courage to attack.” So Gideon and his servant Purah went down to the edge of the enemy camp. ¹² The Midianites, the Amalekites, and the desert tribesmen were spread out in the valley like a swarm of locusts, and they had as many camels as there are grains of sand on the seashore.

¹³ When Gideon arrived, he heard a man telling a friend about a dream. He was saying, “I dreamed that a loaf of barley bread rolled into our camp and hit a tent. The tent collapsed and lay flat on the ground.”

¹⁴ His friend replied, “It's the sword of the Israelite, Gideon son of Joash! It can't mean anything else! God has given him victory over Midian and our whole army!”

¹⁵ When Gideon heard about the man's dream and what it meant, he fell to his knees and worshiped the Lord. Then he went back to the Israelite camp and said, “Get up! The Lord is giving you victory over the Midianite army!” ¹⁶ He divided his three hundred men into three groups and gave each man a trumpet and a jar with a torch inside it. ¹⁷ He told them, “When I get to the edge of the camp, watch me, and do what I do. ¹⁸ When my group and I blow our trumpets, then you blow yours all around the camp and shout, ‘For the Lord and for Gideon!’”

¹⁹ Gideon and his one hundred men came to the edge of the camp a while before midnight, just after the guard had been changed. Then they blew the trumpets and broke the jars they were holding, ²⁰ and the other two groups did the same. They all held the torches in their left hands, the trumpets in their right, and shouted, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!” ²¹ Every man stood in his place around the camp, and the whole enemy army ran away yelling. ²² While Gideon's men were blowing their trumpets, the Lord made the enemy troops attack each other with their swords. They ran toward Zarethan as far as Beth Shittah, as far as the town of Abel Meholah near Tabbath.

²³ Then men from the tribes of Naphtali, Asher, and both parts of Manasseh were called out, and they pursued the Midianites. ²⁴ Gideon sent messengers through all the hill country of Ephraim to say, “Come down and fight the Midianites. Hold the Jordan River and the streams as far as Bethbarah, to keep the Midianites from crossing them.” The men of Ephraim were called together, and they held the Jordan River and the streams as far as Bethbarah. ²⁵ They captured the two Midianite chiefs, Oreb and Zeeb; they killed Oreb at Oreb Rock, and Zeeb at the Winepress of Zeeb. They continued to pursue the Midianites and brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon, who was now east of the Jordan.

The Final Defeat of the Midianites

8 Then the people of Ephraim said to Gideon, “Why didn't you call us when you went to fight the Midianites? Why did you treat us like this?” They complained bitterly about it.

² But he told them, “What I was able to do is nothing compared with what you have done. Even the little that you people of Ephraim did is worth more than what my whole clan has done. ^3 (J)After all, through the power of God you killed the two Midianite chiefs, Oreb and Zeeb. What have I done to compare with that?” When he said this, they were no longer so angry.

⁴ By this time Gideon and his three hundred men had come to the Jordan River and had crossed it. They were exhausted, but were still pursuing the enemy. ⁵ When they arrived at Sukkoth, he said to the men of the town, “Please give my men some loaves of bread. They are exhausted, and I am chasing Zebah and Zalmunna, the Midianite kings.”

⁶ But the leaders of Sukkoth said, “Why should we give your army any food? You haven't captured Zebah and Zalmunna yet.”

⁷ So Gideon said, “All right! When the Lord has handed Zebah and Zalmunna over to me, I will beat you with thorns and briers from the desert!” ⁸ Gideon went on to Penuel and made the same request of the people there, but the men of Penuel gave the same answer as the men of Sukkoth. ⁹ So he said to them, “I am going to come back safe and sound, and when I do, I will tear this tower down!”

¹⁰ Zebah and Zalmunna were at Karkor with their army. Of the whole army of desert tribesmen, only about 15,000 were left; 120,000 soldiers had been killed. ¹¹ Gideon went on the road along the edge of the desert, east of Nobah and Jogbehah, and attacked the army by surprise. ¹² The two Midianite kings, Zebah and Zalmunna, ran away, but he pursued them and captured them, and caused their whole army to panic.

¹³ When Gideon was returning from the battle by way of Heres Pass, ¹⁴ he captured a young man from Sukkoth and questioned him. The young man wrote down for Gideon the names of the seventy-seven leading men of Sukkoth. ¹⁵ Then Gideon went to the men of Sukkoth and said, “Remember when you refused to help me? You said that you couldn't give any food to my exhausted army because I hadn't captured Zebah and Zalmunna yet. Well, here they are!” ¹⁶ He then took thorns and briers from the desert and used them to punish the leaders of Sukkoth. ¹⁷ He also tore down the tower at Penuel and killed the men of that city.

