Judges 3-4

GOD’S WORD Translation

3 These are the nations the Lord left behind to test all the Israelites who had not experienced any war in Canaan. ² The Lord left them to teach Israel’s descendants about war, at least those who had known nothing about it in the past. ³ He left the five rulers of the Philistines, all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites who lived on Mount Lebanon from Mount Baal Hermon to the border of Hamath. ⁴ These nations were left to test the Israelites, to find out if they would obey the commands the Lord had given their ancestors through Moses.

The People Fail the Test

⁵ So the people of Israel lived among the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. ⁶ The Israelites allowed their sons and daughters to marry these people. Israel also served their gods.

Othniel Defeats Cushan Rishathaim

⁷ The people of Israel did what the Lord considered evil. They forgot the Lord their God and served other gods and goddesses—the Baals and the Asherahs. ⁸ The Lord became angry with the people of Israel. He used King Cushan Rishathaim of Aram Naharaim to defeat them. So Israel served Cushan Rishathaim for eight years.

⁹ Then the people of Israel cried out to the Lord for help. The Lord sent a savior to rescue them. It was Othniel, son of Caleb’s younger brother Kenaz. ¹⁰ When the Lord’s Spirit came over him, he became the judge of Israel. He went out to war. The Lord handed King Cushan Rishathaim of Aram Naharaim over to him, and Othniel overpowered him. ¹¹ So there was finally peace in the land for 40 years. Then Othniel, son of Kenaz, died.

Ehud Defeats Moab

¹² Once again, the people of Israel did what the Lord considered evil. So the Lord made King Eglon of Moab stronger than Israel, because Israel did what the Lord considered evil. ¹³ Eglon got the Ammonites and the Amalekites to help him, and they defeated the Israelites and occupied the City of Palms. ¹⁴ The Israelites served King Eglon of Moab for 18 years.

¹⁵ Then the people of Israel cried out to the Lord for help. The Lord sent a savior to rescue them. It was Ehud, a left-handed man from the tribe of Benjamin. (Ehud was the son of Gera.)

The people sent him with their tax payment to King Eglon of Moab. ¹⁶ Ehud made a two-edged dagger for himself. He fastened it to his right side under his clothes. ¹⁷ Then he brought the tax payment to King Eglon. (Eglon was a very fat man.) ¹⁸ When Ehud had finished delivering the payment, he sent back the men who had carried it. ¹⁹ However, Ehud turned around at the stone idols near Gilgal ⌞and returned to Eglon⌟. He said, “Your Majesty, I have a secret message for you.”

The king replied, “Keep quiet!” Then all his advisers left the room.

²⁰ Ehud came up to him as he sat alone in his room on the roof. He said to the king, “I have a message from God for you.” As the king rose from his throne, ²¹ Ehud reached with his left hand, took the dagger from his right side, and plunged it into Eglon’s belly. ²² Even the handle went in after the blade. Eglon’s fat covered the blade because Ehud didn’t pull the dagger out. The blade stuck out in back. ²³ Ehud left the room. (He had closed and locked the doors of the room before he left.)

²⁴ After Ehud went out, Eglon’s advisers came in. They were surprised that the doors were locked. “He must be using the toilet,” they said. ²⁵ They waited and waited, but Eglon didn’t open the doors. So they took the key and opened the door. They were shocked to see their ruler lying on the floor, dead.

²⁶ While they had been waiting, Ehud escaped. He went past the stone idols and escaped to Seirah. ²⁷ When he arrived there, he blew a ram’s horn in the mountains of Ephraim ⌞to summon the troops⌟. So the troops of Israel came down from the mountains with him, and he led them. ²⁸ He told them, “Follow me! The Lord will hand your enemy Moab over to you.”

They followed him and captured the shallow crossings of the Jordan River that led to Moab and refused to let anyone cross. ²⁹ At that time they killed about ten thousand of Moab’s best fighting men. Not one of them escaped. ³⁰ The power of Moab was crushed by Israel that day. So there was finally peace in the land for 80 years.

