to Mount Tabor, Sisera gathered together all his chariots, nine hundred
iron chariots, and all his people from the heathen city Harosheth to the
brook Kishon. Then Deborah said to Barak, "To the attack! for to-day
Jehovah has delivered Sisera into your hands. Has not Jehovah gone out
before you?"
So Barak went down from Mount Tabor followed by ten thousand men; and at
the attack of Barak's swordsmen Jehovah put to flight Sisera and his
chariots and all his forces, and Sisera got down from his war-chariot
and fled on foot. But Barak pursued the chariots and the forces to
Harosheth; and all the army of Sisera was destroyed by the sword; not a
single man was left.
On that day Deborah and Barak, the son of Abinoam, sang this song:
"O Jehovah, when thou wentest from Seir,
Marching from the region of Edom,
Earth trembled, the heavens swayed,
The clouds also dripped water;
The hills quaked before Jehovah,
Yon Sinai, before Israel's God.
"In the days of Anath's son, Shamgar,
In Jael's days the roads were unused,
And travellers walked through byways.
Leaders disappeared in Israel,
Until you, O Deborah, rose,
Till you rose as a mother in Israel.
"My heart is with the commanders of Israel,
Who volunteered among the people. Bless Jehovah!
You who ride on tawny asses,
Who sit upon rich saddle-cloths;
You who walk by the way, tell of it.
Far from sounds of dividing the spoil,
In the places where water is drawn,
Let them tell of Jehovah's righteous acts,
And the righteous deeds of his leaders!
"Then the people of Jehovah
Went down to the gates, crying:
'Awake, awake, O Deborah,
Awake, awake, sing a battle-song!
Rise up, rise up, O Barak,
Take your captives, O son of Abinoam!'
"So they went down against the powerful,
The Lord's people against the mighty.
From Machir, commanders went down,
From Zebulun, standard-bearers,
Issachar's princes with Deborah,
And with Barak, the men of Naphtali;
Into the valley they streamed after him.
"Zebulun risked its life,
Naphtali on the heights of the field.
Rulers came, they fought,
The rulers of Canaan fought
At Taanach by the waters of Megiddo.
"They took no booty of silver,
For from heaven the very stars fought,
From their courses they fought against Sisera.
The brook Kishon swept them away,
That ancient brook, the brook Kishon.
O my soul, march on with strength!
Then did their horse hoofs pound
With the gallop, gallop of steeds.
"Blessed above women shall Jael be,
That wife of Heber, the Kenite,
More blessed than all nomad women!
Water he asked, milk she gave,
Curdled milk she brought him
In a bowl well fitted for lords!
She put her hand to the tent-pin,
Her right hand to the workman's hammer.
She struck Sisera, crushing his head,
She shattered, she pierced his temples.
At her feet he sank down and lay still,
At her feet he sank, he fell;
There he fell, a victim slain!
"Through the window she peered and cried,
Through the lattice, the mother of Sisera:
'Why so long his chariot in coming?
Why tarry the hoof-beats of steeds?'
Then the wisest of her ladies replied,
She herself also answered her question,
'Are they not dividing the spoil?
A woman or two for each warrior,
For Sisera a spoil of dyed stuffs,
A spoil of dyed stuffs embroidered,
Some pieces of lace for his neck?'
"So perish thy foes, O Jehovah!
But may those who love him be as the sun,
Rising up in invincible splendor!"
GIDEON'S BRAVE BAND
In course of time the Midianites conquered the Israelites. To escape
them the Israelites made for themselves dens in the mountains and caves
and strongholds. When the Israelites had sown their crops, the
Midianites would come up and leave nothing for the Israelites to live
on, neither sheep, nor ox, nor ass; for they came up with their cattle
and their tents. The Israelites were so robbed by the Midianites, that
they cried to Jehovah for help.
Then the angel of Jehovah came and sat down under the oak which was in
Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezerite; and his son, Gideon, was
beating out wheat in the wine-press to hide it from the Midianites. The
angel of Jehovah appeared to him and said, "Jehovah is with you, able
warrior!" Gideon said to him, "O my lord, if Jehovah is with us, why
then has all this overtaken us? Where are all his wonderful acts of
which our fathers told us, saying, 'Did not Jehovah bring us from
Egypt?' But now Jehovah has cast us off and given us into the power of
the Midianites."
