Judges 8

⁴¹Soon all the men of Israel came to the king and asked, “Why did our brothers, the men of Judah, take you away secretly and bring the king and his household across the Jordan, together with all of David’s men?”

²For resentment kills a fool, and envy slays the simple.

⁵Or do you think the Scripture says without reason that the Spirit He caused to dwell in us yearns with envy?

⁶But He gives us more grace. This is why it says: “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

¹Then the men of Ephraim assembled and crossed the Jordan to Zaphon. They said to Jephthah, “Why have you crossed over to fight the Ammonites without calling us to go with you? We will burn your house down with you inside!”

²But Jephthah replied, “My people and I had a serious conflict with the Ammonites, and when I called, you did not save me out of their hands.

⁴I saw that all labor and success spring from a man’s envy of his neighbor. This too is futile and a pursuit of the wind.

¹⁹My beloved brothers, understand this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger,

²⁰for man’s anger does not bring about the righteousness that God desires.

¹¹Then the angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to hide it from the Midianites.

¹⁴The entire law is fulfilled in a single decree: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

¹⁵But if you keep on biting and devouring one another, watch out, or you will be consumed by one another.

³⁴So the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon, who blew the ram’s horn and rallied the Abiezrites behind him.

⁴Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

⁵It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no account of wrongs.

¹³Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good conduct, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom.

¹⁴But if you harbor bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast in it or deny the truth.

¹A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.

²⁴Gideon sent messengers throughout the hill country of Ephraim to say, “Come down against the Midianites and seize the waters of the Jordan ahead of them as far as Beth-barah.” So all the men of Ephraim were called out, and they captured the waters of the Jordan as far as Beth-barah.

²⁵They also captured Oreb and Zeeb, the two princes of Midian; and they killed Oreb at the rock of Oreb and Zeeb at the winepress of Zeeb. So they pursued the Midianites and brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon on the other side of the Jordan.

³For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but think of yourself with sober judgment, according to the measure of faith God has given you.

¹¹A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.

³Do nothing out of selfish ambition or empty pride, but in humility consider others more important than yourselves.

¹⁵Through patience a ruler can be persuaded, and a gentle tongue can break a bone.

⁹Let us not grow weary in well-doing, for in due time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

¹⁶Therefore we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, yet our inner self is being renewed day by day.

¹Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off every encumbrance and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with endurance the race set out for us.

²Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

²⁸Then one of the soldiers told him, “Your father bound the troops with a solemn oath, saying, ‘Cursed is the man who eats food today.’ That is why the people are faint.”

²⁹“My father has brought trouble to the land,” Jonathan replied. “Just look at how my eyes have brightened because I tasted a little of this honey.

¹⁰because two hundred men were too exhausted to cross the brook. But David and four hundred men continued in pursuit.

⁸We are hard pressed on all sides, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair;

⁹persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.

¹⁷but Jacob went on to Succoth, where he built a house for himself and shelters for his livestock; that is why the place was called Succoth.

⁶God has spoken from His sanctuary: “I will triumph! I will parcel out Shechem and apportion the Valley of Succoth.

¹⁸Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine—since he was priest of God Most High—

²⁸They brought beds, basins, and earthen vessels, as well as wheat, barley, flour, roasted grain, beans, lentils,

²⁹honey, curds, sheep, and cheese from the herd for David and his people to eat. For they said, “The people have become hungry, exhausted, and thirsty in the wilderness.”

⁴For they did not meet you with food and water on your way out of Egypt, and they hired Balaam son of Beor from Pethor in Aram-naharaim to curse you.

⁶They have testified to the church about your love. You will do well to send them on their way in a manner worthy of God.

⁷For they went out on behalf of the Name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles.

¹¹And the king of Israel replied, “Tell him: ‘The one putting on his armor should not boast like one taking it off.’”

²¹For all the others look after their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ.

²³The poor man pleads for mercy, but the rich man answers harshly.

