The Ammonites crossed the Jordan to fight with Judah, Benjamin, and Ephraim. Israel suffered greatly.

She nagged him every day and pressured him until he was sick to death of it.

He said to them, “Follow me, for the Lord is about to defeat your enemies, the Moabites!” They followed him, captured the fords of the Jordan River opposite Moab, and did not let anyone cross.

When the Philistines saw he had no attendants, they gave him thirty groomsmen who kept him company.

After Joshua died, the Israelites asked the Lord, “Who should lead the invasion against the Canaanites and launch the attack?”

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

When a leader died, the next generation would again act more wickedly than the previous one. They would follow after other gods, worshiping them and bowing down to them. They did not give up their practices or their stubborn ways.

In those days Israel had no king. There was a Levite living temporarily in the remote region of the Ephraimite hill country. He acquired a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah.

On the fourth day they woke up early and the Levite got ready to leave. But the girl’s father said to his son-in-law, “Have a bite to eat for some energy, then you can go.”

When the Lord’s messenger finished speaking these words to all the Israelites, the people wept loudly.

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

The next day the Shechemites came out to the field. When Abimelech heard about it,

Jephthah approached the Ammonites to fight with them, and the Lord handed them over to him.

When he finished speaking, he threw the jawbone down and named that place Ramath Lehi.

After this Samson fell in love with a woman named Delilah, who lived in the Sorek Valley.

The next morning the people got up early and built an altar there. They offered up burnt sacrifices and token of peace.

That night the Lord said to him, “Take the bull from your father’s herd, as well as a second bull, one that is seven years old. Pull down your father’s Baal altar and cut down the nearby Asherah pole.

When he saw her, he ripped his clothes and said, “Oh no! My daughter! You have completely ruined me! You have brought me disaster! I made an oath to the Lord, and I cannot break it.”

On the fourth day they said to Samson’s bride, “Trick your husband into giving the solution to the riddle. If you refuse, we will burn up you and your father’s family. Did you invite us here to make us poor?”

When he reached Seirah, he blew a trumpet in the Ephraimite hill country. The Israelites went down with him from the hill country, with Ehud in the lead.