Then Jehovah turned to him and said, "With this strength which you have
go and save Israel from the rule of the Midianites: do I not send you?"
But Gideon said to him, "O Jehovah, how can I save Israel? See, my
family is the poorest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's
house." Jehovah said to him, "I will surely be with you, and you shall
overthrow the Midianites as if they were only one man."
Then the spirit of Jehovah took possession of Gideon, and he sounded the
war trumpet, and the Abiezerites assembled under his leadership. He also
sent messengers throughout all the land of the Manassites, and they
assembled under his leadership; and he sent messengers to the Asherites,
the Zebulunites, and the Naphtalites, and they went up to join him. But
Jehovah said to Gideon, "You have too many people with you; if I give
the Midianites up to the Israelites they will boast, 'We have saved
ourselves!' Therefore, proclaim to your people, 'Whoever is afraid may
go home.'"
Then Gideon separated them, so that twenty-two thousand of the people
went back home, but ten thousand stayed. But Jehovah said to him, "The
people are still too many; take them down to the water, and I will try
them out for you there. Every one of whom I say to you, 'This one shall
go with you,' shall go with you; and every one of whom I say to you,
'This one shall not go with you,' shall not go."
So Gideon brought the people down to the water. And Jehovah said to him,
"You shall put by themselves all who lap the water with their tongues,
as a dog laps, and all who kneel down on their knees to drink by
themselves." The number of those who lapped with their tongue, putting
their hand to their mouth, were three hundred men; but all the rest of
the people knelt down on their knees to drink. Then Jehovah said to
Gideon, "By the three hundred men who lapped I will save you and deliver
the Midianites into your hands. Let all the rest of the people go home."
So they took the food that the people had in their hands, and their
trumpets; and Gideon sent home all the other Israelites, keeping only
the three hundred men.
Then Gideon came to the Jordan and crossed it, and the three hundred men
were with him, faint yet pursuing. And he said to the men of Succoth,
"Give, I beg of you, loaves of bread to the people who follow me, for
they are faint and I am pursuing after Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of
Midian." But the rulers of Succoth said, "Are Zebah and Zalmunna already
in your power that we should give bread to your band?" Gideon replied,
"When Jehovah has delivered Zebah and Zalmunna into my power, for this
insult I will thrash your bare flesh with desert thorns and briers." He
went on from there to Penuel and made the same request of the men of
Penuel, but they made the same answer as the men of Succoth. To the men
of Penuel he also said, "When I come back victorious, I will break down
this tower."
Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor, and their forces were with them, in
all about fifteen thousand men. Gideon went up by the caravan road and
surprised the horde as it was encamped with no fear of being attacked.
He divided the three hundred men into three companies. Into the hands of
all of them he put horns and empty earthen jars. In each jar was a
torch. He also said to them, "Watch me and do as I do. When I reach the
outside of the camp and those who are with me blow a blast on the horn,
then you also shall blow your horns on every side of the camp and cry,
'For Jehovah and Gideon!'"
So Gideon and the hundred men with him reached the outside of the camp
at the beginning of the middle watch, when guards had just been posted;
and they blew the horns and broke in pieces the jars that were in their
hands. The two other companies also broke their jars, took the torches
in their left hands and their swords in their right, and cried, "The
Sword of Jehovah and of Gideon." And as they stood where they were,
about the camp, the entire horde awoke, sounded the alarm, and fled.
Zebah and Zalmunna also fled; but Gideon followed and captured the two
kings of Midian and threw all the horde into a panic.
When Gideon returned from the battle, he captured a young man who lived
at Succoth. At Gideon's request he wrote down for him the names of the
rulers of Succoth and its leading men. There were seventy-seven in all.
When Gideon came to the men of Succoth, he said, "See, here are Zebah
and Zalmunna about whom you mocked me, saying, 'Are Zebah and Zalmunna
already in your power that we should give bread to your men who are
weary?'" Then he took desert thorns and briers, and with these he
thrashed the leading men of Succoth. He also broke down the tower of
Penuel and put to death the men of the town.
Then Gideon said to Zebah and Zalmunna, "What kind of men were those
whom you killed at Tabor?" They replied, "They were just like you; each
of them looked like a prince." Gideon said, "They were my own brothers,
the sons of my mother. As surely as Jehovah lives, if you had saved them
alive, I would not kill you now."
