Study Desk

So Israel became very poor because of Midian. The people of Israel cried to the Lord.

The people of Israel cried to the Lord because of Midian.

But Joash said to all who were gathered against him, "Will you fight for Baal? Will you save him? Whoever will fight for him will be put to death this morning. If he is a god, let him fight for himself because someone has torn down his altar."

So on that day he gave Gideon the name Jerubbaal, which means, "Let Baal fight against him." Because he tore down his altar.

Then he said to Jether his first-born son, "Stand up and kill them." But the boy did not pick up his sword. He was afraid because he was still a boy.

Gideon said to them, "I only ask that each of you give me the gold objects you have taken to be worn on the ear." (They had objects to be worn on the ear because they were Ishmaelites.)

Then he went to his father's house at Ophrah. And he killed his brothers, the sons of Jerubbaal. He killed all seventy men upon one stone. But Jerubbaal's youngest son Jotham was left alive, because he hid himself.

But you have gone against my father's house today. You have killed seventy of his sons on one stone. Abimelech is the son of my father's woman servant. And you have made him king over the people of Shechem, because he is your brother.

Jotham ran away from them and went to Beer. He stayed there, because he was afraid of his brother Abimelech.

God did this to punish Abimelech and the men of Shechem, because the seventy sons of Jerubbaal were killed by their brother Abimelech. And the men of Shechem gave him the strength to do it.

The king of the people of Ammon said to these men of Jephthah, "Because Israel took away my land when they came from Egypt. They took my land from the Arnon as far as the Jabbok and the Jordan. So I ask you to return this land to me in peace."

She said to him, "My father, you have made a promise to the Lord. Do to me what you have promised you would do. Because the Lord has punished the people of Ammon, who fought against you.

But do this for me. Let me alone for two months. So I and my friends may go to the mountains and cry because I will never have a man."

Jephthah said, "Go." He sent her away for two months with her friends. And they cried on the mountains because she would never have a man.

Then Jephthah gathered all the men of Gilead and fought Ephraim. The men of Gilead won the war against Ephraim, because Ephraim said, "You people of Gilead are not respected among Ephraim and Manasseh."

You will have a child and give birth to a son. His hair must never be cut. Because the boy will be a Nazirite to God from the time he is born. He will begin to take Israel away from the Philistines' power."

But she cried in front of him for seven days while their special supper lasted. On the seventh day Samson told her the answer because she begged him so much. Then she told the answer to her people.

The Philistines said, "Who did this?" And they were told, "Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because the Timnite took his wife and gave her to his friend." So the Philistines came and burned her and her father with fire.

Then Micah said, "Now I know that the Lord will bring good to me because I have a Levite as my religious leader."

There was no one to take them away from their trouble, because it was far from Sidon and they had nothing to do with anyone. It was in the valley near Beth-rehob. The sons of Dan built the city again, and lived in it.