\id JDG - Wycliffe’s Bible Modern Spelling, Word Files Text Conversion and standardization, A. Camus 05 2019
\ide UTF-8
\h JUDGES
\toc1 JUDGES
\toc2 Judges
\toc3 JDG
\mt1 JUDGES
\c 1
\cl CHAPTER 1
\p
\v 1 After the death of Joshua the sons of Israel counselled with the Lord, and said, Who shall go up before us against Canaanites, and shall be duke of the battle?
\p
\v 2 And the Lord said, Judah shall go up; lo! I have given the land into his hands.
\p
\v 3 And Judah said to Simeon, his brother, Go thou up with me in my lot, and fight thou against Canaanites, that I go with thee in thy lot. And Simeon went with him;
\p
\v 4 and Judah went up. And the Lord betook Canaanites and Perizzites into their hands, and they killed in Bezek ten thousand men.
\p
\v 5 And they found Adonibezek in Bezek, and they fought against him, and they overcame Canaanites, and Perizzites.
\p
\v 6 And Adonibezek fled, whom they pursued, and took, and they cut off the ends of his hands and of his feet.
\p
\v 7 And Adonibezek said, Seventy kings, when the ends of their hands and of their feet were cut away, gathered remnants of meats under my board; as I have done, so God hath yielded to me. And they brought him into Jerusalem, and there he died.
\p
\v 8 Then the sons of Judah fought against Jerusalem, and they took it, and they smote it by the sharpness of sword, and they betook all the city to burning.
\p
\v 9 And afterward they went down, and fought against Canaanites, that dwelled in the hilly places, and at the south, in \add [the]\add* wild fields.
\p
\v 10 And Judah went against Canaanites, that dwelled in Hebron, whose name was by eld \add [or old]\add* time Kiriatharba; and Judah killed Sheshai, and Ahiman, and Talmai.
\p
\v 11 And from thence he went forth, and he came to the dwellers of Debir, whose eld \add [or old]\add* name was Kiriath-sepher, \em that is, the city of letters\em*.
\p
\v 12 And Caleb said, I shall give Achsah, my daughter, wife to him that shall smite Kiriathsepher, and shall waste it.
\p
\v 13 And when Othniel, the son of Kenaz, the younger brother of Caleb, had taken it, Caleb gave Achsah, his daughter, wife to him.
\p
\v 14 And her husband stirred her, going in the way, that she should ask of her father a field; and when she had sighed, sitting on the ass, Caleb said to her, What hast thou?
\p
\v 15 And she answered, Give thou \add [a]\add* blessing to me, for thou hast given a dry land to me; give thou \em to me\em* also a moist land with waters. And Caleb gave to her the moist land above, and the moist land beneath.
\p
\v 16 Forsooth the sons of Kenite, the father of Moses’ wife, went up from the city of Palms with the sons of Judah, into the desert of his lot, which desert is at the south of Arad; and \add [they]\add* dwelled with him.
\p
\v 17 And Judah went with Simeon, his brother; and they smote altogether Canaanites, that dwelled in Zephath, and they killed him; and the name of that city was called Hormah, \em that is, cursing, either perfect destroying, for that city was destroyed utterly\em*.
\p
\v 18 And Judah took Gaza with his coasts, and Askelon, and Ekron with his terms.
\p
\v 19 And the Lord was with Judah, and he had in possession the hilly places; and he might not do away the dwellers of the valley, for they were plenteous in iron chariots, \em full of weapons\em*, sharp as scythes.
\p
\v 20 And \em the sons of Israel\em* gave Hebron to Caleb, as Moses had said, and Caleb did away from it three sons of Anak.
\p
\v 21 But the sons of Benjamin did not away Jebusites, the dwellers of Jerusalem; and Jebusites dwelled with the sons of Benjamin in Jerusalem unto this present day.
\p
\v 22 Also the house of Joseph went up into Bethel, and the Lord was with them.
\p
\v 23 For when they besieged the city, that was called Luz before,
\p
\v 24 they saw a man going out of the city, and they said to him, Show thou to us the entering of the city, and we shall do mercy with thee.
\p
\v 25 And when he had showed to them, they smote the city by sharpness of sword; and they delivered that man and all his kindred.
\p
\v 26 And when he was delivered, he went into the land of Hittites, and builded there a city, and called it Luz; which is called so till into \em this\em* present day.
\p
\v 27 Also Manasseh did not away Beth-shean and Taanach with their towns, and the dwellers of Dor, and Ibleam, and Megiddo, with their towns; and Canaanites began to dwell with them.
\p
\v 28 Soothly after that Israel was comforted, he made them tributaries, \em either to pay tribute\em*, and would not do away them.
\p
\v 29 Soothly Ephraim killed not Canaanites that dwelled in Gezer, but dwelled with him.
\p
\v 30 Zebulun did not away the dwellers of Kitron, and of Nahalol; but Canaanites dwelled in the midst of him, and was made tributary to him.
\p
\v 31 Also Asher did not away the dwellers of Accho, and of Sidon, of Ahlab, and of Achzib, and of Helbah, and of Aphik, and of Rehob;
\p
\v 32 and Asher dwelled in the midst of Canaanites, the dwellers of that land, and Asher killed not him.
\p
\v 33 Naphtali did not away the dwellers of Bethshemesh, and of Bethanath; and he dwelled among Canaanites, the dwellers of the land; and Bethshe-mesh and Bethanath were tributaries to him.
\p
\v 34 And Amorites held strait the sons of Dan in the hill, and he gave not place to them to go down to \add [the]\add* plainer places;
\p
\v 35 and he dwelled in the hill of Heres, \em which is interpreted, Witnessing\em*, in Aijalon, and in Shaalbim. And the hand of the house of Joseph was made heavy, and he was made tributary to him.
\p
\v 36 And the term of Amorites was from the ascending or going up of Scorpion, and from the stone, and \add [the]\add* higher places.
\c 2
\cl CHAPTER 2
\p
\v 1 And the angel of the Lord went up from Gilgal to the place of Weepers, and said, I led you out of Egypt, and I brought \em you\em* into the land, for which I swore to your fathers, and promised, that I should not make void my covenant with you into without end;
\p
\v 2 so only that ye should not smite bond of peace with the dwellers of this land, and that ye destroy their altars; and you would not hear my voice. Why did ye these things?
\p
\v 3 Wherefore I would not do them away from your face, that ye have them enemies, and that their gods be to you into falling.
\p
\v 4 And when the angel of the Lord spake these words to all the sons of Israel, they raised \add [up]\add* their voice, and wept;
\p
\v 5 and the name of the place was called, the place of Weepers, \em either of tears\em*; and they offered there sacrifices to the Lord.
\p
\v 6 Then Joshua let the people go; and the sons of Israel went forth, each man into his possession, that they should get it.
\p
\v 7 And they served the Lord in all the days of Joshua, and of the elder men that lived after him long time, and knew all the great works of the Lord, which he had done with Israel.
\p
\v 8 Forsooth Joshua, \add [the]\add* son of Nun, \add [the]\add* servant of the Lord, was dead of an hundred years and ten;
\p
\v 9 and they buried him in the ends of his possession, in Timnath of Heres, in the hill of Ephraim, at the north coast of the hill Gaash.
\p
\v 10 And all that generation was gathered to their fathers; and other men \em of Israel\em* rose up, that knew not the Lord, and the works which he had done with Israel.
\p
\v 11 And the sons of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and they served Baalim and Ashtaroth;
\p
\v 12 and forsook the Lord God of their fathers, that led them out of the land of Egypt; and they pursued \add [or followed]\add* alien gods, the gods of peoples, that dwelled in the compass of them, and worshipped those gods, and they stirred the Lord to great wrath,
\p
\v 13 and \em they\em* forsook him, and served Baal and Ashtaroth.
\p
\v 14 And the Lord was wroth against Israel, and he betook them into the hands of ravishers, the which took them, and sold them to enemies, that dwelled by compass; and they might not against-stand their adversaries;
\p
\v 15 but whither ever they would go, the hand of the Lord was on them, \em that is, to torment them\em*, as he spake and swore to them; and they were tormented greatly.
\p
\v 16 And the Lord raised judges, that delivered them from the hands of destroyers,
\p
\v 17 but they would not hear them, and they did fornication, \em that is, idolatry\em*, with alien gods, and worshipped them. Soon they forsook the way, by which their fathers entered; and they heard the commandments of the Lord, and did all things contrary.
\p
\v 18 And when the Lord raised up judges in their days, he was bowed by mercy, and he heard the wailings of \em them\em* that were tormented, and he delivered them from the slaying of \em their\em* destroyers.
\p
\v 19 Soothly after that the judge was dead, they turned again, and did many things greater \em in evil\em* than their fathers did; and they pursue \add [or following]\add* alien gods, and served them, and worshipped them; they left not their own findings, and the hardest way by which they were wont to go.
\p
\v 20 And the strong vengeance of the Lord was wroth against Israel, and he said, For this people hath made void my covenant which I covenanted with their fathers, and have despised to hear my voice;
\p
\v 21 also I shall not do away the folks, which Joshua left, and was dead;
\p
\v 22 that in them I assay Israel, whether they keep the way of the Lord, and go therein, as their fathers kept \em it\em*, either nay.
\p
\v 23 Therefore the Lord left \em alive\em* all these nations, and he would not destroy them soon, neither he betook \em them\em* into the hands of Joshua.
\c 3
\cl CHAPTER 3
\p
\v 1 These be the folks which the Lord left \em alive\em*, that in them he should teach Israel, and all men that knew not the battles of Canaanites;
\p
\v 2 and that afterward the sons of them should learn to fight with enemies, and to have custom of battle.
\p
\v 3 \em He left\em* five princes of the Philistines, and all Canaanites, and the people of Sidon, and Hivites that dwelled in the hill Lebanon, from the hill Baalhermon till to the entering of Hamath.
\p
\v 4 And he left them, that in them he should assay Israel, whether they would hear the behests of the Lord, which he commanded to their fathers by the hand of Moses, either nay.
\p
\v 5 And so the sons of Israel dwelled in the midst of Canaanites, of Hittites, and of Amorites, and of Perizzites, and of Hivites, and of Jebusites,
\p
\v 6 and they wedded wives, the daughters of them; and the sons of Israel gave their daughters to their sons, and they served to their gods.
\p
\v 7 And the sons of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and forgat their Lord God, and served Baalim, and Asheroth.
\p
\v 8 And the Lord was wroth against Israel, and he betook them into the hands of Chushanrishathaim, king of Mesopotamia, and they served him eight years.
\p
\v 9 And they cried to the Lord, and he raised to them a saviour, and delivered them, that is, Othniel, the son of Kenaz, and the younger brother of Caleb.
\p
\v 10 And the spirit of the Lord was in him, and he deemed Israel. And he went out to battle, and the Lord betook into his hand Chushanrishathaim, king of Syria; and \em Othniel\em* oppressed him.
\p
\v 11 And the land rested forty years; and Othniel, the son of Kenaz, died.
\p
\v 12 Forsooth the sons of Israel added to do evil in the sight of the Lord; and he comforted against them Eglon, the king of Moab, for they did evil in the sight of the Lord.
\p
\v 13 And the Lord coupled to him the sons of Ammon and Amalek; and he went, and smote Israel, and had in possession the city of Palms.
\p
\v 14 And the sons of Israel served Eglon, the king of Moab, eighteen years.
\p
\v 15 And afterward they cried to the Lord; and he raised to them a saviour, Ehud by name, the son of Gera, son of Benjamin, the which Ehud used ever either hand for the right hand. And the sons of Israel sent by him gifts, \em that is, tribute\em*, to Eglon, king of Moab;
\p
\v 16 \add [the]\add* which Ehud made to him a sword carving on ever either side, of the length of the palm of an hand; and he was girded therewith under the say, \em that is, a knight’s mantle\em*, in the right hip.
\p
\v 17 And he brought gifts to Eglon, king of Moab; and Eglon was full fat.
\p
\v 18 And when he had given gifts to the king, he pursued \add [or followed]\add* forth \em after\em* his fellows that came with him;
\p
\v 19 and he turned again from Gilgal, where \em the graven\em* idols were, and he said to the king, O king, I have a privy word to thee. And the king commanded silence. And when all men were gone out, that were about him,
\p
\v 20 Ehud entered to him; and the king sat alone in a summer parlour. And Ehud said, I have the word of God to thee. The which rose anon from his throne.
\p
\v 21 And Ehud held forth his left hand, and took his sword from his right hip; and he put it into the king’s womb so strongly,
\p
\v 22 that the pommel, \em either hilt\em*, pursued \add [or followed]\add* the iron in the wound, and was holden strait in the thickest fatness within; and Ehud drew not out the sword, but so as he had smitten \em Eglon\em*, he left it in his body; and anon by the privates of mankind, the turds of the womb burst out.
\p
\v 23 Forsooth when the doors of the parlour were closed most diligently, and fastened with \em a\em* lock,
\p
\v 24 Ehud went out by a porch. And the king’s servants entered, \em not into the parlour, but into the porch\em*, and they saw the doors of the parlour closed, and they said, In hap he purgeth the womb in the summer parlour.
