[10:1] After Abimelech there arose to save Israel Tola the son of Puah, the son of Dodo, a man of Issachar; and he lived in Shamir in the hill country of Ephraim. [10:2] He judged Israel twenty-three years, and died, and was buried in Shamir. [10:3] After him arose Jair, the Gileadite; and he judged Israel twenty-two years. [10:4] He had thirty sons who rode on thirty donkey colts, and they had thirty cities, which are called Havvoth Jair to this day, which are in the land of Gilead. [10:5] Jair died, and was buried in Kamon. [10:6] The children of Israel again did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, and served the Baals, and the Ashtaroth, and the gods of Syria, and the gods of Sidon, and the gods of Moab, and the gods of the children of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines; and they forsook Yahweh, and didn't serve him. [10:7] The anger of Yahweh was kindled against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of the Philistines, and into the hand of the children of Ammon. [10:8] They troubled and oppressed the children of Israel that year: eighteen years oppressed they all the children of Israel that were beyond the Jordan in the land of the Amorites, which is in Gilead. [10:9] The children of Ammon passed over the Jordan to fight also against Judah, and against Benjamin, and against the house of Ephraim; so that Israel was sore distressed. [10:10] The children of Israel cried to Yahweh, saying, We have sinned against you, even because we have forsaken our God, and have served the Baals. [10:11] Yahweh said to the children of Israel, Didn't I save you from the Egyptians, and from the Amorites, from the children of Ammon, and from the Philistines? [10:12] The Sidonians also, and the Amalekites, and the Maonites, 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 gods: therefore I will save you no more. [10:14] Go and cry to the gods which you have chosen; let them save you in the time of your distress. [10:15] The children of Israel said to Yahweh, 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 gods from among them, and served Yahweh; and his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel. [10:17] Then the children of Ammon were gathered together, and encamped in Gilead. The children of Israel assembled themselves together, and encamped in Mizpah. [10:18] The people, the princes of Gilead, said one to another, What man is he who will begin to fight against the children of Ammon? he shall be head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.
[11:1] Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valor, and he was the son of a prostitute: and Gilead became the father of Jephthah. [11:2] Gilead's wife bore him sons; and when his wife's sons grew up, they drove out Jephthah, and said to him, You shall not inherit in our father's house; for you are the son of another woman. [11:3] Then Jephthah fled from his brothers, and lived in the land of Tob: and there were gathered vain fellows to Jephthah, and they went out with him. [11:4] It happened after a while, that the children of Ammon made war against Israel. [11:5] It was so, that when the children of Ammon made war against Israel, the elders of Gilead went to get Jephthah out of the land of Tob; [11:6] and they said to Jephthah, Come and be our chief, that we may fight with the children of Ammon. [11:7] Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, Didn't you hate me, and drive me out of my father's house? and why are you come to me now when you are in distress? [11:8] The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, Therefore are we turned again to you now, that you may go with us, and fight with the children of Ammon; and you shall be our head over all the inhabitants of Gilead. [11:9] Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, If you bring me home again to fight with the children of Ammon, and Yahweh deliver them before me, shall I be your head? [11:10] The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, Yahweh shall be witness between us; surely according to your word so will we do. [11:11] Then Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and chief over them: and Jephthah spoke all his words before Yahweh in Mizpah. [11:12] Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the children of Ammon, saying, What have you to do with me, that you are come to me to fight against my land? [11:13] The king of the children of Ammon answered to the messengers of Jephthah, Because Israel took away my land, when he came up out of Egypt, from the Arnon even to the Jabbok, and to the Jordan: now therefore restore those lands again peaceably. [11:14] Jephthah sent messengers again to the king of the children of Ammon; [11:15] and he said to him, Thus says Jephthah: Israel didn't take away the land of Moab, nor the land of the children of Ammon, [11:16] but when they came up from Egypt, and Israel went through the wilderness to the [Red Sea], and came to Kadesh; [11:17] then Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, Please let me pass through your land; but the king of Edom didn't listen. In the same way, he sent to the king of Moab; but