Then he said to Jether, his oldest son, "Up and kill them." But the boy
did not draw his sword, because he was afraid, for he was only a boy.
Then Zebah and Zalmunna said, "Get up yourself and fall upon us; for a
man has a man's strength!" So Gideon rose and killed Zebah and Zalmunna,
and took the crescents that were on their camels' necks.
Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, "Rule over us, and not only you
but your son and your son's son after you, for you have saved us from
the power of the Midianites." Gideon said to them, "I will not rule over
you, nor shall my son rule over you; Jehovah shall rule over you; but
let me make one request of you: let every man give me the ear-rings from
his spoil" (for they had golden ear-rings, because they were desert
dwellers). They answered, "Certainly, we will give them." So they spread
out a blanket and each man threw into it the ear-rings from his spoil.
The weight of the golden ear-rings for which he had asked was nearly
seventy pounds of gold. Then Gideon made of the gold a priestly robe to
wear when asking questions of Jehovah, and placed it in his own city,
Ophrah.
Gideon died at a good old age and was buried in the tomb of Joash, his
father, in Ophrah of the Abiezerites.
JEPHTHAH'S FOOLISH PROMISE
Jephthah, the Gileadite, was an able warrior, but he was the son of a
wicked woman, and had fled from his relatives and lived in the land of
Tob. There certain rascals gathered about him, and they used to go out
on raids with him.
After a time the Ammonites made war against the Israelites. Then the
elders of Gilead went to bring Jephthah from the land of Tob, and they
said to him, "Come and be our commander, that we may fight against the
Ammonites." But Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, "Are you not the
men who hated me and drove me out of my father's house? Why then do you
come to me now when you are in trouble?" But the elders of Gilead said
to Jephthah, "This is why we have now turned to you, that you may go
with us and fight against the Ammonites, and you shall be our chief,
even over all the people who live in Gilead." Then Jephthah said to the
rulers of Gilead, "If you take me back to fight against the Ammonites
and Jehovah gives me the victory over them, I shall be your chief." The
elders of Gilead replied, "Jehovah shall be a witness between us; we
swear to do as you say."
Then Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him
chief and commander over them. Jephthah also made this vow to Jehovah:
"If thou wilt deliver the Ammonites into my power, then whoever comes
out of the door of my house to meet me, when I return victorious from
the Ammonites, shall be Jehovah's, and I will offer that one as an
offering to be burned with fire."
So Jephthah went out to fight against the Ammonites; and Jehovah gave
him the victory over them, and delivered them into his hands. But when
he came home to Mizpah, his daughter was just coming out to meet him
with tambourines and choral dances. She was his only child; besides this
one he had neither son nor daughter. So when he saw her, he tore his
clothes and said, "Oh, my daughter, you have stricken me! It is you who
are the cause of my woe! for I have made a solemn vow to Jehovah and
cannot break it." She said to him, "My father, you have made a solemn
vow to Jehovah; do to me what you have promised, since Jehovah has
punished your enemies the Ammonites. But let this favor be granted me:
spare me two months that I may go out upon the mountains with those who
would have been my bridesmaids and lament because I will never become a
wife and mother." He said, "Go."
So he sent her away for two months with her friends, and she mourned on
the mountains because she would never become a wife and mother. At the
end of two months she returned to her father, who did what he had vowed
to do, even though she had never been married. So it became a custom in
Israel: each year the women of Israel go out for four days to bewail the
death of the daughter of Jephthah, the Gileadite.
SAMSON WHO DID TO OTHERS AS THEY DID TO HIM
There was a certain man of Zorah, of the clan of the Danites, named
Manoah; and he and his wife had no children. But the angel of Jehovah
appeared to the woman and said to her, "See, you have no children; but
now be careful not to drink any wine nor strong drink, and do not eat
anything unclean, for you are about to have a son. No razor shall be
used upon your son's head, for from birth the boy shall belong to God."
So the woman had a son and named him Samson.
Once Samson went down to Timnah and saw there a Philistine woman. When
he came back he said to his father and mother, "I have seen a Philistine
woman in Timnah. Get her as a wife for me." But his father and mother
said to him, "Is there no woman in your own tribe or among all our
people, that you must marry a wife from among the heathen Philistines?"
But Samson said to his father, "Get her for me, for she suits me."