¹⁸ Then Gideon asked Zebah and Zalmunna, “What about the men you killed at Tabor?”

They answered, “They looked like you—every one of them like the son of a king.”

¹⁹ Gideon said, “They were my brothers, my own mother's sons. I solemnly swear that if you had not killed them, I would not kill you.” ²⁰ Then he said to Jether, his oldest son, “Go ahead, kill them!” But the boy did not draw his sword. He hesitated, because he was still only a boy.

²¹ Then Zebah and Zalmunna said to Gideon, “Come on, kill us yourself. It takes a man to do a man's job.” So Gideon killed them and took the ornaments that were on the necks of their camels.

²² After that, the Israelites said to Gideon, “Be our ruler—you and your descendants after you. You have saved us from the Midianites.”

²³ Gideon answered, “I will not be your ruler, nor will my son. The Lord will be your ruler.” ²⁴ But he went on to say, “Let me ask one thing of you. Every one of you give me the earrings you took.” (The Midianites, like other desert people, wore gold earrings.)

²⁵ The people answered, “We'll be glad to give them to you.” They spread out a cloth, and everyone put on it the earrings that he had taken. ²⁶ The gold earrings that Gideon got weighed over forty pounds, and this did not include the ornaments, necklaces, and purple clothes that the kings of Midian wore, nor the collars that were around the necks of their camels. ²⁷ Gideon made an idol from the gold and put it in his hometown, Ophrah. All the Israelites abandoned God and went there to worship the idol. It was a trap for Gideon and his family.

²⁸ So Midian was defeated by the Israelites and was no longer a threat. The land was at peace for forty years, until Gideon died.

The Death of Gideon

²⁹ Gideon went back to his own home and lived there. ³⁰ He had seventy sons, because he had many wives. ³¹ He also had a concubine in Shechem; she bore him a son, and he named him Abimelech. ³² Gideon son of Joash died at a ripe old age and was buried in the tomb of his father Joash, at Ophrah, the town of the clan of Abiezer.

³³ After Gideon's death the people of Israel were unfaithful to God again and worshiped the Baals. They made Baal-of-the-Covenant their god, ³⁴ and no longer served the Lord their God, who had saved them from all their enemies around them. ³⁵ They were not grateful to the family of Gideon for all the good that he had done for Israel.

Abimelech

9 Gideon's son Abimelech went to the town of Shechem, where all his mother's relatives lived, and told them ² to ask the men of Shechem, “Which would you prefer? To have all seventy of Gideon's sons govern you or to have just one man? Remember that Abimelech is your own flesh and blood.” ³ His mother's relatives talked to the men of Shechem about this for him, and the men of Shechem decided to follow Abimelech because he was their relative. ⁴ They gave him seventy pieces of silver from the temple of Baal-of-the-Covenant, and with this money he hired a bunch of worthless scoundrels to join him. ⁵ He went to his father's house at Ophrah, and there on top of a single stone he killed his seventy brothers, Gideon's sons. But Jotham, Gideon's youngest son, hid and was not killed. ⁶ Then all the men of Shechem and Bethmillo got together and went to the sacred oak tree at Shechem, where they made Abimelech king.

⁷ When Jotham heard about this, he went and stood on top of Mount Gerizim and shouted out to them, “Listen to me, you men of Shechem, and God may listen to you! ⁸ Once upon a time the trees went out to choose a king for themselves. They said to the olive tree, ‘Be our king.’ ⁹ The olive tree answered, ‘In order to govern you, I would have to stop producing my oil, which is used to honor gods and human beings.’ ¹⁰ Then the trees said to the fig tree, ‘You come and be our king.’ ¹¹ But the fig tree answered, ‘In order to govern you, I would have to stop producing my good sweet fruit.’ ¹² So the trees then said to the grapevine, ‘You come and be our king.’ ¹³ But the vine answered, ‘In order to govern you, I would have to stop producing my wine, that makes gods and human beings happy.’ ¹⁴ So then all the trees said to the thorn bush, ‘You come and be our king.’ ¹⁵ The thorn bush answered, ‘If you really want to make me your king, then come and take shelter in my shade. If you don't, fire will blaze out of my thorny branches and burn up the cedars of Lebanon.’

