The Lord’s messenger appeared and said to him, “The Lord is with you, courageous warrior!”

The Lord said to him, “Ah, but ¹  I will be with you! You will strike down the whole Midianite army.” ² 

That night the Lord said to Gideon, ¹  “Get up! Attack ²  the camp, for I am handing it over to you. ³ 

But the Ammonite king disregarded ¹  the message sent by Jephthah. ² 

Eglon formed alliances with ¹  the Ammonites and Amalekites. He came and defeated Israel, and they seized the City of Date Palm Trees.

Jael came out to welcome Sisera. She said to him, “Stop and rest, ¹  my lord. Stop and rest with me. Don’t be afraid.” So Sisera ²  stopped to rest in her tent, and she put a blanket over him.

Then the Lord himself ¹  turned to him and said, “You have the strength. ²  Deliver Israel from the power of the Midianites! ³  Have I not sent you?”

Gideon ¹  said to him, “But Lord, ²  how ³  can I deliver Israel? Just look! My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my family.” ⁴ 

Gideon ¹  said to him, “If you really are pleased with me, ²  then give me ³  a sign as proof that it is really you speaking with me.

God’s messenger said to him, “Put the meat and unleavened bread on this rock, ¹  and pour out the broth.” Gideon did as instructed. ² 

He captured a young man from Succoth ¹  and interrogated him. The young man wrote down for him the names of Succoth’s officials and city leaders – seventy-seven men in all. ² 

The woman ran at once and told her husband, ¹  “Come quickly, ²  the man who visited ³  me the other day has appeared to me!”

So Delilah took new ropes and tied him with them and said to him, “The Philistines are here, ¹  Samson!” (The Philistines were hiding in the bedroom.) ²  But he tore the ropes ³  from his arms as if they were a piece of thread.

So she made him go to sleep, wove the seven braids of his hair into the fabric on the loom, fastened it with the pin, and said to him, “The Philistines are here, ¹  Samson!” ²  He woke up ³  and tore away the pin of the loom and the fabric.

Micah said to him, “Where do you come from?” He replied, “I am a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah. I am looking for a new place to live.” ¹ 

The Danites said to him, “Don’t say another word to us, or some very angry men ¹  will attack you, and you and your family will die.” ² 

But his master said to him, “We should not stop at a foreign city where non-Israelites live. ¹  We will travel on to Gibeah.”

When Ehud approached him, he was sitting in his well-ventilated ¹  upper room all by himself. Ehud said, “I have a message from God ²  for you.” When Eglon rose up from his seat, ³ 

She summoned ¹  Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali. She said to him, “Is it not true that the Lord God of Israel is commanding you? Go, march to Mount Tabor! Take with you ten thousand men from Naphtali and Zebulun!

Then Jael wife of Heber took a tent peg in one hand and a hammer in the other. ¹  She crept up on him, drove the tent peg through his temple into the ground ²  while he was asleep from exhaustion, ³  and he died.