Judges 9-11

Judges 9

¹Now Abimelech, the son of Jerubbaal, went to Shechem to his mother's family, and said to them and to all the family of his mother's father,

²Say now in the ears of all the townsmen of Shechem, Is it better for you to be ruled by all the seventy sons of Jerubbaal or by one man only? And keep in mind that I am your bone and your flesh.

³So his mother's family said all this about him in the ears of all the townsmen of Shechem: and their hearts were turned to Abimelech, for they said, He is our brother.

⁴And they gave him seventy shekels of silver from the house of Baal-berith, with which Abimelech got the support of a number of uncontrolled and good-for-nothing persons.

⁵Then he went to his father's house at Ophrah, and put his brothers, the seventy sons of Jerubbaal, to death on the same stone; however, Jotham, the youngest, kept himself safe by going away to a secret place.

⁶And all the townsmen of Shechem and all Beth-millo came together and went and made Abimelech their king, by the oak of the pillar in Shechem.

⁷Now Jotham, on hearing of it, went to the top of Mount Gerizim, and crying out with a loud voice said to them, Give ear to me, you townsmen of Shechem, so that God may give ear to you.

⁸One day the trees went out to make a king for themselves; and they said to the olive-tree, Be king over us.

⁹But the olive-tree said to them, Am I to give up my wealth of oil, by which men give honour to God, and go waving over the trees?

¹⁰Then the trees said to the fig-tree, You come and be king over us.

¹¹But the fig-tree said to them, Am I to give up my sweet taste and my good fruit and go waving over the trees?

¹²Then the trees said to the vine, You come and be king over us.

¹³But the vine said to them, Am I to give up my wine, which makes glad God and men, to go waving over the trees?

¹⁴Then all the trees said to the thorn, You come and be king over us.

¹⁵And the thorn said to the trees, If it is truly your desire to make me your king, then come and put your faith in my shade; and if not, may fire come out of the thorn, burning up the cedars of Lebanon.

¹⁶So now, if you have done truly and uprightly in making Abimelech king, and if you have done well to Jerubbaal and his house in reward for the work of his hands;

¹⁷(For my father made war for you, and put his life in danger, and made you free from the hands of Midian;

¹⁸And you have gone against my father's family this day, and have put to death his sons, even seventy men on one stone, and have made Abimelech, the son of his servant-wife, king over the townsmen of Shechem because he is your brother;)

¹⁹If then you have done what is true and upright to Jerubbaal and his family this day, may you have joy in Abimelech, and may he have joy in you;

²⁰But if not, may fire come out from Abimelech, burning up the townsmen of Shechem and Beth-millo; and may fire come out from the townsmen of Shechem and Beth-millo, for the destruction of Abimelech.

²¹Then Jotham straight away went in flight to Beer, and was living there for fear of his brother Abimelech.

²²So Abimelech was chief over Israel for three years.

²³And God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the townsmen of Shechem; and the townsmen of Shechem were false to Abimelech;

²⁴So that punishment for the violent attack made on the seventy sons of Jerubbaal, and for their blood, might come on Abimelech, their brother, who put them to death, and on the townsmen of Shechem who gave him their help in putting his brothers to death.

²⁵And the townsmen of Shechem put secret watchers on the tops of the mountains, and they made attacks on all who went by on the road and took their goods; and word of this came to Abimelech.

²⁶Then Gaal, the son of Ebed, came with his brothers, and went over to Shechem; and the men of Shechem put their faith in him.

²⁷And they went out into their fields and got in the fruit of their vines, and when the grapes had been crushed, they made a holy feast and went into the house of their god, and over their food and drink they were cursing Abimelech.

²⁸And Gaal, the son of Ebed, said, Who is Abimelech and who is Shechem, that we are to be his servants? Is it not right for the son of Jerubbaal and Zebul his captain to be servants to the men of Hamor, the father of Shechem? But why are we to be his servants?

