After Abimelech’s death, ¹  Tola son of Puah, grandson ²  of Dodo, from the tribe of Issachar, ³  rose up to deliver Israel. He lived in Shamir in the Ephraimite hill country.

But then an old man passed by, returning at the end of the day from his work in the field. ¹  The man was from the Ephraimite hill country; he was living temporarily in Gibeah. (The residents of the town were Benjaminites.) ² 

They were allotted as cities ¹  of refuge Shechem and its pasturelands (in the hill country of Ephraim), Gezer and its pasturelands,

Abijah ascended Mount Zemaraim, in the Ephraimite hill country, and said: “Listen to me, Jeroboam and all Israel!

Your land is devastated, your cities burned with fire. Right before your eyes your crops are being destroyed by foreign invaders. ¹  They leave behind devastation and destruction. ² 

They come from a distant land, from the horizon. ¹  It is the Lord with his instruments of judgment, ²  coming to destroy the whole earth. ³ 

From earliest times, the prophets who preceded you and me invariably ¹  prophesied war, disaster, ²  and plagues against many countries and great kingdoms.

“‘I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries; then I will bring you to your land.

So he went and worked for ¹  one of the citizens of that country, who ²  sent him to his fields to feed pigs. ³ 

Therefore he said, “A nobleman ¹  went to a distant country to receive ²  for himself a kingdom and then return. ³ 

Then those who are in Judea must flee ¹  to the mountains. Those ²  who are inside the city must depart. Those ³  who are out in the country must not enter it,

Joshua defeated the whole land, including the hill country, the Negev, the lowlands, ¹  the slopes, and all their kings. He left no survivors. He annihilated everything that breathed, just as the Lord God of Israel had commanded.

Joshua replied to them, “Since you have so many people, ¹  go up into the forest and clear out a place to live in the land of the Perizzites and Rephaites, for the hill country of Ephraim is too small for you.”

So she decided to return home from the region of Moab, accompanied by her daughters-in-law, ¹  because while she was living in Moab ²  she had heard that the Lord had shown concern ³  for his people, reversing the famine by providing abundant crops. ⁴ 

After Rachel had given birth ¹  to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send ²  me on my way so that I can go ³  home to my own country. ⁴ 

He left ¹  with all he owned. He quickly crossed ²  the Euphrates River ³  and headed for ⁴  the hill country of Gilead.

So the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country swooped ¹  down and attacked them ²  as far as Hormah. ³ 

Then I said to you, “You have come to the Amorite hill country which the Lord our God is about to give ¹  us.

I spoke to you, but you did not listen. Instead you rebelled against the Lord ¹  and recklessly went up to the hill country.

Let me please cross over to see the good land on the other side of the Jordan River – this good hill country and the Lebanon!” ¹