he would not: and Israel abode in Kadesh. [11:18] Then they went through the wilderness, and went around the land of Edom, and the land of Moab, and came by the east side of the land of Moab, and they encamped on the other side of the Arnon; but they didn't come within the border of Moab, for the Arnon was the border of Moab. [11:19] Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, the king of Heshbon; and Israel said to him, Let us pass, we pray you, through your land to my place. [11:20] But Sihon didn't trust Israel to pass through his border; but Sihon gathered all his people together, and encamped in Jahaz, and fought against Israel. [11:21] Yahweh, the God of Israel, delivered Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they struck them: so Israel possessed all the land of the Amorites, the inhabitants of that country. [11:22] They possessed all the border of the Amorites, from the Arnon even to the Jabbok, and from the wilderness even to the Jordan. [11:23] So now Yahweh, the God of Israel, has dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel, and should you possess them? [11:24] Won't you possess that which Chemosh your god gives you to possess? So whoever Yahweh our God has dispossessed from before us, them will we possess. [11:25] Now are you anything better than Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab? did he ever strive against Israel, or did he ever fight against them? [11:26] While Israel lived in Heshbon and its towns, and in Aroer and its towns, and in all the cities that are along by the side of the Arnon, 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: Yahweh, the Judge, be judge this day between the children of Israel and the children of Ammon. [11:28] However the king of the children of Ammon didn't listen to the words of Jephthah which he sent him. [11:29] Then the Spirit of Yahweh came on Jephthah, and he passed over Gilead and Manasseh, and passed over Mizpeh of Gilead, and from Mizpeh of Gilead he passed over to the children of Ammon. [11:30] Jephthah vowed a vow to Yahweh, and said, If you will indeed deliver the children of Ammon 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 Ammon, it shall be Yahweh's, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering. [11:32] So Jephthah passed over to the children of Ammon to fight against them; and Yahweh delivered them into his hand. [11:33] He struck them from Aroer until you come to Minnith, even twenty cities, and to Abelcheramim, with a very great slaughter. So the children of Ammon were subdued before the children of Israel. [11:34] Jephthah came to Mizpah 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 Yahweh, and I can't go back. [11:36] She said to him, My father, you have opened your mouth to Yahweh; do to me according to that which has proceeded out of your mouth, because Yahweh has taken vengeance for you on your enemies, even on the children of Ammon. [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 Israel, [11:40] that the daughters of Israel went yearly to celebrate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in a year.
[12:1] The men of Ephraim were gathered together, and passed northward; and they said to Jephthah, Why did you pass over to fight against the children of Ammon, and didn't call us to go with you? we will burn your house on you with fire. [12:2] Jephthah said to them, I and my people were at great strife with the children of Ammon; and when I called you, you didn't save me out of their hand. [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 Ammon, and Yahweh delivered them into my hand: why then are you come up to me this day, to fight against me? [12:4] Then Jephthah gathered together all the men of Gilead, and fought with Ephraim; and the men of Gilead struck Ephraim, because they said, You are fugitives of Ephraim, you Gileadites, in the midst of Ephraim, and in the midst of Manasseh. [12:5] The Gileadites took the fords of the Jordan against the Ephraimites. It was so, that when any of the fugitives of Ephraim said, Let me go over, the men of Gilead said to him, Are you an Ephraimite? If he said, No; [12:6] then said they to him, Say now Shibboleth; and he said Sibboleth; for he couldn't manage to pronounce it right: then they laid hold on him, and killed him at the fords of the Jordan. There fell at that time of Ephraim forty-two thousand. [12:7] Jephthah judged Israel six years. Then died Jephthah the Gileadite, and was buried in one of the cities of Gilead. [12:8] After him Ibzan of Bethlehem judged Israel. [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 Israel seven years. [12:10] Ibzan died, and was buried at Bethlehem. [12:11] After him Elon the Zebulunite judged Israel; and he judged Israel ten years. [12:12] Elon the Zebulunite died, and was buried in Aijalon in the land of Zebulun. [12:13] After him Abdon the son of Hillel the Pirathonite judged Israel. [12:14] He had forty sons and thirty sons' sons, who rode on seventy donkey colts: and he judged Israel eight years. [12:15] Abdon the son of Hillel the Pirathonite died, and was buried in Pirathon in the land of Ephraim, in the hill country of the Amalekites.