⁹But Jehoash king of Israel replied to Amaziah king of Judah: “A thistle in Lebanon sent a message to a cedar in Lebanon, saying, ‘Give your daughter to my son in marriage.’ Then a wild beast in Lebanon came along and trampled the thistle.

¹⁵And Gideon went to the men of Succoth and said, “Here are Zebah and Zalmunna, about whom you taunted me, saying, ‘Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna already in your possession, that we should give bread to your weary men?’”

²⁵And as they sat down to eat a meal, they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were carrying spices, balm, and myrrh on their way down to Egypt.

¹⁵When Gideon heard the dream and its interpretation, he bowed in worship. He returned to the camp of Israel and said, “Get up, for the Lord has delivered the camp of Midian into your hand.”

²⁵Then Jeroboam built Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived there. And from there he went out and built Penuel.

³⁰So Jacob named the place Peniel, saying, “Indeed, I have seen God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”

³¹The sun rose above him as he passed by Penuel, and he was limping because of his hip.

¹⁷He also pulled down the tower of Penuel and killed the men of the city.

²⁷and tell them that this is what the king says: ‘Put this man in prison and feed him only bread and water until I return safely.’”

²⁸But Micaiah replied, “If you ever return safely, the Lord has not spoken through me.” Then he added, “Take heed, all you people!”

¹²Now the Midianites, Amalekites, and all the other people of the east had settled in the valley like a swarm of locusts, and their camels were as countless as the sand on the seashore.

²⁶When the king of Moab saw that the battle was too fierce for him, he took with him seven hundred swordsmen to break through to the king of Edom, but they could not prevail.

³⁵The Lord defeated Benjamin in the presence of Israel, and on that day the Israelites slaughtered 25,100 Benjamites, all armed with swords.

⁴⁶That day 25,000 Benjamite swordsmen fell, all men of valor.

²The leaders of all the people and all the tribes of Israel presented themselves in the assembly of God’s people: 400,000 men on foot, armed with swords.

⁴For as in the day of Midian You have shattered the yoke of their burden, the bar across their shoulders, and the rod of their oppressor.

³⁵Atroth-shophan, Jazer, Jogbehah,

⁴²And Nobah went and captured Kenath and its villages and called it Nobah, after his own name.

³While people are saying, “Peace and security,” destruction will come upon them suddenly, like labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.

²⁷After they had taken Micah’s idols and his priest, they went to Laish, to a quiet and unsuspecting people, and they struck them with their swords and burned down the city.

¹⁶So he led David down, and there were the Amalekites spread out over all the land, eating, drinking, and celebrating the great amount of plunder they had taken from the land of the Philistines and the land of Judah.

³²Then Samuel said, “Bring me Agag king of the Amalekites.” Agag came to him cheerfully, for he thought, “Surely the bitterness of death is past.”

¹¹Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb, and all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna,

¹⁴Escape will fail the swift, the strong will not prevail by his strength, and the mighty will not save his life.

¹⁵Then the kings of the earth, the nobles, the commanders, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and free man hid in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains.

¹⁶And they said to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of the One seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.

¹⁶True wisdom and power belong to Him. The deceived and the deceiver are His.

¹⁷He leads counselors away barefoot and makes fools of judges.

¹⁹Then I saw the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies assembled to wage war against the One seated on the horse, and against His army.

²⁰But the beast was captured along with the false prophet, who on its behalf had performed signs deceiving those who had the mark of the beast and worshiped its image. Both the beast and the false prophet were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur.

²²Then Joshua said, “Open the mouth of the cave and bring those five kings out to me.”

²³So they brought the five kings out of the cave—the kings of Jerusalem, Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish, and Eglon.

¹¹Now his men found an Egyptian in the field and brought him to David. They gave the man water to drink and food to eat—

¹²a piece of a fig cake and two clusters of raisins. So he ate and was revived, for he had not had any food or water for three days and three nights.

