May
24
Judges
5, 6
Jdg
5:1 Then Deborah and Barak the son of Abinoam sang on that day,
saying,
Jdg
5:2 Because the leaders took the lead in Israel, because the people
offered themselves willingly, be blessed, Yahweh!
Jdg
5:3 Hear, you kings! Give ear, you princes! I, even
I, will sing to Yahweh. I will sing praise to Yahweh, the God of
Israel.
Jdg
5:4 Yahweh, when you went forth out of Seir, when you marched out of
the field of Edom, the earth trembled, the sky also dropped. Yes, the
clouds dropped water.
Jdg
5:5 The mountains quaked at the presence of Yahweh, even Sinai, at
the presence of Yahweh, the God of Israel.
Jdg
5:6 In the days of Shamgar the son of Anath, in the days of Jael,
the highways were unoccupied. The travelers walked through byways.
Jdg
5:7 The rulers ceased in Israel. They ceased until I, Deborah,
arose; Until I arose a mother in Israel.
Jdg
5:8 They chose new gods. Then war was in the gates. Was there a
shield or spear seen among forty thousand in Israel?
Jdg
5:9 My heart is toward the governors of Israel, who offered
themselves willingly among the people. Bless Yahweh!
Jdg
5:10 Tell of it,
you who ride on white donkeys, you who sit on rich carpets, and you
who walk by the way.
Jdg
5:11 Far from the noise of archers, in the places of drawing water,
there they will rehearse the righteous acts of Yahweh, Even
the righteous acts of his rule in Israel. Then the people of Yahweh
went down to the gates.
Jdg
5:12 Awake, awake, Deborah! Awake, awake, utter a song! Arise,
Barak, and lead away your captives, you son of Abinoam.
Jdg
5:13 Then a remnant of the nobles and
the people came down. Yahweh came down for me against the mighty.
Jdg
5:14 Those whose root is in Amalek came out of Ephraim, after you,
Benjamin, among your peoples. Governors come down out of Machir.
Those who handle the marshal's staff came out of Zebulun.
Jdg
5:15 The princes of Issachar were with Deborah. As was Issachar, so
was Barak. They rushed into the valley at his feet. By the
watercourses of Reuben, there were great resolves of heart.
Jdg
5:16 Why did you sit among the sheepfolds, To hear the whistling for
the flocks? At the watercourses of Reuben There were great searchings
of heart.
Jdg
5:17 Gilead lived beyond the Jordan. Why did Dan remain in ships?
Asher sat still at the haven of the sea, and lived by his creeks.
Jdg
5:18 Zebulun was a people that jeopardized their lives to the
deaths; Naphtali also, on the high places of the field.
Jdg
5:19 The kings came and fought, then the kings of Canaan fought at
Taanach by the waters of Megiddo. They took no plunder of silver.
Jdg
5:20 From the sky the stars fought. From their courses, they fought
against Sisera.
Jdg
5:21 The river Kishon swept them away, that ancient river, the river
Kishon. My soul, march on with strength.
Jdg
5:22 Then the horse hoofs stamped because of the prancings, the
prancings of their strong ones.
Jdg
5:23 Curse Meroz, said the angel of Yahweh. Curse bitterly its
inhabitants, because they didn't come to help Yahweh, to help Yahweh
against the mighty.
Jdg
5:24 Jael shall be blessed above women, the wife of Heber the
Kenite; blessed shall she be above women in the tent.
Jdg
5:25 He asked for water. She gave him milk. She brought him butter
in a lordly dish.
Jdg
5:26 She put her hand to the tent peg, and her right hand to the
workmen's hammer. With the hammer she struck Sisera. She struck
through his head. Yes, she pierced and struck through his temples.
Jdg
5:27 At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay. At her feet he bowed, he
fell. Where he bowed, there he fell down dead.
Jdg
5:28 Through the window she looked out, and cried: Sisera's mother
looked through the lattice. Why is his chariot so long in coming? Why
do the wheels of his chariots wait?
Jdg
5:29 Her wise ladies answered her, Yes, she returned answer to
herself,
Jdg
5:30 Have they not found, have they not divided the spoil? A lady,
two ladies to every man; to Sisera a spoil of dyed garments, A spoil
of dyed garments embroidered, Of dyed garments embroidered on both
sides, on the necks of the spoil?
Jdg
5:31 So let all your enemies perish, Yahweh, but let those who love
him be as the sun when it rises forth in its strength. The land had
rest forty years.
Jdg
6:1 The children of Israel did that which was evil in the sight of
Yahweh: and Yahweh delivered them into the hand of Midian seven
years.
Jdg
6:2 The hand of Midian prevailed against Israel; and because of
Midian the children of Israel made them the dens which are in the
mountains, and the caves, and the strongholds.
Jdg
6:3 So it was, when Israel had sown, that the Midianites came up,
and the Amalekites, and the children of the east; they came up
against them;
Jdg
6:4 and they encamped against them, and destroyed the increase of
the earth, until you come to Gaza, and left no sustenance in Israel,
neither sheep, nor ox, nor donkey.
Jdg
6:5 For they came up with their livestock and their tents; they came
in as locusts for multitude; both they and their camels were without
number: and they came into the land to destroy it.