²⁹If only I had authority over this people! I would put Abimelech out of the way, and I would say to Abimelech, Make your army strong, and come out.

³⁰Now Zebul, the ruler of the town, hearing what Gaal, the son of Ebed, had said, was moved to wrath.

³¹And he sent to Abimelech at Arumah, saying, See, Gaal, the son of Ebed, and his brothers have come to Shechem, and they are working up the town against you.

³²So now, get up by night, you and your people, and keep watch in the field secretly;

³³And in the morning, when the sun is up, get up early and make a rush on the town; and when he and his people come out against you, do to them whatever you have a chance to do.

³⁴So Abimelech and the people with him got up by night, in four bands, to make a surprise attack on Shechem.

³⁵And Gaal, the son of Ebed, went out, and took his place at the doorway into the town; then Abimelech and his people got up from the place where they had been waiting.

³⁶And when Gaal saw the people, he said to Zebul, See! people are coming down from the tops of the mountains. And Zebul said to him, You see the shade of the mountains like men.

³⁷And Gaal said again, See! people are coming down from the middle of the land, and one band is coming by way of the oak-tree of the Seers.

³⁸Then Zebul said to him, Now where is your loud talk when you said, Who is Abimelech that we are to be his servants? Is this not the people whom you were rating so low? Go out now, and make war on them.

³⁹So Gaal went out at the head of the townsmen of Shechem and made war on Abimelech.

⁴⁰And Abimelech went after him and he went in flight before him; and a great number were falling by the sword all the way up to the town.

⁴¹Then Abimelech went back to Arumah; and Zebul sent Gaal and his brothers away and would not let them go on living in Shechem.

⁴²Now the day after, the people went out into the fields; and news of it came to Abimelech.

⁴³And he took his people, separating them into three bands, and was waiting secretly in the field; and when he saw the people coming out of the town, he went up and made an attack on them.

⁴⁴And Abimelech with his band made a rush, and took up their position at the doorway into the town; and the other two bands made a rush on all those who were in the fields, and overcame them.

⁴⁵And all that day Abimelech was fighting against the town; and he took it, and put to death the people who were in it, and had the town pulled down and covered with salt.

⁴⁶Then all the townsmen of the tower of Shechem, hearing of it, went into the inner room of the house of El-berith.

⁴⁷And word was given to Abimelech that all the men of the tower of Shechem were there together.

⁴⁸Then Abimelech went up to Mount Zalmon, with all his people; and Abimelech took an axe in his hand and, cutting down branches of trees, took them and put them on his back. And he said to the people who were with him, Be quick and do as you have seen me do.

⁴⁹So all the people got branches, every man cutting down a branch, and they went with Abimelech at their head and, massing the branches against the inner room, put fire to the room over them; so all those who were in the tower of Shechem, about a thousand men and women, were burned to death with it.

⁵⁰Then Abimelech went to Thebez, and put his army in position against Thebez and took it.

⁵¹But in the middle of the town there was a strong tower, to which all the men and women of the town went in flight and, shutting themselves in, went up to the roof of the tower.

⁵²And Abimelech came to the tower and made an attack on it, and got near to the door of the tower for the purpose of firing it.

⁵³But a certain woman sent a great stone, such as is used for crushing grain, on to the head of Abimelech, cracking the bone.

⁵⁴Then quickly crying out to his body-servant, he said to him, Take out your sword and put an end to me straight away, so that men may not say of me, His death was the work of a woman. So the young man put his sword through him, causing his death.

⁵⁵And when the men of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead, they went away, every man to his place.

⁵⁶In this way Abimelech was rewarded by God for the evil he had done to his father in putting his seventy brothers to death;

⁵⁷And God sent back on to the heads of the men of Shechem all the evil they had done, and the curse of Jotham, the son of Jerubbaal, came on them.

Judges 10

¹Now after Abimelech, Tola, the son of Puah, the son of Dodo, a man of Issachar, became the saviour of Israel; he was living in Shamir in the hill-country of Ephraim.

