And the woman bare a son, and called his name Samson: and the child grew, and the LORD blessed him. So Jephthah passed over unto the children of Ammon to fight against them; and the LORD delivered them into his hands. And it was so, that all that saw it said, There was no such deed done nor seen from the day that the children of Israel came up out of the land of Egypt unto this day: consider of it, take advice, and speak your minds. And it came to pass, when Israel was strong, that they put the Canaanites to tribute, and did not utterly drive them out.
But if thou fear to go down, go thou with Phurah thy servant down to the host: And thou shalt hear what they say; and afterward shall thine hands be strengthened to go down unto the host. Then went he down with Phurah his servant unto the outside of the armed men that were in the host. And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and forgat the LORD their God, and served Baalim and the groves. And there came an angel of the LORD, and sat under an oak which was in Ophrah, that pertained unto Joash the Abiezrite: and his son Gideon threshed wheat by the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites. So all the men of Israel were gathered against the city, knit together as one man. And Jotham ran away, and fled, and went to Beer, and dwelt there, for fear of Abimelech his brother.
And the whole congregation sent some to speak to the children of Benjamin that were in the rock Rimmon, and to call peaceably unto them. And the woman made haste, and ran, and shewed her husband, and said unto him, Behold, the man hath appeared unto me, that came unto me the other day. And the Spirit of the LORD began to move him at times in the camp of Dan between Zorah and Eshtaol. And it came to pass the same night, that the LORD said unto him, Take thy father’s young bullock, even the second bullock of seven years old, and throw down the altar of Baal that thy father hath, and cut down the grove that is by it: And build an altar unto the LORD thy God upon the top of this rock, in the ordered place, and take the second bullock, and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the grove which thou shalt cut down.