So Samson went with his father and mother to Timnah; and just as they
came to the vineyards of Timnah, a full-grown young lion came roaring
toward him. The spirit of Jehovah came upon Samson and, although he had
nothing in his hand, he tore the beast in two as one tears a kid. But he
did not tell his father and mother what he had done.
Then he went down and talked with the woman, and she suited him. When he
returned after a while to marry her, he turned aside to see what was
left of the lion, and there was a swarm of bees and honey in the
carcass. He scraped the honey out into his hands and went on, eating it
as he went. When he came to his father and mother, he gave some to them,
and they ate; but he did not tell them that he had taken the honey out
of the carcass of the lion.
Then Samson went down to the woman; and he gave a feast there (for so
bridegrooms used to do). When the Philistines saw him, they provided
thirty comrades to be with him. And Samson said to them, "Let me now
tell you a riddle. If you can tell me what it is within the seven days
of the feast, I will give you thirty fine linen robes and thirty suits
of clothes; but if you cannot tell me, then you shall give me thirty
fine linen robes and thirty suits of clothes." They said to him, "Tell
your riddle, that we may hear it." And he said to them:
"Out of the eater came something to eat,
And out of the strong came something sweet."
But for six days they could not solve the riddle.
On the seventh day they said to Samson's wife, "Tease your husband until
he tells us the riddle, or else we will burn up you and your father's
house. Did you invite us here to make us poor?" So Samson's wife wept
before him and said, "You only hate me and do not love me at all! You
have told a riddle to my fellow countrymen and not told me what it is."
He said to her, "See, I have not told it to my father or my mother, and
shall I tell you?" So she wept before him as long as their feast lasted,
but on the seventh day he told her, because she kept asking him; and she
told the riddle to her fellow countrymen.
So the men of the city said to him on the seventh day before the sun
went down, "What is sweeter than honey? And what is stronger than a
lion?" And he said to them:
"If with my heifer you did not plough,
You had not solved my riddle now."
Then he was suddenly given divine strength, and he went down to Ashkelon
and killed thirty of their men and took the spoil from them and gave the
suits of clothes to those who had guessed the riddle. But he was very
angry and returned to his father's house. And his bride was given to his
comrade who had been his best man.
After a while, at the time of wheat harvest, Samson went to visit his
wife with a kid as a present; but when he said, "Let me go into the
inner room to my wife," her father would not let him go in, but said, "I
thought that you must surely hate her, so I gave her to your best man.
Is not her younger sister fairer than she? Take her then, instead." But
Samson said to him, "This time I shall be justified if I do the
Philistines an injury." So he went and caught three hundred foxes,
turned them tail to tail, and put a torch between every pair of tails.
When he had set the torches on fire, he let them go into the standing
grain of the Philistines and burned up not only the shocks and the
standing grain, but the olive orchards as well.
Then the Philistines said, "Who has done this?" The reply was, "Samson,
the son-in-law of the Timnite, because that man took Samson's wife and
gave her to his best man." So the Philistines went up, and burnt her and
her father. Then Samson said to them, "If this is the way you do, I will
not stop until I have had my revenge on you!" So he fought fiercely and
killed many of them; then he went and stayed in a cavern in the cliff of
Etam.
When the Philistines went up and camped in Judah and made a raid on
Lehi, the Judahites said, "Why have you come up against us?" They
replied, "We have come up to bind Samson, to do to him what he has done
to us." Then three thousand men of Judah went down to the cavern in the
cliff of Etam and said to Samson, "Do you not know that the Philistines
are our rulers? What are you doing to us?" He replied, "I have done to
them as they did to me." They said to him, "We have come down to bind
you, to turn you over to the Philistines." Samson said to them, "Swear
to me that you will not attack me yourselves." They said to him, "No; we
will simply bind you securely and deliver you to them; but we will not
kill you." So they bound him with two new ropes, and brought him up from
the cliff.
When he came to Lehi, the Philistines shouted when they met him. Then he
was suddenly given divine strength, and the ropes that were on his arms
became like flax that has been burned in the fire, and his bonds melted
from his hands. And he found a fresh jaw-bone of an ass, and having
seized it, he killed a thousand men with it. Then Samson said:
"With the jaw-bone of an ass have I piled them, mass on mass;
A thousand warriors have I slain with the jaw-bone of an ass."
