People of the World where are you going? Turn back to God! Back to your faithful principles!
SAMUEL’S WARNING AGAINST KINGS
Samuel’s Warning Against Kings. So Samuel told all the words of the LORD to the people who were asking him for a king. He said, “These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them for himself to his chariots and among his horsemen and they will run before his chariots.
THE ARK RETURNED TO ISRAEL
The Ark Returned To Israel. And the cows went straight toward Beth-shemesh along the highway, lowing as they went, and did not turn away to the right or the left. And the Philistine lords (governors) followed them to the border of Beth-shemesh.
THE GLORY DEPARTED FROM ISRAEL
The Glory Departed From Israel. She said, “The glory has left Israel, for the ark of God has been taken.”
THE BIBLE BOOK OF RUTH
The Origin of the House of David
ISRAEL’S WAR WITH THE TRIBE OF BENJAMIN
Israel’s War with the Tribe of Benjamin. The men of Israel turned back against [the tribe of] the sons of Benjamin and struck them with the edge of the sword, both the entire city [of Gibeah] and the livestock and all that they found. They also set on fire all the [surrounding] towns which they found.
A LEVITE AND HIS CONCUBINE
A Levite and His Concubine. Now it happened in those days, when there was no king in Israel, that a certain Levite living [as an alien] in the most remote part of the hill country of Ephraim, who took a concubine for himself from Bethlehem in Judah.
SAMSON DEFEATS THE PHILISTINES
Samson Defeats the Philistines. He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, so he reached out his hand and took it and killed a thousand men with it. Then Samson said, “With the jawbone of a donkey, Heaps upon heaps, With the jawbone of a donkey I have struck down a thousand men.”
FURTHER DISOBEDIENCE AND OPPRESSION
Further Disobedience And Oppression. Then the Israelites again did what was evil in the sight of the LORD; they served the Baals, the Ashtaroth (female deities), the gods of Aram (Syria), the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites, and the gods of the Philistines. They abandoned the LORD and did not serve Him.
“THROUGH SLAUGHTER TO A THRONE”
“Through slaughter to a throne” Then he went to his father’s house at Ophrah and murdered his brothers the sons of Jerubbaal, seventy men, [in a public execution] on one stone. But Jotham the youngest son of Jerubbaal was left alive, because he had hidden himself.
A FARMER CALLED TO BE DELIVERER
A farmer called to be deliverer. Now the Angel of the LORD came and sat under the terebinth tree at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, and his son Gideon was beating wheat in the wine press [instead of the threshing floor] to [hide it and] save it from the Midianites.
And the Angel of the LORD appeared to him and said to him, “The LORD is with you, O brave man.”