¹⁶ “Now then,” Jotham continued, “were you really honest and sincere when you made Abimelech king? Did you respect Gideon's memory and treat his family properly, as his actions deserved? ¹⁷ Remember that my father fought for you. He risked his life to save you from the Midianites. ¹⁸ But today you turned against my father's family. You killed his sons—seventy men on a single stone—and just because Abimelech, his son by his servant woman, is your relative, you have made him king of Shechem. ¹⁹ Now then, if what you did today to Gideon and his family was sincere and honest, then be happy with Abimelech and let him be happy with you. ²⁰ But if not, may fire blaze out from Abimelech and burn up the men of Shechem and Bethmillo. May fire blaze out from the men of Shechem and Bethmillo and burn Abimelech up.” ²¹ Then because he was afraid of his brother Abimelech, Jotham ran away and went to live at Beer.

²² Abimelech ruled Israel for three years. ²³ Then God made Abimelech and the men of Shechem hostile to each other, and they rebelled against Abimelech. ²⁴ This happened so that Abimelech and the men of Shechem, who encouraged him to murder Gideon's seventy sons, would pay for their crime. ²⁵ The men of Shechem put men in ambush against Abimelech on the mountaintops, and they robbed everyone who passed their way. Abimelech was told about this.

²⁶ Then Gaal son of Ebed came to Shechem with his brothers, and the men of Shechem put their confidence in him. ²⁷ They all went out into their vineyards and picked the grapes, made wine from them, and held a festival. They went into the temple of their god, where they ate and drank and made fun of Abimelech. ²⁸ Gaal said, “What kind of men are we in Shechem? Why are we serving Abimelech? Who is he, anyway? The son of Gideon! And Zebul takes orders from him, but why should we serve him? Be loyal to your ancestor Hamor, who founded your clan! ²⁹ I wish I were leading this people! I would get rid of Abimelech! I would tell^[u] him, ‘Reinforce your army, come on out and fight!’”

³⁰ Zebul, the ruler of the city, became angry when he heard what Gaal had said. ³¹ He sent messengers to Abimelech at Arumah^[v] to say, “Gaal son of Ebed and his brothers have come to Shechem, and they are not going to let you into the city. ³² Now then, you and your men should move by night and hide in the fields. ³³ Get up tomorrow morning at sunrise and make a sudden attack on the city. Then when Gaal and his men come out against you, hit them with all you've got!”

³⁴ So Abimelech and all his men made their move at night and hid outside Shechem in four groups. ³⁵ When Abimelech and his men saw Gaal come out and stand at the city gate, they got up from their hiding places. ³⁶ Gaal saw them and said to Zebul, “Look! There are men coming down from the mountaintops!”

“Those are not men,” Zebul answered. “They are just shadows on the mountains.”

³⁷ Gaal said again, “Look! There are men coming down the crest of the mountain and one group is coming along the road from the oak tree of the fortunetellers!”

³⁸ Then Zebul said to him, “Where is all your big talk now? You were the one who asked why we should serve this man Abimelech. These are the men you were making fun of. Go on out now and fight them.” ³⁹ Gaal led the men of Shechem out and fought Abimelech. ⁴⁰ Abimelech started after Gaal, and Gaal ran. Many were wounded, even at the city gate. ⁴¹ Abimelech lived in Arumah, and Zebul drove Gaal and his brothers out of Shechem, so that they could no longer live there.

⁴² The next day Abimelech found out that the people of Shechem were planning to go out into the fields, ⁴³ so he took his men, divided them into three groups, and hid in the fields, waiting. When he saw the people coming out of the city, he came out of hiding to kill them. ⁴⁴ While Abimelech and his group hurried forward to guard the city gate, the other two companies attacked the people in the fields and killed them all. ⁴⁵ The fighting continued all day long. Abimelech captured the city, killed its people, tore it down, and covered the ground with salt.

⁴⁶ When all the leading men in the fort at Shechem heard about this, they sought safety in the stronghold of the temple of Baal-of-the-Covenant. ⁴⁷ Abimelech was told that they had gathered there, ⁴⁸ so he went up to Mount Zalmon with his men. There he took an ax, cut a limb off a tree, and put it on his shoulder. He told his men to hurry and do the same thing. ⁴⁹ So everyone cut off a tree limb; then they followed Abimelech and piled the wood up against the stronghold. They set it on fire, with the people inside, and all the people of the fort died—about a thousand men and women.

⁵⁰ Then Abimelech went to Thebez, surrounded that city, and captured it. ⁵¹ There was a strong tower there, and every man and woman in the city, including the leaders, ran to it. They locked themselves in and went up to the roof. ⁵² When Abimelech came to attack the tower, he went up to the door to set the tower on fire. ^53 (K)But a woman threw a millstone down on his head and fractured his skull. ⁵⁴ Then he quickly called the young man who was carrying his weapons and told him, “Draw your sword and kill me. I don't want it said that a woman killed me.” So the young man ran him through, and he died. ⁵⁵ When the Israelites saw that Abimelech was dead, they all went home.

