But the Israelites said to the Lord, “We have sinned. You do to us as you see fit, ¹  but deliver us today!” ² 

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?”

Samson called to the Lord, “O Master, Lord, ¹  remember me! Strengthen me just one more time, O God, so I can get swift revenge ²  against the Philistines for my two eyes!”

The Ephraimites said to him, “Why have you done such a thing to us? You did not summon us ¹  when you went to fight the Midianites!” They argued vehemently with him.

So Manoah got up and followed his wife. When he met ¹  the man, he said to him, “Are you the man who spoke to my wife?” ²  He said, “Yes.” ³ 

Gideon said to him, “Pardon me, ¹  but if the Lord is with us, why has such disaster ²  overtaken us? Where are all his miraculous deeds our ancestors told us about? They said, ³  ‘Did the Lord not bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and handed us over to Midian.”

But you have attacked ¹  my father’s family ²  today. You murdered his seventy legitimate 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. ⁴ 

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 Israelites regretted what had happened to ¹  their brother Benjamin. They said, “Today we cut off an entire ²  tribe from Israel!

When I saw that you were not going to help, ¹  I risked my life ²  and advanced against ³  the Ammonites, and the Lord handed them over to me. Why have you come up ⁴  to fight with me today?”

As the flame went up from the altar toward the sky, the Lord’s messenger went up in it ¹  while Manoah and his wife watched. They fell facedown ²  to the ground.

The mountains trembled ¹  before the Lord, the God of Sinai; ²  before the Lord God of Israel.

He told them what Micah had done for him, saying, ¹  “He hired me and I became his priest.”

Zebul said to him, “Where now are your bragging words, ¹  ‘Who is Abimelech that we should serve him?’ Are these not the men ²  you insulted? ³  Go out now and fight them!”

Gideon son of Joash returned from the battle by the pass ¹  of Heres.

Jephthah sent messengers back to the Ammonite king

When Delilah saw that he had told her his secret, ¹  she sent for ²  the rulers of the Philistines, saying, “Come up here again, for he has told me ³  his secret.” ⁴  So the rulers of the Philistines went up to visit her, bringing the silver in their hands.

All you Israelites, ¹  make a decision here!” ² 

Gideon said, “Since you will not help, ¹  after the Lord hands Zebah and Zalmunna over to me, I will thresh ²  your skin ³  with ⁴  desert thorns and briers.”

The leaders of Shechem rebelled against Abimelech by putting ¹  bandits in ²  the hills, who robbed everyone who traveled by on the road. But Abimelech found out about it. ³