Judges 3 - 4 — Legacy Standard Bible

Yahweh Tests Israel

3^aNow these are the nations which Yahweh allowed to remain, to test Israel by them (that is, all who had not known any of the wars of Canaan; ²¹however, God tested them in order that the generations of the sons of Israel would know war, by learning war, ²especially those who had not known it formerly). ³These nations are: the five lords of the Philistines and all the Canaanites and the Sidonians and ^athe Hivites who lived in Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baal-hermon as far as ¹Lebo-hamath. ⁴And they were for ¹^,^atesting Israel, to know if they would ²obey the commandments of Yahweh, which He had commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses. ⁵^aNow the sons of Israel lived among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; ⁶and ^athey took their daughters for themselves as wives and gave their own daughters to their sons and served their gods.

Yahweh Raises Up Othniel

⁷Thus the sons of Israel did ^awhat was evil in the eyes of Yahweh and ^bforgot Yahweh their God and ^cserved the Baals and the ¹Asheroth. ⁸Then the anger of Yahweh burned against Israel, so that He sold them into the hands of Cushan-rishathaim king of ¹Mesopotamia; and the sons of Israel served Cushan-rishathaim eight years. ⁹Then the sons of Israel cried to Yahweh, and Yahweh raised up a savior for the sons of Israel to save them, ^aOthniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother. ¹⁰^aAnd the Spirit of Yahweh came upon him, and he judged Israel. And he went out to war, and Yahweh gave Cushan-rishathaim king of ¹Mesopotamia into his hand. So his hand was strong against Cushan-rishathaim. ¹¹Then the land was quiet for forty years. And Othniel the son of Kenaz died.

¹²Then the sons of Israel again ^adid what was evil in the eyes of Yahweh. So ^bYahweh strengthened Eglon the king of Moab against Israel because they had done what was evil in the eyes of Yahweh. ¹³And he gathered to himself the sons of Ammon and Amalek; and he went and struck Israel, and they possessed ^athe city of the palm trees. ¹⁴So the sons of Israel served Eglon the king of Moab eighteen years.

Yahweh Raises Up Ehud and Shamgar

¹⁵Then the sons of Israel ^acried to Yahweh, and Yahweh raised up a savior for them, Ehud the son of Gera, the Benjamite, a left-handed man. And the sons of Israel sent tribute by his hand to Eglon the king of Moab. ¹⁶And Ehud made himself a sword which had two edges, a ¹cubit in length, and he bound it on his right thigh under his cloak. ¹⁷Then he brought the tribute near to Eglon king of Moab. Now Eglon was a very fat man. ¹⁸And it happened when he had finished bringing the tribute near, that he sent away the people who had carried the tribute. ¹⁹But he himself turned back from the graven images which were at Gilgal and said, “I have a secret message for you, O king.” And he said, “Keep silence.” And all who stood by him left him. ²⁰But Ehud came to him while he was sitting alone in his cool roof chamber. And Ehud said, “I have a message from God for you.” And he arose from his seat. ²¹Then Ehud sent forth his left hand, took the sword from his right thigh, and thrust it into his belly. ²²The handle also went in after the blade, and the fat closed over the blade, for he did not draw the sword out of his belly; and the refuse came out. ²³Then Ehud went out into the vestibule and shut the doors of the roof chamber behind him and locked them.

²⁴Now he went out, and his servants came in and looked, and behold, the doors of the roof chamber were locked; and they said, “^aHe is surely ¹relieving himself in the cool room.” ²⁵Then they waited until they were ashamed; but behold, he did not open the doors of the roof chamber. Therefore they took the key and opened them, and behold, their master had fallen to the ¹floor dead.

²⁶Now Ehud escaped while they were delaying, and he passed by the graven images and escaped to Seirah. ²⁷And it happened when he had arrived, that ^ahe blew the trumpet in the hill country of Ephraim; and the sons of Israel went down with him from the hill country, and he was in front of them. ²⁸Then he said to them, “Pursue them, for Yahweh has given your enemies the Moabites into your hands.” So they went down after him and captured ^athe fords of the Jordan opposite Moab and did not allow anyone to cross. ²⁹And they struck down at that time about 10,000 Moabites, all robust and valiant men; and no one escaped. ³⁰So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel. And the land was quiet for eighty years.