⁵⁶ And so it was that God paid Abimelech back for the crime that he committed against his father in killing his seventy brothers. ⁵⁷ God also made the men of Shechem suffer for their wickedness, just as Jotham, Gideon's son, said they would when he cursed them.

Tola

10 After Abimelech's death Tola, the son of Puah and grandson of Dodo, came to free Israel. He was from the tribe of Issachar and lived at Shamir in the hill country of Ephraim. ² He was Israel's leader for twenty-three years. Then he died and was buried at Shamir.

Jair

³ After Tola came Jair from Gilead. He led Israel for twenty-two years. ⁴ He had thirty sons who rode thirty donkeys. They had thirty cities in the land of Gilead, which are still called the villages of Jair. ⁵ Jair died and was buried at Kamon.

Jephthah

⁶ Once again the Israelites sinned against the Lord by worshiping the Baals and the Astartes, as well as the gods of Syria, of Sidon, of Moab, of Ammon, and of Philistia. They abandoned the Lord and stopped worshiping him. ⁷ So the Lord became angry with the Israelites, and let the Philistines and the Ammonites conquer them. ⁸ For eighteen years they oppressed and persecuted all the Israelites who lived in Amorite country east of the Jordan River in Gilead. ⁹ The Ammonites even crossed the Jordan to fight the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, and Ephraim. Israel was in great distress.

¹⁰ Then the Israelites cried out to the Lord and said, “We have sinned against you, for we left you, our God, and worshiped the Baals.”

¹¹ The Lord gave them this answer: “The Egyptians, the Amorites, the Ammonites, the Philistines, ¹² the Sidonians, the Amalekites, and the Maonites oppressed you in the past, and you cried out to me. Did I not save you from them? ¹³ But you still left me and worshiped other gods, so I am not going to rescue you again. ¹⁴ Go and cry out to the gods you have chosen. Let them rescue you when you get in trouble.”

¹⁵ But the people of Israel said to the Lord, “We have sinned. Do whatever you like, but please, save us today.” ¹⁶ So they got rid of their foreign gods and worshiped the Lord; and he became troubled over Israel's distress.

¹⁷ Then the Ammonite army prepared for battle and camped in Gilead. The people of Israel came together and camped at Mizpah in Gilead. ¹⁸ There the people and the leaders of the Israelite tribes asked one another, “Who will lead the fight against the Ammonites? Whoever does will be the leader of everyone in Gilead.”

11 Jephthah, a brave soldier from Gilead, was the son of a prostitute. His father Gilead ² had other sons by his wife, and when they grew up, they forced Jephthah to leave home. They told him, “You will not inherit anything from our father; you are the son of another woman.” ³ Jephthah fled from his brothers and lived in the land of Tob. There he attracted a group of worthless men, and they went around with him.

⁴ It was some time later that the Ammonites went to war against Israel. ⁵ When this happened, the leaders of Gilead went to bring Jephthah back from the land of Tob. ⁶ They told him, “Come and lead us, so that we can fight the Ammonites.”

⁷ But Jephthah answered, “You hated me so much that you forced me to leave my father's house. Why come to me now that you're in trouble?”

⁸ They said to Jephthah, “We are turning to you now because we want you to go with us and fight the Ammonites and lead all the people of Gilead.”

⁹ Jephthah said to them, “If you take me back home to fight the Ammonites and the Lord gives me victory, I will be your ruler.”

¹⁰ They replied, “We agree. The Lord is our witness.” ¹¹ So Jephthah went with the leaders of Gilead, and the people made him their ruler and leader. Jephthah stated his terms at Mizpah in the presence of the Lord.

¹² Then Jephthah sent messengers to the king of Ammon to say, “What is your quarrel with us? Why have you invaded our country?”

¹³ The king of Ammon answered Jephthah's messengers, “When the Israelites came out of Egypt, they took away my land from the Arnon River to the Jabbok River and the Jordan River. Now you must give it back peacefully.”

