“So all the trees said to the thornbush, ‘You come and be our king!’ ¹ 

Then Jotham ran away ¹  to Beer and lived there to escape from ²  Abimelech his half-brother. ³ 

When the Israelites saw that Abimelech was dead, they went home. ¹ 

Go and cry for help to the gods you have chosen! Let them deliver you from trouble!” ¹ 

They said, ¹  “Come, be our commander, so we can fight with the Ammonites.”

When they left ¹  Egypt, Israel traveled ²  through the desert as far as the Red Sea and then came to Kadesh.

Every year ¹  Israelite women commemorate ²  the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite for four days. ³ 

Samson went to Gaza. There he saw a prostitute and went in to have sex with her. ¹ 

They said to him, “Seek a divine oracle for us, ¹  so we can know if we will be successful on our mission.” ² 

They turned and went on their way, but they walked behind the children, the cattle, and their possessions. ¹ 

When the man got ready to leave, ¹  his father-in-law convinced him to stay another night. ² 

He said to his servant, ¹  “Come on, we will go into one of the other towns ²  and spend the night in Gibeah or Ramah.”

So they traveled on, ¹  and the sun went down when they were near Gibeah in the territory of Benjamin. ² 

When the man got ready to leave ¹  with his concubine and his servant, ²  his father-in-law, the girl’s father, said to him, “Look! The day is almost over! ³  Stay another night! Since the day is over, ⁴  stay another night here and have a good time. You can get up early tomorrow and start your trip home.” ⁵ 

The Levite ¹  said to him, “We are traveling from Bethlehem ²  in Judah to the remote region of the Ephraimite hill country. That’s where I’m from. I had business in Bethlehem in Judah, but now I’m heading home. ³  But no one has invited me into their home.

The men of Judah attacked the Canaanites living in Hebron. (Hebron used to be called Kiriath Arba.) They killed Sheshai, Ahiman, and Talmai.

The men of Judah went with their brothers the men of Simeon ¹  and defeated the Canaanites living in Zephath. They wiped out Zephath. ²  So people now call the city Hormah. ³ 

He ¹  moved to Hittite country and built a city. He named it Luz, and it has kept that name to this very day.

When a leader died, the next generation ¹  would again ²  act more wickedly than the previous one. ³  They would follow after other gods, worshiping them ⁴  and bowing down to them. They did not give up ⁵  their practices or their stubborn ways.

Joshua left those nations ¹  to test ²  Israel. I wanted to see ³  whether or not the people ⁴  would carefully walk in the path ⁵  marked out by ⁶  the Lord, as their ancestors ⁷  were careful to do.”