Feb 24 - Judges 11-13
Judges
1At that time, there was a Gileadite, Jephthah, a very strong man and a fighter, the son of a kept woman, and he was born of Gilead2Now Gilead had a wife, from whom he received sons. And they, after growing up, cast out Jephthah, saying, "You cannot inherit in the house of our father, because you were born of another mother.3And so, fleeing and avoiding them, he lived in the land of Tob. And men who were indigent and robbers joined with him, and they followed him as their leader4In those days, the sons of Ammon fought against Israel5And being steadfastly attacked, the elders of Gilead traveled so that they might obtain for their assistance Jephthah, from the land of Tob6And they said to him, "Come and be our leader, and fight against the sons of Ammon.7But he answered them: "Are you not the ones who hated me, and who cast me out of my father’s house? And yet now you come to me, compelled by necessity?8And the leaders of Gilead said to Jephthah, "But it is due to this necessity that we have approached you now, so that you may set out with us, and fight against the sons of Ammon, and be commander over all who live in Gilead.9Jephthah also said to them: "If you have come to me so that I may fight for you against the sons of Ammon, and if the Lord will deliver them into my hands, will I truly be your leader?10They answered him, "The Lord who hears these things is himself the Mediator and the Witness that we shall do what we have promised.11And so Jephthah went with the leaders of Gilead, and all the people made him their leader. And Jephthah spoke all his words, in the sight of the Lord, at Mizpah12And he sent messengers to the king of the sons of Ammon, who said on his behalf, "What is there between you and me, that you would approach against me, so that you might lay waste to my land?13And he responded to them, "It is because Israel took my land, when he ascended from Egypt, from the parts of Arnon, as far as the Jabbok and the Jordan. Now therefore, restore these to me with peace.14And Jephthah again commissioned them, and he ordered them to say to the king of Ammon15"Jephthah says this: Israel did not take the land of Moab, nor the land of the sons of Ammon16But when they ascended together from Egypt, he walked through the desert as far as the Red Sea, and he went into Kadesh17And he sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, ‘Permit me to pass through your land.’ But he was not willing to agree to his petition. Likewise, he sent to the king of Moab, who also refused to offer him passage. And so he delayed in Kadesh18and he circled around the side of the land of Edom and the land of Moab. And he arrived opposite the eastern region of the land of Moab. And he made camp across the Arnon. But he was not willing to enter the borders of Moab. (Of course, Arnon is the border of the land of Moab.19And so Israel sent messengers to Sihon, the king of the Amorites, who was living at Heshbon. And they said to him, "Permit me to cross through your land as far as the river.20But he, too, despising the words of Israel, would not permit him to cross through his borders. Instead, gathering an innumerable multitude, he went out against him at Jahaz, and he resisted strongly21But the Lord delivered him, with his entire army, into the hands of Israel. And he struck him down, and he possessed all the land of the Amorite, the inhabitant of that region22with all its parts, from the Arnon as far as the Jabbok, and from the wilderness even to the Jordan23Therefore, it was the Lord, the God of Israel, who overthrew the Amorites, by means of his people Israel fighting against them. And now you wish to possess his land24Are not the things that your god Chemosh possesses owed to you by right? And so, what the Lord our God has obtained by victory falls to us as a possession25Or are you, perhaps, better than Balak, the son of Zippor, the king of Moab? Or are you able to explain what his argument was against Israel, and why he fought against him26And though he has lived in Heshbon, and its villages, and in Aroer, and its villages, and in all the cities near the Jordan for three hundred years, why have you, for such long a time, put forward nothing about this claim27Therefore, I am not sinning against you, but you are doing evil against me, by declaring an unjust war against me. May the Lord be the Judge and the Arbiter this day, between Israel and the sons of Ammon.28But the king of the sons of Ammon was not willing to agree to the words of Jephthah that he commissioned by the messengers29Therefore, the Spirit of the Lord rested upon Jephthah, and circling around Gilead, and Manasseh, and also Mizpah of Gilead, and crossing from there to the sons of Ammon30he made a vow to the Lord, saying, "If you will deliver the sons of Ammon into my hands31whoever will be the first to depart from the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the sons of Ammon, the same will I offer as a holocaust to the Lord.32And Jephthah crossed to the sons of Ammon, so that he might fight against them. And the Lord delivered them into his hands33And he struck them down from Aroer, as far as the entrance to Minnith, twenty cities, and as far as Abel, which is covered with vineyards, in an exceedingly great slaughter. And the sons of Ammon were humbled by the sons of Israel34But when Jephthah returned to Mizpah, to his own house, his only daughter met him with timbrels and dances. For he had no other children35And upon seeing her, he tore his garments, and he said: "Alas, my daughter! You have cheated me, and you yourself have been cheated. For I opened my mouth to the Lord, and I can do nothing else.36And she answered him, "My father, if you have opened your mouth to the Lord, do to me whatever you have promised, since victory has been granted to you, as well as vengeance against your enemies.37And she said to her father: "Grant to me this one thing, which I request. Permit me, that I may wander the hillsides for two months, and that I may mourn my virginity with my companions.38And he answered her, "Go." And he released her for two months. And when she had departed with her friends and companions, she wept over her virginity in the hillsides39And when the two months expired, she returned to her father, and he did to her just as he had vowed, though she knew no man. From this, the custom grew up in Israel, and the practice has been preserved40such that, after each year passes, the daughters of Israel convene as one, and they lament the daughter of Jephthah, the Gileadite, for four days
