Study Desk

Then he went to his father's house at Ophrah and murdered his brothers the sons of Jerubbaal, seventy men, [in a public execution] on one stone. But Jotham the youngest son of Jerubbaal was left alive, because he had hidden himself.

but you have risen against my father's house today and have murdered his sons, seventy men, on one stone, and have made Abimelech, son of his maidservant, king over the people of Shechem, because he is your relative—

Then Jotham escaped and fled, and went to Beer and lived there because of Abimelech his brother.

Then the Israelites cried out to the LORD [for help], saying, "We have sinned against You, because we have abandoned (rejected) our God and have served the Baals."

Gilead's wife bore him sons, and when his wife's sons grew up, they drove Jephthah out and said to him, "You shall not have an inheritance in our father's house, because you are the son of another woman."

The Ammonites' king replied to the messengers of Jephthah, "It is because Israel took away my land when they came up from Egypt, from the [river] Arnon as far as the Jabbok and [east of] the Jordan; so now, return those lands peaceably."

Then Jephthah assembled all the men of Gilead and fought with [the tribe of] Ephraim; and the men of Gilead defeated Ephraim, because they had said, "You Gileadites are fugitives of Ephraim, in the midst of [the tribes of] Ephraim and Manasseh."

So Manoah said to his wife, "We will certainly die, because we have seen God."

But his father and mother said to him, "Is there no woman among the daughters of your relatives, or among all our people, that you must go to take a wife from the uncircumcised (pagan) Philistines?" And Samson said to his father, "Get her for me, because she looks pleasing to me."

However Samson's wife wept before him seven days while their [wedding] feast lasted, and on the seventh day he told her because she pressed him so hard. Then she told the [answer to the] riddle to her countrymen.

Then the Philistines said, "Who did this?" And they were told, "Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he took Samson's wife and gave her to his [chief] companion [at the wedding feast]." So the Philistines came up and burned her and her father with fire.

Then Delilah realized that he had told her everything in his heart, so she sent and called for the Philistine lords, saying, "Come up this once, because he has told me everything in his heart." Then the Philistine lords came up to her and brought the money [they had promised] in their hands.

Then Micah said, "Now I know that the LORD will favor me and make me prosper because I have a Levite as my priest."

And there was no one to rescue them because it was far from Sidon and they had no dealings with anyone. It was in the valley which belongs to Beth-rehob. And they rebuilt the city and lived in it.

and they turned aside there to go in and spend the night in Gibeah. And the Levite went in and sat down in the open square of the city, because no man invited them into his house to spend the night.

"But the men of Gibeah rose up against me and surrounded the house at night because of me. They intended to kill me, but instead they raped my concubine [so brutally] that she died.

So the Benjamites realized that they were defeated. Then men of Israel gave ground to the Benjamites, because they relied on the men in ambush whom they had placed against Gibeah.

And the people were sorry [and had compassion] for [the survivors of the tribe of] Benjamin because the LORD had made a gap in the tribes of Israel.

"When their fathers or their brothers come to complain to us, we shall say to them, 'Give them to us voluntarily, because we did not take a wife for each man of Benjamin in battle, nor did you give wives to them, for that would have made you guilty [of breaking your oath].'"

would you wait until they were grown? Would you go without marrying? No, my daughters; for it is much more difficult for me than for you, because the LORD'S hand has gone against me."