And an angel of the Lord went up from Galgal to the place of weepers, and said: I made you go out of Egypt, and have brought you into the land for which I swore to your fathers: and I promised that I would not make void my covenant with you for ever:

²On condition that you should not make a league with the inhabitants of this land, but should throw down their altars: and you would not hear my voice: why have you done this?

³Wherefore I would not destroy them from before your face; that you may have enemies, and their gods may be your ruin.

⁴And when the angel of the Lord spoke these words to all the children of Israel: they lifted up their voice, and wept.

⁵And the name of that place was called, The place of weepers, or of tears: and there they offered sacrifices to the Lord.

⁶And Josue sent away the people, and the children of Israel went every one to his own possession to hold it:

⁷And they served the Lord all his days, and the days of the ancients, that lived a long time after him, and who knew all the works of the Lord, which he had done for Israel.

⁸And Josue, the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died, being a hundred and ten years old;

⁹And they buried him in the borders of his possession in Thamnathsare, in Mount Ephraim, on the north side of Mount Gaas.

¹⁰And all that generation was gathered to their fathers: and there arose others that knew not the Lord and the works which he had done for Israel.

¹¹And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and they served Baalim

¹²And they left the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt: and they followed strange gods, and the gods of the people that dwelt round about them, and they adored them: and they provoked the Lord to anger,

¹³Forsaking him, and serving Baal and Astaroth

¹⁴And the Lord being angry against Israel, delivered them into the hands of plunderers: who took them and sold them to their enemies, that dwelt round about: neither could they stand against their enemies:

¹⁵But whithersoever they meant to go, the hand of the Lord was upon them, as he had said, and as he had sworn to them: and they were greatly distressed.

¹⁶And the Lord raised up judges, to deliver them from the hands of those that oppressed them: but they would not hearken to them,

¹⁷Committing fornication with strange gods, and adoring them. They quickly forsook the way, in which their fathers had walked: and hearing the commandments of the Lord, they did all things contrary.

¹⁸And when the Lord raised them up judges, in their days, he was moved to mercy, and heard the groanings of the afflicted, and delivered them from the slaughter of the oppressors.

¹⁹But after the judge was dead, they returned, and did much worse things than their fathers had done, following strange gods, serving them, and adoring them. They left not their own inventions, and the stubborn way, by which they were accustomed to walk.

²⁰And the wrath of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he said: Behold this nation hath made void my covenant, which I had made with their fathers, and hath despised to hearken to my voice:

²¹I also will not destroy the nations which Josue left when he died:

²²That through them I may try Israel, whether they will keep the way of the Lord, and walk in it, as their fathers kept it, or not.

²³The Lord therefore left all these nations, and would not quickly destroy them, neither did he deliver them into the hands of Josue.

Chapter 3

These are the nations which the Lord left, that by them he might instruct Israel, and all that had not known the wars of the Chanaanites:

²That afterwards their children might learn to fight with their enemies, and to be trained up to war:

³The five princes of the Philistines, and all the Chanaanites, and the Sidonians, and the Hevites that dwelt in Mount Libanus, from Mount Baal Hermon to the entering into Emath.

⁴And he left them, that he might try Israel by them, whether they would hear the commandments of the Lord, which he had commanded their fathers, by the hand of Moses, or not.

⁵So the children of Israel dwelt in the midst of the Chanaanite, and the Hethite, and the Amorrhite, and the Pherezite, and the Hevite, and the Jebusite:

⁶And they took their daughters to wives, and they gave their own daughters to their sons, and they served their gods.

⁷And they did evil in the sight of the Lord, and they forgot their God, and served Baalim and Astaroth.

⁸And the Lord being angry with Israel, delivered them into the hands of Chusan Rasathaim, king of Mesopotamia, and they served him eight years.

⁹And they cried to the Lord, who raised them up a saviour, and delivered them; to wit, Othoniel, the son of Cenez, the younger brother of Caleb:

¹⁰And the spirit of the Lord was in him, and he judged Israel. And he went out to fight, and the Lord delivered Chusan Rasathaim, king of Syria, and he overthrew him:

¹¹And the land rested forty years, and Othoniel, the son of Cenez, died.

¹²And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord: who strengthened against them Eglon, king of Moab: because they did evil in his sight.

¹³And he joined to him the children of Ammon, and Amalec: and he went and overthrew Israel, and possessed the city of palm trees.

¹⁴And the children of Israel served Eglon, king of Moab, eighteen years.

¹⁵And afterwards they cried to the Lord, who raised them up a saviour, called Aod, the son of Cera, the son of Jemini, who used the left hand as well as the right. And the children of Israel sent presents to Eglon, king of Moab, by him.

¹⁶And he made himself a two-edged sword, with a haft in the midst of the length of the palm of the hand, and was girded therewith, under his garment, on the right thigh.

¹⁷And he presented the gifts to Eglon, king of Moab. Now Eglon was exceeding fat.

¹⁸And when he had presented the gifts unto him he followed his companions that came along with him.

¹⁹Then returning from Galgal, where the idols were, he said to the king: I have a secret message to thee, O king. And he commanded silence: and all being gone out that were about him,

²⁰Aod went in to him: now he was sitting in a summer parlour alone, and he said: I have a word from God to thee. And he forthwith rose up from his throne.

²¹And Aod put forth his left hand, and took the dagger from his right thigh, and thrust it into his belly,

²²With such force that the haft went in after the blade into the wound, and was closed up with the abundance of fat. So that he did not draw out the dagger, but left it in the body as he had struck it in: and forthwith, by the secret parts of nature, the excrements of the belly came out.

²³And Aod carefully shutting the doors of the parlour, and locking them,

²⁴Went out by a postern door. And the king’s servants going in, saw the doors of the parlour shut, and they said: Perhaps he is easing nature in his summer parlour.

²⁵And waiting a long time, till they were ashamed, and seeing that no man opened the door, they took a key: and opening, they found their lord lying dead on the ground.

²⁶But Aod, while they were in confusion, escaped, and passed by the place of the idols from whence he had returned. And he came to Seirath:

²⁷And forthwith he sounded the trumpet in Mount Ephraim: and the children of Israel went down with him, he himself going in the front.

²⁸And he said to them: Follow me: for the Lord hath delivered our enemies, the Moabites, into our hands. And they went down after him, and seized upon the fords of the Jordan, which are in the way to Moab: and they suffered no man to pass over:

²⁹But they slew of the Moabites at that time, about ten thousand, all strong and valiant men: none of them could escape.

³⁰And Moab was humbled that day under the hand of Israel: and the land rested eighty years.

³¹After him was Samgar, the son of Anath, who slew of the Philistines six hundred men with a ploughshare: and he also defended Israel.

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