³¹Now after him was ^aShamgar the son of Anath. And he struck down 600 Philistines with an oxgoad; and he also saved Israel.

Yahweh Raises Up Deborah and Barak

4Then ^athe sons of Israel again did what was evil in the eyes of Yahweh. Now Ehud had died. ²And Yahweh sold them into the hand of ^aJabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor; and the commander of his army was Sisera, who lived in ^bHarosheth-hagoyim. ³Then the sons of Israel cried to Yahweh; for he had 900 ^airon chariots, and he oppressed the sons of Israel severely for twenty years.

⁴Now Deborah, a ¹prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel at that time. ⁵And she used to ¹sit under the ^apalm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim; and the sons of Israel came up to her for judgment. ⁶Then she sent and summoned ^aBarak the son of Abinoam from Kedesh-naphtali and said to him, “Has not Yahweh, the God of Israel, commanded, ‘Go and march to Mount Tabor, and take with you 10,000 men from the sons of Naphtali and from the sons of Zebulun? ⁷‘And I will draw out to you Sisera, the commander of Jabin’s army, with his chariots and his ¹many troops to the river Kishon, and ^aI will give him into your hand.’” ⁸Then Barak said to her, “If you will go with me, then I will go; but if you will not go with me, I will not go.” ⁹So she said, “I will surely go with you; nevertheless, the honor shall not be yours on the journey that you are about to take, ^afor Yahweh will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman.” Then Deborah arose and went with Barak to Kedesh. ¹⁰Then Barak called ^aZebulun and Naphtali together to Kedesh, and 10,000 men went up ¹^,^bwith him; Deborah also went up with him.

¹¹Now Heber ^athe Kenite had separated himself from the Kenites, from the sons of Hobab the father-in-law of Moses, and had pitched his tent as far away as the ¹oak in ^bZaanannim, which is near Kedesh.

¹²Then they told Sisera that Barak the son of Abinoam had gone up to Mount Tabor. ¹³So Sisera called together all his chariots, ^a900 iron chariots, and all the people who were with him, from ^bHarosheth-hagoyim to the river Kishon. ¹⁴And Deborah said to Barak, “Arise! For this is the day in which Yahweh has given Sisera into your hand; has not ^aYahweh gone out before you?” So Barak went down from Mount Tabor with 10,000 men following him. ¹⁵^aAnd Yahweh threw Sisera and all his chariots and all his camp into confusion with the edge of the sword before Barak; and Sisera came down from his chariot and fled away on foot. ¹⁶But Barak pursued the chariots and all those in the camp as far as Harosheth-hagoyim, and all the camp of Sisera fell by the edge of the sword; ^anot even one remained.

¹⁷Now Sisera fled away on foot to the tent of Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite, for there was peace between Jabin the king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite. ¹⁸And Jael went out to meet Sisera and said to him, “Turn aside, my master, turn aside to me! Do not be afraid.” And he turned aside to her into the tent, and she covered him with a ¹rug. ¹⁹^aThen he said to her, “Please give me a little water to drink, for I am thirsty.” So she opened a ¹bottle of milk and gave him a drink; then she covered him. ²⁰And he said to her, “Stand in the doorway of the tent, and it shall be if anyone comes and asks of you and says, ‘Is there a man here?’ that you shall say, ‘No.’” ²¹Then Jael, Heber’s wife, ^atook a tent peg and placed a hammer in her hand and went secretly to him and drove the peg into his temple, and it went through into the ground; for he was sound asleep and exhausted. So he died. ²²Now behold, Barak was pursuing Sisera, and Jael came out to meet him and said to him, “Come, and I will show you the man whom you are seeking.” And he entered ¹with her, and behold, Sisera was lying dead with the tent peg in his temple.

²³So ^aGod subdued on that day Jabin the king of Canaan before the sons of Israel. ²⁴And the hand of the sons of Israel went forth heavier and heavier against Jabin the king of Canaan, until they had cut off Jabin the king of Canaan.