<p class="bodytext">Then Samson&#8217;s father accompanied him to Timnah for the marriage.<n id="1" /> Samson hosted a party<n id="2" /> there, for this was customary for bridegrooms<n id="3" /> to do.

So Gideon took ten of his servants<n id="1" /> and did just as the <sc>Lordsc> had told him. He was too afraid of his father&#8217;s family<n id="2" /> and the men of the city to do it in broad daylight, so he waited until nighttime.<n id="3" />p>

Ehud made himself a sword &#8211; it had two edges and was eighteen inches long.<n id="1" /> He strapped it under his coat on his right thigh.

God&#8217;s messenger said to him, &#8220;Put the meat and unleavened bread on this rock,<n id="1" /> and pour out the broth.&#8221; Gideon did as instructed.<n id="2" />

That night God did as he asked.<n id="1" /> Only the fleece was dry and the ground around it was covered with dew.p>

Gideon used all this to make<n id="1" /> an ephod,<n id="2" /> which he put in his hometown of Ophrah. All the Israelites<n id="3" /> prostituted themselves to it by worshiping it<n id="4" /> there. It became a snare to Gideon and his family.p>

Now this man Micah owned a shrine.<n id="1" /> He made an ephod<n id="2" /> and some personal idols and hired one of his sons to serve as a priest.<n id="3" />

<p class="bodytext">Gideon went and prepared a young goat,<n id="1" /> along with unleavened bread made from an ephah of flour. He put the meat in a basket and the broth in a pot. He brought the food<n id="2" /> to him under the oak tree and presented it to him.

After two months she returned to her father, and he did to her as he had vowed. She died a virgin.<n id="1" /> Her tragic death gave rise to a custom in Israel.<n id="2" />