He captured a young man from Succoth ¹  and interrogated him. The young man wrote down for him the names of Succoth’s officials and city leaders – seventy-seven men in all. ² 

He said to Zebah and Zalmunna, “Describe for me ¹  the men you killed at Tabor.” They said, “They were like you. Each one looked like a king’s son.” ² 

“Tell ¹  all the leaders of Shechem this: ‘Why would you want ²  to have seventy men, all Jerub-Baal’s sons, ruling over you, when you can have just one ruler? Recall that I am your own flesh and blood.’” ³ 

But the olive tree said to them, ‘I am not going to stop producing my oil, which is used to honor gods and men, just to sway above the other trees!’ ¹ 

But the grapevine said to them, ‘I am not going to stop producing my wine, which makes gods and men so happy, just to sway above the other trees!’ ¹ 

Zebul said to him, “Where now are your bragging words, ¹  ‘Who is Abimelech that we should serve him?’ Are these not the men ²  you insulted? ³  Go out now and fight them!”

he took his men ¹  and divided them into three units and set an ambush in the field. When he saw the people coming out of the city, ²  he attacked and struck them down. ³ 

The Gileadites captured the fords of the Jordan River ¹  opposite Ephraim. ²  Whenever an Ephraimite fugitive ³  said, “Let me cross over,” the men of Gilead asked ⁴  him, “Are you an Ephraimite?” If he said, “No,”

She cried on his shoulder ¹  until the party was almost over. ²  Finally, on the seventh day, he told her because she had nagged him so much. ³  Then she told the young men the solution to the riddle. ⁴ 

The men of Judah said, “Why are you attacking ¹  us?” The Philistines ²  said, “We have come up to take Samson prisoner so we can do to him what he has done to us.”

When these men broke into Micah’s house and stole ¹  the carved image, the ephod, the personal idols, and the metal image, the priest said to them, “What are you doing?”

The men refused to listen to him, so the Levite ¹  grabbed his concubine and made her go outside. ²  They raped ³  her and abused her all night long until morning. They let her go at dawn.

¹  All the men of Israel got up from their places and took their positions at Baal Tamar, while the Israelites hiding in ambush jumped out of their places west of Gibeah.

Ten thousand men, well-trained soldiers from all Israel, then made a frontal assault against Gibeah – the battle was fierce. ¹  But the Benjaminites did not realize that disaster was at their doorstep. ² 

the Israelites counterattacked. ¹  Benjamin had begun to strike down the Israelites; ²  they struck down ³  about thirty men. They said, “There’s no doubt about it! They are totally defeated as in the earlier battle.”

He said, “May you be rewarded ¹  by the Lord, my dear! ²  This act of devotion ³  is greater than what you did before. ⁴  For you have not sought to marry ⁵  one of the young men, whether rich or poor. ⁶ 

The Philistines arranged their forces to fight ¹  Israel. As the battle spread out, ²  Israel was defeated by ³  the Philistines, who ⁴  killed about four thousand men in the battle line in the field.

The Lord said to Samuel, “Do as they say ¹  and install a king over them.” Then Samuel said to the men of Israel, “Each of you go back to his own city.”

Now Saul was walking behind the ¹  oxen as he came from the field. Saul asked, “What has happened to the people? Why are they weeping?” So they told him about ²  the men of Jabesh.

Then Samuel set out and went up from Gilgal ¹  to Gibeah in the territory of Benjamin. ²  Saul mustered the army that remained with him; there were about six hundred men.