\p
\v 25 And they abode so long, till they were ashamed; and they saw that no man opened the door, and they took the key, and they opened, and they found their lord lying dead on the earth.
\p
\v 26 And while they were troubled, Ehud fled out, and passed the place of \em the graven\em* idols, from whence he turned again; and he came into Seirath.
\p
\v 27 And anon he sounded with a clarion in the hill of Ephraim; and the sons of Israel came down with him, and he went in the front.
\p
\v 28 Which said to them, Follow ye me, for the Lord hath betaken our enemies, Moabites, into our hands. And they came down after him, and occupied the fords of Jordan, that led over into Moab. And they suffered not any man to pass \add [over]\add*,
\p
\v 29 but they smote in that time about ten thousand Moabites, all mighty men and strong; no man of them might escape.
\p
\v 30 And Moab was made low in that day under the hand of Israel, and the land rested eighty years.
\p
\v 31 After him was Shamgar, the son of Anath, that smote of Philistines six hundred men with a goad of ox; and he also defended Israel.
\c 4
\cl CHAPTER 4
\p
\v 1 And the sons of Israel added to do evil in the sight of the Lord, after the death of Ehud.
\p
\v 2 And the Lord betook them into the hands of Jabin, king of Canaan, that reigned in Hazor; and he had a duke of his host, Sisera by name; and he dwelled in Harosheth of heathen men.
\p
\v 3 And the sons of Israel cried to the Lord; for Jabin had nine hundred iron chariots, \em full of weapons\em*, sharp as scythes, and twenty years he oppressed Israel greatly.
\p
\v 4 And Deborah was a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, the which Deborah deemed the people \em of Israel\em* in that time;
\p
\v 5 and she sat under a palm tree, that was called by her name, betwixt Ramah and Bethel, in the hill of Ephraim; and the sons of Israel went up to her at each doom.
\p
\v 6 And she sent, and called Barak, the son of Abinoam, of Kedesh of Naphtali, and she said to him, The Lord God of Israel commanded to thee, Go thou, and lead an host into the hill of Tabor, and thou shalt take with thee ten thousand of fighters of the sons of Naphtali and of the sons of Zebulun.
\p
\v 7 And I shall bring to thee, in the place of the strand \add [or stream]\add* of Kishon, Sisera, the prince of Jabin’s host, and his chariots, and all the multitude; and I shall betake them in thine hand.
\p
\v 8 And Barak said to her, If thou comest with me, I shall go; if thou wilt not come with me, I shall not go.
\p
\v 9 And she said to him, Soothly I shall go with thee; but in this time the victory shall not be areckoned to thee; for Sisera shall be betaken into the hand of a woman. And so Deborah rose, and went with Barak into Kedesh.
\p
\v 10 And when Zebulun and Naphtali were called, Barak ascended \add [or went up]\add* with ten thousand of fighters, and had Deborah in his fellowship.
\p
\v 11 Forsooth Heber of Kenites had parted some time from other Kenites his brethren, \add [the]\add* sons of Hobab, the father of Moses’ wife; and he had set forth tabernacles till to the valley, which is called Zaanaim, and was beside Kedesh.
\p
\v 12 And it was told to Sisera, that Barak, the son of Abinoam, had gone up into the hill of Tabor.
\p
\v 13 And Sisera gathered nine hundred iron chariots, \em full of weapons\em*, carving as scythes, and all the host, from Harosheth of heathen men to the strand \add [or stream]\add* of Kishon.
\p
\v 14 And Deborah said to Barak, Rise thou up, for this is the day, in which the Lord hath betaken Sisera into thine hands; lo! the Lord is thy leader. And so Barak came down from the hill of Tabor, and ten thousand of fighters with him.
\p
\v 15 And the Lord made afeared Sisera, and all his chariots, and all the multitude, by the sharpness of sword, at the sight of Barak, in so much that Sisera leaped down off the chariot, and fled on foot.
\p
\v 16 And Barak pursued the chariots fleeing, and the host, till to Harosheth of heathen men; and all the multitude of \add [the]\add* enemies felled down till to death.
\p
\v 17 And Sisera fled, and came to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber \em the\em* Kenite; for peace was betwixt Jabin, king of Hazor, and betwixt the house of Heber \em the\em* Kenite.
\p
\v 18 Therefore Jael went out into the coming of Sisera, and said to him, My lord, enter thou to me, enter thou to me; dread thou not. And he entered into her tabernacle, and he was covered of her with a mantle.
\p
\v 19 And he said to her, I beseech \em thee\em*, give me a little water, for I thirst greatly. And she opened a bottle of milk, and gave to him to drink, and covered him.
\p
\v 20 And Sisera said to her, Stand thou before the door of the tabernacle, and when any man cometh, and asketh thee, and saith, Whether any man is here? thou shalt answer, No man is \em here\em*.
\p
\v 21 And so Jael, the wife of Heber, took a nail of the tabernacle, and she took also an hammer; and she entered privily, and with silence she put the nail upon the temple of his head, and she fastened \em the nail\em* smitten with the hammer into his brain, unto the earth; and he slept, and died together, and he failed \em life\em*, and was dead.
\p
\v 22 And lo! Barak pursued \add [or followed]\add* Sisera, and came; and Jael went out into his coming, and said to him, Come, and I shall show to thee the man whom thou seekest. And when he had entered to her, he saw Sisera lying dead, and a nail fastened into his temples.
\p
\v 23 Therefore in that day, God made low Jabin, the king of Canaan, before the sons of Israel;
\p
\v 24 which increased each day, and with strong hand they oppressed Jabin, the king of Canaan, till they did him away.
\c 5
\cl CHAPTER 5
\p
\v 1 And Deborah and Barak, the son of Abinoam, sang in that day, and said,
\p
\v 2 Ye \em men\em* of Israel, that have willfully offered your lives to peril, bless ye the Lord.
\p
\v 3 Ye kings, hear; ye princes, perceive with ears; I am, I am \em the woman\em*, that shall sing to the Lord; I shall sing to the Lord God of Israel.
\p
\v 4 Lord, when thou wentest out from Seir, and passedest by the countries of Edom, the earth was moved, and heavens and clouds dropped with waters;
\p
\v 5 hills flowed from the face of the Lord, and Sinai from the face of the Lord God of Israel.
\p
\v 6 In the days of Shamgar, the son of Anath, in the days of Jael, \add [the]\add* paths rested, and they that entered by those \add [or them]\add*, went \add [away]\add* by paths out of the way.
\p
\v 7 Strong men in Israel ceased, and rested, till Deborah arose, a mother in Israel.
\p
\v 8 The Lord chose new battles, and he destroyed the gates of enemies; shield and spear appeared not in forty thousand of Israel.
\p
\v 9 Mine heart loveth the princes of Israel; ye that offered you to peril by your own will, bless ye the Lord;
\p
\v 10 speak ye, that ascend \add [or go up]\add* on shining asses, and sit above in doom, and go in the way.
\p
\v 11 Where the chariots were hurled down altogether, and the host of \add [the]\add* enemies was strangled, there the Lord’s rightwiseness be told out, and \em his\em* mercy among the strong men of Israel; then the Lord’s people came down to the gates, and got the princehood.
\p
\v 12 Rise, rise thou, Deborah, rise thou, and speak a song; rise thou, Barak, and thou, son of Abinoam, take thy prisoners.
\p
\v 13 The remnants of the people be saved; the Lord fought against strong men of Ephraim.
\p
\v 14 He did away them into Amalek, and after him from Benjamin into thy peoples, thou Amalek. Princes of Machir and of Zebulun went down, that led the host to fight.
\p
\v 15 The dukes of Issachar were with Deborah, and pursued \add [or followed]\add* the steps of Barak, that gave himself to peril, as into a ditch head-long, and into hell. While Reuben was parted against himself; the strife of great hearted men was found.
\p
\v 16 Why dwellest thou betwixt twain ends, that thou hear the hissings of flocks? While Reuben was parted against himself, the strife of great hearted men was found.
\p
\v 17 Gilead rested beyond Jordan, and Dan gave attention to ships. Asher dwelled in the brink of the sea, and dwelled in havens.
\p
\v 18 And Zebulun and Naphtali offered their lives to the death, in the country of Meromei, \em that is interpreted, high\em*.
\p
\v 19 Kings came, and fought; kings of Canaan fought in Taanach, beside the waters of Megiddo; and nevertheless they took nothing by prey.
\p
\v 20 From heaven, it was fought against them; stars dwelled in their order, and in their course, and they fought against Sisera.
\p
\v 21 The strand \add [or stream]\add* of Kishon drew their dead bodies, the strand \add [or stream]\add* of Kedumim, the strand \add [or stream]\add* of Kishon. My soul, tread thou strong men.
\p
\v 22 The horse hoofs fell away, while the strongest of enemies fled with rush, and felled headlong.
\p
\v 23 Curse ye the land of Meroz, said the angel of the Lord, curse ye the dwellers of him, for they came not to the help of the Lord, into the help of the strongest of him.
\p
\v 24 Blessed among women be Jael, the wife of Heber \em the\em* Kenite; blessed be she in her tabernacle.
\p
\v 25 \em To Sisera\em* asking water she gave milk, and in a basin of princes she gave him butter.
\p
\v 26 She put the left hand to the nail, and her right hand to \em the\em* smith’s hammer; and she smote Sisera, and sought in his head a place of wound, and she pierced strongly his temple.
\p
\v 27 He felled betwixt her feet, he failed, and died; he was weltered before her feet, and he lay without life, and wretchedful.
\p
\v 28 His mother beheld by a window, and yelled; and she spake from the solar, Why tarrieth his chariot to come again? Why tarry the feet of his four-horsed carts?
\p
\v 29 One wiser than \add [the]\add* other wives of him answered these words to the mother of her husband,
\p
\v 30 In hap now he parteth spoils, and the fairest of women is chosen to him; clothes of diverse colours be given to Sisera into prey, and diverse array of household is gathered to adorn necks.
\p
\v 31 Lord, all thine enemies perish so; soothly, they that love thee, shine so, as the sun shineth in his strength. And the land rested forty years.
\c 6
\cl CHAPTER 6
\p
\v 1 Forsooth the sons of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and he betook them into the hand of Midian seven years.
\p
\v 2 And Israel was oppressed of them greatly; and Israel made ditches, and dens to themselves in hills, and most strong places to fight against \em Midian\em*.
\p
\v 3 And when Israel had sown, Midian ascended \add [or went up]\add*, and Amalek, and others of the nations of the east;
\p
\v 4 and they setted \em their\em* tents beside \em the sons of Israel\em*, and they wasted all things that were in herbs, \em either green corn\em*, unto the entering of Gaza, and utterly they left not in Israel anything pertaining to life, not sheep, not oxen, not asses.
\p
\v 5 For they and all their flocks came with their tabernacles, and at the likeness of locusts they full-filled all things, and a multitude of men and of camels was without number, and they wasted whatever thing they touched.
\p
\v 6 And Israel was made low greatly in the sight of Midian. And Israel cried to the Lord,
\p
\v 7 and asked help against Midianites;
\p
\v 8 and he sent to them a man, a prophet, and he spake to them, The Lord God of Israel saith these things, I made you to go up from Egypt, and I led you out of the house of servage,
\p
\v 9 and I delivered \em you\em* from the hand of Egyptians, and of all \add [the]\add* enemies that tormented you; and I casted them out at your entering, and I gave to you the land of them;
\p
\v 10 and I said, I am the Lord your God; dread ye not the gods of Amorites, in whose land ye dwell; and ye would not hear my voice.
\p
\v 11 And an angel of the Lord came, and sat under an oak, that was in Ophrah, and it pertained to Joash, the father of the meine of Abiezrites. And when Gideon, the son of Joash, threshed, and purged wheat in a presser, that he should flee Midian,
\p
\v 12 an angel of the Lord appeared to him, and said, The Lord be with thee, thou strongest of men.
\p
\v 13 And Gideon said to him, My lord, I beseech, if the Lord is with us, why then have all these evils taken us? Where be the marvels of him, which our fathers told, and said, The Lord hath led us out of Egypt? For now he hath forsaken us, and hath betaken us into the hand of Midian.
\p
\v 14 And the Lord beheld to him, and said, Go thou in this strength of thee, and thou shalt deliver Israel from the hand of Midian; know thou, that I have sent thee.
\p
\v 15 And Gideon answered, and said, My lord, I beseech, in what thing shall I deliver Israel? Lo! my meine is the lowest in Manasseh, and I am the least in the house of my father.
\p
\v 16 And the Lord said to him, I shall be with thee, and thou shalt smite Midian as one man.
\p
\v 17 And Gideon said, If I have found grace before thee, give to me a sign, that thou, that speakest to me, \em art sent of God’s part\em*;
\p
\v 18 go thou not away from hence, till I turn again to thee, and bring sacrifice, and offer to thee. Which answered, I shall abide thy coming.
\p
\v 19 And so Gideon went in, and seethed a kid, and took therf loaves of a bushel of meal, and the flesh in a pannier; and he put the broth of the flesh in a pot, and he bare all these things under the oak, and offered those to him.
