He sent messengers to Abimelech, who was in Arumah, ¹  reporting, “Beware! ²  Gaal son of Ebed and his brothers are coming ³  to Shechem and inciting the city to rebel against you. ⁴ 

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.

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

Abimelech and his units ¹  attacked and blocked ²  the entrance to the city’s gate. Two units then attacked all the people in the field and struck them down.

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 

But his master said to him, “We should not stop at a foreign city where non-Israelites live. ¹  We will travel on to Gibeah.”

They stopped there and decided to spend the night ¹  in Gibeah. They came into the city and sat down in the town square, but no one invited them to spend the night. ² 

When he looked up and saw the traveler ¹  in the town square, the old man said, “Where are you heading? Where do you come from?”

Then the Benjaminites said, “They are defeated just as before.” But the Israelites said, “Let’s retreat ¹  and lure them ²  away from the city into the main roads.”

The men hiding in ambush made a mad dash ¹  to Gibeah. They ²  attacked ³  and put the sword to the entire city.

They retreated before the Israelites, taking the road to the wilderness. But the battle overtook ¹  them as men from the surrounding cities struck them down. ² 

Now the descendants of the Kenite, Moses’ father-in-law, went up with the people of Judah from the City of Date Palm Trees to Arad in the desert of Judah, ¹  located in the Negev. ²  They went and lived with the people of Judah. ³ 

So Gideon took ten of his servants ¹  and did just as the Lord had told him. He was too afraid of his father’s family ²  and the men of the city to do it in broad daylight, so he waited until nighttime. ³ 

When the men of the city got up the next morning, they saw ¹  the Baal altar pulled down, the nearby Asherah pole cut down, and the second bull sacrificed on the newly built altar.

The men of the city said to Joash, “Bring out your son, so we can execute him! ¹  He pulled down the Baal altar and cut down the nearby Asherah pole.”

In the morning at sunrise quickly attack the city. When he and his men come out to fight you, do what you can to him.” ¹ 

Israel has been living in Heshbon and its nearby towns, in Aroer and its nearby towns, and in all the cities along the Arnon for three hundred years! Why did you not reclaim them during that time?

He defeated them from Aroer all the way to Minnith – twenty cities in all, even as far as Abel Keramim! He wiped them out! ¹  The Israelites humiliated the Ammonites. ² 

On the seventh day, before the sun set, the men of the city said to him, “What is sweeter than honey? What is stronger than a lion?” He said to them, “If you had not plowed with my heifer, ¹  you would not have solved my riddle!”

The Gazites were told, ¹  “Samson has come here!” So they surrounded the town ²  and hid all night at the city gate, waiting for him to leave. ³  They relaxed ⁴  all night, thinking, ⁵  “He will not leave ⁶  until morning comes; ⁷  then we will kill him!”