1And behold, a sedition rose up in Ephraim. Then, while passing by toward the north, they said to Jephthah: "When you were going to fight against the sons of Ammon, why were you unwilling to summon us, so that we might go with you? Therefore, we will burn down your house.2And he answered them: "I and my people were in a great conflict against the sons of Ammon. And I called you, so that you might offer assistance to me. And you were not willing to do so3And discerning this, I put my life in my own hands, and I crossed to the sons of Ammon, and the Lord delivered them into my hands. What am I guilty of, that you would rise up in battle against me?4And so, calling to himself all the men of Gilead, he fought against Ephraim. And the men of Gilead struck down Ephraim, because he had said, "Gilead is a fugitive from Ephraim, and he lives in the midst of Ephraim and Manasseh.5And the Gileadites occupied the fords of the Jordan, along which Ephraim was to return. And when anyone from the number of Ephraim had arrived, fleeing, and had said, "I beg that you permit me to pass," the Gileadites would say to him, "Could you be an Ephraimite?" And if he said, "I am not,6they would ask him, then say ‘Shibboleth,’ which is translated as ‘ear of grain.’ But he would answer ‘Sibboleth,’ not being able to express the word for an ear of grain in the same letters. And immediately apprehending him, they would cut his throat, at the same crossing point of the Jordan. And in that time of Ephraim, forty-two thousand fell7And so Jephthah, the Gileadite, judged Israel for six years. And he died, and he was buried in his city in Gilead8After him, Ibzan of Bethlehem judged Israel9He had thirty sons, and the same number of daughters, whom he sent away to be given to husbands. And he accepted wives for his sons of the same number, bringing them into his house. And he judged Israel for seven years10And he died, and he was buried in Bethlehem11After him succeeded Elon, a Zebulunite. And he judged Israel for ten years12And he died, and he was buried in Zebulun13After him, Abdon, the son of Hillel, a Pirathonite, judged Israel14And he had forty sons, and from them thirty grandsons, all riding upon seventy young donkeys. And he judged Israel for eight years15And he died, and he was buried at Pirathon, in the land of Ephraim, on the mountain of Amalek
1And again, the sons of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord. And he delivered them into the hands of the Philistines for forty years2Now there was a certain man from Zorah, and of the stock of Dan, whose name was Manoah, having a barren wife3And an Angel of the Lord appeared to her, and he said: "You are barren and without children. But you shall conceive and bear a son4Therefore, take care that you do not drink wine or strong drink. Neither shall you eat anything unclean5For you shall conceive and bear a son, whose head no razor shall touch. For he shall be a Nazirite of God, from his infancy and from his mother’s womb. And he shall begin to free Israel from the hand of the Philistines.6And when she had gone to her husband, she said to him: "A man of God came to me, having the countenance of an Angel, exceedingly terrible. And when I had inquired of him, who he was, and where he was from, and what name he was called, he was not willing to tell me7But he responded: ‘Behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. Take care that you do not drink wine or strong drink. And you shall not consume anything unclean. For the boy shall be a Nazirite of God from his infancy, from his mother’s womb, even until the day of his death.’ 8And so Manoah prayed to the Lord, and he said, "I beg you Lord, that the man of God, whom you sent, may come again, and may teach us what we ought to do about the boy who is to be born.9And the Lord heeded the prayer of Manoah, and the Angel of the Lord appeared again to his wife, sitting in a field. But her husband Manoah was not with her. And when she had seen the Angel10she hurried and ran to her husband. And she reported to him, saying, "Behold, the man appeared to me, whom I had seen before.11And he rose up and followed his wife. And going to the man, he said to him, "Are you the one who spoke to my wife?" And he responded, "I am.12And Manoah said to him: "When will your word be fulfilled. What do you want the boy to do? Or from what should he keep himself?13And the Angel of the Lord said to Manoah: "Concerning all the things about which I have spoken to your wife, she herself should abstain14And let her eat nothing from the vine. She may not drink wine or strong drink. She may consume nothing unclean. And let her observe and keep what I have instructed to her.15And Manoah said to the Angel of the Lord, "I beg you to agree to my petition, and to let us prepare a kid from the goats.16And the Angel answered him: "Even if you compel me, I will not eat from your bread. But if you are willing to offer a holocaust, offer it to the Lord." And Manoah did not know that he was an Angel of the Lord17And he said to him, "What is your name, so that, if your word is fulfilled, we may honor you?18And he answered him, "Why do you ask my name, which is a wonder?19And so, Manoah took a kid from the goats, and libations, and he placed them upon a rock, as an offering to the Lord, who accomplishes wonders. Then he and his wife watched20And when the flame of the altar ascended to heaven, the Angel of the Lord ascended in the flame. And when Manoah and his wife had seen this, they fell prone on the ground21And the Angel of the Lord no longer appeared to them. And immediately, Manoah understood him to be an Angel of the Lord22And he said to his wife, "We shall certainly die, since we have seen God.23And his wife answered him, "If the Lord wished to kill us, he would not have accepted the holocaust and the libations from our hands. He would not have revealed all these things to us, nor would he have told us the things that are in the future.24And so she bore a son, and she called his name Samson. And the boy grew up, and the Lord blessed him25And the Spirit of the Lord began to be with him in the camp of Dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol