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" />

When Gideon arrived, he heard a man telling another man about a dream he had.<n id="1" /> The man<n id="2" /> said, &#8220;Look! I had a dream. I saw<n id="3" /> a stale cake of barley bread rolling into the Midianite camp. It hit a tent so hard it knocked it over and turned it upside down. The tent just collapsed.&#8221;<n id="4" />

He had thirty sons who rode on thirty donkeys and possessed thirty cities. To this day these towns are called Havvoth Jair<n id="1" /> &#8211; they are in the land of Gilead.<n id="2" />

He said to me, &#8216;Look, you will conceive and have a son.<n id="1" /> So now, do not drink wine or beer and do not eat any food that will make you ritually unclean.<n id="2" /> For the child will be dedicated<n id="3" /> to God from birth till the day he dies.&#8217;&#8221;p>

When he arrived in Lehi, the Philistines shouted as they approached him. But the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s spirit empowered<n id="1" /> him. The ropes around his arms were like flax dissolving in<n id="2" /> fire, and they<n id="3" /> melted away from his hands.

So God split open the basin<n id="1" /> at Lehi and water flowed out from it. When he took a drink, his strength<n id="2" /> was restored and he revived. For this reason he named the spring<n id="3" /> En Hakkore.<n id="4" /> It remains in Lehi to this very day.

The Gazites were told,<n id="1" /> &#8220;Samson has come here!&#8221; So they surrounded the town<n id="2" /> and hid all night at the city gate, waiting for him to leave.<n id="3" /> They relaxed<n id="4" /> all night, thinking,<n id="5" /> &#8220;He will not leave<n id="6" /> until morning comes;<n id="7" /> then we will kill him!&#8221;

Samson spent half the night with the prostitute; then he got up in the middle of the night and left.<n id="1" /> He grabbed the doors of the city gate, as well as the two posts, and pulled them right off, bar and all.<n id="2" /> He put them on his shoulders and carried them up to the top of a hill east of Hebron.<n id="3" />p>

<p class="bodytext">Delilah said to Samson, &#8220;Up to now you have deceived me and told me lies. Tell me how you can be subdued.&#8221; He said to her, &#8220;If you weave the seven braids of my hair<n id="1" /> into the fabric on the loom<n id="2" /> and secure it with the pin, I will become weak and be like any other man.&#8221;

<t /><p class="bodytext">In those days Israel had no king. And in those days the Danite tribe was looking for a place<n id="1" /> to settle, because at that time they did not yet have a place to call their own among the tribes of Israel.<n id="2" />

The Danites sent out from their whole tribe five representatives,<n id="1" /> capable men<n id="2" /> from Zorah and Eshtaol, to spy out the land and explore it. They said to them, &#8220;Go, explore the land.&#8221; They came to the Ephraimite hill country and spent the night at Micah&#8217;s house.<n id="3" />

They went up and camped in Kiriath Jearim in Judah. (To this day that place is called Camp of Dan.<n id="1" /> It is west<n id="2" /> of Kiriath Jearim.)

The Danites worshiped<n id="1" /> the carved image. Jonathan, descendant<n id="2" /> of Gershom, son of Moses,<n id="3" /> and his descendants<n id="4" /> served as priests for the tribe of Dan until the time of the exile.

The men refused to listen to him, so the Levite<n id="1" /> grabbed his concubine and made her go outside.<n id="2" /> They raped<n id="3" /> her and abused her all night long until morning. They let her go at dawn.

Everyone who saw the sight<n id="1" /> said, &#8220;Nothing like this has happened or been witnessed during the entire time since<n id="2" /> the Israelites left the land of Egypt!<n id="3" /> Take careful note of it! Discuss it and speak!&#8221;p>

The Israelites went up and wept before the <sc>Lordsc> until evening. They asked the <sc>Lordsc>, &#8220;Should we<n id="1" /> again march out to fight<n id="2" /> the Benjaminites, our brothers?&#8221;<n id="3" /> The <sc>Lordsc> said, &#8220;Attack them!&#8221;<n id="4" />

<p class="bodytext">So all the Israelites, the whole army,<n id="1" /> went up to<n id="2" /> Bethel.<n id="3" /> They wept and sat there before the <sc>Lordsc>; they did not eat anything<n id="4" /> that day until evening. They offered up burnt sacrifices and tokens of peace<n id="5" /> to the <sc>Lordsc>.

The rest<n id="1" /> turned and ran toward the wilderness, heading toward the cliff of Rimmon. But the Israelites<n id="2" /> caught<n id="3" /> five thousand of them on the main roads. They stayed right on their heels<n id="4" /> all the way to Gidom and struck down two thousand more.

surely you would not want to wait until they were old enough to marry!<n id="1" /> Surely you would not remain unmarried all that time!<n id="2" /> No,<n id="3" /> my daughters, you must not return with me.<n id="4" /> For my intense suffering<n id="5" /> is too much for you to bear.<n id="6" /> For the <sc>Lordsc> is afflicting me!&#8221;<n id="7" />p>

Ruth the Moabite replied, &#8220;He even<n id="1" /> told me, &#8216;You may go along beside my servants<n id="2" /> until they have finished gathering all my harvest!&#8217;&#8221;<n id="3" />