²He was judge over Israel for twenty-three years; and at his death his body was put to rest in the earth in Shamir.

³And after him came Jair the Gileadite, who was judge over Israel for twenty-two years.

⁴And he had thirty sons, who went on thirty young asses; and they had thirty towns in the land of Gilead, which are named Havvoth-Jair to this day.

⁵And at the death of Jair his body was put to rest in the earth in Kamon.

⁶And again the children of Israel did evil in the eyes of the Lord, worshipping the Baals and Astartes, and the gods of Aram and the gods of Zidon and the gods of Moab and the gods of the children of Ammon and the gods of the Philistines; they gave up the Lord and were servants to him no longer.

⁷And the wrath of the Lord was burning against Israel, and he gave them up into the hands of the Philistines and into the hands of the children of Ammon.

⁸And that year the children of Israel were crushed under their yoke; for eighteen years all the children of Israel on the other side of Jordan, in the land of the Amorites which is in Gilead, were cruelly crushed down.

⁹And the children of Ammon went over Jordan, to make war against Judah and Benjamin and the house of Ephraim; and Israel was in great trouble.

¹⁰Then the children of Israel, crying out to the Lord, said, Great is our sin against you, for we have given up our God and have been servants to the Baals.

¹¹And the Lord said to the children of Israel, Were not the Egyptians and the Amorites and the children of Ammon and the Philistines

¹²And the Zidonians and Amalek and Midian crushing you down, and in answer to your cry did I not give you salvation from their hands?

¹³But, for all this, you have given me up and have been servants to other gods: so I will be your saviour no longer.

¹⁴Go, send up your cry for help to the gods of your selection; let them be your saviours in the time of your trouble.

¹⁵And the children of Israel said to the Lord, We are sinners; do to us whatever seems good to you: only give us salvation this day.

¹⁶So they put away the strange gods from among them, and became the Lord's servants; and his soul was angry because of the sorrows of Israel.

¹⁷Then the children of Ammon came together and put their army in position in Gilead. And the children of Israel came together and put their army in position in Mizpah.

¹⁸And the people of Israel said to one another, Who will be the first to make an attack on the children of Ammon? We will make him head over all Gilead.

Judges 11

¹Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a great man of war; he was the son of a loose woman, and Gilead was his father.

²And Gilead's wife gave birth to sons, and when her sons became men, they sent Jephthah away, saying, You have no part in the heritage of our father's house, for you are the son of another woman.

³So Jephthah went in flight from his brothers and was living in the land of Tob, where a number of good-for-nothing men, joining Jephthah, went out with him on his undertakings.

⁴Now after a time the children of Ammon made war against Israel.

⁵And when the children of Ammon made war against Israel, the responsible men of Gilead went to get Jephthah back from the land of Tob;

⁶And they said to Jephthah, Come and be our chief so that we may make war against the children of Ammon.

⁷But Jephthah said to the responsible men of Gilead, Did you not, in your hate for me, send me away from my father's house? Why do you come to me now when you are in trouble?

⁸And the responsible men of Gilead said to Jephthah, That is the reason we have come back to you; so go with us and make war against the children of Ammon, and we will make you our head over all the people of Gilead.

⁹Then Jephthah said to the responsible men of Gilead, If you take me back to make war against the children of Ammon, and if with the help of the Lord I overcome them, will you make me your head?

¹⁰And the responsible men of Gilead said to Jephthah, May the Lord be our witness: we will certainly do as you say.

¹¹So Jephthah went with the responsible men of Gilead, and the people made him head and chief over them; and Jephthah said all these things before the Lord in Mizpah.

¹²Then Jephthah sent men to the king of the children of Ammon, saying, What have you against me that you have come to make war against my land?

¹³And the king of the children of Ammon said to the men sent by Jephthah, Because Israel, when he came up out of Egypt, took away my land, from the Arnon as far as the Jabbok and as far as Jordan: so now, give me back those lands quietly.

