Judges 4-8

New American Bible (Revised Edition)

Chapter 4

Deborah and Barak. ^1 (A)The Israelites again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord; Ehud was dead. ² So the Lord sold them into the power of the Canaanite king, Jabin, who reigned in Hazor. The general of his army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth-ha-goiim.^{(B) 3 (C)}But the Israelites cried out to the Lord; for with his nine hundred iron chariots Jabin harshly oppressed the Israelites for twenty years.

⁴ At that time the prophet Deborah, wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel. ⁵ She used to sit under Deborah’s palm tree, between Ramah and Bethel in the mountain region of Ephraim, where the Israelites came up to her for judgment. ⁶ She had Barak, son of Abinoam,^(D) summoned from Kedesh of Naphtali. She said to him, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, commands: Go, march against Mount Tabor, and take with you ten thousand men from Naphtali and Zebulun. ⁷ I will draw Sisera, the general of Jabin’s army, out to you at the Wadi Kishon,^(E) together with his chariots and troops, and I will deliver them into your power.” ⁸ But Barak answered her, “If you come with me, I will go; if you do not come with me, I will not go.” ⁹ “I will certainly go with you,” she replied, “but you will not gain glory for the expedition on which you are setting out, for it is into a woman’s power that the Lord is going to sell Sisera.” So Deborah arose and went with Barak and journeyed with him to Kedesh.

¹⁰ Barak summoned Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh, and ten thousand men followed him.^(F) Deborah also went up with him. ^11 [a]Now Heber the Kenite had detached himself from Cain, the descendants of Hobab, Moses’ father-in-law,^(G) and had pitched his tent by the terebinth of Zaanannim, which was near Kedesh.

¹² It was reported to Sisera that Barak, son of Abinoam, had gone up to Mount Tabor. ¹³ So Sisera called out all nine hundred of his iron chariots and all his forces from Harosheth-ha-goiim to the Wadi Kishon. ¹⁴ Deborah then said to Barak, “Up! This is the day on which the Lord has delivered Sisera into your power. The Lord marches before you.” So Barak went down Mount Tabor, followed by his ten thousand men. ¹⁵ And the Lord threw Sisera and all his chariots and forces into a panic before Barak.^(H) Sisera himself dismounted from his chariot and fled on foot, ¹⁶ but Barak pursued the chariots and the army as far as Harosheth-ha-goiim. The entire army of Sisera fell beneath the sword, not even one man surviving.

¹⁷ Sisera fled on foot to the tent of Jael, wife of Heber the Kenite, for there was peace between Jabin, king of Hazor, and the family of Heber the Kenite. ¹⁸ Jael went out to meet Sisera and said to him, “Turn aside, my lord, turn aside with me; do not be afraid.” So he went into her tent, and she covered him with a rug. ¹⁹ He said to her, “Please give me a little water to drink. I am thirsty.” So she opened a skin of milk, gave him a drink, and then covered him.^{(I) 20} “Stand at the entrance of the tent,” he said to her. “If anyone comes and asks, ‘Is there someone here?’ say, ‘No!’” ²¹ Jael, wife of Heber, got a tent peg and took a mallet in her hand. When Sisera was in a deep sleep from exhaustion, she approached him stealthily and drove the peg through his temple and down into the ground, and he died.^{(J) 22} Then when Barak came in pursuit of Sisera, Jael went out to meet him and said to him, “Come, I will show you the man you are looking for.” So he went in with her, and there lay Sisera dead, with the tent peg through his temple.

²³ Thus on that day God humbled the Canaanite king, Jabin, before the Israelites; ²⁴ their power weighed ever more heavily on him, until at length they finished off the Canaanite king, Jabin.

Chapter 5

Song of Deborah. ^1 (K)On that day Deborah sang this song—and Barak, son of Abinoam:

And the land was at rest for forty years.^(V)

Chapter 6

The Call of Gideon. ¹ The Israelites did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, who therefore delivered them into the power of Midian for seven years, ² so that Midian held Israel subject. From fear of Midian the Israelites made dens in the mountains, the caves, and the strongholds.^{(W) 3} For it used to be that whenever the Israelites had completed sowing their crops, Midian, Amalek, and the Kedemites^[j] would come up, ⁴ encamp against them, and lay waste the produce of the land as far as the outskirts of Gaza, leaving no sustenance in Israel, and no sheep, ox, or donkey. ⁵ For they would come up with their livestock, and their tents would appear as thick as locusts. They would be too many to count when they came into the land to lay it waste. ^6 (X)Israel was reduced to utter poverty by Midian, and so the Israelites cried out to the Lord.

