<p class="poetry">They came from Ephraim, who uprooted Amalek,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">they follow<n id="2" /> after you, Benjamin, with your soldiers.p> <p class="poetry">From Makir leaders came down,p> <p class="poetry">from Zebulun came<n id="3" /> the ones who march carrying<n id="4" /> an officer&#8217;s staff.p>

Three hundred men lapped;<n id="1" /> the rest of the men<n id="2" /> kneeled to drink water.

If only these men<n id="1" /> were under my command,<n id="2" /> I would get rid of Abimelech!&#8221; He challenged Abimelech,<n id="3" /> &#8220;Muster<n id="4" /> your army and come out for battle!&#8221;<n id="5" />p>

When Gaal son of Ebed came out and stood at the entrance to the city&#8217;s gate, Abimelech and his men got up from their hiding places.

Gaal again said, &#8220;Look, men are coming down from the very center<n id="1" /> of the land. A unit<n id="2" /> is coming by way of the Oak Tree of the Diviners.&#8221;<n id="3" />

But Sihon did not trust Israel to pass through his territory. He<n id="1" /> assembled his whole army,<n id="2" /> camped in Jahaz, and fought with Israel.

<p class="bodytext">Jephthah said to them, &#8220;My people and I were entangled in controversy with the Ammonites.<n id="1" /> I asked for your help, but you did not deliver me from their power.<n id="2" />

The priest was happy. He took the ephod, the personal idols, and the carved image and joined the group.<n id="1" />p>

<p class="bodytext">All Israel rose up in unison<n id="1" /> and said, &#8220;Not one of us will go home!<n id="2" /> Not one of us will return<n id="3" /> to his house!

Among this army<n id="1" /> were seven hundred specially-trained left-handed soldiers.<n id="2" /> Each one could sling a stone and hit even the smallest target.<n id="3" />

<p class="bodytext">The Israelite army<n id="1" /> took heart<n id="2" /> and once more arranged their battle lines, in the same place where they had taken their positions the day before.

So the people came to Bethel<n id="1" /> and sat there before God until evening, weeping loudly and uncontrollably.<n id="2" />

He and all his men<n id="1" /> went up on Mount Zalmon. He<n id="2" /> took an ax<n id="3" /> in his hand and cut off a tree branch. He put it<n id="4" /> on his shoulder and said to his men, &#8220;Quickly, do what you have just seen me do!&#8221;<n id="5" />

<p class="bodytext">Now the descendants of the Kenite, Moses&#8217; father-in-law, went up with the people of Judah from the City of Date Palm Trees to Arad in the desert of Judah,<n id="1" /> located in the Negev.<n id="2" /> They went and lived with the people of Judah.<n id="3" />p>

The people worshiped<n id="1" /> the <sc>Lordsc> throughout Joshua&#8217;s lifetime and as long as the elderly men<n id="2" /> who outlived him remained alive. These men had witnessed<n id="3" /> all the great things the <sc>Lordsc> had done for Israel.<n id="4" />

They abandoned the <sc>Lordsc> God of their ancestors<n id="1" /> who brought them out of the land of Egypt. They followed other gods &#8211; the gods of the nations who lived around them. They worshiped<n id="2" /> them and made the <sc>Lordsc> angry.

he<n id="1" /> ordered<n id="2" /> all his chariotry &#8211; nine hundred chariots with iron-rimmed wheels &#8211; and all the troops he had with him to go from Harosheth-Haggoyim to the River Kishon.

<t /><p class="bodytext">Jerub-Baal (that is, Gideon) and his men<n id="1" /> got up the next morning and camped near the spring of Harod.<n id="2" /> The Midianites<n id="3" /> were camped north of them near the hill of Moreh in the valley.

The <sc>Lordsc> said to Gideon, &#8220;You have too many men for me to hand Midian over to you.<n id="1" /> Israel might brag,<n id="2" /> &#8216;Our own strength has delivered us.&#8217;<n id="3" />

So he brought the men<n id="1" /> down to the water. Then the <sc>Lordsc> said to Gideon, &#8220;Separate those who lap the water as a dog laps from those who kneel to drink.&#8221;<n id="2" />