[13:1] The children of Israel again did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh; and Yahweh delivered them into the hand of the Philistines forty years. [13:2] There was a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was barren, and didn't bear. [13:3] The angel of Yahweh 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 Nazirite to God from the womb: and he shall begin to save Israel out of the hand of the Philistines. [13:6] Then the woman came and told her husband, saying, A man of God came to me, and his face was like the face of the angel of God, 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 Nazirite to God from the womb to the day of his death. [13:8] Then Manoah entreated Yahweh, and said, Oh, Lord, please let the man of God whom you did send come again to us, and teach us what we shall do to the child who shall be born. [13:9] God listened to the voice of Manoah; and the angel of God came again to the woman as she sat in the field: but Manoah, 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] Manoah 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] Manoah said, Now let your words happen: what shall be the ordering of the child, and how shall we do to him? [13:13] The angel of Yahweh said to Manoah, 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] Manoah said to the angel of Yahweh, I pray you, let us detain you, that we may make ready a kid for you. [13:16] The angel of Yahweh said to Manoah, 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 Yahweh. For Manoah didn't know that he was the angel of Yahweh. [13:17] Manoah said to the angel of Yahweh, What is your name, that when your words happen, we may honor you? [13:18] The angel of Yahweh said to him, Why do you ask after my name, seeing it is wonderful? [13:19] So Manoah took the kid with the meal offering, and offered it on the rock to Yahweh: and the angel did wondrously, and Manoah and his wife looked on. [13:20] For it happened, when the flame went up toward the sky from off the altar, that the angel of Yahweh ascended in the flame of the altar: and Manoah and his wife looked on; and they fell on their faces to the ground. [13:21] But the angel of Yahweh did no more appear to Manoah or to his wife. Then Manoah knew that he was the angel of Yahweh. [13:22] Manoah said to his wife, We shall surely die, because we have seen God. [13:23] But his wife said to him, If Yahweh 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 Samson: and the child grew, and Yahweh blessed him. [13:25] The Spirit of Yahweh began to move him in Mahaneh Dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.
[14:1] Samson went down to Timnah, and saw a woman in Timnah of the daughters of the Philistines. [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 Philistines: 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 Philistines? Samson 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 Yahweh; for he sought an occasion against the Philistines. Now at that time the Philistines had rule over Israel. [14:5] Then went Samson 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 Spirit of Yahweh came mightily on him, and he tore him as he would have torn a kid; 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 Samson 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 Samson 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] Samson said to them, Let me now put forth a riddle to you: 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 Samson'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] Samson's wife wept before him, and said, You do but 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? and 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 Spirit of Yahweh came mightily on him, and he went down to Ashkelon, 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 Samson'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 Samson visited his wife with a kid; 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] Samson said to them, This time shall I be blameless in regard of the Philistines, when I do them a mischief. [15:4] Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took firebrands, and turned tail to tail, and put a firebrand 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 Philistines, and burnt up both the shocks and the standing grain, and also the olive groves. [15:6] Then the Philistines said, Who has done this? They said, Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he has taken his wife, and given her to his companion. The Philistines came up, and burnt her and her father with fire. [15:7] Samson said to them, If you do after this manner, 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 Etam. [15:9] Then the Philistines went up, and encamped in Judah, and spread themselves in Lehi. [15:10] The men of Judah said, Why are you come up against us? They said, To bind Samson are we come up, to do to him as he has done to us. [15:11] Then three thousand men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam, and said to Samson, "Don't you know that the Philistines 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 Philistines. Samson 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 Lehi, the Philistines shouted as they met him: and the Spirit of Yahweh 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] Samson 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 Lehi. [15:18] He was very thirsty, and called on Yahweh, 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 God split the hollow place that is in Lehi, and water came out of it. When he had drunk, his spirit came again, and he revived: therefore its name was called En Hakkore, which is in Lehi, to this day. [15:20] He judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.