⁷ When Israel cried out to the Lord because of Midian, ^8 (Y)the Lord sent a prophet to the Israelites who said to them: Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: I am the one who brought you up from Egypt; I brought you out of the house of slavery. ⁹ I rescued you from the power of Egypt and all your oppressors. I drove them out before you and gave you their land. ¹⁰ And I said to you: I, the Lord, am your God; you shall not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are dwelling. But you did not listen to me.

¹¹ Then the messenger of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite. Joash’s son Gideon^(Z) was beating out wheat in the wine press to save it from the Midianites, ¹² and the messenger of the Lord appeared to him and said: The Lord is with you, you mighty warrior! ¹³ “My lord,” Gideon said to him, “if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are his wondrous deeds about which our ancestors told us when they said, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ For now the Lord has abandoned us and has delivered us into the power of Midian.” ^14 (AA)The Lord turned to him and said: Go with the strength you have, and save Israel from the power of Midian. Is it not I who send you? ¹⁵ But he answered him, “Please, my Lord, how can I save Israel? My family is the poorest in Manasseh, and I am the most insignificant in my father’s house.”^{(AB) 16} The Lord said to him: I will be with you,^[k] and you will cut down Midian to the last man. ¹⁷ He answered him, “If you look on me with favor, give me a sign that you are the one speaking with me. ¹⁸ Please do not depart from here until I come to you and bring out my offering and set it before you.” He answered: I will await your return.

¹⁹ So Gideon went off and prepared a young goat and an ephah^[l] of flour in the form of unleavened cakes. Putting the meat in a basket and the broth in a pot, he brought them out to him under the terebinth and presented them. ^20 (AC)The messenger of God said to him: Take the meat and unleavened cakes and lay them on this rock; then pour out the broth. When he had done so, ²¹ the messenger of the Lord stretched out the tip of the staff he held. When he touched the meat and unleavened cakes, a fire came up from the rock and consumed the meat and unleavened cakes. Then the messenger of the Lord disappeared from sight. ^22 [m]Gideon, now aware that it had been the messenger of the Lord, said, “Alas, Lord God, that I have seen the messenger of the Lord face to face!”^{(AD) 23} The Lord answered him: You are safe. Do not fear. You shall not die. ²⁴ So Gideon built there an altar to the Lord and called it Yahweh-shalom.^[n](AE) To this day it is still in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

²⁵ That same night the Lord said to him: Take your father’s bull, the bull fattened for seven years, and pull down your father’s altar to Baal. As for the asherah^[o] beside it, cut it down ²⁶ and build an altar to the Lord, your God, on top of this stronghold with the pile of wood. Then take the fattened bull and offer it as a whole-burnt sacrifice on the wood from the asherah you have cut down. ²⁷ So Gideon took ten of his servants and did as the Lord had commanded him. But he was too afraid of his family and of the townspeople to do it by day; he did it at night. ²⁸ Early the next morning the townspeople found that the altar of Baal had been dismantled, the asherah beside it cut down, and the fattened bull offered on the altar that was built. ²⁹ They asked one another, “Who did this?” They inquired and searched until they were told, “Gideon, son of Joash, did it.” ³⁰ So the townspeople said to Joash, “Bring out your son that he may die, for he has dismantled the altar of Baal and cut down the asherah that was beside it.” ³¹ But Joash replied to all who were standing around him, “Is it for you to take action for Baal, or be his savior? Anyone who takes action for him shall be put to death by morning. If he is a god, let him act for himself,^(AF) since his altar has been dismantled!” ³² So on that day Gideon was called Jerubbaal,^[p](AG) because of the words, “Let Baal take action against him, since he dismantled his altar.”

³³ Then all Midian and Amalek and the Kedemites mustered and crossed over into the valley of Jezreel, where they encamped. ³⁴ And Gideon was clothed with the spirit of the Lord,^[q](AH) and he blew the horn summoning Abiezer to follow him. ³⁵ He sent messengers throughout Manasseh, and they, too, were summoned to follow him; he also sent messengers throughout Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, and they advanced to meet the others. ³⁶ Gideon said to God, “If indeed you are going to save Israel through me, as you have said, ³⁷ I am putting this woolen fleece on the threshing floor, and if dew is on the fleece alone, while all the ground is dry, I shall know that you will save Israel through me, as you have said.” ³⁸ That is what happened. Early the next morning when he wrung out the fleece, he squeezed enough dew from it to fill a bowl. ³⁹ Gideon then said to God, “Do not be angry with me if I speak once more. Let me make just one more test with the fleece. Let the fleece alone be dry, but let there be dew on all the ground.” ⁴⁰ That is what God did that night: the fleece alone was dry, but there was dew on all the ground.

