21The men of Israel had taken an oath at Mizpah: Not one of us will give his daughter in marriage to a Benjamite. 2The people went to Bethel, where they sat before God until evening, raising their voices and weeping bitterly. 3O LORD , the God of Isr...
20Then all the Israelites from Dan to Beersheba and from the land of Gilead came out as one man and assembled before the LORD in Mizpah. 2The leaders of all the people of the tribes of Israel took their places in the assembly of the people of God, f...
19In those days Israel had no king. Now a Levite who lived in a remote area in the hill country of Ephraim took a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah. 2But she was unfaithful to him. She left him and went back to her father's house in Bethlehem, Judah....
18In those days Israel had no king. And in those days the tribe of the Danites was seeking a place of their own where they might settle, because they had not yet come into an inheritance among the tribes of Israel. 2So the Danites sent five warriors...
17Now a man named Micah from the hill country of Ephraim 2said to his mother, The eleven hundred shekels of silver that were taken from you and about which I heard you utter a curse-I have that silver with me; I took it. Then his mother said, The LOR...
16One day Samson went to Gaza, where he saw a prostitute. He went in to spend the night with her. 2The people of Gaza were told, Samson is here! So they surrounded the place and lay in wait for him all night at the city gate. They made no move durin...
15Later on, at the time of wheat harvest, Samson took a young goat and went to visit his wife. He said, I'm going to my wife's room. But her father would not let him go in. 2I was so sure you thoroughly hated her, he said, that I gave her to your fri...
14Samson went down to Timnah and saw there a young Philistine woman. 2When he returned, he said to his father and mother, I have seen a Philistine woman in Timnah; now get her for me as my wife. 3His father and mother replied, Isn't there an acceptab...
13Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD , so the LORD delivered them into the hands of the Philistines for forty years. 2A certain man of Zorah, named Manoah, from the clan of the Danites, had a wife who was sterile and remained child...
12The men of Ephraim called out their forces, crossed over to Zaphon and said to Jephthah, Why did you go to fight the Ammonites without calling us to go with you? We're going to burn down your house over your head. 2Jephthah answered, I and my peopl...
11Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty warrior. His father was Gilead; his mother was a prostitute. 2Gilead's wife also bore him sons, and when they were grown up, they drove Jephthah away. You are not going to get any inheritance in our family, they...
10After the time of Abimelech a man of Issachar, Tola son of Puah, the son of Dodo, rose to save Israel. He lived in Shamir, in the hill country of Ephraim. 2He led Israel twenty-three years; then he died, and was buried in Shamir. 3He was followed b...
9Abimelech son of Jerub-Baal went to his mother's brothers in Shechem and said to them and to all his mother's clan, 2Ask all the citizens of Shechem, 'Which is better for you: to have all seventy of Jerub-Baal's sons rule over you, or just one man?'...
8Now the Ephraimites asked Gideon, Why have you treated us like this? Why didn't you call us when you went to fight Midian? And they criticized him sharply. 2But he answered them, What have I accomplished compared to you? Aren't the gleanings of Ephr...
7Early in the morning, Jerub-Baal (that is, Gideon) and all his men camped at the spring of Harod. The camp of Midian was north of them in the valley near the hill of Moreh. 2The LORD said to Gideon, You have too many men for me to deliver Midian int...