A STRONG MAN WHO LOST HIS STRENGTH
Afterward, Samson fell in love with a woman in the valley of Sorek,
named Delilah. Then the rulers of the Philistines came to her and said,
"Find out by teasing him how it is that his strength is so great and
how we may overpower and bind him that we may torture him. Then we will
each one of us give you eleven hundred pieces of silver." So Delilah
said to Samson, "Tell me how it is that your strength is so great and
how you might be bound to torture you?" Samson said to her, "If they
should bind me with seven green bowstrings which have not been dried, I
would become weak like any other man."
Then the rulers of the Philistines brought her seven green bowstrings
which had not been dried, and she bound him with them. She had the men
lying in wait in the inner room, but when she said to him, "The
Philistines are upon you, Samson!" he snapped the bowstrings as a piece
of yarn is snapped when it comes near the fire; so they did not find out
the secret of his strength.
Then Delilah said to Samson, "You have deceived me and lied to me; now
tell me with what you can be bound fast." He said to her, "If they
should bind me securely with new ropes with which no work has been done,
I would become weak like any other man." So Delilah took new ropes and
bound him with them and said to him, "The Philistines are upon you,
Samson!" Men were also lying in wait in the inner room; but he snapped
the ropes from his arms like thread.
Again Delilah said to Samson, "So far you have deceived me and lied to
me; tell me now with what you can be bound fast." He said to her, "If
you should weave the seven braids on my head along with the web and beat
it into form with the weaving pin, I would become weak like any other
man." So while he was asleep, she took the seven braids of his hair and
wove it with the web and beat it into form with the pin, and said to
him, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson!" But he awoke out of his
sleep and pulled up the loom and the web.
Then she said to him, "How can you say, 'I love you,' when you do not
trust me? You have deceived me three times already and have not told me
the secret of your great strength." But in time, since she daily begged
and urged him, he was wearied to death, and told her all that he knew,
saying, "A razor has never touched my head; for I have belonged to God
from my birth. If I should be shaved, my strength would be gone, and I
would become weak like any other man."
When Delilah saw that he had told her all that he knew, she sent and
called for the rulers of the Philistines and said, "Come at once, for
he has told me all that he knows." Then the rulers of the Philistines
came up to her and brought the money with them. After she had put Samson
to sleep on her knees, she called for a man and had him shave off the
seven braids on his head. Then she began to tease him, and his strength
went from him; and she said, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson!" And
he awoke out of his sleep and thought, "I will get up as I have done at
other times and shake myself free"; for he did not know that Jehovah had
left him. So the Philistines seized him and bored out his eyes. Then
they brought him down to Gaza and bound him with chains of brass, and
then he was set to grinding in the prison. But the hair of his head
began to grow again as soon as he was shaved.
Then the rulers of the Philistines assembled to offer a great sacrifice
to their god Dagon and to rejoice, for they said, "Our god has given
Samson, our enemy, into our power." When the people saw him, they also
praised their god, saying:
"Our god has laid low our foe,
He who brought our country woe,
He who slew us with many a blow."
When they were in high spirits, they said, "Call Samson that he may
amuse us." So they called Samson from the prison and he amused them; and
they placed him between the pillars.
Then Samson said to the young man who held him by the hand, "Let me
touch the pillars on which the building rests, that I may lean against
them." Now the building was full of men and women, and all the rulers of
the Philistines were there, and on the roof about three thousand men and
women were looking on while Samson amused them. Samson called on Jehovah
and said, "O Jehovah, remember me and strengthen me, I pray thee, just
this once, O God, that by one act I may avenge myself on the Philistines
for the loss of my two eyes."
Then Samson took hold of the two middle pillars upon which the building
rested, one with his right hand and the other with his left, and leaned
against them. And Samson said, "Let me die with the Philistines." Then
he bent over with all his strength, and the house fell upon the rulers
and upon all the people who were in it. So those whom he killed at his
death were more than those whom he killed during his lifetime.
Then his brothers and all his family came down and took him away and
buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the burying-place of Manoah his
father.
THE DEVOTION OF RUTH
During the days of the judges, there was once a famine in the land; and
a certain man from Bethlehem in Judah took his wife and two sons to live
in the territory of Moab. His name was Elimelech and his wife's Naomi,
and his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion. After they had been living in
Moab for some time, Elimelech died, and Naomi was left with her two
sons. They married Moabite women, named Orpah and Ruth. After they had
lived there about ten years, Mahlon and Chilion both died, and Naomi was
left without husband or children.