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Avimelekh and his group rushed forward and occupied the entrance to the city gate, while the other two groups attacked all those in the field and killed them.

so he led all his men up to Mount Tzalmon, where he took an axe in his hand, cut a branch off a tree, and laid it on his shoulder. Then he said to those with him, "Quick! Do just what you saw me do!"

They all did likewise, each man cutting off his branch; and they followed Avimelekh. They put the branches up against the stronghold, set them on fire, and burned down the stronghold; so that all the people from the Sh'khem fortress died, about a thousand men and women.

a woman dropped an upper millstone on Avimelekh's head, cracking his skull.

He quickly called out to the young man holding his armor, "Draw your sword, and finish me off, so that people won't say a woman killed me." So his attendant ran him through, and he died.

This is how God paid back Avimelekh for the wrong he did to his father in murdering his seventy brothers.

Now Yiftach, a brave soldier from Gil‘ad, was the son of a prostitute. His father, Gil‘ad,

had other sons by his wife; and when his wife's sons grew up, they drove Yiftach away and told him, "You will not inherit from our father, because you are another woman's son."

Then Yiftach fled from his brothers and lived in the territory of Tov, where he enlisted a gang of rowdies who would go out raiding with him.

But Sichon did not trust that Isra'el would only pass through his land, so he gathered all his people together, pitched camp in Yahatz and fought against Isra'el.

Adonai the God of Isra'el handed Sichon and all his people over to Isra'el, and they killed them. Thus Isra'el possessed all the territory of the Emori who lived there.

So now that Adonai the God of Isra'el has expelled the Emori before his people Isra'el, do you think that you will expel us?

As Yiftach was returning to his house in Mitzpah, his daughter came dancing out to meet him with tambourines. She was his only child; he had no other son or daughter.

When he saw her, he tore his clothes and said, "Oh, no, my daughter! You're breaking my heart! Why must you be the cause of such pain to me? I made a vow to Adonai , and I can't go back on my word."

they would tell him to say "Shibbolet." If he said, "Sibbolet," because he could not make his mouth pronounce it right, they took hold of him and killed him on the spot at the Yarden crossing; at that time 42,000 men of Efrayim died.

He had thirty sons, and he had thirty daughters whom he sent abroad; he brought thirty women from abroad in to marry his sons. He judged Isra'el for seven years.

There was a man from Tzor‘ah from the family of Dan, whose name was Manoach; his wife was barren, childless.

For indeed you will conceive and bear a son. No razor is to touch his head, because the child will be a nazir for God from the womb. Moreover, he will begin to rescue Isra'el from the power of the P'lishtim."

The woman came and told her husband; she said, "A man of God came to me; his face was fearsome, like that of the angel of God. I didn't ask him where he came from, and he didn't tell me his name.

Manoach got up, followed his wife, went to the man and said to him, "Are you the man who spoke to the woman?" He answered, "I am."