King James Version · The judges
Judges 8
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And the men of said unto him, Why hast thou us thus, that thou calledst us not, when thou wentest to fight with ? And they did chide with him sharply. And he said unto them, What have I done now in comparison of you? Is not the of the grapes of better than the vintage of Abi–ezer? hath into your hands the princes of , and : and what was I able to do in comparison of you? Then their was abated toward him, when he had said that. And came to Jordan, and passed over, he, and the three hundred men that were with him, faint, yet pursuing them. And he said unto the men of , Give, I you, loaves of bread unto the people that follow me; for they be faint, and I am pursuing after and , kings of . And the princes of said, Are the hands of and now in thine hand, that we should give bread unto thine army? And said, Therefore when hath and into mine hand, then I will tear your with the of and with . And he went up thence to , and spake unto them likewise: and the men of answered him as the men of had answered him. And he spake also unto the men of , saying, When I come again in peace, I will break down this tower. Now and were in Karkor, and their hosts with them, about fifteen thousand men, all that were left of all the hosts of the children of the east: for there fell an hundred and twenty thousand men that drew . And went up by of them that dwelt in tents on the east of Nobah and Jogbehah, and smote the host: for the host was secure. And when and fled, he pursued after them, and took the two kings of , and , and discomfited . 13And the son of returned from battle before the sun was up, And caught a young man of the men of , and enquired of him: and he described unto him the princes of , and the thereof, even threescore and seventeen men. And he came unto the men of , and said, Behold and , with whom ye did upbraid me, saying, Are the hands of and now in thine hand, that we should give bread unto thy men that are weary? And he took the , and of and , and with them he taught the men of . And he beat down the tower of , and slew the men of the city. Then said he unto and , What manner of men were they whom ye slew at ? And they answered, As thou art, so were they; each one resembled the children of a king. 19And he said, They were my brethren, even the sons of my mother: as liveth, if ye had them alive, I would not you. And he said unto his , Up, and them. But the youth drew not his : for he feared, because he was yet a youth. Then and said, Rise thou, and fall upon us: for as the man is, so is his strength. And arose, and slew and , and took away the ornaments that were on their camels’ necks. Then the men of Israel said unto , Rule thou over us, both thou, and thy son, and thy son’s son also: for thou hast us from the hand of . And said unto them, I will not you, neither shall my son you: shall you. And said unto them, I would a request of you, that ye would give me every man the earrings of his prey. (For they had golden earrings, because they were .) 25And they answered, We will willingly give them. And they spread a garment, and did cast therein every man the earrings of his prey. And the weight of the golden earrings that he requested was a thousand and seven hundred of gold; beside ornaments, and collars, and purple raiment that was on the kings of , and beside the chains that were about their camels’ necks. And made an thereof, and put it in his city, even in : and all Israel went thither a after it: which thing became a snare unto , and to his house. Thus was subdued before the , so that they lifted up their heads no more. And the country was in quietness forty years in the days of . And the son of went and dwelt in his own house. And had threescore and ten sons of his body begotten: for he had many wives. And that was in , she also him a son, whose name he called . And the son of in a good old age, and was buried in the of his , in of the Abi–ezrites. And it came to pass, as soon as was , that the turned again, and went a after , and made –berith their . And the remembered not their , who had them out of the hands of all their on every side: Neither shewed they kindness to the house of , namely, , according to all the goodness which he had shewed unto Israel.
The 1611 translation, public domain. Its original printing included the Apocrypha, which is why the deuterocanonical books can be read here. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
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.