The Book of Judges chronicles the turbulent period in Israel's history between Joshua's leadership and the establishment of the monarchy. It features a cycle of Israel's disobedience, oppression by enemies, cries for help, and deliverance through judges like Deborah, Gideon, and Samson. The narrative highlights themes of faith, human frailty, and God's mercy, illustrating the consequences of turning away from divine guidance and the power of repentance and redemption.
1. Now after the death of Joshua it came to pass, that the children of Israel asked the LORD, saying, Who shall go up for us against the Canaanites first, to fight against them?2. And the LORD said, Judah shall go up: behold, I have delivered the land into his hand.3. And Judah said to Simeon his brother, Come up with me into my lot, that we may fight against the Canaanites; and I likewise will go with you into your lot. So Simeon went with him.
1. And an angel of the LORD came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said, I made you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you to the land which I swore to your fathers; and I said, I will never break my covenant with you.2. And you shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land; you shall throw down their altars: but you have not obeyed my voice: why have you done this?3. Why I also said, I will not drive them out from before you; but they shall be as thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare to you.
1. Now these are the nations which the LORD left, to prove Israel by them, even as many of Israel as had not known all the wars of Canaan;2. Only that the generations of the children of Israel might know, to teach them war, at the least such as before knew nothing thereof;3. Namely, five lords of the Philistines, and all the Canaanites, and the Sidonians, and the Hivites that dwelled in mount Lebanon, from mount Baalhermon to the entering in of Hamath.
1. And the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the LORD, when Ehud was dead.2. And the LORD sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, that reigned in Hazor; the captain of whose host was Sisera, which dwelled in Harosheth of the Gentiles.3. And the children of Israel cried to the LORD: for he had nine hundred chariots of iron; and twenty years he mightily oppressed the children of Israel. ¶
1. Then sang Deborah and Barak the son of Abinoam on that day, saying,2. Praise you the LORD for the avenging of Israel, when the people willingly offered themselves.3. Hear, O you kings; give ear, O you princes; I, even I, will sing to the LORD; I will sing praise to the LORD God of Israel.
1. And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD: and the LORD delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years.2. And the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel: and because of the Midianites the children of Israel made them the dens which are in the mountains, and caves, and strong holds.3. And so it was, when Israel had sown, that the Midianites came up, and the Amalekites, and the children of the east, even they came up against them;
1. Then Jerubbaal, who is Gideon, and all the people that were with him, rose up early, and pitched beside the well of Harod: so that the host of the Midianites were on the north side of them, by the hill of Moreh, in the valley.2. And the LORD said to Gideon, The people that are with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, My own hand has saved me.3. Now therefore go to, proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, Whoever is fearful and afraid, let him return and depart early from mount Gilead. And there returned of the people twenty and two thousand; and there remained ten thousand.
1. And the men of Ephraim said to him, Why have you served us thus, that you called us not, when you went to fight with the Midianites? And they did chide with him sharply.2. And he said to them, What have I done now in comparison of you? Is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abiezer?3. God has delivered into your hands the princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb: and what was I able to do in comparison of you? Then their anger was abated toward him, when he had said that. ¶
1. And Abimelech the son of Jerubbaal went to Shechem to his mother’s brothers, and communed with them, and with all the family of the house of his mother’s father, saying,2. Speak, I pray you, in the ears of all the men of Shechem, Whether is better for you, either that all the sons of Jerubbaal, which are three score and ten persons, reign over you, or that one reign over you? remember also that I am your bone and your flesh.3. And his mother’s brothers spoke of him in the ears of all the men of Shechem all these words: and their hearts inclined to follow Abimelech; for they said, He is our brother.
1. And after Abimelech there arose to defend Israel Tola the son of Puah, the son of Dodo, a man of Issachar; and he dwelled in Shamir in mount Ephraim.2. And he judged Israel twenty and three years, and died, and was buried in Shamir. ¶3. And after him arose Jair, a Gileadite, and judged Israel twenty and two years.
1. Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valor, and he was the son of an harlot: and Gilead begat Jephthah.2. And Gilead’s wife bore him sons; and his wife’s sons grew up, and they thrust out Jephthah, and said to him, You shall not inherit in our father’s house; for you are the son of a strange woman.3. Then Jephthah fled from his brothers, and dwelled in the land of Tob: and there were gathered vain men to Jephthah, and went out with him. ¶
1. And the men of Ephraim gathered themselves together, and went northward, and said to Jephthah, Why passed you over to fight against the children of Ammon, and did not call us to go with you? we will burn your house on you with fire.2. And Jephthah said to them, I and my people were at great strife with the children of Ammon; and when I called you, you delivered me not out of their hands.3. And when I saw that you delivered me not, I put my life in my hands, and passed over against the children of Ammon, and the LORD delivered them into my hand: why then are you come up to me this day, to fight against me?
1. And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the LORD; and the LORD delivered them into the hand of the Philistines forty years. ¶2. And there was a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was barren, and bore not.3. And the angel of the LORD appeared to the woman, and said to her, Behold now, you are barren, and bore not: but you shall conceive, and bear a son.
1. And Samson went down to Timnath, and saw a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines.2. And he came up, and told his father and his mother, and said, I have seen a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines: now therefore get her for me to wife.3. Then his father and his mother said to him, Is there never a woman among the daughters of your brothers, or among all my people, that you go to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines? And Samson said to his father, Get her for me; for she pleases me well.
1. But it came to pass within a while after, in the time of wheat harvest, that Samson visited his wife with a kid; and he said, I will go in to my wife into the chamber. But her father would not suffer him to go in.2. And her father said, I truly thought that you had utterly hated her; therefore I gave her to your companion: is not her younger sister fairer than she? take her, I pray you, instead of her. ¶3. And Samson said concerning them, Now shall I be more blameless than the Philistines, though I do them a displeasure.
1. Then went Samson to Gaza, and saw there an harlot, and went in to her.2. And it was told the Gazites, saying, Samson is come here. And they compassed him in, and laid wait for him all night in the gate of the city, and were quiet all the night, saying, In the morning, when it is day, we shall kill him.3. And Samson lay till midnight, and arose at midnight, and took the doors of the gate of the city, and the two posts, and went away with them, bar and all, and put them on his shoulders, and carried them up to the top of an hill that is before Hebron. ¶
1. And there was a man of mount Ephraim, whose name was Micah.2. And he said to his mother, The eleven hundred shekels of silver that were taken from you, about which you cursed, and spoke of also in my ears, behold, the silver is with me; I took it. And his mother said, Blessed be you of the LORD, my son.3. And when he had restored the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother, his mother said, I had wholly dedicated the silver to the LORD from my hand for my son, to make a graven image and a molten image: now therefore I will restore it to you.
1. In those days there was no king in Israel: and in those days the tribe of the Danites sought them an inheritance to dwell in; for to that day all their inheritance had not fallen to them among the tribes of Israel.2. And the children of Dan sent of their family five men from their coasts, men of valor, from Zorah, and from Eshtaol, to spy out the land, and to search it; and they said to them, Go, search the land: who when they came to mount Ephraim, to the house of Micah, they lodged there.3. When they were by the house of Micah, they knew the voice of the young man the Levite: and they turned in thither, and said to him, Who brought you here? and what make you in this place? and what have you here?
1. And it came to pass in those days, when there was no king in Israel, that there was a certain Levite sojourning on the side of mount Ephraim, who took to him a concubine out of Bethlehemjudah.2. And his concubine played the whore against him, and went away from him to her father’s house to Bethlehemjudah, and was there four whole months.3. And her husband arose, and went after her, to speak friendly to her, and to bring her again, having his servant with him, and a couple of asses: and she brought him into her father’s house: and when the father of the damsel saw him, he rejoiced to meet him.
1. Then all the children of Israel went out, and the congregation was gathered together as one man, from Dan even to Beersheba, with the land of Gilead, to the LORD in Mizpeh.2. And the chief of all the people, even of all the tribes of Israel, presented themselves in the assembly of the people of God, four hundred thousand footmen that drew sword.3. (Now the children of Benjamin heard that the children of Israel were gone up to Mizpeh.) Then said the children of Israel, Tell us, how was this wickedness?
1. Now the men of Israel had sworn in Mizpeh, saying, There shall not any of us give his daughter to Benjamin to wife.2. And the people came to the house of God, and stayed there till even before God, and lifted up their voices, and wept sore;3. And said, O LORD God of Israel, why is this come to pass in Israel, that there should be to day one tribe lacking in Israel?
