World English Bible · The judges
Judges 12
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The men of were gathered together, and passed northward; and they said to , "Why did you pass over to fight against , and didn't call us to go with you? We will burn your house around you with !" said to them, "I and my people were at great strife with ; and when I called you, you didn't me out of their hand. When I saw that you didn't me, I put my life in my hand, and passed over against , and them into my hand. Why then have you come up to me today, to fight against me?" Then gathered together all the men of , and fought with . The men of struck , because they said, "You are fugitives of , you Gileadites, in the middle of , and in the middle of ." The Gileadites took the fords of against the . Whenever a fugitive of said, "Let me go over," the men of said to him, "Are you an ?" If he said, "No;" then they said to him, "Now say 'Shibboleth;'" and he said "Sibboleth"; for he couldn't manage to pronounce it correctly, then they seized him and killed him at the fords of . At that time, forty-two thousand of fell. 7 judged Israel six years. Then the Gileadite , and was buried in the cities of . After him of judged Israel. He had thirty sons. He sent his thirty daughters outside his clan, and he brought in thirty daughters from outside his clan for his sons. He judged Israel seven years. 10 , and was buried at . 11After him, the Zebulunite judged Israel; and he judged Israel ten years. the Zebulunite , and was buried in in the land of . 13After him, the son of Hillel the judged Israel. He had forty sons and thirty sons' sons who rode on seventy donkey colts. He judged Israel eight years. the son of Hillel the , and was buried in Pirathon in the land of , in the hill country of .
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The world at this moment · The judges, 1200 BC to 1050 BC ›
No central government and no standing army. The great empires are weak, which is precisely why Israel's troubles come from close neighbors: Moab, Ammon, Midian, and the newly arrived Philistines on the coast.
- Egypt
- Broken into competing power centres and no longer able to project force into Canaan. Its withdrawal is the single biggest reason this period has no imperial overlord.
- Mesopotamia
- Assyria exists but is dormant, hemmed in and looking east. The century that would have crushed a stateless Israel simply has not arrived yet.
- The coast
- The Philistines settle their five cities after arriving from the Aegean world, bringing Mycenaean-style pottery, a taste for pork, and an early advantage in ironworking. Further north the Phoenician ports of Tyre and Sidon start the trading expansion that will eventually give the alphabet to Greece.
- Further afield
- Greece has entered its dark age: the palaces are gone, Linear B is forgotten, and writing disappears from the Aegean for three centuries. In China the Zhou dynasty replaces the Shang in 1046 BC and issues the doctrine that heaven withdraws its mandate from unjust kings, an idea with an interesting resemblance to the book of Judges.