Bible Reading
May 23
The World English Bible
May
23
Judges
3, 4
Jdg
3:1 Now these are the nations which Yahweh left, to prove Israel by
them, even as many of Israel
as had not known all the wars of Canaan;
Jdg
3:2 only that the generations of the children of Israel might know,
to teach them war, at the least such as before knew nothing of it:
Jdg
3:3 namely,
the five lords of the Philistines, and all the Canaanites, and the
Sidonians, and the Hivites who lived on Mount Lebanon, from Mount
Baal Hermon to the entrance of Hamath.
Jdg
3:4 They were left,
to prove Israel by them, to know whether they would listen to the
commandments of Yahweh, which he commanded their fathers by Moses.
Jdg
3:5 The children of Israel lived among the Canaanites, the Hittites,
and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the
Jebusites:
Jdg
3:6 and they took their daughters to be their wives, and gave their
own daughters to their sons and served their gods.
Jdg
3:7 The children of Israel did that which was evil in the sight of
Yahweh, and forgot Yahweh their God, and served the Baals and the
Asheroth.
Jdg
3:8 Therefore the anger of Yahweh was kindled against Israel, and he
sold them into the hand of Cushan Rishathaim king of Mesopotamia: and
the children of Israel served Cushan Rishathaim eight years.
Jdg
3:9 When the children of Israel cried to Yahweh, Yahweh raised up a
savior to the children of Israel, who saved them, even Othniel the
son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother.
Jdg
3:10 The Spirit of Yahweh came on him, and he judged Israel; and he
went out to war, and Yahweh delivered Cushan Rishathaim king of
Mesopotamia into his hand: and his hand prevailed against Cushan
Rishathaim.
Jdg
3:11 The land had rest forty years. Othniel the son of Kenaz died.
Jdg
3:12 The children of Israel again did that which was evil in the
sight of Yahweh: and Yahweh strengthened Eglon the king of Moab
against Israel, because they had done that which was evil in the
sight of Yahweh.
Jdg
3:13 He gathered to him the children of Ammon and Amalek; and he
went and struck Israel, and they possessed the city of palm trees.
Jdg
3:14 The children of Israel served Eglon the king of Moab eighteen
years.
Jdg
3:15 But when the children of Israel cried to Yahweh, Yahweh raised
them up a savior, Ehud the son of Gera, the Benjamite, a man
left-handed. The children of Israel sent tribute by him to Eglon the
king of Moab.
Jdg
3:16 Ehud made him a sword which had two edges, a cubit in length;
and he girded it under his clothing on his right thigh.
Jdg
3:17 He offered the tribute to Eglon king of Moab: now Eglon was a
very fat man.
Jdg
3:18 When he had made an end of offering the tribute, he sent away
the people who bore the tribute.
Jdg
3:19 But he himself turned back from the quarries that were by
Gilgal, and said, I have a secret errand to you, king. He said, Keep
silence. All who stood by him went out from him.
Jdg
3:20 Ehud came to him; and he was sitting by himself alone in the
cool upper room. Ehud said, I have a message from God to you. He
arose out of his seat.
Jdg
3:21 Ehud put forth his left hand, and took the sword from his right
thigh, and thrust it into his body:
Jdg
3:22 and the haft also went in after the blade; and the fat closed
on the blade, for he didn't draw the sword out of his body; and it
came out behind.
Jdg
3:23 Then Ehud went forth into the porch, and shut the doors of the
upper room on him, and locked them.
Jdg
3:24 Now when he was gone out, his servants came; and they saw, and
behold, the doors of the upper room were locked; and they said,
Surely he is covering his feet in the upper chamber.
Jdg
3:25 They waited until they were ashamed; and behold, he didn't open
the doors of the upper room: therefore they took the key, and opened
them, and
behold, their lord was fallen down dead on the earth.
Jdg
3:26 Ehud escaped while they waited, and passed beyond the quarries,
and escaped to Seirah.
Jdg
3:27 It happened, when he had come, that he blew a trumpet in the
hill country of Ephraim; and the children of Israel went down with
him from the hill country, and he before them.
Jdg
3:28 He said to them, Follow after me; for Yahweh has delivered your
enemies the Moabites into your hand. They went down after him, and
took the fords of the Jordan against the Moabites, and didn't allow a
man to pass over.
Jdg
3:29 They struck of Moab at that time about ten thousand men, every
lusty man, and every man of valor; and there escaped not a man.
Jdg
3:30 So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel. The land
had rest eighty years.
