When the Israelites turned around, the Benjaminites panicked ¹  because they could see that disaster was on their doorstep. ² 

Eighteen thousand Benjaminites, all of them capable warriors, fell dead.

The Israelites had taken an oath in Mizpah, saying, “Not one of us will allow his daughter to marry a Benjaminite.”

When they took roll call, ¹  they noticed ²  none of the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead were there.

In those days Israel had no king. Each man did what he considered to be right. ¹ 

The men ¹  who were chosen ²  took supplies ³  and their trumpets. Gideon ⁴  sent all the men of Israel back to their homes; ⁵  he kept only three hundred men. Now the Midianites ⁶  were camped down below ⁷  in the valley.

“Tell ¹  all the leaders of Shechem this: ‘Why would you want ²  to have seventy men, all Jerub-Baal’s sons, ruling over you, when you can have just one ruler? Recall that I am your own flesh and blood.’” ³ 

So each of his men also cut off a branch and followed Abimelech. They put the branches ¹  against the stronghold and set fire to it. ²  All the people ³  of the Tower of Shechem died – about a thousand men and women.

That day the Benjaminites mustered from their cities twenty-six thousand sword-wielding soldiers, besides seven hundred well-trained soldiers from Gibeah. ¹ 

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 men of Judah attacked, ¹  and the Lord handed the Canaanites and Perizzites over to them. They killed ten thousand men at Bezek.

the spies spotted ¹  a man leaving the city. They said to him, “If you show us a secret entrance into the city, we will reward you.”

So I will no longer remove before them any of the nations that Joshua left unconquered when he died.

After Ehud ¹  came ²  Shamgar son of Anath; he killed six hundred Philistines with an oxgoad and, like Ehud, ³  delivered Israel.

Barak summoned men from Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh. Ten thousand men followed him; ¹  Deborah went up with him as well.

They said to one another, ¹  “Who did this?” ²  They investigated the matter thoroughly ³  and concluded ⁴  that Gideon son of Joash had done it.

Three hundred men lapped; ¹  the rest of the men ²  kneeled to drink water.

He captured a young man from Succoth ¹  and interrogated him. The young man wrote down for him the names of Succoth’s officials and city leaders – seventy-seven men in all. ² 

The men of Israel said to Gideon, “Rule over us – you, your son, and your grandson. For you have delivered us from Midian’s power.” ¹