Study Desk

Then Gaal son of Ebed came to Shechem with his brothers, and the men of Shechem put their confidence in him.

He sent messengers to Abimelech at Arumah to say, "Gaal son of Ebed and his brothers have come to Shechem, and they are not going to let you into the city.

Get up tomorrow morning at sunrise and make a sudden attack on the city. Then when Gaal and his men come out against you, hit them with all you've got!"

So Abimelech and all his men made their move at night and hid outside Shechem in four groups.

When Abimelech and his men saw Gaal come out and stand at the city gate, they got up from their hiding places.

Abimelech lived in Arumah, and Zebul drove Gaal and his brothers out of Shechem, so that they could no longer live there.

so he took his men, divided them into three groups, and hid in the fields, waiting. When he saw the people coming out of the city, he came out of hiding to kill them.

While Abimelech and his group hurried forward to guard the city gate, the other two companies attacked the people in the fields and killed them all.

so he went up to Mount Zalmon with his men. There he took an ax, cut a limb off a tree, and put it on his shoulder. He told his men to hurry and do the same thing.

But a woman threw a millstone down on his head and fractured his skull.

Then he quickly called the young man who was carrying his weapons and told him, "Draw your sword and kill me. I don't want it said that a woman killed me." So the young man ran him through, and he died.

And so it was that God paid Abimelech back for the crime that he committed against his father in killing his seventy brothers.

Jephthah, a brave soldier from Gilead, was the son of a prostitute. His father Gilead

had other sons by his wife, and when they grew up, they forced Jephthah to leave home. They told him, "You will not inherit anything from our father; you are the son of another woman."

Jephthah fled from his brothers and lived in the land of Tob. There he attracted a group of worthless men, and they went around with him.

So Jephthah went with the leaders of Gilead, and the people made him their ruler and leader. Jephthah stated his terms at Mizpah in the presence of the Lord .

Then they sent messengers to the king of Edom to ask permission to go through his land. But the king of Edom would not let them. They also asked the king of Moab, but neither would he let them go through his land. So the Israelites stayed at Kadesh.

Then the Israelites sent messengers to Sihon, the Amorite king of Heshbon, and asked him for permission to go through his country to their own land.

But Sihon would not let Israel do it. He brought his whole army together, camped at Jahaz, and attacked Israel.

But the Lord , the God of Israel, gave the Israelites victory over Sihon and his army. So the Israelites took possession of all the territory of the Amorites who lived in that country.