God

He answered them: They were my brethren, the sons of my mother. As the Lord liveth, if you had saved them, I would not kill you.

And he said to them: I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you, but the Lord shall rule over you.

And they remembered not the Lord their God, who delivered them out of the hands of all their enemies round about:

This being told to Joatham, he went, and stood on the top of Mount Garizim: and lifting up his voice, he cried, and said: Hear me, ye men of Sichem, so may God hear you.

And it answered: Can I leave my fatness, which both gods and men make use of, to come to be promoted among the trees?

And it answered them: Can I forsake my wine, that cheereth God and men, and be promoted among the other trees?

And the Lord sent a very evil spirit between Abimelech and the inhabitants of Sichem; who began to detest him,

Would to God that some man would put this people under my hand, that I might remove Abimelech out of the way. And it was said to Abimelech: Gather together the multitude of an army, and come.

And God repaid the evil that Abimelech had done against his father, killing his seventy brethren.

The Sichemites also were rewarded for what they had done, and the curse of Joatham, the son of Jerobaal, came upon them.

But the children of Israel, adding new sins to their old ones, did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served idols, Baalim and Astaroth, and the gods of Syria, and of Sidon, and of Moab, and of the children of Ammon, and of the Philistines: and they left the Lord, and did not serve him.

And the Lord being angry with them, delivered them into the hands of the Philistines, and of the children of Ammon.

And they cried to the Lord, and said, We have sinned against thee, because we have forsaken the Lord our God, and have served Baalim.

And the Lord said to them: Did not the Egyptians, and the Amorrhites, and the children of Ammon, and the Philistines,

The Sidonians also, and Amalec, and Chanaan, oppress you, and you cried to me, and I delivered you out of their hand?

And yet you have forsaken me, and have worshipped strange gods: therefore I will deliver you no more:

And the children of Israel said to the Lord: We have sinned, do thou unto us whatsoever pleaseth thee: only deliver us this time.

And saying these things, they cast away out of their coasts all the idols of strange gods, and served the Lord their God: and he was touched with their miseries.

Jephte also said to them: If you be come to me sincerely, that I should fight for you against the children of Ammon, and the Lord shall deliver them into my hand, shall I be your prince?

They answered him: The Lord, who heareth these things, he himself is mediator and witness that we will do as we have promised.

Jephte therefore went with the princes of Galaad, and all the people made him their prince. And Jephte spoke all his words before the Lord in Maspha.

And the Lord delivered him, with all his army, into the hands of Israel, and he slew him, and possessed all the land of the Amorrhite, the inhabitant of that country,

So the Lord, the God of Israel, destroyed the Amorrhite, his people of Israel fighting against him, and wilt thou now possess his land?

Are not those things which thy god Chamos possesseth, due to thee by right? But what the Lord our God hath obtained by conquest, shall be our possession:

Therefore I do not trespass against thee, but thou wrongest me by declaring an unjust war against me. The Lord be judge, and decide this day, between Israel and the children of Ammon.