¹⁴ Jephthah sent messengers back to the king of Ammon ¹⁵ with this answer: “It is not true that Israel took away the land of Moab or the land of Ammon. ¹⁶ This is what happened: when the Israelites left Egypt, they went through the desert to the Gulf of Aqaba and came to Kadesh. ^17 (L)Then they sent messengers to the king of Edom to ask permission to go through his land. But the king of Edom would not let them. They also asked the king of Moab, but neither would he let them go through his land. So the Israelites stayed at Kadesh. ^18 (M)Then they went on through the desert, going around the land of Edom and the land of Moab until they came to the east side of Moab, on the other side of the Arnon River. They camped there, but they did not cross the Arnon because it was the boundary of Moab. ^19 (N)Then the Israelites sent messengers to Sihon, the Amorite king of Heshbon, and asked him for permission to go through his country to their own land. ²⁰ But Sihon would not let Israel do it. He brought his whole army together, camped at Jahaz, and attacked Israel. ²¹ But the Lord, the God of Israel, gave the Israelites victory over Sihon and his army. So the Israelites took possession of all the territory of the Amorites who lived in that country. ²² They occupied all the Amorite territory from the Arnon in the south to the Jabbok in the north and from the desert on the east to the Jordan on the west. ²³ So it was the Lord, the God of Israel, who drove out the Amorites for his people, the Israelites. ²⁴ Are you going to try to take it back? You can keep whatever your god Chemosh has given you. But we are going to keep everything that the Lord, our God, has taken for us. ^25 (O)Do you think you are any better than Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab? He never challenged Israel, did he? Did he ever go to war against us? ²⁶ For three hundred years Israel has occupied Heshbon and Aroer, and the towns around them, and all the cities on the banks of the Arnon River. Why haven't you taken them back in all this time? ²⁷ No, I have not done you any wrong. You are doing wrong by making war on me. The Lord is the judge. He will decide today between the Israelites and the Ammonites.” ²⁸ But the king of Ammon paid no attention to this message from Jephthah.

²⁹ Then the spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah. He went through Gilead and Manasseh and returned to Mizpah in Gilead and went on to Ammon. ³⁰ Jephthah promised the Lord: “If you will give me victory over the Ammonites, ³¹ I will burn as an offering the first person that comes out of my house to meet me, when I come back from the victory. I will offer that person to you as a sacrifice.”

³² So Jephthah crossed the river to fight the Ammonites, and the Lord gave him victory. ³³ He struck at them from Aroer to the area around Minnith, twenty cities in all, and as far as Abel Keramim. There was a great slaughter, and the Ammonites were defeated by Israel.

Jephthah's Daughter

³⁴ When Jephthah went back home to Mizpah, there was his daughter coming out to meet him, dancing and playing the tambourine. She was his only child. ^35 (P)When he saw her, he tore his clothes in sorrow and said, “Oh, my daughter! You are breaking my heart! Why must it be you that causes me pain? I have made a solemn promise to the Lord, and I cannot take it back!”

³⁶ She told him, “If you have made a promise to the Lord, do what you said you would do to me, since the Lord has given you revenge on your enemies, the Ammonites.” ³⁷ But she asked her father, “Do this one thing for me. Leave me alone for two months, so that I can go with my friends to wander in the mountains and grieve that I must die a virgin.” ³⁸ He told her to go and sent her away for two months. She and her friends went up into the mountains and grieved because she was going to die unmarried and childless. ³⁹ After two months she came back to her father. He did what he had promised the Lord, and she died still a virgin.

This was the origin of the custom in Israel ⁴⁰ that the Israelite women would go out for four days every year to grieve for the daughter of Jephthah of Gilead.

Jephthah and the Ephraimites

12 The men of Ephraim prepared for battle; they crossed the Jordan River to Zaphon and said to Jephthah, “Why did you cross the border to fight the Ammonites without calling us to go with you? We'll burn the house down over your head!”

² But Jephthah told them, “My people and I had a serious quarrel with the Ammonites. I did call you, but you would not rescue me from them. ³ When I saw that you were not going to, I risked my life and crossed the border to fight them, and the Lord gave me victory over them. So why are you coming up to fight me now?” ⁴ Then Jephthah brought all the men of Gilead together, fought the men of Ephraim and defeated them. (The Ephraimites had said, “You Gileadites in Ephraim and Manasseh, you are deserters from Ephraim!”) ⁵ In order to keep the Ephraimites from escaping, the Gileadites captured the places where the Jordan could be crossed. When any Ephraimite who was trying to escape would ask permission to cross, the men of Gilead would ask, “Are you an Ephraimite?” If he said, “No,” ⁶ they would tell him to say “Shibboleth.” But he would say “Sibboleth,” because he could not pronounce it correctly. Then they would grab him and kill him there at one of the Jordan River crossings. At that time forty-two thousand of the Ephraimites were killed.

⁷ Jephthah led Israel for six years. Then he died and was buried in his hometown^[w] in Gilead.

Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon

⁸ After Jephthah, Ibzan from Bethlehem led Israel. ⁹ He had thirty sons and thirty daughters. He gave his daughters in marriage outside the clan and brought thirty young women from outside the clan for his sons to marry. Ibzan led Israel for seven years, ¹⁰ then he died and was buried at Bethlehem.