\p
\v 20 To whom the angel of the Lord said, Take thou the flesh, and the therf loaves, and put them on that stone, and pour the broth above. And when he had done so,
\p
\v 21 the angel of the Lord held forth the end of the staff, which he held in the hand, and he touched the fleshes, and the therf loaves; and fire ascend-ed \add [or went up]\add* from the stone, and wasted the fleshes, and \add [the]\add* therf loaves. And the angel of the Lord vanished from his eyes.
\p
\v 22 And Gideon saw that he was an angel of the Lord, and he said, Lord God, alas to me, for I saw the angel of the Lord face to face.
\p
\v 23 And the Lord said to him, Peace be with thee; dread thou not, thou shalt not die.
\p
\v 24 Then Gideon builded there an altar to the Lord, and he called it the Peace of the Lord, unto this present day. And when he was yet in Ophrah, which is of the meine of Abiezrites,
\p
\v 25 the Lord said to him in that night, Take thou thy father’s bull, and another bull of seven years, and thou shalt destroy the altar of Baal, that is thy father’s, and cut thou down the wood, which is about the altar;
\p
\v 26 and thou shalt build an altar to thy Lord God in the highness of this stone, on which thou puttedest sacrifice before; and thou shalt take the second bull, and thou shalt offer burnt sacrifice on the heap of trees, which thou cuttedest down of the wood.
\p
\v 27 Therefore Gideon took ten men of his servants, and did as the Lord commanded to him. And Gideon dreaded the house of his father, and the men of that city, and he would not do by day, but he fulfilled all things by night.
\p
\v 28 And when men of that city had risen early, they saw the altar of Baal destroyed, and the wood cut down, and the tother bull put on the altar, that was builded.
\p
\v 29 And they said together, Who hath done this? And when they inquired the doer of the deed, it was said, Gideon, the son of Joash, did all these things.
\p
\v 30 And they said to Joash, Bring forth thy son hither, that he die, for he hath destroyed the altar of Baal, and hath cut down the wood \em about it\em*.
\p
\v 31 To whom Joash answered, Whether ye be the avengers of Baal, that ye fight for him? he that is adversary of him, die he, before the morrow light come; if he is God, avenge he himself of him that hath cast down his altar.
\p
\v 32 From that day Gideon was called Jerubbaal, for-thy that Joash had said, Baal take vengeance of him that hath cast down his altar.
\p
\v 33 Therefore all Midian, and Amalek, and the peoples of the east were gathered together, and they passed over Jordan, and setted tents in the valley of Jezreel.
\p
\v 34 Forsooth the spirit of the Lord clothed, \em or full-filled\em*, Gideon; and he sounded with a clarion, and called together the house of Abiezer, that it should follow him.
\p
\v 35 And he sent messengers into all Manasseh, and he pursued \add [or followed]\add* Gideon; and \em he sent\em* other messengers into Asher, and to Zebulun, and to Naphtali, and they came to him.
\p
\v 36 And Gideon said to the Lord, If thou makest safe Israel by mine hand, as thou hast spoken,
\p
\v 37 I shall put this fleece of wool in the cornfloor; if the dew is in the fleece alone, and dryness is in all the earth, I shall know, that thou shalt deliver Israel by mine hand, as thou hast spoken.
\p
\v 38 And it was done so. And he rose by night, and when the fleece was wrung out, he filled a basin with dew;
\p
\v 39 and he said again to the Lord, Thy strong vengeance be not wroth against me, if I assay yet once, and seek a sign in the fleece; I pray, that the fleece alone be dry, and that all the earth be moist with dew.
\p
\v 40 And the Lord did in that night, as Gideon asked; and dryness was in the fleece alone, and dew was in all the earth.
\c 7
\cl CHAPTER 7
\p
\v 1 Then Jerubbaal, which also is Gideon, rose by night, and all the people with him, and came to the well which is called Harod. And the tents of Midian were in the valley, at the north coast of the high hill.
\p
\v 2 And the Lord said to Gideon, Much people is with thee, and Midian shall not be betaken into the hands thereof, lest Israel have glory against me, and say, I am delivered by my strengths.
\p
\v 3 Speak thou to the people, and preach thou, while all men hear, He that is fearedful, and dreadful, turn again. And they went away from the hill of Gilead, and two and twenty thousand of men turned again from the people; and only ten thousand dwelled.
\p
\v 4 And the Lord said to Gideon, Yet the people is much; lead thou them to the waters, and there I shall prove them, and he go with thee, of whom I shall say, that he go; and turn he again, whom I shall forbid to go.
\p
\v 5 And when the people had gone down to the waters, the Lord said to Gideon, Thou shalt separate them by themselves that lap waters with hand and tongue, as dogs be wont to lap; and those, that drink with knees bowed, shall be in the tother part.
\p
\v 6 And so the number of them, that lapped waters, by the hand casting to the mouth, was three hundred men; and all the tother multitude drank kneeling.
\p
\v 7 And the Lord said to Gideon, In three hundred men, that lapped waters, I shall deliver you, and I shall betake Midian in thine hand; and all the tother multitude turn again into their place.
\p
\v 8 And \add [so]\add* when they had taken meats and trumps for the number of them, he commanded all the tother multitude to go to their tabernacles; and Gideon, with three hundred men, gave himself to \add [the]\add* battle. And the tents of Midian were beneath in the valley.
\p
\v 9 In the same night the Lord said to him, Rise thou, and go down into their tents, for I have betaken them in thine hand;
\p
\v 10 and if thou dreadest to go alone, Phurah, thy servant, go down with thee.
\p
\v 11 And when thou shalt hear what they speak, then thine hands shall be comforted, and thou shalt go down securer to the tents of \add [the]\add* enemies. Therefore he went down, and Phurah, his servant, into the part of \add [the]\add* tents, where the watches of armed men were.
\p
\v 12 And Midian, and Amalek, and all the peoples of the east lay spread abroad in the valley, as the multitude of locusts; and the camels were unnumberable, as gravel that lieth in the brink of the sea.
\p
\v 13 And when Gideon had come \em down\em*, a man told a dream to his neighbour, and he told by this manner that, that he had seen, I saw a dream, and it seemed to me, that as a barley loaf, baken under ashes, was wallowed, and it came down into the tents of Midian; and when it had come to a tabernacle, it smote it, and destroyed it, and made it even utterly to the earth.
\p
\v 14 That man answered, to whom he spake, This is none other thing, no but the sword of Gideon, \add [the]\add* son of Joash, a man of Israel; for the Lord God hath betaken Midian, and all \add [the]\add* tents thereof, into the hands of Gideon.
\p
\v 15 And when Gideon had heard the dream, and the interpreting thereof, he worshipped \em the Lord\em*, and turned again to the tents of Israel, and said, Rise ye; for the Lord hath betaken into our hands the tents of Midian.
\p
\v 16 And he parted the three hundred men into three parts, and he gave them trumps in their hands, and empty pots, and lamps, \em that is, burning brands, either torches, that might not lightly be quenched\em*, in the midst of the pots.
\p
\v 17 And he said to them, Do ye this thing which ye see me do; I shall enter into a part of the tents, and pursue \add [or follow]\add* ye that, that I do.
\p
\v 18 When the trump in my hand shall sound, sound ye also all about the tents, and cry ye together, To the Lord, and to Gideon.
\p
\v 19 And Gideon entered, and the three hundred men that were with him, into a part of the tents, when the watches of midnight began; and when the keepers were raised, they began to sound with trumps, and to beat together the pots among themselves.
\p
\v 20 And when they sounded in three places by compass, and had broken the pots, they held \add [the]\add* lamps in their left hands, and \add [the]\add* sounding trumps in their right hands; and they cried, The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon;
\p
\v 21 and they stood all in their place, about the tents of their enemies. And so all the tents were troubled; and they cried \add [out]\add*, and yelled, and fled;
\p
\v 22 and nevertheless the three hundred men continued, sounding with trumps. And the Lord sent \add [in]\add* sword in all the tents, and they killed themselves by death each other; and they fled till to Bethshittah, \em in Zererath\em*, and by the side, from Abelmeholah into Tabbath.
\p
\v 23 And men of Israel cried together, of Naphtali, and of Asher, and of all Manasseh, and they pursued Midian; and the Lord gave victory to the people of Israel in that day.
\p
\v 24 And Gideon sent messengers into all the hill \em country\em* of Ephraim, and said, Come ye down against the coming of Midian, and occupy ye the waters till to Bethbarah and Jordan. And all Ephraim cried, and before-occupied the waters of the Jordan until Bethbarah.
\p
\v 25 And \em Ephraim\em* killed two \em chief\em* men of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb; \em he killed\em* Oreb in the stone of Oreb, and Zeeb in the presser of Zeeb; and Ephraim pursued Midian, and they bare the heads of Oreb and of Zeeb to Gideon, over the floods of Jordan.
\c 8
\cl CHAPTER 8
\p
\v 1 And the men of Ephraim said to Gideon, What is this thing, that thou wouldest do, that thou calledest not us, when thou wentest to battle against Midian? And they chided \em with him\em* strongly, and well-nigh they did \em to him\em* violence.
\p
\v 2 To whom he answered, And what such thing might I have done, what manner thing ye have done? Whether a raisin of Ephraim is not better than the vintages of Abiezer?
\p
\v 3 And the Lord hath betaken into your hands the princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb. What such thing might I have done, what manner thing ye have done? And when he had spoken this thing, the spirit of them rested, by which they swelled against him.
\p
\v 4 And when Gideon had come to Jordan, he passed it with three hundred men, that were with him; and for weariness they might not pursue \em them\em* that fled.
\p
\v 5 And he said to the men of Succoth, I beseech, give ye loaves to the people, that is with me; for they failed greatly, that we may \em then\em* pursue Zebah and Zalmunna, kings of Midian.
\p
\v 6 And the princes of Succoth answered \em in scorn\em*, In hap the palms of the hands of Zebah and of Zalmunna be in thine hands, and therefore thou askest, that we give loaves to thine host.
\p
\v 7 To whom Gideon said, Therefore, when the Lord shall betake Zebah and Zalmunna into mine hands, and when I shall turn again overcomer in peace, I shall rend your flesh with thorns and briars of the desert.
\p
\v 8 And Gideon went up from thence, and came into Penuel; and he spake like things to men of that place, to whom also they answered, as the men of Succoth had answered.
\p
\v 9 And so he said to them, When I shall turn again overcomer in peace, I shall destroy this tower.
\p
\v 10 Forsooth Zebah and Zalmunna rested with all their host; for fifteen thousand men left of all the companies of the peoples of the east, when an hundred and twenty thousand of fighters and of men drawing out sword were slain.
\p
\v 11 And Gideon ascended or went up by the way of them that dwelled in tabernacles at the east coast of Nobah and of Jogbehah, and smote the tents of \add [the]\add* enemies, that were secure, and supposed not anything of adversity.
\p
\v 12 And Zebah and Zalmunna fled, whom Gideon pursued, and took, when all their host was troubled.
\p
\v 13 And he turned again from battle before the rising of the sun,
\p
\v 14 and he took a young man of the men of Succoth; and he asked him the names of the princes, and of the elder men of Succoth; and he described seven and seventy men in number.
\p
\v 15 And he came to Succoth, and said to them, Lo, Zebah and Zalmunna! of which ye upbraided me, and said, In hap the hands of Zebah and of Zalmunna be in thine hands, and therefore thou askest, that we give loaves to men, that be weary and failed.
\p
\v 16 Therefore Gideon took the elder men of the city, and thorns and briars of desert, and he rent with those \add [or them]\add*, and all-brake the men of Succoth;
\p
\v 17 also he destroyed the tower of Penuel, when the dwellers of the city were slain.
\p
\v 18 And he said to Zebah and Zalmunna, What manner men were they, that ye killed in Tabor? Which answered, \em They were\em* like thee, and one of them was as the son of a king.
\p
\v 19 To whom Gideon said, They were my brethren, the sons of my mother; the Lord liveth, if ye had saved them, I would not slay you.
\p
\v 20 And he said to Jether, his first begotten son, Rise thou, and slay them. And Jether drew not his sword; for he dreaded, for he was yet a child.
\p
\v 21 And Zebah and Zalmunna said, Rise thou, and fall on us; for thou art by the age and strength of \add [a]\add* man. Gideon rose, and killed Zebah and Zalmunna, and took the ornaments, and bells, with which the necks of kings’ camels be wont to be made fair.
\p
\v 22 And all the men of Israel said to Gideon, Be thou lord of us, thou, and thy son, and the son of thy son; for thou deliveredest us from the hand of Midian.
\p
\v 23 To whom he said, I shall not be lord of you, neither my son shall be lord on you, but the Lord shall be lord on you.
\p
\v 24 And Gideon said to them, I ask one asking of you, give ye to me the earrings of your prey; for Ishmaelites were wont to have golden earrings.
\p
\v 25 Which answered, We shall give most gladly. And they spreaded forth a mantle on the earth, and casted forth therein \add [the]\add* earrings of the prey;
\p
\v 26 and the weight of the earrings that he asked was a thousand and seven hundred shekels of gold, without \add [the]\add* ornaments, and brooches, and clothes of purple, which the kings of Midian were wont to use, and besides \add [the]\add* golden bies of camels.