²⁴and when the spies saw a man coming out of the city, they said to him, “Please show us how to get into the city, and we will treat you kindly.”

²⁵So the man showed them the entrance to the city, and they put the city to the sword but released that man and all his family.

⁶But the leaders of Succoth asked, “Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna already in your possession, that we should give bread to your army?”

⁷“Very well,” Gideon replied, “when the Lord has delivered Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, I will tear your flesh with the thorns and briers of the wilderness!”

¹³Wisdom is found on the lips of the discerning, but a rod is for the back of him who lacks judgment.

²⁹Judgments are prepared for mockers, and beatings for the backs of fools.

⁷“Very well,” Gideon replied, “when the Lord has delivered Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, I will tear your flesh with the thorns and briers of the wilderness!”

⁴The best of them is like a brier; the most upright is sharper than a hedge of thorns. The day for your watchmen has come, the day of your visitation. Now is the time of their confusion.

⁶the descendants of Pahath-moab (through the line of Jeshua and Joab), 2,812;

⁹So Gideon told the men of Penuel, “When I return in triumph, I will tear down this tower!”

²⁵Then Jeroboam built Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived there. And from there he went out and built Penuel.

⁶She summoned Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali and said to him, “Surely the Lord, the God of Israel, is commanding you: ‘Go and march to Mount Tabor, taking with you ten thousand men of Naphtali and Zebulun.

¹⁶These men are discontented grumblers, following after their own lusts; their mouths spew arrogance; they flatter others for their own advantage.

¹²North and south You created; Tabor and Hermon shout for joy at Your name.

²They lie to one another; they speak with flattering lips and a double heart.

²⁴When they had brought the kings to Joshua, he summoned all the men of Israel and said to the army commanders who had accompanied him, “Come here and put your feet on the necks of these kings.” So the commanders came forward and put their feet on their necks.

⁹to execute the judgment written against them. This honor is for all His saints. Hallelujah!

³³But Samuel declared: “As your sword has made women childless, so your mother will be childless among women.” And Samuel hacked Agag to pieces before the Lord at Gilgal.

¹¹Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb, and all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna,

¹⁸In that day the Lord will take away their finery: their anklets and headbands and crescents;

²⁶The weight of the gold earrings he had requested was 1,700 shekels, in addition to the crescent ornaments, the pendants, the purple garments of the kings of Midian, and the chains from the necks of their camels.

⁵When his armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he too fell on his own sword and died with him.

⁶In those days men will seek death and will not find it; they will long to die, but death will escape them.

³When the battle intensified against Saul, the archers overtook him and wounded him critically.

¹⁵Then Jesus, realizing that they were about to come and make Him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by Himself.

⁵“Look,” they said, “you are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint a king to judge us like all the other nations.”

¹²But when you saw that Nahash king of the Ammonites was moving against you, you said to me, ‘No, we must have a king to rule over us’—even though the Lord your God was your king.

⁸One day the trees set out to anoint a king for themselves. They said to the olive tree, ‘Reign over us.’

⁹But the olive tree replied, ‘Should I stop giving my oil that honors both God and man, to hold sway over the trees?’

²²For the Lord is our Judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our King. It is He who will save us.

¹²But when you saw that Nahash king of the Ammonites was moving against you, you said to me, ‘No, we must have a king to rule over us’—even though the Lord your God was your king.

¹⁹But today you have rejected your God, who saves you from all your troubles and afflictions, and you have said to Him, ‘No, set a king over us.’ Now therefore present yourselves before the Lord by your tribes and clans.”

²⁴Not that we lord it over your faith, but we are fellow workers with you for your joy, because it is by faith that you stand firm.

⁹But Jephthah asked them, “If you take me back to fight the Ammonites and the Lord gives them to me, will I really be your leader?”

¹⁰And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “The Lord is our witness if we do not do as you say.”

⁶But when they said, “Give us a king to judge us,” their demand was displeasing in the sight of Samuel; so he prayed to the Lord.

