Do not leave this place until I come back ¹  with a gift ²  and present it to you.” The Lord said, “I will stay here until you come back.”

The Benjaminites returned at that time, and the Israelites ¹  gave to them the women they had spared from Jabesh Gilead. But there were not enough to go around. ² 

So the rulers of the Philistines brought her seven fresh bowstrings which had not been dried and they tied him up with them.

The handle went in after the blade, and the fat closed around the blade, for Ehud ¹  did not pull the sword out of his belly. ² 

But Sihon did not trust Israel to pass through his territory. He ¹  assembled his whole army, ²  camped in Jahaz, and fought with Israel.

I said to you, “I am the Lord your God! Do not worship ¹  the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are now living!” But you have disobeyed me.’” ² 

The Lord spoke to Gideon again, “There are still too many men. ¹  Bring them down to the water and I will thin the ranks some more. ²  When I say, ‘This one should go with you,’ pick him to go; ³  when I say, ⁴  ‘This one should not go with you,’ do not take him.” ⁵ 

The Lord’s messenger said to Manoah, “If I stay, ¹  I will not eat your food. But if you want to make a burnt sacrifice to the Lord, you should offer it.” (He said this because Manoah did not know that he was the Lord’s messenger.) ² 

The men of Benjamin, however, did not conquer the Jebusites living in Jerusalem. ¹  The Jebusites live with the people of Benjamin in Jerusalem to this very day. ² 

That entire generation passed away; ¹  a new generation grew up ²  that had not personally experienced the Lord’s presence or seen what he had done for Israel. 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?”

But they did not obey ¹  their leaders. Instead they prostituted themselves to other gods and worshiped ²  them. They quickly turned aside from the path ³  their ancestors ⁴  had walked. Their ancestors had obeyed the Lord’s commands, but they did not. ⁵ 

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 men of Zebulun were not concerned about their lives; ¹  Naphtali charged on to the battlefields. ² 

I have not done you wrong, ¹  but you are doing wrong ²  by attacking me. May the Lord, the Judge, judge this day between the Israelites and the Ammonites!’”

He left those nations simply because he wanted to teach the subsequent generations of Israelites, who had not experienced the earlier battles, how to conduct holy war. ¹ 

The leaders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “The Lord will judge any grievance you have against us, ¹  if we do not do as you say.” ² 

God answered Manoah’s prayer. ¹  God’s angelic messenger visited ²  the woman again while she was sitting in the field. But her husband Manoah was not with her.

How can we find wives for those who are left? ¹  After all, we took an oath in the Lord’s name not to give them our daughters as wives.”

Gaal son of Ebed said, “Who is Abimelech and who is Shechem, that we should serve him? Is he not the son of Jerub-Baal, and is not Zebul the deputy he appointed? ¹  Serve the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem! But why should we serve Abimelech? ²