\p
\v 27 And Gideon made thereof ephod, \em that is, a priest’s cloth\em*, and he put it in his city Ophrah; and all Israel did fornication, \em that is, idolatry\em*, therein; and it was made to Gideon, and to all his house, into falling.
\p
\v 28 But Midian was made low before the sons of Israel, and they might no more raise up their nolls; and the land rested forty years, in which Gideon was sovereign.
\p
\v 29 And so Jerubbaal, the son of Joash, went, and dwelled in his house;
\p
\v 30 and he had seventy sons, that went out of his thigh, for he had many wives.
\p
\v 31 And a concubine, \em that is, second-ary wife\em*, of him, whom he had in Shechem, engendered to him a son, Abimelech by name.
\p
\v 32 And Gideon, the son of Joash, died in \add [a]\add* good eld \add [age]\add*, and was buried in the sepulchre of Joash, his father, in Ophrah, of the meine of Abiezrites.
\p
\v 33 And after that Gideon was dead, the sons of Israel turned away, and they did fornication, \em that is, idolatry\em*, with Baalim; and they smote bond of peace with Baalberith, that he should be to them into God,
\p
\v 34 neither Israel had mind of their Lord God, that had delivered them from the hand of all their enemies by compass or about;
\p
\v 35 neither they did mercy to the meine of Jerubbaal, that is, Gideon, after all the good things that he did to Israel.
\c 9
\cl CHAPTER 9
\p
\v 1 Forsooth Abimelech, the son of Jerubbaal, went into Shechem to the brethren of his mother; and he spake to them, and to all the kindred of the house of his mother, and said,
\p
\v 2 Speak ye to all the men of Shechem, What is better to you, that seventy men, all the sons of Jerubbaal, be lords of you, whether that one man be lord to you? and also behold, that I am your bone, and your flesh.
\p
\v 3 And the brethren of his mother spake of him all these words to all the men of Shechem; and they bowed their hearts after Abimelech, and said, He is our brother.
\p
\v 4 And they gave to him seventy plates \em or pieces\em* of silver of the temple of Baalberith; and he hired to him thereof men poor and having no certain dwelling, and they pursued \add [or followed]\add* him.
\p
\v 5 And he came into the house of his father in Ophrah, and killed his brethren the sons of Jerubbaal, seventy men, on one stone. And Jotham, the youngest son of Jerubbaal, was left, and hid.
\p
\v 6 And all the men of Shechem, and all the meines of the city of Millo, were gathered together, and they went, and made Abimelech king, beside the oak that stood in Shechem.
\p
\v 7 And when this thing was told to Jotham, he went, and stood in the top of the hill Gerizim, and cried with voice raised \add [up]\add*, and said, Ye men of Shechem, hear me, so that God hear you.
\p
\v 8 Trees went to anoint a king on them; and they said to the olive tree, Command thou to us.
\p
\v 9 Which answered, Whether I may forsake my fatness, which both Gods and men use, and come, that I be advanced among trees?
\p
\v 10 And the trees said to the fig tree, Come thou, and take the realm on us. Which answered to them,
\p
\v 11 Whether I may forsake my sweet-ness, and \em my\em* full sweet fruits, and go that I be advanced among other trees?
\p
\v 12 Also the trees spake to the vine, Come thou, and command to us.
\p
\v 13 Which answered, Whether I may forsake my wine, that gladdeth God and men, and be advanced among other trees?
\p
\v 14 And all the trees said to the rhamn, \em or the thieve-thorn\em*, Come thou, and be lord on us.
\p
\v 15 Which answered to them, If ye make me verily king to you, come, and rest ye under my shadow; and, if ye will not, fire go out of the rhamn, and devour the cedars of Lebanon.
\p
\v 16 Now therefore, if rightfully \add [or rightly]\add* and without sin ye have made Abimelech king on you, and if ye have done well with Jerubbaal, and with his house, and if ye have yielded while to the beneficences \add [or benefits]\add* of him,
\p
\v 17 that fought for you, and gave his life for perils, that he should deliver you from the hand of Midian;
\p
\v 18 and ye have risen now against the house of my father, and have slain his sons, seventy men, on one stone, and have made Abimelech, \add [the]\add* son of his handmaid, king on the dwellers of Shechem, for he is your brother;
\p
\v 19 therefore if ye have done right-fully \add [or rightly]\add*, and without sin with Jerubbaal and his house, today be ye glad in Abimelech, and be he glad in you;
\p
\v 20 but if ye have done waywardly, fire go out from Abimelech, and waste the dwellers of Shechem, and the city of Millo; and fire go out from the men of Shechem, and from the city of Millo, and devour Abimelech.
\p
\v 21 And when Jotham had said these things, he fled, and went into Beer, and dwelled there, for dread of Abimelech, his brother.
\p
\v 22 And Abimelech reigned on Israel three years.
\p
\v 23 And the Lord sent the worst spirit betwixt Abimelech and the dwellers of Shechem, which began to hold him abominable,
\p
\v 24 and to areckon the felony of \add [the]\add* slaying of the seventy sons of Jerub-baal, and the shedding out of their blood, into Abimelech their brother, and into \add [the]\add* other princes of Shechem, that had helped him.
\p
\v 25 And men of Shechem set ambush-ments against the king in the highness \add [or tops]\add* of hills; and while they abode his coming, they haunted thefts, and took preys of men passing thereforth; and it was told to Abimelech.
\p
\v 26 And Gaal, the son of Ebed, came with his brethren, and passed into Shechem; at whose entering the dwellers of Shechem were raised,
\p
\v 27 and went out into \add [the]\add* fields, and wasted vineries \add [or vines]\add*, and trode grapes; and with companies of singers made, they entered into the temple of their God, and among meats and drinks they cursed Abimelech,
\p
\v 28 while Gaal, \em the\em* son of Ebed, cried, Who is this Abimelech? And what is Shechem, that we serve him? Whether he is not the son of Jerub-baal, and made Zebul, his servant, prince on the men of Hamor, the father of Shechem? Why therefore shall we serve him?
\p
\v 29 Would God, some man would give this people under mine hand, and I should do away Abimelech from the midst \em of Shechem\em*. And it was said to Abimelech, Gather thou the multitude of an host, and come thou.
\p
\v 30 For when the words of Gaal, the son of Ebed, were heard, Zebul, the prince of the city was full wroth;
\p
\v 31 and he sent privily messengers to Abimelech, and said, Lo! Gaal, the son of Ebed, is come into Shechem with his brethren, and he exciteth the city to fight against thee;
\p
\v 32 therefore rise thou by night, with the people that is with thee, and be thou hid in the field;
\p
\v 33 and first in the morrowtide, when the sun riseth, fall thou upon the city; and when Gaal goeth out with his people against thee, do thou to him that that thou mayest.
\p
\v 34 And so Abimelech rose with all his host by night, and set ambush-ments beside Shechem, in four places.
\p
\v 35 And Gaal, the son of Ebed, went out, and stood in the entering of the gate of the city. And Abimelech, and all the host with him, rose from the place of \add [the]\add* ambushments.
\p
\v 36 And when Gaal had seen the people, he said to Zebul, Lo! a multitude cometh down from the hills. To whom Zebul answered, Thou seest the shadows of hills as the heads of men, and thou art deceived by this error.
\p
\v 37 And again Gaal said, Lo! a people cometh down from the midst of the earth, and one company cometh by the way that beholdeth the oak.
\p
\v 38 To whom Zebul said, Where is now thy mouth, by which thou speakest, Who is Abimelech, that we serve him? Whether this is not the people, whom thou despisedest? Go thou out, and fight against him.
\p
\v 39 Therefore Gaal went, while the people of Shechem abode; and he fought against Abimelech.
\p
\v 40 And pursued him fleeing, and constrained him to \em flee\em* into the city; and full many of the part of Gaal felled down, unto the gate of the city.
\p
\v 41 And Abimelech sat in Arumah; and Zebul put Gaal and his fellows out of the city of Shechem, and he suffered them not to dwell therein.
\p
\v 42 Therefore in the day pursuing \add [or following]\add*, the people went out into the field; and when this thing was told to Abimelech,
\p
\v 43 he took his host, and parted it in three companies, and he set ambush-ments in the fields; and he saw that the people went out of the city, and he rose, and felled upon them with his company,
\p
\v 44 and besieged them and fought against the city. And two companies went about openly by the field, and pursued their adversaries.
\p
\v 45 And Abimelech fought against that city \em all that day\em*, the which he took, when the dwellers thereof were slain, and that city was destroyed, so that he sprinkled abroad salt therein.
\p
\v 46 And when they, that dwelled in the tower of Shechem, had heard this, they entered into the temple of their god Berith, where they had made \add [a]\add* bond of peace with him; and of that \em idol\em* the place took the name, the which place was full strong.
\p
\v 47 And Abimelech heard that \add [the]\add* men of the tower of Shechem were gathered together,
\p
\v 48 and he went up into the hill of Zalmon with all his people; and with an ax taken, he cut down a bough of a tree, and he bare it, put upon his shoulder, and he said to his fellows, Do ye anon this thing, that ye see me do.
\p
\v 49 Therefore with strife they cutted down boughs of the trees, and pursued \add [or followed]\add* the duke; the which compassed the tower and burnt it up; and so it was done, that with smoke and fire a thousand men were slain, men and women together, of the dwellers of the tower of Shechem.
\p
\v 50 And Abimelech went forth from thence, and came to the city of Thebez, which he compassed, and besieged with an host.
\p
\v 51 And the tower was high in the midst of the city, to which men and women fled together, and all the princes of the city, while the gate was closed full strongly; and they stood on the roof of the tower by \add [the]\add* turrets.
\p
\v 52 And Abimelech came beside the tower, and fought strongly \em against it\em*, and he nighed to the door, and enforced \em or endeavoured\em* him to put fire under it;
\p
\v 53 and lo! a woman casted from above a gobbet of a mill-stone, and hurtled to the head of Abimelech, and it brake his noll.
\p
\v 54 And he called anon his squire, and said to him, Draw out thy sword, and slay me, lest peradventure it be said, that I am slain of a woman. Which performed the commandments, and killed Abimelech;
\p
\v 55 and when Abimelech was dead, all men of Israel that were with him turned again to their places.
\p
\v 56 And God yielded to Abimelech the evil that he did against his father, for he killed his seventy brethren.
\p
\v 57 Also that evil was yielded to \add [the]\add* men of Shechem, that they wrought, and the curse of Jotham, the son of Jerubbaal, came upon them.
\c 10
\cl CHAPTER 10
\p
\v 1 After Abimelech rose a duke in Israel, Tola, the son of Puah, son of Dodo; \em Tola was\em* a man of Issachar, that dwelled in Shamir, of the hill of Ephraim;
\p
\v 2 and he deemed Israel three and twenty years, and he died, and was buried in Shamir.
\p
\v 3 His successor was Jair, a man of Gilead, that deemed Israel two and twenty years;
\p
\v 4 and he had thirty sons, sitting upon thirty colts of she-asses, and they were princes of thirty cities, the which be called by their father’s name, Havothjair, \em that is, the cities of Jair\em*, unto this present day, in the land of Gilead.
\p
\v 5 And Jair died, and was buried in a place that is called Camon.
\p
\v 6 Forsooth the sons of Israel joined new sins to eld \add [or old]\add* sins, and did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served to the idols of Baalim, and to Ashtaroth, and to the gods of Syria, and of Sidon, and of Moab, and of the sons of Ammon, and of Philistines; and they left the Lord, and worshipped not him.
\p
\v 7 And the Lord was wroth against them, and he betook them into the hands of Philistines, and of the sons of Ammon.
\p
\v 8 And all \em the sons of Israel\em* that dwelled beyond Jordan in the land of Amorites, that is, in Gilead, were tormented and oppressed greatly by eighteen years,
\p
\v 9 in so much that the sons of Ammon, when they had passed \add [over]\add* Jordan, wasted Judah, and Benjamin, and Ephraim; and Israel was tormented greatly.
\p
\v 10 And they cried to the Lord, and said, We have sinned to thee, for we forsook our God, and served Baalim.
\p
\v 11 To whom the Lord said, Whether not the Egyptians, and Amorites, and the sons of Ammon, and Philistines,
\p
\v 12 and Sidonians, and Amalek, and Canaan \em or Maonites\em*, have oppressed you, and ye cried to me, and I delivered you from their hands?
\p
\v 13 And nevertheless ye have forsaken me, and worshipped alien gods; there-fore I shall not add to, that I deliver you \add [any]\add* more.
\p
\v 14 Go ye, and call \add [the]\add* gods which ye have chosen; deliver they you in the time of anguish.
\p
\v 15 And the sons of Israel said to the Lord, We have sinned; yield thou to us whatever thing pleaseth to thee; only deliver us now.
\p
\v 16 And they said these things, and casted forth from their coasts all the idols of alien gods, and served the Lord; which had ruth, \em either compassion\em*, on the wretchednesses of them.