Chapter 7

Defeat of Midian. ¹ Early the next morning Jerubbaal^(AI) (that is, Gideon) encamped by the spring of Harod with all his soldiers. The camp of Midian was north of him, beside the hill of Moreh in the valley. ² The Lord said to Gideon: You have too many soldiers with you for me to deliver Midian into their power, lest Israel vaunt itself against me and say, “My own power saved me.”^{[r](AJ) 3} So announce in the hearing of the soldiers, “If anyone is afraid or fearful, let him leave!^(AK) Let him depart from Mount Gilead!”^[s] Twenty-two thousand of the soldiers left, but ten thousand remained. ⁴ The Lord said to Gideon: There are still too many soldiers. Lead them down to the water and I will test them for you there. If I tell you that a certain man is to go with you, he must go with you. But no one is to go if I tell you he must not. ^5 [t]When Gideon led the soldiers down to the water, the Lord said to him: Everyone who laps up the water as a dog does with its tongue you shall set aside by himself; and everyone who kneels down to drink raising his hand to his mouth you shall set aside by himself. ⁶ Those who lapped up the water with their tongues numbered three hundred, but all the rest of the soldiers knelt down to drink the water. ⁷ The Lord said to Gideon: By means of the three hundred who lapped up the water I will save you and deliver Midian into your power. So let all the other soldiers go home. ⁸ They took up such supplies as the soldiers had with them, as well as their horns, and Gideon sent the rest of the Israelites to their tents, but kept the three hundred men. Now the camp of Midian was below him in the valley.

⁹ That night the Lord said to Gideon: Go, descend on the camp, for I have delivered it into your power. ¹⁰ If you are afraid to attack, go down to the camp with your aide Purah ¹¹ and listen to what they are saying. After that you will have the courage to descend on the camp. So he went down with his aide Purah to the outposts of the armed men in the camp. ^12 (AL)The Midianites, Amalekites, and all the Kedemites were lying in the valley, thick as locusts. Their camels could not be counted, for they were as many as the sands on the seashore. ^13 [u]When Gideon arrived, one man was telling another about a dream. “I had a dream,” he said, “that a round loaf of barley bread was rolling into the camp of Midian. It came to a certain tent and struck it and turned it upside down, and the tent collapsed.” ¹⁴ “This can only be the sword of the Israelite Gideon, son of Joash,” the other replied. “God has delivered Midian and all the camp into his power.” ¹⁵ When Gideon heard the account of the dream and its explanation, he bowed down. Then returning to the camp of Israel, he said, “Arise, for the Lord has delivered the camp of Midian into your power.”

¹⁶ He divided the three hundred men into three companies, and provided them all with horns and with empty jars and torches inside the jars. ¹⁷ “Watch me and follow my lead,” he told them. “I shall go to the edge of the camp, and as I do, you must do also. ¹⁸ When I and those with me blow horns, you too must blow horns all around the camp and cry out, ‘For the Lord and for Gideon!’” ¹⁹ So Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the edge of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch,^[v] just after the posting of the guards. They blew the horns and broke the jars they were holding. ²⁰ When the three companies had blown their horns and broken their jars, they took the torches in their left hands, and in their right the horns they had been blowing, and cried out, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!” ²¹ They all remained standing in place around the camp, while the whole camp began to run and shout and flee. ²² When they blew the three hundred horns, the Lord set the sword of one against another throughout the camp, and they fled as far as Beth-shittah in the direction of Zeredah, near the border of Abel-meholah at Tabbath.

^23 (AM)The Israelites were called to arms from Naphtali, from Asher, and from all Manasseh, and they pursued Midian. ²⁴ Gideon also sent messengers throughout the mountain region of Ephraim to say, “Go down to intercept Midian, and seize the water courses against them as far as Beth-barah, as well as the Jordan.” So all the Ephraimites were called to arms, and they seized the water courses as far as Beth-barah, and the Jordan as well. ^25 (AN)They captured the two princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb, killing Oreb at the rock of Oreb and Zeeb at the wine press of Zeeb. Then they pursued Midian, but they had the heads of Oreb and Zeeb brought to Gideon beyond the Jordan.

