And he had forty sons and thirty nephews, that rode on threescore and ten ass colts: and he judged Israel eight years. In the days of Shamgar the son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were unoccupied, and the travellers walked through byways. 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. And the Spirit of the LORD began to move him at times in the camp of Dan between Zorah and Eshtaol. And the three companies blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers, and held the lamps in their left hands, and the trumpets in their right hands to blow withal: and they cried, The sword of the LORD, and of Gideon.

And they put away the strange gods from among them, and served the LORD: and his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel. And Micah said unto him, Dwell with me, and be unto me a father and a priest, and I will give thee ten shekels of silver by the year, and a suit of apparel, and thy victuals. So the Levite went in. And they set them up Micah’s graven image, which he made, all the time that the house of God was in Shiloh. And the old man said, Peace be with thee; howsoever let all thy wants lie upon me; only lodge not in the street. And he said unto her, If they bind me fast with new ropes that never were occupied, then shall I be weak, and be as another man.

And the old man said, Peace be with thee; howsoever let all thy wants lie upon me; only lodge not in the street. And God did so that night: for it was dry upon the fleece only, and there was dew on all the ground. And the people repented them for Benjamin, because that the LORD had made a breach in the tribes of Israel.

And Gideon said unto God, Let not thine anger be hot against me, and I will speak but this once: let me prove, I pray thee, but this once with the fleece; let it now be dry only upon the fleece, and upon all the ground let there be dew. And Samson said, With the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, with the jaw of an ass have I slain a thousand men. And the children of Israel went up against the children of Benjamin on the third day, and put themselves in array against Gibeah, as at other times.

And Joash said unto all that stood against him, Will ye plead for Baal? will ye save him? he that will plead for him, let him be put to death whilst it is yet morning: if he be a god, let him plead for himself, because one hath cast down his altar. Then came the woman in the dawning of the day, and fell down at the door of the man’s house where her lord was, till it was light. 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 he smote them from Aroer, even till thou come to Minnith, even twenty cities, and unto the plain of the vineyards, with a very great slaughter. Thus the children of Ammon were subdued before the children of Israel. Then they went along through the wilderness, and compassed the land of Edom, and the land of Moab, and came by the east side of the land of Moab, and pitched on the other side of Arnon, but came not within the border of Moab: for Arnon was the border of Moab. And when he shewed them the entrance into the city, they smote the city with the edge of the sword; but they let go the man and all his family.