Shamgar Defeats the Philistines

³¹ After Ehud came Shamgar, son of Anath. He killed 600 Philistines with a sharp stick used for herding oxen. So he, too, rescued Israel.

The Lord Calls Barak Through Deborah

4 After Ehud died, the people of Israel again did what the Lord considered evil. ² So the Lord used King Jabin of Canaan, who ruled at Hazor, to defeat them. The commander of King Jabin’s army was Sisera, who lived at Harosheth Haggoyim. ³ The people of Israel cried out to the Lord for help. King Jabin had 900 chariots made of iron and had cruelly oppressed Israel for 20 years.

⁴ Deborah, wife of Lappidoth, was a prophet. She was the judge in Israel at that time. ⁵ She used to sit under the Palm Tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the mountains of Ephraim. The people of Israel would come to her for legal decisions.

⁶ Deborah summoned Barak, son of Abinoam, from Kedesh in Naphtali. She told him, “The Lord God of Israel has given you this order: ‘Gather troops on Mount Tabor. Take 10,000 men from Naphtali and Zebulun with you. ⁷ I will lead Sisera (the commander of Jabin’s army), his chariots, and troops to you at the Kishon River. I will hand him over to you.’ ”

⁸ Barak said to her, “If you go with me, I’ll go. But if you don’t go with me, I won’t go.”

⁹ Deborah replied, “Certainly, I’ll go with you. But you won’t win any honors for the way you’re going about this, because the Lord will use a woman to defeat Sisera.”

Barak Defeats Jabin

So Deborah started out for Kedesh with Barak. ¹⁰ Barak called the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali together at Kedesh. Ten thousand men went to fight under his command. Deborah also went along with him.

¹¹ Heber the Kenite had separated from the other Kenites (the descendants of Hobab, Moses’ father-in-law). Heber went as far away as the oak tree at Zaanannim near Kedesh and set up his tent.

¹² The report reached Sisera that Barak, son of Abinoam, had come to fight at Mount Tabor. ¹³ So Sisera summoned all his chariots (900 chariots made of iron) and all his troops from Harosheth Haggoyim to come to the Kishon River.

¹⁴ Then Deborah said to Barak, “Attack! This is the day the Lord will hand Sisera over to you. The Lord will go ahead of you.”

So Barak came down from Mount Tabor with 10,000 men behind him. ¹⁵ The Lord threw Sisera, all his chariots, and his whole army into a panic in front of Barak’s deadly assault. Sisera got down from his chariot and fled on foot. ¹⁶ Barak pursued the chariots and the army to Harosheth Haggoyim. So Sisera’s whole army was killed in combat. Not one man survived.

¹⁷ Meanwhile, Sisera fled on foot toward the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite. Sisera did this because King Jabin of Hazor and Heber’s family were on peaceful terms. ¹⁸ When Jael came out ⌞of her tent⌟, she met Sisera. She told him, “Sir, come in here! Come into my tent. Don’t be afraid.” So he went into her tent, and she hid him under a tent curtain.

¹⁹ Sisera said to her, “Please give me a little water to drink. I’m thirsty.” But instead she gave him milk to drink and covered him up again.

²⁰ He said to her, “Stand at the door of the tent. If anyone comes and asks if there has been a man around here, tell them no.”

²¹ When Sisera had fallen sound asleep from exhaustion, Jael, Heber’s wife, took a tent peg and walked quietly toward him with a hammer in her hand. She hammered the tent peg through his temples into the ground. So Sisera died.

²² Barak was still pursuing Sisera. When Jael came out ⌞of her tent⌟, she met him. She said to him, “Come in! I have something to show you—the man you’ve been looking for.” So Barak went into her tent. He saw Sisera lying there dead with the tent peg through his temples.

²³ So on that day, God used the people of Israel to crush the power of King Jabin of Canaan. ²⁴ The Israelites became stronger and stronger until they destroyed him.