¹⁴And Jephthah sent again to the king of the children of Ammon,

¹⁵And said to him, This is the word of Jephthah: Israel did not take away the land of Moab or the land of the children of Ammon;

¹⁶But when they came up from Egypt, Israel went through the waste land to the Red Sea and came to Kadesh;

¹⁷Then Israel sent men to the king of Edom saying, Let me now go through your land; but the king of Edom did not give ear to them. And in the same way he sent to the king of Moab, but he would not; so Israel went on living in Kadesh.

¹⁸Then he went on through the waste land and round the land of Edom and the land of Moab, and came by the east side of the land of Moab, and put up their tents on the other side of the Arnon; they did not come inside the limit of Moab, for the Arnon was the limit of Moab.

¹⁹And Israel sent men to Sihon, king of the Amorites, the king of Heshbon; and Israel said to him, Let me now go through your land to my place.

²⁰But Sihon would not give way and let Israel go through his land; and Sihon got together all his people, and put his army in position in Jahaz, and made war on Israel.

²¹And the Lord, the God of Israel, gave Sihon and all his people into the hands of Israel, and they overcame them; so all the land of the Amorites, the people of that land, became Israel's.

²²All the limit of the Amorites was theirs, from the Arnon as far as the Jabbok and from the waste land even to Jordan.

²³So now the Lord, the God of Israel, has taken away their land from the Amorites and given it to his people Israel; are you then to have it?

²⁴Do you not keep the lands of those whom Chemosh your god sends out from before you? So we will keep all the lands of those whom the Lord our God sends out from before us.

²⁵What! are you any better than Balak, the son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever take up a cause against Israel or make war against them?

²⁶While Israel was living in Heshbon and its daughter-towns and in Aroer and its daughter-towns and in all the towns which are by the side of the Arnon, for three hundred years, why did you not get them back at that time?

²⁷So I have done no wrong against you, but you are doing wrong to me in fighting against me: may the Lord, who is Judge this day, be judge between the children of Israel and the children of Ammon.

²⁸The king of the children of Ammon, however, did not give ear to the words which Jephthah sent to him.

²⁹Then the spirit of the Lord came on Jephthah, and he went through Gilead and Manasseh, and came to Mizpeh of Gilead; and from Mizpeh of Gilead he went over to the children of Ammon.

³⁰And Jephthah took an oath to the Lord, and said, If you will give the children of Ammon into my hands,

³¹Then whoever comes out from the door of my house, meeting me when I come back in peace from the children of Ammon, will be the Lord's and I will give him as a burned offering.

³²So Jephthah went over to the children of Ammon to make war on them; and the Lord gave them into his hands.

³³And he made an attack on them from Aroer all the way to Minnith, overrunning twenty towns, as far as Abel-cheramim, and put great numbers to the sword. So the children of Ammon were crushed before the children of Israel.

³⁴Then Jephthah came back to his house in Mizpah, and his daughter came out, meeting him on his way with music and with dances; she was his only child; he had no other sons or daughters.

³⁵And when he saw her he was overcome with grief, and said, Ah! my daughter! I am crushed with sorrow, and it is you who are the chief cause of my trouble; for I have made an oath to the Lord and I may not take it back.

³⁶And she said to him, My father, you have made an oath to the Lord; do then to me whatever you have said; for the Lord has sent a full reward on your haters, on the children of Ammon.

³⁷Then she said to her father, Only do this for me: let me have two months to go away into the mountains with my friends, weeping for my sad fate.

³⁸And he said, Go then. So he sent her away for two months; and she went with her friends to the mountains, weeping for her sad fate.

³⁹And at the end of two months she went back to her father, who did with her as he had said in his oath: and she had never been touched by a man. So it became a rule in Israel,

⁴⁰For the women to go year by year sorrowing for the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite, four days in every year.