⁷And the Lord said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say to you. For it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected Me as their king.

¹³These are the names of the sons of Ishmael in the order of their birth: Nebaioth the firstborn of Ishmael, then Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam,

³Then all the people took off their gold earrings and brought them to Aaron.

²⁵And as they sat down to eat a meal, they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were carrying spices, balm, and myrrh on their way down to Egypt.

²⁸So when the Midianite traders passed by, his brothers pulled Joseph out of the pit and sold him for twenty shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt.

³Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair or gold jewelry or fine clothes,

⁴but from the inner disposition of your heart, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in God’s sight.

¹¹And the king of Israel replied, “Tell him: ‘The one putting on his armor should not boast like one taking it off.’”

¹⁶saying: “Woe, woe to the great city, clothed in fine linen and purple and scarlet, adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls!

⁵When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, “Here is the man!”

⁹Hammered silver is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz—the work of a craftsman from the hands of a goldsmith. Their clothes are blue and purple, all fashioned by skilled workers.

¹²cargo of gold, silver, precious stones, and pearls; of fine linen, purple, silk, and scarlet; of all kinds of citron wood and every article of ivory, precious wood, bronze, iron, and marble;

¹⁵Mordecai went out from the presence of the king in royal garments of blue and white, with a large gold crown and a purple robe of fine linen. And the city of Susa shouted and rejoiced.

²The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns, set it on His head, and dressed Him in a purple robe.

³⁹They defiled themselves by their actions and prostituted themselves by their deeds.

¹⁶You must destroy all the peoples the Lord your God will deliver to you. Do not look on them with pity. Do not worship their gods, for that will be a snare to you.

¹⁴Then the five men who had gone to spy out the land of Laish said to their brothers, “Did you know that one of these houses has an ephod, household gods, a graven image, and a molten idol? Now think about what you should do.”

⁵Now this man Micah had a shrine, and he made an ephod and some household idols, and ordained one of his sons as his priest.

¹⁷And the five men who had gone to spy out the land went inside and took the graven image, the ephod, the household idols, and the molten idol, while the priest stood at the entrance of the gate with the six hundred armed men.

³³They must not remain in your land, lest they cause you to sin against Me. For if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you.”

³¹So may all Your enemies perish, O Lord! But may those who love You shine like the sun at its brightest.” And the land had rest for forty years.

¹¹So the land had rest for forty years, until Othniel son of Kenaz died.

³⁰So Moab was subdued under the hand of Israel that day, and the land had rest for eighty years.

²⁶And the Lord of Hosts will brandish a whip against them, as when He struck Midian at the rock of Oreb. He will raise His staff over the sea, as He did in Egypt.

⁹Do to them as You did to Midian, as to Sisera and Jabin at the River Kishon,

¹⁰who perished at Endor and became like dung on the ground.

⁴For as in the day of Midian You have shattered the yoke of their burden, the bar across their shoulders, and the rod of their oppressor.

¹Early in the morning Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) and all the men with him camped beside the spring of Harod. And the camp of Midian was north of them in the valley near the hill of Moreh.

³²So on that day Gideon was called Jerubbaal, that is to say, “Let Baal contend with him,” because he had torn down Baal’s altar.

¹¹So the Lord sent Jerubbaal, Barak, Jephthah, and Samuel, and He delivered you from the hands of your enemies on every side, and you dwelt securely.

¹⁴Furthermore, from the day King Artaxerxes appointed me to be their governor in the land of Judah, from his twentieth year until his thirty-second year (twelve years total), neither I nor my brothers ate the food allotted to the governor.

¹⁵The governors before me had heavily burdened the people, taking from them bread and wine plus forty shekels of silver. Their servants also oppressed the people. But I did not do this, because of my fear of God.

²“Please ask all the leaders of Shechem, ‘Is it better for you that seventy men, all the sons of Jerubbaal, rule over you, or just one man?’ Remember that I am your own flesh and blood.”

