Study Desk

And Gideon said to God, If thou wilt save Israel by my hand, as thou hast said,

And Gideon said to God, Let not thy anger be hot against me, and I will speak but this once: Let me make trial, I pray thee, but this once with the fleece; let it now be dry only upon the fleece, and upon all the ground let there be dew.

And God did so that night: for it was dry upon the fleece only, and there was dew on all the ground.

And his fellow answered, and said, This [is] nothing else save the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel: [for] into his hand hath God delivered Midian, and all the host.

God hath delivered into your hands the princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb: and what was I able to do in comparison of you? Then, when he had said that, their anger towards him abated.

And it came to pass as soon as Gideon was dead, that the children of Israel turned again, and went astray after Baalim, and made Baal-berith their god.

And the children of Israel remembered not the LORD their God, who had delivered them from the hands of all their enemies on every side:

And when they told [it] to Jotham, he went and stood in the top of mount Gerizim, and lifted up his voice and cried, and said to them, Hearken to me, ye men of Shechem, that God may hearken to you.

But the olive-tree said to them, Should I leave my fatness, with which by me they honor God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees?

And the vine said to them, Should I leave my wine, which cheereth God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees?

Then God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem; and the men of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech:

And they went out into the fields, and gathered their vineyards, and trod [the grapes], and made merry, and went into the house of their god, and ate and drank, and cursed Abimelech.

And when all the men of the tower of Shechem heard [that], they entered into a hold of the house of the god Berith.

Thus God rendered the wickedness of Abimelech, which he did to his father, in slaying his seventy brethren:

And all the evil of the men of Shechem did God render upon their heads: and upon them came the curse of Jotham the son of Jerubbaal.

And the children of Israel cried to the LORD, saying, We have sinned against thee, both because we have forsaken our God, and also served Baalim.

And the LORD God of Israel delivered Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they smote them: so Israel possessed all the land of the Amorites, the inhabitants of that country.

So now the LORD God of Israel hath dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel, and shouldst thou possess it?

Wilt not thou possess that which Chemosh thy god giveth thee to possess? So whomsoever the LORD our God shall drive out from before us, them will we possess.

For lo, thou shalt conceive, and bear a son; and no razor shall come on his head: for the child shall be a Nazarite to God from his birth: and he shall begin to deliver Israel from the hand of the Philistines.