He ordered Jether his firstborn son, &#8220;Come on!<n id="1" /> Kill them!&#8221; But Jether was too afraid to draw his sword,<n id="2" /> because he was still young.

All the leaders of Shechem and Beth Millo assembled and then went and made Abimelech king by the oak near the pillar<n id="1" /> in Shechem.p>

But the olive tree said to them, &#8216;I am not going to stop producing my oil, which is used to honor gods and men, just to sway above the other trees!&#8217;<n id="1" />p>

But the grapevine said to them, &#8216;I am not going to stop producing my wine, which makes gods and men so happy, just to sway above the other trees!&#8217;<n id="1" />p>

The leaders of Shechem rebelled against Abimelech by putting<n id="1" /> bandits in<n id="2" /> the hills, who robbed everyone who traveled by on the road. But Abimelech found out about it.<n id="3" />p>

He sent messengers to Abimelech, who was in Arumah,<n id="1" /> reporting, &#8220;Beware!<n id="2" /> Gaal son of Ebed and his brothers are coming<n id="3" /> to Shechem and inciting the city to rebel against you.<n id="4" />

he took his men<n id="1" /> and divided them into three units and set an ambush in the field. When he saw the people coming out of the city,<n id="2" /> he attacked and struck them down.<n id="3" />

God also repaid the men of Shechem for their evil deeds. The curse spoken by Jotham son of Jerub-Baal fell<n id="1" /> on them.p>

<t /><p class="bodytext">After Abimelech&#8217;s death,<n id="1" /> Tola son of Puah, grandson<n id="2" /> of Dodo, from the tribe of Issachar,<n id="3" /> rose up to deliver Israel. He lived in Shamir in the Ephraimite hill country.

The Ammonites crossed the Jordan to fight with Judah, Benjamin, and Ephraim.<n id="1" /> Israel suffered greatly.<n id="2" />p>

<p class="bodytext">Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a brave warrior. His mother was a prostitute, but Gilead was his father.<n id="1" />

When the Ammonites attacked,<n id="1" /> the leaders<n id="2" /> of Gilead asked Jephthah to come back<n id="3" /> from the land of Tob.

Jephthah said to the leaders of Gilead, &#8220;But you hated me and made me leave<n id="1" /> my father&#8217;s house. Why do you come to me now, when you are in trouble?&#8221;

He said, &#8220;You may go.&#8221; He permitted her to leave<n id="1" /> for two months. She went with her friends and mourned her virginity as she walked through the hills.<n id="2" />

He had forty sons and thirty grandsons who rode on seventy donkeys. He led Israel for eight years.

When he got home,<n id="1" /> he told his father and mother, &#8220;A Philistine girl in Timnah has caught my eye.<n id="2" /> Now get her for my wife.&#8221;

The <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s spirit empowered<n id="1" /> him and he tore the lion<n id="2" /> in two with his bare hands<n id="3" /> as easily as one would tear a young goat. But he did not tell his father or mother what he had done.p>

Some time later, when he went back to marry<n id="1" /> her, he turned aside to see the lion&#8217;s remains. He saw<n id="2" /> a swarm of bees in the lion&#8217;s carcass, as well as some honey.

The men of Judah said, &#8220;Why are you attacking<n id="1" /> us?&#8221; The Philistines<n id="2" /> said, &#8220;We have come up to take Samson prisoner so we can do to him what he has done to us.&#8221;

She made him go to sleep on her lap<n id="1" /> and then called a man in to shave off<n id="2" /> the seven braids of his hair.<n id="3" /> She made him vulnerable<n id="4" /> and his strength left him.