\p
\v 17 And so the sons of Ammon cried together, \em each moving other to battle against Israel\em*, and setted tents in Gilead, and the sons of Israel were gathered against them, and setted tents in Mizpeh.
\p
\v 18 And the princes of Gilead said each to his neighbours, He, that beginneth first of us to fight against the sons of Ammon, shall be duke of the people of Gilead.
\c 11
\cl CHAPTER 11
\p
\v 1 And so in that time Jephthah, a man of Gilead, was a full strong man, and a fighter, the son of a woman whore, the which Jephthah was born of Gilead.
\p
\v 2 And Gilead had a wife, of whom he had sons, which after that they increased, casted out Jephthah, and said, Thou mayest not be heir in the house of our father, for thou art born of another mother.
\p
\v 3 And he fled his brethren, and eschewed them, and dwelled in the land of Tob; and poor men were gathered to him, and pursued him as a prince.
\p
\v 4 In those days the sons of Ammon fought against Israel;
\p
\v 5 and when they continued sharply, the greater men in birth of Gilead, went to take into the help of them-selves Jephthah from the land of Tob;
\p
\v 6 and they said to him, Come thou, and be our prince, and fight against the sons of Ammon.
\p
\v 7 To which he answered, Whether not ye it be, that hated me, and threw me out of the house of my father, and now ye have come to me, and were compelled by need?
\p
\v 8 And the princes of Gilead said to Jephthah, Therefore for this cause we came now to thee, that thou go with us, and fight against the sons of Ammon; and that thou be the duke of all men that dwell in Gilead.
\p
\v 9 And Jephthah said to them, Whether ye came verily, \em or without fraud\em*, to me, that I fight for you against the sons of Ammon, and if the Lord shall betake them into mine hands, shall I be your prince?
\p
\v 10 The which answered to him, The Lord himself, that heareth these things, is mediator and witness, that we shall fulfill our promises \em to thee\em*.
\p
\v 11 And so Jephthah went with the princes of Gilead, and all the people made him their prince; and Jephthah spake all his words before the Lord in Mizpeh.
\p
\v 12 And he sent messengers to the king of the sons of Ammon, which messengers should say of his person, What is to me and to thee, for thou hast come against me to waste my land?
\p
\v 13 To the which messengers the king answered, For Israel, when he ascended \add [or went up]\add* from Egypt, took away my land, from the coasts of Arnon unto Jabbok, and to Jordan, now there-fore yield it to me \em again\em* with peace.
\p
\v 14 By the which messengers Jephthah sent again, and commanded to them, that they should say to the king of Ammon,
\p
\v 15 Jephthah saith these things, Israel took not the land of Moab, neither the land of the sons of Ammon;
\p
\v 16 but when they went up from Egypt, Israel went by the wilderness unto the Red Sea, and came into Kadesh;
\p
\v 17 and he sent messengers to the king of Edom, and said, Suffer thou me, that I go through thy land; the which king would not assent to the prayers of Israel. Also Israel sent to the king of Moab, and he despised to give Israel passage; and so Israel dwelled in Kadesh,
\p
\v 18 and he compassed by the side the land of Edom, and the land of Moab; and he came to the east coast of the land of Moab, and setted tents beyond Arnon, neither he would enter into the terms of Moab; for Arnon is the end of the land of Moab.
\p
\v 19 And so Israel sent messengers to Sihon, king of Amorites, that dwelled in Heshbon; and they said to him, Suffer thou, that I pass through thy land unto the river.
\p
\v 20 And he despised the words of Israel, and suffered not him pass by his terms, but with a multitude with-out number gathered together, Sihon went out against Israel \em at Jahaz\em*, and against-stood him strongly.
\p
\v 21 And the Lord betook Sihon with all his host into the hands of Israel; and Israel smote him, and had in possession all the land of Amorites, the dwellers of that country,
\p
\v 22 and all the coasts thereof, from Arnon unto Jabbok, and from the wilderness unto Jordan.
\p
\v 23 Therefore the Lord God of Israel destroyed Amorites, fighting against him for his people Israel. And wilt thou now have in possession his land?
\p
\v 24 Whether not those things which Chemosh, thy god, had in possession, be due to thee by right? Soothly those things which the Lord our God over-comer hath gotten, shall fall into our possession;
\p
\v 25 but in hap thou art better than Balak, the son of Zippor, king of Moab, either thou mayest say, that Balak strived against Israel, and fought against him,
\p
\v 26 when Israel dwelled in Heshbon, and in \add [the]\add* towns thereof, and in Aroer, and in towns thereof, and in all \add [the]\add* cities beyond Jordan, by three hundred years. Why in so much time assayed ye nothing on this asking again?
\p
\v 27 Therefore not I do sin against thee, but thou doest evil against me, and bringest in battles not just to me; the Lord, judge of this day, deem betwixt the sons of Israel and betwixt the sons of Ammon.
\p
\v 28 And the king of the sons of Ammon would not assent to the words of Jephthah, which he sent by the messengers.
\p
\v 29 Therefore the spirit of the Lord was made upon Jephthah, and he compassed Gilead, and Manasseh, Mizpeh and Gilead; and he passed from thence to the sons of Ammon,
\p
\v 30 and he made a vow to the Lord, and said, If thou shalt betake the sons of Ammon into mine hands,
\p
\v 31 whoever goeth out first of the doors of mine house, and cometh against me turning again with peace from the sons of Ammon, I shall offer him burnt sacrifice to the Lord.
\p
\v 32 And Jephthah went to the sons of Ammon, to fight against them, which the Lord betook into his hands;
\p
\v 33 and he smote from Aroer till that he came into Minnith, twenty cities, and unto Abel, which is set about with vineries \add [or vines]\add*, with full great vengeance; and the sons of Ammon were made low of the sons of Israel.
\p
\v 34 And when Jephthah turned again into Mizpeh, his house, his one begotten daughter came to meet him with tympans, and crowds dancing; for he had not other free children.
\p
\v 35 And when he saw her, he rent his clothes, and said, Alas! my daughter, thou hast troubled me, and thou art troubled; for I opened my mouth to the Lord, and I may do none other thing.
\p
\v 36 To whom she answered, My father, if thou openedest thy mouth to the Lord, do to me whatever thing thou promisedest, while vengeance and victory of thine enemies be granted to thee.
\p
\v 37 And she said to her father, Give thou to me only this thing, which I beseech; suffer thou me that in two months I compass \add [the]\add* hills, and bewail my maidenhood with my fellows.
\p
\v 38 To whom he answered, Go thou. And he suffered her in two months. And when she had gone forth with her fellows, and her play-frères, she bewept her maidenhood in the hills.
\p
\v 39 And when two months were fulfilled, she turned again to her father, and he did to her as he avowed \add [or vowed]\add*; and she knew no man \em fleshly\em*. From that time a custom came in Israel, and that custom is kept,
\p
\v 40 that after the end of the year the daughters of Israel come together, and bewail the daughter of Jephthah of Gilead four days.
\c 12
\cl CHAPTER 12
\p
\v 1 And, lo! dissension rose in Ephraim; for they, that passed toward the north, said to Jephthah, Why wentest thou to battle against the sons of Ammon, and wouldest not call us, that we should go with thee. Therefore we shall burn thine house.
\p
\v 2 To which he answered, Great strife was to me and to my people against the sons of Ammon, and I called you, that ye should give help to me, and you would not do \em so\em*.
\p
\v 3 Which thing I saw, and putted my life in mine hands; and I passed to the sons of Ammon, and the Lord betook them into mine hands; what have I deserved, that ye rise together against me into battle?
\p
\v 4 Therefore when all the men of Gilead were called to Jephthah, he fought against Ephraim; and \add [the]\add* men of Gilead smote Ephraim; for he said, Gilead is fugitive, \em either exiled\em*, from Ephraim, and in the midst of Ephraim, and of Manasseh.
\p
\v 5 And the men of Gilead occupied the fords of Jordan, by which Ephraim should turn again. And when a man, fleeing of the number of Ephraim, had come to the fords, and had said, I beseech, that ye suffer me pass; men of Gilead said to him, Whether thou art a man of Ephraim? And when he had said, I am not,
\p
\v 6 they asked him, Say thou therefore Shibboleth, \em which is interpreted, an ear of corn\em*. Which answered, Sibboleth, and he might not bring forth an ear of corn by the same letter. And anon they took and strangled him in that passing \em over\em* of Jordan; and two and forty thousand men of Ephraim felled down in that time.
\p
\v 7 And so Jephthah, a man of Gilead, deemed Israel six years; and he died, and was buried in his city Gilead.
\p
\v 8 Ibzan of Bethlehem, that had thirty sons, and so many daughters, deemed Israel after Jephthah;
\p
\v 9 which daughters he sent out, and gave \em them\em* to husbands, and he took wives to his sons of the same number, and he brought \em them\em* into his house; and Ibzan deemed Israel seven years;
\p
\v 10 and he died, and was buried in Bethlehem.
\p
\v 11 Whose successor was Elon of Zebulun; and he deemed Israel ten years;
\p
\v 12 and he was dead, and buried in Zebulun.
\p
\v 13 After him Abdon, the son of Hillel, of Pirathon, deemed Israel;
\p
\v 14 the which Abdon had forty sons, and of them were thirty sons, going upon seventy colts of she-asses, and Abdon deemed Israel eight years;
\p
\v 15 and he died, and was buried in Pirathon, in the land of Ephraim, in the hill \em country\em* of Amalek.
\c 13
\cl CHAPTER 13
\p
\v 1 And again the sons of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and he betook them in\add [to]\add* the hands of \add [the]\add* Philistines forty years.
\p
\v 2 Forsooth a man was of Zorah, of the kindred of Dan, Manoah by name, and he had a barren wife.
\p
\v 3 To which wife an angel of the Lord appeared, and said to her, Thou art barren, and without free children; but thou shalt conceive, and bear a son.
\p
\v 4 Therefore be thou ware, lest thou drink wine, and cider, neither eat thou any unclean thing;
\p
\v 5 for thou shalt conceive, and bear a son, whose head a razor shall not touch; for he shall be a Nazarite, \em that is, holy\em* of God, from his young age, and from the mother’s womb; and he shall begin to deliver Israel from the hand of \add [the]\add* Philistines.
\p
\v 6 And when she had come to her husband, she said to him, A man of God came to me, and he had an angel’s cheer, and he was full fearedful; and when I had asked him, who he was, and from whence he came, and by what name he was called, he would not say to me;
\p
\v 7 but he answered thus, Lo! thou shalt conceive, and bear a son; be thou ware, that thou drink no wine nor cider, neither eat any unclean thing; for the child shall be a Nazarite, \em that is, holy\em* of the Lord, from his young age, and from the mother’s womb, till to the day of his death.
\p
\v 8 Therefore Manoah prayed the Lord, and said, Lord, I beseech, that the man of God, whom thou sentest, come again, and teach us, what we owe to do of the child, that shall be born.
\p
\v 9 And the Lord heard Manoah praying; and the angel of the Lord appeared again to his wife sitting in the field; forsooth Manoah, her husband, was not with her.
\p
\v 10 And when she had seen the angel, she hasted, and ran to her husband, and told to him, and said, Lo! the man whom I saw before, appeared to me.
\p
\v 11 Which rose, and pursued \add [or followed]\add* his wife; and he came to the man, and said to him, Art thou he, that hast spoken to the woman? And he answered, I am.
\p
\v 12 To whom Manoah said, When thy word shall be fulfilled, what wilt thou, that the child do, either from what thing shall he keep himself?
\p
\v 13 And the angel of the Lord said to Manoah, Abstain he himself from all things which I spake to thy wife.
\p
\v 14 And eat he not whatever thing cometh forth of the vine, drink he not wine, and cider, eat he not any unclean thing, and fulfill he; and keep that, that I commanded to him.
\p
\v 15 Therefore Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, I beseech, that thou assent to my prayers, and we array to thee, \em that is, make ready to meat\em*, a kid of the goats.
\p
\v 16 To whom the angel of the Lord answered, Though thou constrain me, I shall not eat thy bread; but if thou wilt make burnt sacrifice, offer thou it to the Lord. And Manoah knew not, that it was an angel of the Lord.
\p
\v 17 And Manoah said to him, What name is to thee, that if thy word be fulfilled, we honour thee?
\p
\v 18 To whom he answered, Why askest thou my name, which is hid, \em either unknown\em*?
\p
\v 19 Therefore Manoah took a goat kid, and flowing sacrifices, and he put upon a stone, and he offered them to the Lord that doeth wonderful things. And he and his wife beheld.
\p
\v 20 And when the flame of the altar ascended into heaven, the angel of the Lord ascended or went up together in the flame. And when Manoah and his wife had seen this, they felled low to the earth.
\p
\v 21 And the angel of the Lord appeared no more to them. And anon Manoah understood, that he was the angel of the Lord.
\p
\v 22 And he said to his wife, We shall die by death, for we have seen the Lord.
\p
\v 23 To whom the woman answered, If the Lord would slay us, he would not have taken of our hands burnt sacrifices, and moist sacrifices, but neither he would have showed all these things to us, neither have said to us those things, that be to coming \add [or to come]\add*.