Chapter 8

^1 (AO)But the Ephraimites said to him, “What have you done to us, not summoning us when you went to fight against Midian?” And they quarreled bitterly with him. ² But he answered them, “What have I done in comparison with you? Is not the gleaning of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abiezer?^{(AP) 3} It was into your power God delivered the princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb.^(AQ) What have I been able to do in comparison with you?” When he said this, their anger against him subsided.

⁴ When Gideon reached the Jordan and crossed it, he and his three hundred men were exhausted and famished. ⁵ So he said to the people of Succoth, “Will you give my followers some loaves of bread? They are exhausted, and I am pursuing Zebah and Zalmunna, kings of Midian.” ⁶ But the princes of Succoth replied, “Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna already in your possession, that we should give food to your army?”^{[w] 7} Gideon said, “Very well; when the Lord has delivered Zebah and Zalmunna into my power, I will thrash your bodies with desert thorns and briers.” ⁸ He went up from there to Penuel and made the same request of them, but the people of Penuel answered him as had the people of Succoth. ⁹ So to the people of Penuel, too, he said, “When I return in peace, I will demolish this tower.”

¹⁰ Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor with their force of about fifteen thousand men; these were all who were left of the whole Kedemite army, a hundred and twenty thousand swordsmen having fallen. ¹¹ Gideon went up by the route of the tent-dwellers east of Nobah and Jogbehah, and attacked the force when it felt secure. ¹² Zebah and Zalmunna fled and Gideon pursued them. He captured the two kings of Midian, Zebah and Zalmunna, terrifying the entire force.

¹³ Then Gideon, son of Joash, returned from battle by the pass of Heres. ¹⁴ He captured a young man of Succoth and questioned him, and he wrote down for him the seventy-seven princes and elders of Succoth. ¹⁵ So he went to the princes of Succoth and said, “Here are Zebah and Zalmunna, with whom you taunted me, ‘Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna already in your possession, that we should give food to your weary men?’” ¹⁶ He seized the elders of the city, and with desert thorns and briers he thrashed the people of Succoth. ¹⁷ He also demolished the tower of Penuel and killed the people of the city.

¹⁸ Then he said to Zebah and Zalmunna, “What about the men you killed at Tabor?” “They were all like you,” they replied. “They appeared to be princes.” ¹⁹ “They were my brothers, my mother’s sons,” he said. “As the Lord lives, if you had spared their lives, I would not kill you.” ²⁰ Then he said to his firstborn, Jether, “Go, kill them.” But the boy did not draw his sword, for he was afraid, for he was still a boy. ^21 (AR)Zebah and Zalmunna said, “Come, kill us yourself, for as a man is, so is his strength.” So Gideon stepped forward and killed Zebah and Zalmunna. He also took the crescents that were on the necks of their camels.

^22 (AS)The Israelites then said to Gideon, “Rule over us—you, your son, and your son’s son—for you saved us from the power of Midian.” ²³ But Gideon answered them, “I will not rule over you, nor shall my son rule over you. The Lord must rule over you.”^(AT)

²⁴ Gideon went on to say, “Let me make a request of you. Give me, each of you, a ring from his spoils.” (Since they were Ishmaelites,^[x] the enemy had gold rings.) ²⁵ “We will certainly give them,” they replied, and they spread out a cloak into which everyone threw a ring from his spoils. ²⁶ The gold rings he had requested weighed seventeen hundred gold shekels, apart from the crescents and pendants, the purple garments worn by the kings of Midian, and apart from the trappings that were on the necks of their camels. ^27 (AU)Gideon made an ephod out of the gold and placed it in his city, Ophrah. All Israel prostituted themselves there, and it became a snare to Gideon and his household.

²⁸ Midian was brought into subjection by the Israelites; they no longer held their heads high, and the land had rest for forty years,^(AV) during the lifetime of Gideon.

Gideon’s Son Abimelech. ²⁹ Then Jerubbaal, son of Joash, went to live in his house. ^30 (AW)Now Gideon had seventy sons, his own offspring, for he had many wives. ³¹ His concubine^[y] who lived in Shechem also bore him a son, whom he named Abimelech. ³² At a good old age Gideon, son of Joash, died and was buried in the tomb of Joash his father in Ophrah of the Abiezrites. ^33 (AX)But after Gideon was dead, the Israelites again prostituted themselves by following the Baals, making Baal-berith^[z] their god. ³⁴ The Israelites did not remember the Lord, their God, who had delivered them from the power of their enemies all around them. ³⁵ Nor were they loyal to the house of Jerubbaal (Gideon) for all the good he had done for Israel.