God

But then ADONAI raised up judges, who rescued them from the power of those who were plundering them.

Yet they did not pay attention to their judges, but made whores of themselves to other gods and worshipped them; they quickly turned away from the path on which their ancestors had walked, the way of obeying ADONAI's mitzvot - they failed to do this.

When ADONAI raised up judges for them, ADONAI was with the judge and delivered them from the hands of their enemies throughout the lifetime of the judge; for ADONAI was moved to pity by their groaning under those oppressing and crushing them.

So the anger of ADONAI blazed against Isra'el; he said, "Because this nation violates my covenant, which I ordered their fathers to obey; and they don't pay attention to what I say;

in the future, I will not expel ahead of them any of the nations that Y'hoshua left when he died.

This is how I will test Isra'el, to see whether or not they will keep the way of ADONAI, living according to it, as their ancestors did."

So ADONAI allowed those nations to remain where they were, without quickly driving them out; he did not hand them over to Y'hoshua.

These are the nations which ADONAI allowed to remain, in order to put to the test all the people of Isra'el who had not known any of the wars with Kena'an.

They stayed there to test whether Isra'el would pay attention to the mitzvot of ADONAI, which, through Moshe, he had ordered their ancestors to obey.

Thus the people of Isra'el did what was evil from ADONAI's perspective, forgot ADONAI their God, and served the ba'alim and asherim.

Therefore the anger of ADONAI blazed against Isra'el, and he gave them over into the hands of Kushan-Rish'atayim king of Aram-Naharayim; and the people of Isra'el served Kushan-Rish'atayim eight years.

But when the people of Isra'el cried out to ADONAI, ADONAI raised up a savior for the people of Isra'el; and he rescued them; this was 'Otni'el, the son of Kalev's younger brother K'naz.

The spirit of ADONAI came upon him, and he judged Isra'el. Then he went out to war, and ADONAI gave Kushan-Rish'atayim king of Aram into his hands; his power prevailed against Kushan-Rish'atayim.

But the people of Isra'el again did what was evil from ADONAI's perspective, so ADONAI strengthened 'Eglon the king of Mo'av against Isra'el, because they had done what was evil from ADONAI's perspective.

But when the people of Isra'el cried out to ADONAI, ADONAI raised up for them a savior, Ehud the son of Gera, from the tribe of Binyamin, a left-handed man. The people of Isra'el appointed him to take their tribute to 'Eglon the king of Mo'av.

Ehud came to him; he was sitting alone by himself in his upstairs room, where it was cool. Ehud said: "I have a message from God for you." As the king arose from his seat,

He said to them: "Follow me, because ADONAI has given your enemy Mo'av into your hands. They went down after him, seized the fords of the Yarden opposite Mo'av and permitted no one to cross.

But after Ehud had died, the people of Isra'el again did what was evil from ADONAI's perspective.

So ADONAI handed them over to Yavin king of Kena'an. He ruled from Hatzor; and the commander of his army was Sisra, who lived in Haroshet-HaGoyim.

The people of Isra'el cried out to ADONAI, because he had 900 iron chariots, and for twenty years he cruelly oppressed the people of Isra'el.

She sent for Barak the son of Avino'am, from Kedesh in Naftali, and said to him: "ADONAI has given you this order: 'Go, march to Mount Tavor, and take with you 10,000 men from the people of Naftali and Z'vulun.

I will cause Sisra, the commander of Yavin's army, to encounter you at the Kishon River with his chariots and troops; and I will hand him over to you.'"

She replied, "Yes, I will gladly go with you; but the way you are doing it will bring you no glory; because ADONAI will hand Sisra over to a woman." Then D'vorah set out and went with Barak to Kedesh.

D'vorah said to Barak: "Get going! This is the day when ADONAI will hand Sisra over to you! ADONAI has gone out ahead of you!" So Barak went down from Mount Tavor with 10,000 men following him;

and ADONAI threw Sisra, all his chariots and his entire army into a panic before Barak's sword; so that Sisra got down from his chariot and fled on foot.