\p
\v 24 And so she childed a son, and called his name Samson; and the child increased, and the Lord blessed him.
\p
\v 25 And the spirit of the Lord began to be with him in the tents of Dan, betwixt Zorah and Eshtaol.
\c 14
\cl CHAPTER 14
\p
\v 1 Therefore Samson went down into Timnath, and he saw there a woman of the daughters of Philistines;
\p
\v 2 and he went up, and he told this to his father and mother, and said, I saw a woman in Timnath of the daughters of Philistines, and I beseech, that ye take her a wife to me.
\p
\v 3 To whom his father and mother said, Whether there is no woman among the daughters of thy brethren, and in all my people, for thou wilt take a wife of the Philistines, that be uncircumcised? And Samson said to his father, Take thou this \em wife\em* to me, for she hath pleased mine eyes.
\p
\v 4 But his father and mother knew not, that this thing was done of the Lord; and that he sought occasions against \add [the]\add* Philistines; for in that time Philistines were lords of Israel.
\p
\v 5 Therefore Samson went down with his father and mother into Timnath; and when they had come to the vineries \add [or vines]\add* of the city, a fierce and roaring whelp of a lion appeared, and ran to Samson.
\p
\v 6 And the spirit of the Lord felled into Samson, and he rent the lion into gobbets, as if he had rent a kid, and utterly he had nothing in his hand; and he would not show this to his father and mother.
\p
\v 7 And he went down, and spake to the woman, that pleased his eyes.
\p
\v 8 And after some days he turned \add [again]\add* to take her; and he went aside to see the lion’s carrion; and lo! a swarm of bees was in the lion’s mouth, and an honeycomb.
\p
\v 9 And when Samson had taken the comb in his hands, he ate it in the way; and he came to his father and mother, and gave them part thereof, and they ate; nevertheless he would not show to them, that he had taken that honey of the lion’s mouth.
\p
\v 10 And so his father went down to the woman, and made a feast to his son Samson; for so young men were wont to do.
\p
\v 11 Therefore when the citizens of that place had seen him, they gave to him thirty fellows, which should be with him.
\p
\v 12 To which Samson spake, I shall put forth to you a problem, \em that is, a doubtful word and privy\em*, and if ye solve it to me within seven days of the feast, I shall give to you thirty linen clothes, and coats of the same number;
\p
\v 13 soothly if ye may not solve, ye shall give to me thirty linen clothes, and coats of the same number. Which answered to him, Set forth the problem, that we hear \em it\em*.
\p
\v 14 And he said to them, Meat went out of the eater, and sweetness went out of the strong. And by three days they might not solve the proposition, \em that is, the\em* reasoning \em set forth\em*.
\p
\v 15 And when the seventh day came, they said to the wife of Samson, Gloss \em or flatter\em* thine husband, and counsel him, that he show to thee what the problem signifieth. That if thou wilt not do it, we shall burn thee and the house of thy father. Whether therefore ye called us to \add [the]\add* weddings, that ye should rob us?
\p
\v 16 And she shedded tears at Samson, and complained, and said, Thou hatest me, and lovest \em me\em* not, therefore thou wilt not expound to me the problem, which thou hast put forth to the sons of my people. And he answered, I would not say \em this thing\em* to my father and mother, and shall I be able to show it to thee?
\p
\v 17 Therefore by seven days of the feast she wept upon him; and at the last in the seventh day, he told it to her clearly, when she was dis-easeful to him. And anon she told it to her citizens.
\p
\v 18 And they said to him in the seventh day before the going down of the sun, What is sweeter than honey, and what is stronger than a lion? And he said to them, If ye had not eared, \em or busied you\em*, in my cow calf, \em that is, my wife\em*, ye had not found my proposition.
\p
\v 19 Therefore the spirit of the Lord felled into him; and he went down to Ashkelon, and killed there thirty men, whose clothes he took away, and he gave to them that solved the problem; and he was full wroth, and went up into his father’s house.
\p
\v 20 Forsooth his wife took an husband, one of the friends and privy keepers of her \add [or one of his friends and wooers]\add*.
\c 15
\cl CHAPTER 15
\p
\v 1 But a little time after, when the days of wheat harvest nighed, Samson came, and would visit his wife, and he brought to her a goat kid; and when he would enter into her bed by custom, her father forbade him,
\p
\v 2 and said, I guessed that thou haddest hated her, and therefore I gave her to thy friend; but she hath a sister, which is younger and fairer than she, be she \add [a]\add* wife to thee for her.
\p
\v 3 To whom Samson answered, From this day \em forth\em* no blame shall be in me against \add [the]\add* Philistines, for I shall do evils to you.
\p
\v 4 And he went, and took three hundred foxes, and he joined together their tails to tails, and he bound fire brands in middle \em of the tails\em*,
\p
\v 5 which he kindled with fire, and let them go, that they should run about hither and thither; which went anon into the corns of \add [the]\add* Philistines, by which kindled, both the corns borne now together, and yet standing in the stubble, were burnt, in so much that the flame wasted vineries \add [or vines]\add*, and places of olive trees.
\p
\v 6 And the Philistines said, Who did this thing? To whom it was said, Samson, the husband of Timnite’s daughter, for he took away Samson’s wife, and gave her to another man. And the Philistines went up, and burnt both the woman and her father.
\p
\v 7 To the which \em Philistines\em* Samson said, Though ye have done this thing, nevertheless yet I shall ask \em and take\em* vengeance of you, and then I shall rest.
\p
\v 8 And he smote them with great wound, so that they wondered, and putted the hinder part of the hip on the thigh; and he went down, and dwelled in the den of the stone of Etam.
\p
\v 9 Then the Philistines went up into the land of Judah, and they setted tents in the place, that was called afterward Lehi, \em that is, a cheek\em*\add [bone]\add*, where their host was spread abroad.
\p
\v 10 And men of the lineage of Judah said to them, Why have ye gone up against us? The which answered, We come that we bind Samson, and yield to him those things the which he \add [hath]\add* wrought against us.
\p
\v 11 Therefore three thousand of men of Judah went down to the den of the flint of Etam; and they said to Samson, Knowest thou not, that \add [the]\add* Philistines command to us, \em that is, they have lordship on us\em*? Why wouldest thou do this thing \em to them\em*? To whom he said, As they did to me, so I did to them.
\p
\v 12 They said, We come to bind thee, and to betake \em thee\em* into the hands of Philistines. To whom Samson answered, Swear ye, and promise ye to me, that ye slay not me.
\p
\v 13 And they said, We shall not slay thee, but we shall betake \em thee\em* bound \em to them\em*. And they bound him with two new cords, and took him from the stone of Etam.
\p
\v 14 And when they had come to the place \em that is called\em* Cheek\add [bone]\add*, and the Philistines crying high had run to him, the spirit of the Lord felled into him, and as sticks be wont to be wasted at the hot tasting of fire, so and the bonds, with which he was bound, were scattered and loosed.
\p
\v 15 And when he had found a cheek-\add [bone]\add*, \em that is, the nether cheekbone\em*, of an ass, that \em there\em* lay, he took it, and killed therewith a thousand men;
\p
\v 16 and he said, With the cheek\add [bone]\add* of an ass, \em that is, with the nether cheek[bone] of a colt of she-asses\em*, I have done away Philistines, and I have killed therewith a thousand men.
\p
\v 17 And when he had high cried these words, and had fully ended them, he threw away from his hand the nether cheekbone; and he called the name of that place Ramathlehi, \em that is to say, the Raising\em* up \em of a cheekbone\em*.
\p
\v 18 And he thirsted greatly, and cried to the Lord, and said, Thou, \em Lord\em*, hast given into the hand of thy servant this greatest health and victory; and lo! I die for thirst, and I shall fall into the hands of uncircumcised men.
\p
\v 19 Therefore the Lord opened a wang tooth in the cheekbone of the ass, and waters went out thereof, and when he had drunken he refreshed his spirit, and received strengths; therefore the name of that place was called the Well of the inwardly caller of the cheek-bone, unto this present day.
\p
\v 20 And Samson deemed Israel in the days of \add [the]\add* Philistines twenty years.
\c 16
\cl CHAPTER 16
\p
\v 1 Also Samson went into Gaza, and he saw there a woman whore, and he entered to her.
\p
\v 2 And when the Philistines had seen this, and it was published among them, that Samson had entered into the city, they encompassed him, the keepers set in the gates of the city; and the Philistines abiding there all that night privily, that in the morrowtide they should kill Samson going out.
\p
\v 3 And Samson slept till to midnight; and he rose up to go thence, and he took both the closings, \em or the leaves\em*, of the \em city\em* gate, with the posts and the lock; and he bare \em those gates\em* upon his shoulders, to the top of the hill that beholdeth Hebron.
\p
\v 4 After these things Samson loved a woman that dwelled in the valley of Sorek, and she was called Delilah.
\p
\v 5 And the princes of the Philistines came to her, and said, Deceive thou him, and learn thou of him, in what thing he hath so great strength, and how we may overcome him, and torment \em him when he is\em* bound; the which thing if thou doest, we shall give to thee, each man, a thousand and an hundred plates of silver.
\p
\v 6 Then Delilah spake to Samson, I beseech thee, say thou to me, where-in is thy greatest strength, and what is that thing, with which if thou were bound, thou mayest not break?
\p
\v 7 To whom Samson answered, If I be bound with seven cords of moist sinews not yet dry, I shall be feeble as other men.
\p
\v 8 And the princes of \add [the]\add* Philistines brought to her seven cords, as he had said; with which she bound him,
\p
\v 9 while ambushments were hid at her, and abided in a closet the end of the thing. And she cried to him, Samson, the Philistines be upon thee! And he brake those bonds, as if a man breaketh a thread of hards, thrown with spittle, when it hath touched the heat of fire; and it was not \em yet\em* known wherein his strength was.
\p
\v 10 And Delilah said to Samson, Lo! thou hast scorned me, and thou hast spoken falsely; nevertheless now show thou to me, with what thing thou shouldest be bound.
\p
\v 11 To whom he answered, If I be bound with new cords, that were not yet in work, I shall be feeble, and like other men.
\p
\v 12 With the which Delilah bound him again, and she cried, Samson, the Philistines be upon thee! the while ambushments were made ready in a closet. And Samson brake his bonds as threads of webs.
\p
\v 13 And Delilah said again to him, How long shalt thou deceive me, and speak falsely? Show thou to me, with what thing thou shalt be bound. To whom Samson answered, he said, If thou pleatest seven gobbets of hair of mine head with a strong bond,
\p
\v 14 and fastenest to the earth a nail bound about with these hairs, I shall be feeble. And when Delilah had done this, she said to him, Samson, the Philistines be upon thee! And he rose from sleep, and he drew out the nail, with the hairs and a strong bond \em tied thereto\em*.
\p
\v 15 And Delilah said to him, How sayest thou, that thou lovest me, since thine inward affection is not with me? By three times thou hast lied to me, and wouldest not say to me, wherein is thy most strength.
\p
\v 16 And when she was dis-easeful to him, and cleaved to him continually by many days, and to him gave no space to rest, his life failed, and was made weary unto the death.
\p
\v 17 Then he opened the truth of the thing, and said to her, Iron came never yet upon mine head, for I am a Nazarite, \em that is, hallowed to the Lord\em*, from my mother’s womb; if mine head be shaven, my strength shall go away from me, and I shall fail, and I shall be as other men.
\p
\v 18 And she saw that he \add [had]\add* acknowledged to her all his will, \em either heart\em*; and she sent to the princes of Philistines, and commanded, Go ye up yet once \em more\em*, for now he hath opened his heart to me. The which went up, the money taken \em with them\em* that they promised.
\p
\v 19 And she made him sleep upon her knees, and to lay his head in her bosom; and she called a barber, and he shaved seven \em gobbets of\em* hairs of him; and she began to shove him away, and to put him from her; for anon the strength went away from him.
\p
\v 20 And she said, Samson, the Philistines be upon thee! And he rose from sleep, and said in his soul, I shall go out, as I did before, and I shall shake me \em from these bonds\em*; and he knew not, that the Lord had gone away from him.
\p
\v 21 And when the Philistines had taken him, anon they put out his eyes, and led \em him\em* bound with chains to Gaza, and they enclosed him in prison, and made him to grind.
\p
\v 22 And then his hairs began to grow again;
\p
\v 23 and \add [the]\add* princes of Philistines came together to offer great sacrifices to Dagon, their god, and \em they made feasts\em* and ate, saying, Our god hath betaken Samson, our enemy, into our hands.
\p
\v 24 And the people seeing also this thing praised their god, and said the same things, Our god hath betaken our adversary into our hands, which did away our land, and killed full many men.
\p
\v 25 And they were gladdened by \em making of\em* feasts, and then when they had eaten, they commanded that Samson should be called, and play before them; the which was led out of prison, and played before them; and they made him stand betwixt two pillars.
\p
\v 26 And Samson said to the boy that governed his steps, Suffer thou me, that I touch the pillars on which all the house standeth, that I be bowed upon those \add [or them]\add*, and rest a little.
