History · 14 stories
Stories
Israel Settles the Land
After Joshua dies and a new generation rises that does not know Yahweh, the tribes ask God who should strike first — Judah goes up with Simeon, defeats Adoni-Bezek, takes Jerusalem, Hebron, and Debir, and Caleb's daughter Achsah wins springs from her father; but Benjamin cannot dislodge the Jebusites from Jerusalem, tribe after tribe fails to finish the job across the land, and Israel ends up living among the Canaanite nations, intermarrying with them, and serving their gods.
13 parts
Deborah and Jael
Prophetess Deborah and reluctant general Barak rise to break twenty years of Canaanite oppression, as Yahweh routs Sisera's iron chariots and Jael finishes him with a tent peg.
10 parts
Song of Deborah
Deborah and Barak's victory song opens with a call for kings and rulers to listen as Yahweh is praised, then turns to shame the tribes that stayed away — Reuben, Dan, Asher, Gilead — and curses Meroz for failing to come to Yahweh's aid; it celebrates Jael as the most blessed of women for driving a tent peg through Sisera's temples, and closes with a prayer that Yahweh's enemies perish while his people shine like the sun — after which the land rests forty years.
3 parts
Gideon's Three Hundred
Gideon leads a stripped-down army of three hundred to rout Midian, pursues and executes its kings, refuses Israel's crown, yet leaves a legacy shadowed by an idolatrous ephod and a nation quick to forget.
19 parts
The Rise and Fall of Abimelech
Abimelech seizes power by slaughtering his brothers, rules three years amid rising treachery, and meets his end under a millstone—fulfilling Jotham's curse.
10 parts
Jephthah and His Vow
Outcast Jephthah rises to lead Gilead against Ammon, wins victory through Yahweh's help, but his rash vow costs him his only daughter.
10 parts
Jephthah and the Ephraimites
Jephthah defends his leadership against Ephraim's threats, defeats them in battle, and uses a password test at the Jordan fords to slay forty-two thousand.
3 parts
The Birth of Samson
A barren woman receives an angel's promise that her son Samson will be a Nazirite set apart to begin delivering Israel from the Philistines; Samson is born and grows under God's blessing, then comes of age seeking a Philistine wife — killing a lion with his bare hands, spinning a riddle from its honeyed carcass, and erupting in violence when his bride betrays the answer to his companions.
12 parts
Samson Battles the Philistines
A cycle of revenge spirals as Samson's betrayed marriage ignites tit-for-tat violence with the Philistines, culminating in his jawbone slaughter of a thousand men and miraculous deliverance.
10 parts
Samson and Delilah
Samson's love for Delilah leads to betrayal, blinding, and captivity, yet his hair grows back and he topples a Philistine temple, dying alongside his enemies in one final act of vengeance.
10 parts
Micah's Idol and the Danites
Micah builds a private idol shrine with a hired Levite priest, only to have the tribe of Dan steal his idols and priest to establish their own worship at the newly conquered city of Dan.
5 parts
The Levite's Concubine
A Levite's journey to retrieve his concubine ends in her gang-rape and death at Gibeah, driving him to dismember her body and summon all Israel to respond.
8 parts
The War Against Benjamin
After a brutal atrocity at Gibeah, united Israel wages civil war against Benjamin—suffering two crushing defeats before routing the tribe and nearly wiping it from existence.
6 parts
Benjamin Restored to Israel
Israel scrambles to preserve the tribe of Benjamin from extinction by finding wives through war and cunning, then each man returns home in a leaderless land where all do as they please.
4 parts