Jdg
3:31 After him was Shamgar the son of Anath, who struck of the
Philistines six hundred men with an oxgoad: and he also saved Israel.
Jdg
4:1 The children of Israel again did that which was evil in the
sight of Yahweh, when Ehud was dead.
Jdg
4:2 Yahweh sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, who
reigned in Hazor; the captain of whose army was Sisera, who lived in
Harosheth of the Gentiles.
Jdg
4:3 The children of Israel cried to Yahweh: for he had nine hundred
chariots of iron; and twenty years he mightily oppressed the children
of Israel.
Jdg
4:4 Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, she judged
Israel at that time.
Jdg
4:5 She lived under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and
Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim: and the children of Israel
came up to her for judgment.
Jdg
4:6 She sent and called Barak the son of Abinoam out of Kedesh
Naphtali, and said to him, Hasn't Yahweh, the God of Israel,
commanded, saying,
Go and draw to Mount Tabor, and take with you ten thousand men of the
children of Naphtali and of the children of Zebulun?
Jdg
4:7 I will draw to you, to the river Kishon, Sisera, the captain of
Jabin's army, with his chariots and his multitude; and I will deliver
him into your hand.
Jdg
4:8 Barak said to her, If you will go with me, then I will go; but
if you will not go with me, I will not go.
Jdg
4:9 She said, I will surely go with you: notwithstanding, the
journey that you take shall not be for your honor; for Yahweh will
sell Sisera into the hand of a woman. Deborah arose, and went with
Barak to Kedesh.
Jdg
4:10 Barak called Zebulun and Naphtali together to Kedesh; and there
went up ten thousand men at his feet: and Deborah went up with him.
Jdg
4:11 Now Heber the Kenite had separated himself from the Kenites,
even from the children of Hobab the brother-in-law of Moses, and had
pitched his tent as far as the oak in Zaanannim, which is by Kedesh.
Jdg
4:12 They told Sisera that Barak the son of Abinoam was gone up to
Mount Tabor.
Jdg
4:13 Sisera gathered together all his chariots, even nine hundred
chariots of iron, and all the people who were with him, from
Harosheth of the Gentiles, to the river Kishon.
Jdg
4:14 Deborah said to Barak, Up; for this is the day in which Yahweh
has delivered Sisera into your hand; hasn't Yahweh gone out before
you? So Barak went down from Mount Tabor, and ten thousand men after
him.
Jdg
4:15 Yahweh confused Sisera, and all his chariots, and all his army,
with the edge of the sword before Barak; and Sisera alighted from his
chariot, and fled away on his feet.
Jdg
4:16 But Barak pursued after the chariots, and after the army, to
Harosheth of the Gentiles: and all the army of Sisera fell by the
edge of the sword; there was not a man left.
Jdg
4:17 However Sisera fled away on his feet to the tent of Jael the
wife of Heber the Kenite; for there was peace between Jabin the king
of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite.
Jdg
4:18 Jael went out to meet Sisera, and said to him, Turn in, my
lord, turn in to me; don't be afraid. He came in to her into the
tent, and she covered him with a rug.
Jdg
4:19 He said to her, Please give me a little water to drink; for I
am thirsty. She opened a bottle of milk, and gave him drink, and
covered him.
Jdg
4:20 He said to her, Stand in the door of the tent, and it shall be,
when any man does come and inquire of you, and say, Is there any man
here? that you shall say, No.
Jdg
4:21 Then Jael Heber's wife took a tent peg, and took a hammer in
her hand, and went softly to him, and struck the pin into his
temples, and it pierced through into the ground; for he was in a deep
sleep; so he swooned and died.
Jdg
4:22 Behold, as Barak pursued Sisera, Jael came out to meet him, and
said to him, Come, and I will show you the man whom you seek. He came
to her; and behold, Sisera lay dead, and the tent peg was in his
temples.
Jdg
4:23 So God subdued on that day Jabin the king of Canaan before the
children of Israel.
Jdg
4:24 The hand of the children of Israel prevailed more and more
against Jabin the king of Canaan, until they had destroyed Jabin king
of Canaan.
Much
of mankind loves to classify and sort things. We like to sort socks by
color and shirts by kind. We categorize books topically. We arrange
files alphabetically. We organize tools by their function. We take
pictures of people by their size (“tallest in the back, shortest up
front”) and then arrange them chronologically in “properly” labeled
albums. We like things certain ways; we want things “just so”; and when
things do not fall in line with our ideas and expectations, we wonder
what happened.