\p
\v 27 And the house was full of men and of women, and the princes of the Philistines were there, and about three thousand of men and of women, beholding from the roof, and from the solar, Samson playing.
\p
\v 28 And he called inwardly the Lord, and said, My Lord God, have mind on me, and my God, yield thou now to me the former strength, that I avenge me of mine enemies, and that I take one vengeance for the loss of \em my\em* two eyes.
\p
\v 29 And he took both \add [the]\add* pillars, on which the house stood, and he held the one of those \add [or them]\add* in his right hand, and the tother in his left hand;
\p
\v 30 and he said, My life die with these Philistines! And when the pillars were shaken altogether strongly, the house felled upon all the princes, and upon the multitude that was there; and Samson dying killed many more, than he alive had slain before.
\p
\v 31 And his brethren and all his kindred came down, and took his body, and they buried it betwixt Zorah and Eshtaol, in the sepulchre of Manoah, his father; and he deemed Israel twenty years.
\c 17
\cl CHAPTER 17
\p
\v 1 In that time was a man, that was called Micah, of the hill of Ephraim.
\p
\v 2 And he said to his mother, Lo! I have a thousand and an hundred plates of silver, which thou separatedest to thee, and on which thou cursedest, while I heard; and those be with me. To whom she answered, Blessed be my son of the Lord.
\p
\v 3 Therefore he yielded those \add [or them]\add* to his mother; and she said to him, I hallowed and avowed this silver to the Lord, that my son receive of mine hand, and make a graven image and a molten image; and now I give it to thee.
\p
\v 4 Therefore he yielded to his mother; and she took two hundred plates of silver, and gave those \add [or them]\add* to a workman of silver, that he should make of those \add [or them]\add* a graven image and molten \em image\em*, that was in the house of Micah.
\p
\v 5 And Micah also separated a little house, \em or an oratory\em*, therein to God; and made ephod, and teraphim, \em that is, a priest’s cloth, and idols\em*; and he filled the hand of one of his sons, and he was made a priest to him.
\p
\v 6 In those days was no king in Israel, but each man did that, that seemed rightful \add [or right]\add* to himself.
\p
\v 7 Also another young waxing man was of Bethlehem of Judah, of the kindred of Judah, and he was a deacon \add [or Levite]\add*, and dwelled there.
\p
\v 8 And he went out of the city of Bethlehem, and would be a pilgrim, wherever he found profitable to him-self. And when he made journey, and had come into the hill of Ephraim, and had bowed \add [down]\add* a little into the house of Micah,
\p
\v 9 Micah asked him, From whence comest thou? Which answered, I am a deacon \add [or Levite]\add* of Bethlehem of Judah, and I go, that I dwell where I may, and \em where\em* I see that it is profitable to me.
\p
\v 10 And Micah said, Dwell thou with me, and be thou to me a father and priest; and I shall give to thee by each year ten plates of silver, and a double clothing, and those things that be necessary to lifelode. \add [And]\add* He assented,
\p
\v 11 and dwelled with that man; and he was to that man as one of his sons.
\p
\v 12 And Micah filled his hand, and he had the young man priest with him,
\p
\v 13 and he said, Now I know, that God shall do well to me, having a priest of the kin of Levi.
\c 18
\cl CHAPTER 18
\p
\v 1 In those days was no king in Israel; and the lineage of Dan sought possession to itself, to dwell therein; for till to that day it had not taken heritage among other lineages.
\p
\v 2 Therefore the sons of Dan sent five the strongest men of their generation, and meine, from Zorah and Eshtaol, that they should espy the land, and behold diligently. And they said to them, Go ye, and behold the land. And when they going forth had come into the hill \em country\em* of Ephraim, and had entered into the house of Micah, they rested there.
\p
\v 3 And they knew the voice of the young waxing deacon \add [or Levite]\add*; and they rested in his place, and said to him, Who brought thee hither? What doest thou here? For what cause wouldest thou come hither?
\p
\v 4 The which answered, Micah hath given to me these things and these, and he hath hired me for meed, that I be priest to him.
\p
\v 5 And they prayed him, that he should counsel with the Lord, and that they might know, whether they went in the way of prosperity, and that the thing \em of their purpose\em* should have effect.
\p
\v 6 Which answered to them, Go ye with peace, the Lord beholdeth your way, and the journey whither ye go.
\p
\v 7 Then those five men went forth, and came to Laish; and they saw the people dwelling therein without any dread, by the custom of Sidonians, secure and restful, for no man utterly against-stood them, and they were full rich, and \em dwelled\em* far from Sidon, and were parted from all men.
\p
\v 8 And they turned again to their brethren in Zorah and Eshtaol; and they answered \em to brethren\em*, asking what they had done,
\p
\v 9 and said, Rise ye, and go we up to them \em of Laish\em*, for we have seen the land full rich and plenteous; do not ye be negligent, do not ye cease, go we forth, and have we it into possession;
\p
\v 10 no travail shall be \em to us\em*; we shall enter to secure men, into a full large country; and the Lord shall betake to us a place, wherein is not poverty of anything of those things that be brought forth in \add [the]\add* earth.
\p
\v 11 Therefore six hundred men girded with arms of battle went forth of the kindred of Dan, that is, from Zorah and Eshtaol.
\p
\v 12 And they went up, and dwelled in Kiriathjearim of Judah, the which place took from that time the name of \add [the]\add* Tents of Dan, and it is behind the back of Kiriathjearim.
\p
\v 13 From thence they passed into the hill \em country\em* of Ephraim; and when they had come to the house of Micah,
\p
\v 14 the five men, that were sent before to behold the land of Laish, said to their other brethren, Know ye, that ephod, and teraphim, and a graven image or idol, and a molten image is in these houses; see ye what pleaseth you.
\p
\v 15 And when they had bowed a little \em aside\em*, they entered into the house of the young deacon, that was in the house of Micah, and they greeted him with peaceable words.
\p
\v 16 And six hundred men stood before the door, so as they were armed.
\p
\v 17 And they, that entered into the house of the young man, enforced \em or endeavoured\em* to take away the graven image, and the ephod, and teraphim, and the molten image; and the priest stood before the door, while six hundred full strong men abode not far \em thence\em*.
\p
\v 18 Therefore they that entered took the graven image, ephod, and idols, and the molten image; to whom the priest said, What do ye?
\p
\v 19 To whom they answered, Be thou still, and put thy finger on thy mouth, and come with us, that we have thee father and priest. What is better to thee, that thou be priest in the house of one man, either in a lineage and meine of Israel?
\p
\v 20 And when he had heard this, he assented to their words, and he took the ephod, and idols, and the graven image, and went forth with them.
\p
\v 21 And when they went forth, and had made their little children, and their work beasts, and all thing that was precious, to go before them;
\p
\v 22 and when they were now far from the house of Micah, \add [the]\add* men that dwelled in the houses of \em or near\em* Micah cried together, and pursued \add [or followed]\add*,
\p
\v 23 and began to cry after the backs. Which when they had beheld, \add [they]\add* said to Micah, What wilt thou to thee? why criest thou?
\p
\v 24 Which answered, Ye have taken away my gods, which I made to me, and the priest, and what dwelleth over? and ye say, What is to thee?
\p
\v 25 And the sons of Dan said to him, Beware, lest thou speak \add [any]\add* more to us, and men stirred in soul come to thee, and thou perish with all thine house.
\p
\v 26 And so Dan went forth in the journey begun. And Micah saw, that they were stronger than he, and \add [he]\add* turned again into his house.
\p
\v 27 Forsooth six hundred men took the priest, and the things which we before-said, and came into Laish to the people resting and secure; and they smited them by the sharpness of sword, and betook the city to burning,
\p
\v 28 while no man utterly gave help, for they dwelled far from Sidon, and had not anything of fellowship and cause with any men. And the city was set in the countryside of Bethrehob; the which city Dan builded again, and dwelled therein;
\p
\v 29 and the name of the city was called Dan, by the name of their father, whom Israel had begat, the which city was called Laish before.
\p
\v 30 And Dan setted there the graven image, and Jonathan, the son of Gershom, \add [the]\add* son of Moses, and Jonathan’s sons, the priests, in the lineage of Dan, till into the day of their captivity.
\p
\v 31 And the idol of Micah dwelled with them, in all \add [the]\add* time that the house of God was in Shiloh.
\c 19
\cl CHAPTER 19
\p
\v 1 In those days was no king in Israel. A man was a deacon \add [or Levite]\add*, dwelling in the side of the hill of Ephraim, the which took a \em secondary\em* wife of Bethlehem of Judah.
\p
\v 2 And she did fornication on him, and turned again into the house of her father in Bethlehem, and she dwelled at him four months.
\p
\v 3 And her husband pursued \add [or followed]\add* her, and he would be reconciled to her, and to speak fair \em with her\em*, and to lead \em her\em* again with him; and he had in \em his\em* company a servant, and twain \add [or two]\add* asses. And she received him, and brought him into her father’s house; and when his wife’s father had heard this, and saw him, he ran gladly to him, and embraced the man.
\p
\v 4 And the husband of the daughter dwelled in the house of his wife’s father three days, and ate and drank at home with him.
\p
\v 5 And the fourth day, the deacon \add [or Levite]\add* rose by night, and would have gone forth; whom his wife’s father held, and said to him, Taste thou first a little bread, and comfort thy stomach, and so thou shalt go forth.
\p
\v 6 And they sat together, and ate, and drank. And the father of the damsel said to his daughter’s husband, I beseech thee, that thou dwell here today, and that we be glad together.
\p
\v 7 And he rose, and began to desire to go; and nevertheless, his wife’s father held him again meekly, and made him to dwell with him.
\p
\v 8 And when the morrowtide was made, the deacon \add [or Levite]\add* made him ready to go his way; to whom his wife’s father said again, I beseech thee, that thou take a little meat, and make thee strong till the day increase, and afterward go thou forth. Then they ate together.
\p
\v 9 And the young man rose to go forth with his wife, and with the servant; to whom the father of his wife spake again, Behold thou, that the day is far forth gone toward the \add [sun]\add* going down, and it nigheth to the eventide; dwell thou with me also today, and lead thou \em with me\em* a glad day, and tomorrow thou shalt go forth, that thou go into thine house.
\p
\v 10 The daughter’s husband would not assent to his words; but he went forth anon, and came against Jebus, which by another name is called Jerusalem; and he led with him two asses charged, and his \add [secondary]\add* wife.
\p
\v 11 And now they were beside Jebus, and the day was changed into night. And the servant said to his lord, Come thou, I beseech \em thee\em*, bow we \add [down]\add* to the city of Jebus, and dwell we therein.
\p
\v 12 To whom his lord answered, I shall not enter into the city of an alien folk, which is not of the sons of Israel, but I shall pass forth into Gibeah;
\p
\v 13 and when I shall come thither, we shall dwell therein, or else in the city of Ramah.
\p
\v 14 Therefore they passed Jebus, and took the way begun. And the sun went down to them beside Gibeah, which is in the lineage of Benjamin;
\p
\v 15 and they turned to Gibeah, that they would dwell there. Whither when they had entered, they sat in the street of the city, and no man would receive them to harbour.
\p
\v 16 And lo! an eld \add [or old]\add* man turned again from the field, and from his work in the eventide, and appeared to them, which also himself was of the hill of Ephraim, and he dwelled a pilgrim in Gibeah. And men of that country were of the sons of Benjamin.
\p
\v 17 And when the eld man raised up his eyes, he saw a man sitting with his fardels in the street of the city; and he said to him, From whence comest thou? and whither goest thou?
\p
\v 18 Which answered to him, We went forth from Bethlehem of Judah, and we go to our place, which is in the side of the hill of Ephraim, from whence we went to Bethlehem; and now we go to the house of God, and no man will receive us under his roof,
\p
\v 19 and we have provender and hay into meat of \em our\em* asses, and bread and wine into mine uses, and of thine handmaid, and of the servant which is with me; we have no need to anything, but to harbour.
\p
\v 20 To whom the eld \add [or old]\add* man answered, Peace be with thee; I shall give all things, that be needful; only, I beseech, dwell thou not in the street.
\p
\v 21 And he brought him into his house, and gave meat to the asses; and after that they washed their feet, he received them into feast.
\p
\v 22 While they ate, and refreshed their bodies with meat and drink after the travail of their way, men of that city came, the sons of Belial, \em that is, without yoke\em*, and they encompassed the old man’s house, and began to knock on the doors; and they cried to the lord of the house, and said, Lead out the man that entered into thine house, that we misuse him.
\p
\v 23 And the eld \add [or old]\add* man went out to them, and said, Do not ye, brethren, do not ye do this evil; for the man hath entered into mine harbour; and cease ye of this folly.
\p
\v 24 I have a daughter \em a\em* virgin, and this man hath a \add [secondary]\add* wife; and I shall bring out them to you, that ye make low them, and fulfill your lust; only, I beseech you, that ye work not this cursedness against kind with this man.
\p
\v 25 They would not assent to his words; the which thing the man seeing, he led out his \add [secondary]\add* wife to them, and he betook to them her to be defouled. And when they had misused her all night, they let her go in the morrowtide.
\p
\v 26 And when the darknesses \em of night\em* departed, the woman came to the door of the house, where her lord dwelled, and there she felled down.
\p
\v 27 And when the morrowtide was made, the man rose, and opened the door, for to go forth \em on\em* his journey; and lo! his \add [secondary]\add* wife lay at the door, her hands spread abroad in the threshold.
\p
\v 28 And he guessed her to rest, and spake to her, Rise thou, and go we. And when she answered nothing, he understood that she was dead; and he took her, and put on the ass, and turned again into his house.
\p
\v 29 And when he entered into that house, he took a sword, and parted into twelve parts and gobbets, the dead body of the \em secondary\em* wife, \add [with her bones]\add*, and sent into all the terms of Israel.
\p
\v 30 And when all men had heard this, they cried, Never such a thing was done in Israel, from that day in which our fathers ascended \add [or went up]\add* from Egypt, till into \add [the]\add* present time; say ye sentence, and deem ye in common, what is needed to be done.
\c 20
\cl CHAPTER 20
\p
\v 1 Therefore all the sons of Israel went \add [out]\add*, and were gathered together as one man, from Dan till to Beersheba, and from the land of Gilead, to the Lord in Mizpeh;
\p
\v 2 and all the corners \em or chiefs\em* of peoples, and all the lineages of Israel, came together into the church of the people of God, four hundred thousand of footmen fighters.
\p
\v 3 And it was not hid from the sons of Benjamin, that the sons of Israel had gone up into Mizpeh.
\p
\v 4 And the deacon \add [or Levite]\add*, \add [the]\add* husband of the \em secondary\em* wife \em that was\em* slain, was asked, how so great felony was done; and he answered, I came with my \em secondary\em* wife into Gibeah of Benjamin, and I turned thither.
\p
\v 5 And lo! \add [the]\add* men of that city encompassed in the night the house, in which I dwelled, and they would slay me, and they travailed my \em secondary\em* wife with unbelieveful madness of lechery; and at the last she was dead.
\p
\v 6 And I took, and cut her into gobbets, and I sent those parts of her into all the terms of your possession; for so great felony and so grievous or so great sin was never done in Israel.
\p
\v 7 \em Now\em* all ye sons of Israel be present; deem ye, what ye owe to do.
\p
\v 8 And all the people stood, and answered as by the word of one man, We shall not go hence into our tabernacles, neither any of us shall enter into his house;
\p
\v 9 but we shall do this thing in common against Gibeah.
\p
\v 10 Ten men be chosen of an hundred, of all the lineages of Israel, and an hundred of a thousand, and a thousand of ten thousand, that they bear meats to the host, and that we, fighting against Gibeah of Benjamin, may yield to it for the trespass that that it deserveth.
\p
\v 11 And all the people, as one man, came together to the city, by the same thought and one counsel.
\p
\v 12 And Israel sent messengers to all the lineage of Benjamin, and they said, Why so great felony is found in you?
\p
\v 13 Betake ye the men of Gibeah, that did this wickedness, that they die, and evil be done away from Israel. Which would not hear the commandment of their brethren, the sons of Israel,
\p
\v 14 but men of all the cities, that were of the part of Benjamin, came together into Gibeah, to help them, and to fight against all the people of Israel.
\p
\v 15 And twenty-six thousand were found of Benjamin, of men drawing out sword, besides the dwellers of Gibeah, which were seven hundred strongest men,
\p
\v 16 fighting so with the left hand as with the right hand, and casting so stones with slings at a certain thing, that they might smite also an hair, and the stroke of the stone should not be borne \add [away]\add* into the tother part.
\p
\v 17 Also of the men of Israel, without the sons of Benjamin, were found four hundred thousand drawing out sword, and ready to battle.
\p
\v 18 Which rose, and came into the house of God, that is in Shiloh; and they counselled with God, and said, Who shall be prince in our host of the battle against the sons of Benjamin? To whom the Lord answered, Judah be your duke.
\p
\v 19 And anon the sons of Israel rose early, and setted tents against Gibeah.
\p
\v 20 And from thence they went out to battle against Benjamin, and Israel began to fight against Gibeah.
\p
\v 21 And the sons of Benjamin went out of Gibeah, and killed of the sons of Israel in that day two and twenty thousand men.
\p
\v 22 And again, the sons of Israel trusted in their own strength, and in number of people, and they dressed \add [the]\add* battle array, in the same place in which they fought before;
\p
\v 23 so nevertheless that they went up before \em to the house of God\em*, and they wept before the Lord unto \add [the]\add* night, and they counselled with him, and said, Shall I go forth more to fight against the sons of Benjamin, my brethren, either nay? To whom he answered, Ascend ye \add [or Goeth up]\add* to them, and begin ye the battle.
\p
\v 24 And when the sons of Israel had gone forth to battle in the tother day against Benjamin,
\p
\v 25 the sons of Benjamin brake out from the gates of Gibeah, and came to Israel; \em and the sons of Benjamin\em* were wild against Israel by so fierce slaying, that they threw down eighteen thousand men of Israel drawing out sword.
\p
\v 26 Wherefore all the sons of Israel came into the house of God, and they sat, and wept before the Lord, and they fasted in that day unto the eventide; and they offered to the Lord burnt sacrifices, and peaceable sacrifices,
\p
\v 27 and they asked \em the Lord\em* of their state. In that time, the ark of the bond of peace of God was there;
\p
\v 28 and Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, was sovereign of the \em Lord’s\em* house. Then they counselled \em with\em* the Lord, and said, Shall we go out more to battle against the sons of Benjamin, our brethren, either shall we rest? To whom the Lord said, Go ye up against them, for tomorrow I shall betake Benjamin into your hands.
\p
\v 29 And the sons of Israel setted ambushments by compass of the city of Gibeah;
\p
\v 30 and the third time, as once and twice before, they brought forth the host against Benjamin.
\p
\v 31 But also then the sons of Benjamin brake out from the city boldly, and they pursued further the adversaries fleeing, so that they wounded of Israel, as they did in the first day, and the second, and they killed by two paths Israel turning backs; of the which paths one was straight out into Bethel, and the tother into Gibeah. And Benjamin threw down about thirty men \em of Israel\em*;
\p
\v 32 for they guessed to destroy \em Israel\em* as they did before; and by craft, Israel took counsel, feigning them to flee, that they should draw Benjamin from the city, and that they as fleeing should bring forth Benjamin to the foresaid paths.
\p
\v 33 Therefore all the sons of Israel rose of their seats, and setted battle array in the place which is called Baaltamar. And the ambushments, that were about the city, began to open themselves little and little, and to go forth from the west part of the city.
\p
\v 34 But also other ten thousand of men of all Israel excited the dwellers of the city to battles; and the battle was made grievous against the sons of Benjamin, and they understood not, that perishing nighed to them on each part.
\p
\v 35 And the Lord smote Benjamin in the sight of the sons of Israel, and Israel killed of them in that day five and twenty thousand and an hundred men, and all these were warriors and men drawing out sword.
\p
\v 36 Soothly the sons of Benjamin began to flee, when they saw, that they were the lower. And the sons of Israel saw this, and gave to them place to flee, that they should come to the ambushments made ready, which they had set beside the city.
\p
\v 37 And when these ambushments had risen up suddenly from \add [the]\add* hid places, and Benjamin gave backs to the slayers, they entered into the city, and they smote it by sharpness of sword.
\p
\v 38 Soothly the sons of Israel had given a sign to them which they had set in ambushments, that after that they had taken the city, they should kindle fire, and that by smoke ascending \add [or going up]\add* on high, they should show the city taken.
\p
\v 39 And when the sons of Israel set in that battle saw this; for the sons of Benjamin guessed them to flee, and they pursued them busilier, when thirty men of their host were slain;
\p
\v 40 and they saw as a pillar of smoke go up from the city. And also Benjamin beholding behind, when he saw his city taken, and the flames be borne on high,
\p
\v 41 they that feigned to flee before, turned their face to Benjamin, and more strongly withstood him. And when the sons of Benjamin had seen this thing,
\p
\v 42 they were turned into flight, and they began to go to the way of desert; while also adversaries pursued them there; but also they, that had burnt the city, came against them.
\p
\v 43 And so it was done, that Benjamin was slain of enemies on each part, neither there was any rest of men dying; and they felled, and were cast down at the east coast of the city of Gibeah.
\p
\v 44 Forsooth they, that were slain in the same place, were eighteen thousand of men, all strongest fighters.
\p
\v 45 And when they that left \em alive\em* of Benjamin had seen this, they fled into wilderness, and they went to the stone, whose name is Rimmon. And in that flight \em the sons of Israel\em* went openly \em after\em*, into diverse places, and they killed of them five thousand men; and when Benjamin fled further, they pursued them, and killed also of them other two thousand men.
\p
\v 46 And so it was done, that all that felled down of Benjamin in diverse places, were five and twenty thousand, fighters most ready to battles.
\p
\v 47 And so six hundred men \em were\em* left of all the number of Benjamin, that might escape, and flee into wilder-ness; and they sat in the stone of Rimmon four months.
\p
\v 48 And the sons of Israel went out, and they smote with sword all the remnants of the city, from men unto work beasts; and devouring flame wasted all the cities and towns of Benjamin.
\c 21
\cl CHAPTER 21
\p
\v 1 Also the sons of Israel had sworn in Mizpeh, and said, None of us shall give to the sons of Benjamin a wife of his daughters.
\p
\v 2 And all came to the house of God in Shiloh, and they sat in the sight of him till to eventide, and they raised their voice, and began to weep with great yelling,
\p
\v 3 and said, Lord God of Israel, why is this evil done in thy people, that today one lineage be taken away of us?
\p
\v 4 Soothly in the tother day they rised early, and builded an altar, and offered there burnt sacrifices and peaceable sacrifices,
\p
\v 5 and said, Who of all the lineages of Israel went not up into the host of the Lord? For when they were in Mizpeh, they had bound themselves with a full great oath, that they that failed \em thence\em* should be dead.
\p
\v 6 And the sons of Israel were led by penance on their brother Benjamin, and began to say, One lineage of Israel is taken away;
\p
\v 7 whereof shall they take wives? certainly all we have sworn in common, that we shall not give our daughters to them.
\p
\v 8 Then they said, Who is it of all the lineages of Israel, that went not up to the Lord in Mizpeh? And lo! the dwellers of Jabesh of Gilead were found, that they were not in that host.
\p
\v 9 Also in that time, when they were in Shiloh, none of them was found there.
\p
\v 10 Therefore they sent ten thousand strongest men, and commanded to them, Go ye, and smite the dwellers of Jabesh of Gilead by the sharpness of sword, as well the wives as the little children of them.
\p
\v 11 And this thing shall be to you, that ye shall keep; slay ye all of male kind, and the women that have known men fleshly; reserve ye the virgins or but keep ye the maidens.
\p
\v 12 And four hundred virgins, that knew not the bed of man, were found of Jabesh of Gilead; and they brought them to the tents in Shiloh, into the land of Canaan.
\p
\v 13 And Israel sent messengers to the sons of Benjamin, that were in the stone of Rimmon; and they commanded to them, that they should receive those women in peace.
\p
\v 14 And the sons of Benjamin came in that time, and the daughters of Jabesh of Gilead were given to them to wives; for they found none other women, which they should give \em to them\em* in like manner.
\p
\v 15 And all Israel sorrowed greatly, and did penance on the slaying of one lineage of Israel.
\p
\v 16 And the greater men in birth said, What shall we do to the other men, that have not taken wives? All the women in the lineage of Benjamin have fallen down,
\p
\v 17 and it is to us to purvey with great care and great study, that one lineage be not done away from Israel.
\p
\v 18 We may not give our daughters to them, for we be bound with an oath and cursing, by which we said, Be he cursed that giveth of his daughters a wife to Benjamin.
\p
\v 19 And they took counsel, and said, Lo! the solemnity of the Lord is in Shiloh, the year’s turning about, that is set at the north coast of the city of Bethel, and at the east coast of the way that goeth from Bethel to Shechem, and at the south of the city of Lebonah.
\p
\v 20 And they commanded to the sons of Benjamin, and said, Go ye, and be ye hid in \add [the]\add* vineries \add [or vines]\add*;
\p
\v 21 and when ye see \add [the]\add* daughters of Shiloh go forth by custom to lead dances, go ye out of the vineries suddenly, and ravish ye them, each man one wife, and go ye into the land of Benjamin.
\p
\v 22 And when the fathers and brethren of them shall come, and begin to complain and plead against you, we shall say to them, Have ye mercy of them; for we took not from a man his wife in battle, neither ye gave to them, why ye shall be blamed in time.
\p
\v 23 And the sons of Benjamin did as it was commanded to them, and by their number they ravished wives to them, each man one wife, of them that led dances. And they went into their possession, and builded cities, and dwelled in those \add [or them]\add*.
\p
\v 24 And the sons of Israel turned again, by their lineages and meines, into their tabernacles.
\p
\v 25 In those days was no king in Israel, but each man did that thing, that seemed rightful \add [or right]\add* to himself.
\rem cat ✡cat*