Study Desk

Then the land had peace for forty years, and Othniel son of Kenaz died.

Then the Israelites cried out to the Lord, and he raised up Ehud son of Gera, a left-handed Benjaminite, as a deliverer for them. The Israelites sent him with the tribute for King Eglon of Moab.

At the carved images near Gilgal he returned and said, “King Eglon, I have a secret message for you.” The king said, “Silence!” and all his attendants left him.

Then Ehud approached him while he was sitting alone in his upstairs room where it was cool. Ehud said, “I have a message from God for you,” and the king stood up from his throne.

Moab became subject to Israel that day, and the land had peace for eighty years.

He said to her, “Please give me a little water to drink for I am thirsty.” She opened a container of milk, gave him a drink, and covered him again.

When Barak arrived in pursuit of Sisera, Jael went out to greet him and said to him, “Come and I will show you the man you are looking for.” So he went in with her, and there was Sisera lying dead with a tent peg through his temple!

Why did you sit among the sheep penslistening to the playing of pipes for the flocks?There was great searching of heartamong the clans of Reuben.

“Curse Meroz,” says the angel of the Lord,“Bitterly curse her inhabitants,for they did not come to help the Lord,to help the Lord with the warriors.”

He asked for water; she gave him milk.She brought him cream in a majestic bowl.

She reached for a tent peg,her right hand, for a workman’s hammer.Then she hammered Sisera—she crushed his head;she shattered and pierced his temple.

“Are they not finding and dividing the spoil—a girl or two for each warrior,the spoil of colored garments for Sisera,the spoil of an embroidered garment or two for my neck?”

and they oppressed Israel. Because of Midian, the Israelites made hiding places for themselves in the mountains, caves, and strongholds.

They encamped against them and destroyed the produce of the land, even as far as Gaza. They left nothing for Israel to eat, as well as no sheep, ox, or donkey.

For the Midianites came with their cattle and their tents like a great swarm of locusts. They and their camels were without number, and they entered the land to lay waste to it.

But the Lord said to him, “Peace to you. Don’t be afraid, for you will not die.”

But Joash said to all who stood against him, “Would you plead Baal’s case for him? Would you save him? Whoever pleads his case will be put to death by morning! If he is a god, let him plead his own case because someone tore down his altar.”

The Lord said to Gideon, “You have too many troops for me to hand the Midianites over to them, or else Israel might elevate themselves over me and say, ‘My own strength saved me.’

Then the Lord said to Gideon, “There are still too many troops. Take them down to the water, and I will test them for you there. If I say to you, ‘This one can go with you,’ he can go. But if I say about anyone, ‘This one cannot go with you,’ he cannot go.”

That night the Lord said to him, “Get up and attack the camp, for I have handed it over to you.