The Lord’s angelic messenger ¹  came and sat down under the oak tree in Ophrah owned by Joash the Abiezrite. He arrived while Joash’s son Gideon ²  was threshing ³  wheat in a winepress ⁴  so he could hide it from the Midianites. ⁵ 

The Lord said to Gideon, “With the three hundred men who lapped I will deliver the whole army ¹  and I will hand Midian over to you. ²  The rest of the men should go home.” ³ 

The Lord God of Israel handed Sihon and his whole army over to Israel and they defeated them. Israel took ¹  all the land of the Amorites who lived in that land.

He lit the torches ¹  and set the jackals loose in the Philistines’ standing grain. He burned up the grain heaps and the standing grain, as well as the vineyards and olive groves.

They said to him, “We have come down to take you prisoner so we can hand you over to the Philistines.” Samson said to them, “Promise me ¹  you will not kill ²  me.”

The rulers of the Philistines gathered to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god and to celebrate. They said, “Our god has handed Samson, our enemy, over to us.”

This man left the town of Bethlehem in Judah to find another place to live. He came to the Ephraimite hill country and made his way to Micah’s house. ¹ 

No one came to the rescue because the city ¹  was far from Sidon ²  and they had no dealings with anyone. ³  The city ⁴  was in a valley near Beth Rehob. The Danites ⁵  rebuilt the city and occupied it.

The men refused to listen to him, so the Levite ¹  grabbed his concubine and made her go outside. ²  They raped ³  her and abused her all night long until morning. They let her go at dawn.

Now, hand over the good-for-nothings ¹  in Gibeah so we can execute them and purge Israel of wickedness.” ²  But the Benjaminites refused to listen to their Israelite brothers.

The Israelites went up to Bethel ¹  and asked God, ²  “Who should lead the charge against the Benjaminites?” ³  The Lord said, “Judah should lead.”

The Israelites went up and wept before the Lord until evening. They asked the Lord, “Should we ¹  again march out to fight ²  the Benjaminites, our brothers?” ³  The Lord said, “Attack them!” ⁴ 

the Israelites counterattacked. ¹  Benjamin had begun to strike down the Israelites; ²  they struck down ³  about thirty men. They said, “There’s no doubt about it! They are totally defeated as in the earlier battle.”

The rest ¹  turned and ran toward the wilderness, heading toward the cliff of Rimmon. But the Israelites ²  caught ³  five thousand of them on the main roads. They stayed right on their heels ⁴  all the way to Gidom and struck down two thousand more.

The Israelites returned to the Benjaminite towns ¹  and put the sword to them. They wiped out the cities, ²  the animals, and everything they could find. They set fire to every city in their path. ³ 

So they asked, “Who from all the Israelite tribes did not assemble before the Lord at Mizpah?” Now it just so happened no one from Jabesh Gilead had come to the gathering. ¹ 

From there they attacked the people of Debir. ¹  (Debir used to be called Kiriath Sepher.)

The men of Judah captured Gaza, Ashkelon, Ekron, and the territory surrounding each of these cities. ¹ 

The Amorites forced the people of Dan to live in the hill country. They did not allow them to live in ¹  the coastal plain.

He left those nations simply because he wanted to teach the subsequent generations of Israelites, who had not experienced the earlier battles, how to conduct holy war. ¹