people cut off every man a bough, and went after Abimelech, and laid them by the fortress, and set it on fire: and all the men of the tower of Shechem died, about a thousand men and women.

And Abimelech went to Thebez, and besieged it, and took it.

And there was a strong tower in the midst of the city, upon which all the men and women, and all the inhabitants of the city, fled; and they shut them up behind them, and went up into the roof of the tower.

And Abimelech came to the tower, and fought against it, and drew nigh unto the door of the tower, and burned it with fire.

And a woman cast a piece of a millstone upon Abimelech’s head, and brake his skull.

And Abimelech made haste, and called unto the lad that bare his weapons, and said unto him, Put forth thy sword, and slay me, lest it be said of me, A woman slew him. And his lad thrust him through, and he died.

And when the children of Israel that were with him saw that Abimelech was dead, they went every man to his place.

So God paid Abimelech for the evil that he had done to his father, in that he slew his seventy brethren.

Likewise all the evil of the men of Shechem God forgave on their heads, and the curse of Jotham the son of Jerubbaal came upon them.
(Judges)
Chapter 10
Israel is pushed by the Philistines because of idolatry.

And it came to pass after Abimelech, that Tola, a man of Issachar, the son of Puah the son of Dodo, went to help Israel. And he dwelt at Samir in mount Ephraim.

And he judged Israel twenty and three years; and he died, and was buried in Samir.

And after him arose Jair the Gileadite, and judged Israel twenty and two years.

And he had thirty sons riding upon thirty asses: and he had thirty cities, which are called the villages of Jair unto this day, which are in Gilead.

And Jair died, and was buried in Kamon.

But the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the LORD, and served Baalim, and Ashtaroth, and the gods of Syria, and the gods of Zidon, and the gods of Moab, and the gods of the children of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines; and forsook the LORD, and served him not.

And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of the Philistines, and into the hand of the children of Ammon.

And they trode down and smote the children of Israel from that year even eighteen years, even all the children of Israel that were beyond Jordan, in the land of the Amorites, which is in Gilead.

And the children of Ammon passed over Jordan, and fought against Judah, and against Benjamin, and against the house of Ephraim; so that Israel was greatly distressed.

And the children of Israel cried unto the LORD, saying: We have sinned against thee; for we have forsaken our God, and served Baalim.

And the LORD said unto the children of Israel, Have not the Egyptians, and the Amorites, and the children of Amman, and the Philistines, compelled you?

The Zidonians, and the Amalekites, and the Maanites: and I delivered you out of their hand, when ye cried unto me?

Yet have ye forsaken me, and served other gods: therefore will I not help you any more.

Go and cry unto the gods which ye have chosen: let them help you in the time of your affliction.

And the children of Israel said unto the LORD, We have sinned: do thou with us as thou wilt; only save us at this time.

And they put away strange gods, and served the LORD. And it grieved him that Israel was so afflicted.

And the children of Ammon cried, and pitched in Gilead: but the children of Israel gathered themselves together, and pitched in Mizpeh.

And the people of the princes of Gilead said one to another, Whosoever shall begin to fight against the children of Ammon, he shall be chief over all the inhabitants of Gilead.
(Judges)
Chapter 11
Jephthah’s victory and vows.

Jephthah, a Gileadite, was a valiant man, but a whoremonger. But Gilead had begotten Jephthah.

And when the wife of Gilead bare him children, and the children of his wife grew up, they cast out Jephthah, and said unto him, Thou shalt not inherit in our father’s house; for thou art the son of another woman.

And he fled from his brethren, and dwelt in the land of Tob. And there were gathered unto him a few men, and they went out with him.

And for some time afterward the children of Amman fought with Israel.

And it came to pass, when the children of Ammon had fought with Israel, that the elders of Gilead went to fetch Jephthah out of the land of Tob.

And they said unto him, Come and be our captain, that we may fight against the children of Ammon.

And Jephthah said unto the elders of Gilead: Are not ye that hate me, and have cast me out of my father’s house? And now come ye unto me, because ye are in tribulation?

And the elders of Gilead said unto Jephthah, Now therefore we return unto thee, that thou mayest go with us, and fight with us against the children of Amman, and be our head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.

And Jephthah said unto the elders of Gilead: If ye bid me fight again against the children of Ammon, and the LORD give them before me, shall I be your head?

And the elders of Gilead said unto Jephthah, Let the LORD be a hearer between us, where we do not as thou hast said.

So Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead: and the people made him head over them, and ruler over them. And Jephthah spake all these things before the LORD in Mizpah.

And Jephthah sent messengers unto the king of the children of Amman, saying, What hast thou to do with me, that thou art come to me to fight against my land?

And the king of the children of Ammon answered the messengers of Jephthah: Because Israel took my land, when they came out of Egypt, from Arnon even unto Jabbok, and unto Jordan.
Now therefore restore it unto me in peace.

And Jephthah sent more messengers unto the king of the children of Amman.

And they said unto him, Thus saith Jephthah: Israel hath taken no land, neither from Moab, nor from the children of Ammon.

For when they came out of Egypt, Israel went through the wilderness unto the Red sea, and came to Kadesh;

And he sent messengers unto the king of Edom, saying, Let me pass through thy land. But the king of Edom hearkened not unto them. And they sent to the king of Moab, and he would not hear them. So Israel dwelt in Kadesh.
18: And he walked in the wilderness, and compassed the land of Edom, and the land of Moab, and came from the rising of the sun unto the land of Moab, and pitched on the other side of Arnon; and came not within the border of Moab: for Arnon is the border of Moab.

And Israel sent messengers unto Sihon king of Heshbon the Amorite, saying, Let us pass through thy land unto my place.

But Sihon trusted not Israel to pass through his border, but gathered all his people together, and encamped at Jahaz, and fought with Israel.

And the LORD God of Israel delivered Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they smote them. So Israel took all the land of the Amorites, which dwelt in the same country,

And they took all the border of the Amorites from Arnon even unto Jabbok, and from the wilderness even unto Jordan.

Now therefore the LORD God of Israel hath driven out the Amorites from before his people Israel; and wilt thou take them?

Thou shalt take them whom thy god Kamos hath driven out, and make us to take all whom the LORD our God hath driven out before us.

Thinkest thou that thou art better in judgment than Balak the son of Zipor king of Moab?
hath he ever justified himself, or fought against Israel?

Though Israel dwelt three hundred years in Heshbon, and in her daughters, and in Aroer, and in her daughters, and in all the cities that are by the Arnan? Why do ye not save them in that day?

I have sinned nothing against thee; and thou doest evil against me, to fight against me. Let the LORD judge this day between Israel and the children of Ammon.

But the king of the children of Ammon hearkened not unto the words of Jephthah, which he
sent unto him.

And the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah, and passed through Gilead, and through Manasseh, and through Mizpeh, which is in Gilead, and from Mizpeh, which is in Gilead, upon the children of Amman.

And Jephthah vowed a vow unto the LORD, saying, Deliver thou the children of Amman into mine hand,

That which cometh out of my house, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, shall be the LORD’S, and I will offer it for a burnt offering.

So Jephthah came upon the children of Amman to fight against them. And the LORD
delivered them into his hand.

And he smote them from Aroer even unto Minnith, twenty cities, and unto the plain of the vineyards, a very great slaughter. And the children of Ammon were humbled before the children of Israel:

And when Jephthah was come to Mizpeh to his house, behold, his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels and dances: and she was an