Jdg
6:6 Israel was brought very low because of Midian; and the children
of Israel cried to Yahweh.
Jdg
6:7 It happened, when the children of Israel cried to Yahweh because
of Midian,
Jdg
6:8 that Yahweh sent a prophet to the children of Israel: and he
said to them, Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, I brought you up
from Egypt, and brought you forth out of the house of bondage;
Jdg
6:9 and I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of
the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out from before
you, and gave you their land;
Jdg
6:10 and I said to you, I am Yahweh your God; you shall not fear the
gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But you have not
listened to my voice.
Jdg
6:11 The angel of Yahweh came, and sat under the oak which was in
Ophrah, that pertained to Joash the Abiezrite: and his son Gideon was
beating out wheat in the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites.
Jdg
6:12 The angel of Yahweh appeared to him, and said to him, Yahweh is
with you, you mighty man of valor.
Jdg
6:13 Gideon said to him, Oh, my lord, if Yahweh is with us, why then
has all this happened to us? and where are all his wondrous works
which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not Yahweh bring us up from
Egypt? but now Yahweh has cast us off, and delivered us into the hand
of Midian.
Jdg
6:14 Yahweh looked at him, and said, Go in this your might, and save
Israel from the hand of Midian: have not I sent you?
Jdg
6:15 He said to him, Oh, Lord, with which shall I save Israel?
behold, my family is the poorest in Manasseh, and I am the least in
my father's house.
Jdg
6:16 Yahweh said to him, Surely I will be with you, and you shall
strike the Midianites as one man.
Jdg
6:17 He said to him, If now I have found favor in your sight, then
show me a sign that it is you who talk with me.
Jdg
6:18 Please don't go away, until I come to you, and bring out my
present, and lay it before you. He said, I will wait until you come
again.
Jdg
6:19 Gideon went in, and made ready a kid, and unleavened cakes of
an ephah of meal: the flesh he put in a basket, and he put the broth
in a pot, and brought it out to him under the oak, and presented it.
Jdg
6:20 The angel of God said to him, Take the flesh and the unleavened
cakes, and lay them on this rock, and pour out the broth. He did so.
Jdg
6:21 Then the angel of Yahweh put forth the end of the staff that
was in his hand, and touched the flesh and the unleavened cakes; and
there went up fire out of the rock, and consumed the flesh and the
unleavened cakes; and the angel of Yahweh departed out of his sight.
Jdg
6:22 Gideon saw that he was the angel of Yahweh; and Gideon said,
Alas, Lord Yahweh! because I have seen the angel of Yahweh face to
face.
Jdg
6:23 Yahweh said to him, Peace be to you; don't be afraid: you shall
not die.
Jdg
6:24 Then Gideon built an altar there to Yahweh, and called it
Yahweh is Peace: to this day it is still in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.
Jdg
6:25 It happened the same night, that Yahweh said to him, Take your
father's bull, even the second bull seven years old, and throw down
the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the Asherah that
is by it;
Jdg
6:26 and build an altar to Yahweh your God on the top of this
stronghold, in the orderly manner, and take the second bull, and
offer a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah which you shall
cut down.
Jdg
6:27 Then Gideon took ten men of his servants, and did as Yahweh had
spoken to him: and it happened, because he feared his father's
household and the men of the city, so that he could not do it by day,
that he did it by night.
Jdg
6:28 When the men of the city arose early in the morning, behold,
the altar of Baal was broken down, and the Asherah was cut down that
was by it, and the second bull was offered on the altar that was
built.
Jdg
6:29 They said one to another, Who has done this thing? When they
inquired and asked, they said, Gideon the son of Joash has done this
thing.
Jdg
6:30 Then the men of the city said to Joash, Bring out your son,
that he may die, because he has broken down the altar of Baal, and
because he has cut down the Asherah that was by it.
Jdg
6:31 Joash said to all who stood against him, Will you contend for
Baal? Or will you save him? he who will contend for him, let him be
put to death while it is yet
morning: if he be a god, let him contend for himself, because one has
broken down his altar.
Jdg
6:32 Therefore on that day he named him Jerubbaal, saying, Let Baal
contend against him, because he has broken down his altar.
Jdg
6:33 Then all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the children of
the east assembled themselves together; and they passed over, and
encamped in the valley of Jezreel.
Jdg
6:34 But the Spirit of Yahweh came on Gideon; and he blew a trumpet;
and Abiezer was gathered together after him.
Jdg
6:35 He sent messengers throughout all Manasseh; and they also were
gathered together after him: and he sent messengers to Asher, and to
Zebulun, and to Naphtali; and they came up to meet them.
Jdg
6:36 Gideon said to God, If you will save Israel by my hand, as you
have spoken,
Jdg
6:37 behold, I will put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor; if
there be dew on the fleece only, and it be dry on all the ground,
then shall I know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you have
spoken.
Jdg
6:38 It was so; for he rose up early on the next day, and pressed
the fleece together, and wrung the dew out of the fleece, a bowl full
of water.
Jdg
6:39 Gideon said to God, Don't let your anger be kindled against me,
and I will speak but this once: Please let me make a trial just this
once with the fleece; let it now be dry only on the fleece, and on
all the ground let there be dew.
Jdg
6:40 God did so that night: for it was dry on the fleece only, and
there was dew on all the ground.