⁵He went to his father’s house in Ophrah, and on one stone murdered his seventy brothers, the sons of Jerubbaal. But Jotham, the youngest son of Jerubbaal, survived, because he hid himself.

¹⁷He must not take many wives for himself, lest his heart go astray. He must not accumulate for himself large amounts of silver and gold.

³He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines—and his wives turned his heart away.

⁷And Noah and his wife, with his sons and their wives, entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood.

¹⁵Has not the Lord made them one, having a portion of the Spirit? And why one? Because He seeks godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit and do not break faith with the wife of your youth.

¹⁸but you have risen up against my father’s house this day and killed his seventy sons on a single stone, and you have made Abimelech, the son of his maidservant, king over the leaders of Shechem because he is your brother—

¹⁵And Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne.

¹Now Abimelech son of Jerubbaal went to his mother’s brothers at Shechem and said to them and to all the clan of his mother,

²“Please ask all the leaders of Shechem, ‘Is it better for you that seventy men, all the sons of Jerubbaal, rule over you, or just one man?’ Remember that I am your own flesh and blood.”

²⁴Moreover, Nahor’s concubine, whose name was Reumah, bore Tebah, Gaham, Tahash, and Maacah.

²Abraham said of his wife Sarah, “She is my sister.” So Abimelech king of Gerar had Sarah brought to him.

⁸And at a ripe old age he breathed his last and died, old and contented, and was gathered to his people.

¹⁷And so Job died, old and full of years.

²⁴So Gideon built an altar to the Lord there and called it The Lord Is Peace. To this day it stands in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

²⁶You will come to the grave in full vigor, like a sheaf of grain gathered in season.

¹⁵You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a ripe old age.

²⁷From all this Gideon made an ephod, which he placed in Ophrah, his hometown. But soon all Israel prostituted themselves by worshiping it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and his household.

⁴So they gave him seventy shekels of silver from the temple of Baal-berith, with which Abimelech hired some worthless and reckless men to follow him.

⁴⁶On hearing of this, all the leaders in the tower of Shechem entered the inner chamber of the temple of El-berith.

¹⁹But when the judge died, the Israelites became even more corrupt than their fathers, going after other gods to serve them and bow down to them. They would not give up their evil practices and stubborn ways.

²⁷From all this Gideon made an ephod, which he placed in Ophrah, his hometown. But soon all Israel prostituted themselves by worshiping it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and his household.

¹⁷Israel, however, did not listen to their judges. Instead, they prostituted themselves with other gods and bowed down to them. They quickly turned from the way of their fathers, who had walked in obedience to the Lord’s commandments; they did not do as their fathers had done.

⁹Indifferent to her own infidelity, Israel had defiled the land and committed adultery with stones and trees.

⁴²They did not remember His power—the day He redeemed them from the adversary,

²¹They forgot God their Savior, who did great things in Egypt,

¹¹They forgot what He had done, the wonders He had shown them.

³²Does a maiden forget her jewelry or a bride her wedding sash? Yet My people have forgotten Me for days without number.

⁹Only be on your guard and diligently watch yourselves, so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen, and so that they do not slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and grandchildren.

¹⁸Then fire blazed through their company; flames consumed the wicked.

¹⁴There was a small city with few men. A mighty king came against it, surrounded it, and built large siege ramps against it.

¹⁵Now a poor wise man was found in the city, and he saved the city by his wisdom. Yet no one remembered that poor man.

⁵He went to his father’s house in Ophrah, and on one stone murdered his seventy brothers, the sons of Jerubbaal. But Jotham, the youngest son of Jerubbaal, survived, because he hid himself.

¹⁶Now if you have acted faithfully and honestly in making Abimelech king, if you have done well by Jerubbaal and his family, and if you have done to him as he deserves—

¹⁷for my father fought for you and risked his life to deliver you from the hand of Midian,