<p class="bodytext">She summoned<n id="1" /> Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali. She said to him, &#8220;Is it not true that the <sc>Lordsc> God of Israel is commanding you? Go, march to Mount Tabor! Take with you ten thousand men from Naphtali and Zebulun!

Deborah said to Barak, &#8220;Spring into action,<n id="1" /> for this is the day the <sc>Lordsc> is handing Sisera over to you!<n id="2" /> Has the <sc>Lordsc> not taken the lead?&#8221;<n id="3" /> Barak quickly went down from Mount Tabor with ten thousand men following him.

Now Barak was chasing Sisera. Jael went out to welcome him. She said to him, &#8220;Come here and I will show you the man you are searching for.&#8221; He went with her into the tent,<n id="1" /> and there he saw Sisera sprawled out dead<n id="2" /> with the tent peg in his temple.p>

he<n id="1" /> sent a prophet<n id="2" /> to the Israelites. He said to them, &#8220;This is what the <sc>Lordsc> God of Israel says: &#8216;I brought you up from Egypt<n id="3" /> and took you out of that place of slavery.<n id="4" />

<p class="bodytext">When the men of the city got up the next morning, they saw<n id="1" /> the Baal altar pulled down, the nearby Asherah pole cut down, and the second bull sacrificed on the newly built altar.

The men of the city said to Joash, &#8220;Bring out your son, so we can execute him!<n id="1" /> He pulled down the Baal altar and cut down the nearby Asherah pole.&#8221;

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" />

The other man said,<n id="1" /> &#8220;Without a doubt this symbolizes<n id="2" /> the sword of Gideon son of Joash, the Israelite. God is handing Midian and all the army over to him.&#8221;p>

<p class="bodytext">Gideon took a hundred men to the edge of the camp<n id="1" /> at the beginning of the middle watch, just after they had changed the guards. They blew their trumpets and broke the jars they were carrying.<n id="2" />

When the three hundred men blew their trumpets, the <sc>Lordsc> caused the Midianites to attack one another with their swords<n id="1" /> throughout<n id="2" /> the camp. The army fled to Beth Shittah on the way to Zererah. They went<n id="3" /> to the border of Abel Meholah near Tabbath.

<p class="bodytext">The Ephraimites said to him, &#8220;Why have you done such a thing to us? You did not summon us<n id="1" /> when you went to fight the Midianites!&#8221; They argued vehemently with him.

<p class="bodytext">Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor with their armies. There were about fifteen thousand survivors from the army of the eastern peoples; a hundred and twenty thousand sword-wielding soldiers had been killed.<n id="1" />

Zebah and Zalmunna said to Gideon,<n id="1" /> &#8220;Come on,<n id="2" /> you strike us, for a man is judged by his strength.&#8221;<n id="3" /> So Gideon killed<n id="4" /> Zebah and Zalmunna, and he took the crescent-shaped ornaments which were on the necks of their camels.p>

He went to his father&#8217;s home in Ophrah and murdered his half-brothers,<n id="1" /> the seventy legitimate<n id="2" /> sons of Jerub-Baal, on one stone. Only Jotham, Jerub-Baal&#8217;s youngest son, escaped,<n id="3" /> because he hid.

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" />

Gaal son of Ebed said, &#8220;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?<n id="1" /> Serve the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem! But why should we serve Abimelech?<n id="2" />

Gaal saw the men<n id="1" /> and said to Zebul, &#8220;Look, men are coming down from the tops of the hills.&#8221; But Zebul said to him, &#8220;You are seeing the shadows on the hills &#8211; it just looks like men.&#8221;<n id="2" />

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" />

<t /><p class="bodytext">The Ephraimites assembled<n id="1" /> and crossed over to Zaphon. They said to Jephthah, &#8220;Why did you go and fight<n id="2" /> with the Ammonites without asking<n id="3" /> us to go with you? We will burn your house down right over you!&#8221;<n id="4" />p>

<p class="bodytext">Manoah prayed to the <sc>Lordsc>,<n id="1" /> &#8220;Please, Lord, allow the man sent from God<n id="2" /> to visit<n id="3" /> us again, so he can teach<n id="4" /> us how we should raise<n id="5" /> the child who will be born.&#8221;