Look, you will conceive and have a son. ¹  You must never cut his hair, ²  for the child will be dedicated to God ³  from birth. He will begin to deliver Israel from the power ⁴  of the Philistines.”

There was a man named Micah from the Ephraimite hill country.

The Lord raised up leaders ¹  who delivered them from these robbers. ² 

my father fought for you; he risked his life ¹  and delivered you from Midian’s power. ² 

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 

When the Ammonites attacked, ¹  the leaders ²  of Gilead asked Jephthah to come back ³  from the land of Tob.

Gaal again said, “Look, men are coming down from the very center ¹  of the land. A unit ²  is coming by way of the Oak Tree of the Diviners.” ³ 

The Israelites regretted what had happened to ¹  their brother Benjamin. They said, “Today we cut off an entire ²  tribe from Israel!

The Benjaminites attacked from Gibeah and struck down twenty-two thousand Israelites that day. ¹ 

They surrounded the Benjaminites, chased them from Nohah, ¹  and annihilated ²  them all the way to a spot east of Geba. ³ 

After they had gone a good distance from Micah’s house, Micah’s neighbors ¹  gathered together and caught up with the Danites.

Ehud reached with his left hand, pulled the sword from his right thigh, and drove it into Eglon’s ¹  belly.

The Benjaminites again attacked them from Gibeah and struck down eighteen thousand sword-wielding Israelite soldiers. ¹ 

But then an old man passed by, returning at the end of the day from his work in the field. ¹  The man was from the Ephraimite hill country; he was living temporarily in Gibeah. (The residents of the town were Benjaminites.) ² 

The Israelites did not remain true ¹  to the Lord their God, who had delivered them from all the enemies who lived around them.

When he reached Seirah, ¹  he blew a trumpet ²  in the Ephraimite hill country. The Israelites went down with him from the hill country, with Ehud in the lead. ³ 

The Danites sent out from their whole tribe five representatives, ¹  capable men ²  from Zorah and Eshtaol, to spy out the land and explore it. They said to them, “Go, explore the land.” They came to the Ephraimite hill country and spent the night at Micah’s house. ³ 

Then the Lord himself ¹  turned to him and said, “You have the strength. ²  Deliver Israel from the power of the Midianites! ³  Have I not sent you?”

He went up from there to Penuel and made the same request. ¹  The men of Penuel responded the same way the men of Succoth had. ² 

When Gaal son of Ebed came out and stood at the entrance to the city’s gate, Abimelech and his men got up from their hiding places.