¹¹ After Ibzan, Elon from Zebulun led Israel for ten years. ¹² Then he died and was buried at Aijalon in the territory of Zebulun.

¹³ After Elon, Abdon son of Hillel from Pirathon led Israel. ¹⁴ He had forty sons and thirty grandsons, who rode on seventy donkeys. Abdon led Israel for eight years, ¹⁵ then he died and was buried at Pirathon in the territory of Ephraim in the hill country of the Amalekites.

The Birth of Samson

13 The Israelites sinned against the Lord again, and he let the Philistines rule them for forty years.

² At that time there was a man named Manoah from the town of Zorah. He was a member of the tribe of Dan. His wife had never been able to have children. ³ The Lord's angel appeared to her and said, “You have never been able to have children, but you will soon be pregnant and have a son. ⁴ Be sure not to drink any wine or beer, or eat any forbidden food; ^5 (Q)and after your son is born, you must never cut his hair, because from the day of his birth he will be dedicated to God as a nazirite.^[x] He will begin the work of rescuing Israel from the Philistines.”

⁶ Then the woman went and told her husband, “A man of God has come to me, and he looked as frightening as the angel^[y] of God. I didn't ask him where he came from, and he didn't tell me his name. ⁷ But he did tell me that I would become pregnant and have a son. He told me not to drink any wine or beer, or eat any forbidden food, because the boy is to be dedicated to God as a nazirite as long as he lives.”

⁸ Then Manoah prayed to the Lord, “Please, Lord, let the man of God that you sent come back to us and tell us what we must do with the boy when he is born.”

⁹ God did what Manoah asked, and his angel came back to the woman while she was sitting in the field. Her husband Manoah was not with her, ¹⁰ so she ran at once and told him, “Look! The man who came to me the other day has appeared to me again.”

¹¹ Manoah got up and followed his wife. He went to the man and asked, “Are you the man who talked to my wife?”

“Yes,” he answered.

¹² Then Manoah said, “Now then, when your words come true, what must the boy do? What kind of a life must he lead?”

¹³ The Lord's angel answered, “Your wife must be sure to do everything that I have told her. ¹⁴ She must not eat anything that comes from the grapevine; she must not drink any wine or beer, or eat any forbidden food. She must do everything that I have told her.”

^15-16 Not knowing that it was the Lord's angel, Manoah said to him, “Please do not go yet. Let us cook a young goat for you.”

But the angel said, “If I do stay, I will not eat your food. But if you want to prepare it, burn it as an offering to the Lord.”

¹⁷ Manoah replied, “Tell us your name, so that we can honor you when your words come true.”

¹⁸ The angel asked, “Why do you want to know my name? It is a name of wonder.”^[z]

¹⁹ So Manoah took a young goat and some grain, and offered them on the rock altar to the Lord who works wonders.^{[aa] 20-21} While the flames were going up from the altar, Manoah and his wife saw the Lord's angel go up toward heaven in the flames. Manoah realized then that the man had been the Lord's angel, and he and his wife threw themselves face downward on the ground. They never saw the angel again.

²² Manoah said to his wife, “We are sure to die, because we have seen God!”

²³ But his wife answered, “If the Lord had wanted to kill us, he would not have accepted our offerings; he would not have shown us all this or told us such things at this time.”

²⁴ The woman gave birth to a son and named him Samson. The child grew and the Lord blessed him. ²⁵ And the Lord's power began to strengthen him while he was between Zorah and Eshtaol in the Camp of Dan.

Samson and the Woman from Timnah

14 One day Samson went down to Timnah, where he noticed a certain young Philistine woman. ² He went back home and told his father and mother, “There is a Philistine woman down at Timnah who caught my attention. Get her for me; I want to marry her.”

³ But his father and mother asked him, “Why do you have to go to those heathen Philistines to get a wife? Can't you find someone in our own clan, among all our people?”

But Samson told his father, “She is the one I want you to get for me. I like her.”

⁴ His parents did not know that it was the Lord who was leading Samson to do this, for the Lord was looking for a chance to fight the Philistines. At this time the Philistines were ruling Israel.

⁵ So Samson went down to Timnah with his father and mother. As they were going through the vineyards there, he heard a young lion roaring. ⁶ Suddenly the power of the Lord made Samson strong, and he tore the lion apart with his bare hands, as if it were a young goat. But he did not tell his parents what he had done.

