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

This is why the Lord permitted these nations to remain and did not conquer them immediately; he did not hand them over to Joshua.

Now Ehud had escaped while they were delaying. When he passed the carved images, he escaped to Seirah.

Warriors were scarce, they were scarce in Israel, until you arose, Deborah, until you arose as a motherly protector in Israel.

He asked for water, and she gave him milk; in a bowl fit for a king, she served him curds.

The Lord’s spirit took control of Gideon. He blew a trumpet, summoning the Abiezrites to follow him.

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

He seized the leaders of the city, along with some desert thorns and briers; he then “threshed” the men of Succoth with them.

“The trees were determined to go out and choose a king for themselves. They said to the olive tree, ‘Be our king!’

So Abimelech and all his men came up at night and set an ambush outside Shechem – they divided into four units.

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

Manoah’s wife gave birth to a son and named him Samson. The child grew and the Lord empowered him.

The Lord’s spirit began to control him in Mahaneh Dan between Zorah and Eshtaol.

The men hiding in ambush made a mad dash to Gibeah. They attacked and put the sword to the entire city.

That day twenty-five thousand sword-wielding Benjaminites fell in battle, all of them capable warriors.

Six hundred survivors turned and ran away to the wilderness, to the cliff of Rimmon. They stayed there four months.

When the Lord raised up leaders for them, the Lord was with each leader and delivered the people from their enemies while the leader remained alive. The Lord felt sorry for them when they cried out in agony because of what their harsh oppressors did to them.

When Gideon arrived, he heard a man telling another man about a dream he had. The man said, “Look! I had a dream. I saw a stale cake of barley bread rolling into the Midianite camp. It hit a tent so hard it knocked it over and turned it upside down. The tent just collapsed.”

The Lord’s spirit empowered him. He went down to Ashkelon and murdered thirty men. He took their clothes and gave them to the men who had solved the riddle. He was furious as he went back home.

Sometime later, during the wheat harvest, Samson took a young goat as a gift and went to visit his bride. He said to her father, “I want to have sex with my bride in her bedroom!” But her father would not let him enter.