But he went back<n id="1" /> once he reached<n id="2" /> the carved images<n id="3" /> at Gilgal. He said to Eglon,<n id="4" /> &#8220;I have a secret message for you, O king.&#8221; Eglon<n id="5" /> said, &#8220;Be quiet!&#8221;<n id="6" /> All his attendants left.

When Ehud approached him, he was sitting in his well-ventilated<n id="1" /> upper room all by himself. Ehud said, &#8220;I have a message from God<n id="2" /> for you.&#8221; When Eglon rose up from his seat,<n id="3" />

The Israelites cried out for help to the <sc>Lordsc>, because Sisera<n id="1" /> had nine hundred chariots with iron-rimmed wheels,<n id="2" /> and he cruelly<n id="3" /> oppressed the Israelites for twenty years.p>

Then Jael wife of Heber took a tent peg in one hand and a hammer in the other.<n id="1" /> She crept up on him, drove the tent peg through his temple into the ground<n id="2" /> while he was asleep from exhaustion,<n id="3" /> and he died.

<p class="bodytext">When Gideon realized<n id="1" /> that it was the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s messenger, he<n id="2" /> said, &#8220;Oh no!<n id="3" /> Master, <sc>Lordsc>!<n id="4" /> I have seen the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s messenger face to face!&#8221;

<t /><p class="bodytext">That night the <sc>Lordsc> said to him, &#8220;Take the bull from your father&#8217;s herd, as well as a second bull, one that is seven years old.<n id="1" /> Pull down your father&#8217;s Baal altar and cut down the nearby Asherah pole.

But Joash said to all those who confronted him,<n id="1" /> &#8220;Must you fight Baal&#8217;s battles?<n id="2" /> Must you rescue him? Whoever takes up his cause<n id="3" /> will die by morning!<n id="4" /> If he really is a god, let him fight his own battles!<n id="5" /> After all, it was his altar that was pulled down.&#8221;<n id="6" />

<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.

His mother&#8217;s relatives<n id="1" /> spoke on his behalf to<n id="2" /> all the leaders of Shechem and reported his proposal.<n id="3" /> The leaders were drawn to Abimelech;<n id="4" /> they said, &#8220;He is our close relative.&#8221;<n id="5" />

But you have attacked<n id="1" /> my father&#8217;s family<n id="2" /> today. You murdered his seventy legitimate<n id="3" /> sons on one stone and made Abimelech, the son of his female slave, king over the leaders of Shechem, just because he is your close relative.<n id="4" />

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.&#8221;<n id="1" />p>

Abimelech fought against the city all that day. He captured the city and killed all the people in it. Then he leveled<n id="1" /> the city and spread salt over it.<n id="2" />p>

They ruthlessly oppressed<n id="1" /> the Israelites that eighteenth year<n id="2" /> &#8211; that is, all the Israelites living east of the Jordan in Amorite country in Gilead.

The <sc>Lordsc> God of Israel handed Sihon and his whole army over to Israel and they defeated them. Israel took<n id="1" /> all the land of the Amorites who lived in that land.

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?

<p class="bodytext">When Jephthah came home to Mizpah, there was his daughter hurrying out<n id="1" /> to meet him, dancing to the rhythm of tambourines.<n id="2" /> She was his only child; except for her he had no son or daughter.

After two months she returned to her father, and he did to her as he had vowed. She died a virgin.<n id="1" /> Her tragic death gave rise to a custom in Israel.<n id="2" />

then they said to him, &#8220;Say &#8216;Shibboleth!&#8217;&#8221;<n id="1" /> If he said, &#8220;Sibboleth&#8221; (and could not pronounce the word<n id="2" /> correctly), they grabbed him and executed him right there at the fords of the Jordan. On that day forty-two thousand Ephraimites fell dead.

Look, you will conceive and have a son.<n id="1" /> You must never cut his hair,<n id="2" /> for the child will be dedicated to God<n id="3" /> from birth. He will begin to deliver Israel from the power<n id="4" /> of the Philistines.&#8221;p>

<p class="bodytext">The woman went and said to her husband, &#8220;A man sent from God<n id="1" /> came to me! He looked like God&#8217;s angelic messenger &#8211; he was very awesome.<n id="2" /> I did not ask him where he came from, and he did not tell me his name.