⁷ Then he went and talked to the young woman, and he liked her. ⁸ A few days later Samson went back to marry her. On the way he left the road to look at the lion he had killed, and he was surprised to find a swarm of bees and some honey inside the dead body. ⁹ He scraped the honey out into his hands and ate it as he walked along. Then he went to his father and mother and gave them some. They ate it, but Samson did not tell them that he had taken the honey from the dead body of a lion.

¹⁰ His father went to the woman's house, and Samson gave a banquet there. This was a custom among the young men. ¹¹ When the Philistines saw him, they sent thirty young men to stay with him. ^12-13 Samson said to them, “Let me tell you a riddle. I'll bet each one of you a piece of fine linen and a change of fine clothes that you can't tell me its meaning before the seven days of the wedding feast are over.”

“Tell us your riddle,” they said. “Let's hear it.”

¹⁴ He said,

Three days later they had still not figured out what the riddle meant.

¹⁵ On the fourth^[ab] day they said to Samson's wife, “Trick your husband into telling us what the riddle means. If you don't, we'll set fire to your father's house and burn you with it.^[ac] You two invited us so that you could rob us, didn't you?”

¹⁶ So Samson's wife went to him in tears and said, “You don't love me! You just hate me! You told my friends a riddle and didn't tell me what it means!”

He said, “Look, I haven't even told my father and mother. Why should I tell you?” ¹⁷ She cried about it for the whole seven days of the feast. But on the seventh day he told her what the riddle meant, for she nagged him so about it. Then she told the Philistines. ¹⁸ So on the seventh day, before Samson went into the bedroom,^[ad] the men of the city said to him,

¹⁹ Suddenly the power of the Lord made him strong, and he went down to Ashkelon, where he killed thirty men, stripped them, and gave their fine clothes to the men who had solved the riddle. After that, he went back home, furious about what had happened, ²⁰ and his wife was given to the man that had been his best man at the wedding.

15 Some time later Samson went to visit his wife during the wheat harvest and took her a young goat. He told her father, “I want to go to my wife's room.”

But he wouldn't let him go in. ² He told Samson, “I really thought that you hated her, so I gave her to your friend. But her younger sister is prettier, anyway. You can have her, instead.”

³ Samson said, “This time I'm not going to be responsible for what I do to the Philistines!” ⁴ So he went and caught three hundred foxes. Two at a time, he tied their tails together and put torches in the knots. ⁵ Then he set fire to the torches and turned the foxes loose in the Philistine wheat fields. In this way he burned up not only the wheat that had been harvested but also the wheat that was still in the fields. The olive orchards were also burned. ⁶ When the Philistines asked who had done this, they learned that Samson had done it because his father-in-law, a man from Timnah, had given Samson's wife to a friend of Samson's. So the Philistines went and burned the woman to death and burned down her father's house.^[ae]

⁷ Samson told them, “So this is how you act! I swear that I won't stop until I pay you back!” ⁸ He attacked them fiercely and killed many of them. Then he went and stayed in the cave in the cliff at Etam.

Samson Defeats the Philistines

⁹ The Philistines came and camped in Judah, and attacked the town of Lehi. ¹⁰ The men of Judah asked them, “Why are you attacking us?”

They answered, “We came to take Samson prisoner and to treat him as he treated us.” ¹¹ So these three thousand men of Judah went to the cave in the cliff at Etam and said to Samson, “Don't you know that the Philistines are our rulers? What have you done to us?”

He answered, “I did to them just what they did to me.”

¹² They told him, “We have come here to tie you up, so we can hand you over to them.”

Samson said, “Give me your word that you won't kill me yourselves.”

¹³ “All right,” they said, “we are only going to tie you up and hand you over to them. We won't kill you.” So they tied him up with two new ropes and brought him back from the cliff.

¹⁴ When he got to Lehi, the Philistines came running toward him, shouting at him. Suddenly the power of the Lord made him strong, and he broke the ropes around his arms and hands as if they were burnt thread. ¹⁵ Then he found a jawbone of a donkey that had recently died. He reached down and picked it up, and killed a thousand men with it. ¹⁶ So Samson sang,

¹⁷ After that, he threw the jawbone away. The place where this happened was named Ramath Lehi.^[ag]

¹⁸ Then Samson became very thirsty, so he called to the Lord and said, “You gave me this great victory; am I now going to die of thirst and be captured by these heathen Philistines?” ¹⁹ Then God opened a hollow place in the ground there at Lehi, and water came out of it. Samson drank it and began to feel much better. So the spring was named Hakkore;^[ah] it is still there at Lehi.

²⁰ Samson led Israel for twenty years while the Philistines ruled the land.

Samson at Gaza

16 One day Samson went to the Philistine city of Gaza, where he met a prostitute and went to bed with her. ² The people of Gaza found out that Samson was there, so they surrounded the place and waited for him all night long at the city gate. They were quiet all night, thinking to themselves, “We'll wait until daybreak, and then we'll kill him.” ³ But Samson stayed in bed only until midnight. Then he got up and took hold of the city gate and pulled it up—doors, posts, lock, and all. He put them on his shoulders and carried them far off to the top of the hill overlooking Hebron.

Samson and Delilah

⁴ After this, Samson fell in love with a woman named Delilah, who lived in Sorek Valley. ⁵ The five Philistine kings went to her and said, “Trick Samson into telling you why he is so strong and how we can overpower him, tie him up, and make him helpless. Each one of us will give you eleven hundred pieces of silver.”

⁶ So Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me what makes you so strong. If someone wanted to tie you up and make you helpless, how could he do it?”

⁷ Samson answered, “If they tie me up with seven new bowstrings that are not dried out, I'll be as weak as anybody else.”

⁸ So the Philistine kings brought Delilah seven new bowstrings that were not dried out, and she tied Samson up. ⁹ She had some men waiting in another room, so she shouted, “Samson! The Philistines are coming!” But he snapped the bowstrings just as thread breaks when fire touches it. So they still did not know the secret of his strength.

¹⁰ Delilah told Samson, “Look, you've been making a fool of me and not telling me the truth. Please tell me how someone could tie you up.”

¹¹ He told her, “If they tie me with new ropes that have never been used, I'll be as weak as anybody else.”

¹² So Delilah got some new ropes and tied him up. Then she shouted, “Samson! The Philistines are coming!” The men were waiting in another room. But he snapped the ropes off his arms like thread.

¹³ Delilah said to Samson, “You're still making a fool of me and not telling me the truth. Tell me how someone could tie you up.”

He told her, “If you weave my seven locks of hair into a loom, and make it tight with a peg, I'll be as weak as anybody else.”

¹⁴ Delilah then lulled him to sleep, took his seven locks of hair, and wove them into the loom.^[ai] She made it tight with a peg and shouted, “Samson! The Philistines are coming!” But he woke up and pulled his hair loose from the loom.

¹⁵ So she said to him, “How can you say you love me, when you don't mean it? You've made a fool of me three times, and you still haven't told me what makes you so strong.” ¹⁶ She kept on asking him, day after day. He got so sick and tired of her bothering him about it ¹⁷ that he finally told her the truth. “My hair has never been cut,” he said. “I have been dedicated to God as a nazirite^[aj] from the time I was born. If my hair were cut, I would lose my strength and be as weak as anybody else.”

¹⁸ When Delilah realized that he had told her the truth, she sent a message to the Philistine kings and said, “Come back one more time. He has told me the truth.” Then they came and brought the money with them. ¹⁹ Delilah lulled Samson to sleep in her lap and then called a man, who cut off^[ak] Samson's seven locks of hair. Then she began to torment him, for he had lost his strength. ²⁰ Then she shouted, “Samson! The Philistines are coming!” He woke up and thought, “I'll get loose and go free, as always.” He did not know that the Lord had left him. ²¹ The Philistines captured him and put his eyes out. They took him to Gaza, chained him with bronze chains, and put him to work grinding at the mill in the prison. ²² But his hair started growing back.

The Death of Samson

²³ The Philistine kings met together to celebrate and offer a great sacrifice to their god Dagon. They sang, “Our god has given us victory over our enemy Samson!” ^24-25 They were enjoying themselves, and so they said, “Call Samson, and let's make him entertain us!”^[al] When they brought Samson out of the prison, they made him entertain them^[am] and made him stand between the columns. When the people saw him, they sang praise to their god: “Our god has given us victory over our enemy, who devastated our land and killed so many of us!” ²⁶ Samson said to the boy who was leading him by the hand, “Let me touch the columns that hold up the building. I want to lean on them.” ²⁷ The building was crowded with men and women. All five Philistine kings were there, and there were about three thousand men and women on the roof, watching Samson entertain them.^[an]

²⁸ Then Samson prayed, “Sovereign Lord, please remember me; please, God, give me my strength just this one time more, so that with this one blow I can get even with the Philistines for putting out my two eyes.” ²⁹ So Samson took hold of the two middle columns holding up the building. Putting one hand on each column, he pushed against them ³⁰ and shouted, “Let me die with the Philistines!” He pushed with all his might, and the building fell down on the five kings and everyone else. Samson killed more people at his death than he had killed during his life.

³¹ His brothers and the rest of his family came down to get his body. They took him back and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of his father Manoah. He had been Israel's leader for twenty years.