Judges 20:21

Then he answered and spoke to me, saying, “This is Yahweh’s word to Zerubbabel, saying, ‘Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says Yahweh of Armies.

The tents of robbers prosper. Those who provoke God are secure, who carry their god in their hands.

Rest in Yahweh, and wait patiently for him. Don’t fret because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who makes wicked plots happen.

For I was envious of the arrogant, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

Yahweh, who makes a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters,

You trampled the sea with your horses, churning mighty waters.

Now we call the proud happy; yes, those who work wickedness are built up; yes, they tempt God, and escape.’

“Have you entered into the springs of the sea? Or have you walked in the recesses of the deep?

Your righteousness is like the mountains of God. Your judgments are like a great deep. Yahweh, you preserve man and animal.

Don’t fret because of evildoers, neither be envious against those who work unrighteousness.

Against you, and you only, I have sinned, and done that which is evil in your sight, so you may be proved right when you speak, and justified when you judge.

though the wicked spring up as the grass, and all the evildoers flourish, they will be destroyed forever.

“How do you say, ‘We are mighty men, and valiant men for the war?’

“Yahweh is righteous; for I have rebelled against his commandment. Please hear all you peoples, and see my sorrow. My virgins and my young men have gone into captivity.

“Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not equal.’ Hear now, house of Israel: Is my way not equal? Aren’t your ways unequal?

They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah. He will remember their iniquity. He will punish them for their sins.

You have plowed wickedness. You have reaped iniquity. You have eaten the fruit of lies, for you trusted in your way, in the multitude of your mighty men.

As her soul was departing (for she died), she named him Benoni, but his father named him Benjamin.

The waters returned, and covered the chariots and the horsemen, even all Pharaoh’s army that went in after them into the sea. There remained not so much as one of them.

The enemy said, ‘I will pursue. I will overtake. I will divide the plunder. My desire will be satisfied on them. I will draw my sword. My hand will destroy them.’

Of the children of Benjamin, their generations, by their families, by their fathers’ houses, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go out to war:

Behold, a people rises up as a lioness. As a lion he lifts himself up. He shall not lie down until he eats of the prey, and drinks the blood of the slain.”

But as for you, only keep yourselves from what is devoted to destruction, lest when you have devoted it, you take of the devoted thing; so you would make the camp of Israel accursed and trouble it.

Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor, and their armies with them, about fifteen thousand men, all who were left of all the army of the children of the east; for there fell one hundred twenty thousand men who drew sword.

Benjamin went out against them out of Gibeah the second day, and destroyed down to the ground of the children of Israel again eighteen thousand men. All these drew the sword.

Yahweh, the God of Israel, you are righteous; for we are left a remnant that has escaped, as it is today. Behold, we are before you in our guiltiness; for no one can stand before you because of this.”

You divided the sea before them, so that they went through the middle of the sea on the dry land; and you cast their pursuers into the depths, as a stone into the mighty waters.

However you are just in all that has come on us; for you have dealt truly, but we have done wickedly.

“Surely I would speak to the Almighty. I desire to reason with God.

I have seen the wicked in great power, spreading himself like a green tree in its native soil.

Even the youths faint and get weary, and the young men utterly fall;

“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against me,” says Yahweh.

Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men; that I might leave my people, and go from them! For they are all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men.

But, Yahweh of Armies, who judges righteously, who tests the heart and the mind, I will see your vengeance on them; for to you I have revealed my cause.

Now after I had delivered the deed of the purchase to Baruch the son of Neriah, I prayed to Yahweh, saying,

Her princes within it are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, that they may get dishonest gain.

How great are his signs! How mighty are his wonders! His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. His dominion is from generation to generation.

“Lord, righteousness belongs to you, but to us confusion of face, as it is today; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all Israel, who are near, and who are far off, through all the countries where you have driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against you.

Flight will perish from the swift; and the strong won’t strengthen his force; neither shall the mighty deliver himself;

Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails; for the wicked surround the righteous; therefore justice comes out perverted.

Yahweh, within her, is righteous. He will do no wrong. Every morning he brings his justice to light. He doesn’t fail, but the unjust know no shame.

We know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things.

Yahweh saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of man’s heart was continually only evil.

Yahweh smelled the pleasant aroma. Yahweh said in his heart, “I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake because the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth. I will never again strike every living thing, as I have done.

May it be far from you to do things like that, to kill the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be like the wicked. May that be far from you. Shouldn’t the Judge of all the earth do right?”

“Benjamin is a ravenous wolf. In the morning he will devour the prey. At evening he will divide the plunder.”

Moses returned to Yahweh, and said, “Lord, why have you brought trouble on this people? Why is it that you have sent me?

When you go out and camp against your enemies, then you shall keep yourselves from every evil thing.

The Rock: his work is perfect, for all his ways are just. A God of faithfulness who does no wrong, just and right is he.

About Benjamin he said, “The beloved of Yahweh will dwell in safety by him. He covers him all day long. He dwells between his shoulders.”

Now therefore give me this hill country, of which Yahweh spoke in that day; for you heard in that day how the Anakim were there, and great and fortified cities. It may be that Yahweh will be with me, and I shall drive them out, as Yahweh said.”

Yahweh said to Gideon, “The people who are with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel brag against me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’

The men of Gibeah rose against me, and surrounded the house by night. They intended to kill me and they raped my concubine, and she is dead.

They said, “Yahweh, the God of Israel, why has this happened in Israel, that there should be one tribe lacking in Israel today?”

A champion out of the camp of the Philistines named Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span went out.

Then the woman said, “Please let your servant speak a word to my lord the king.” He said, “Say on.”

He cried to Yahweh, and said, “Yahweh my God, have you also brought evil on the widow with whom I am staying, by killing her son?”

Our God, will you not judge them? For we have no might against this great company that comes against us. We don’t know what to do, but our eyes are on you.”

He was with them hidden in God’s house six years while Athaliah reigned over the land.

Now you intend to degrade the children of Judah and Jerusalem as male and female slaves for yourselves. Aren’t there even with you trespasses of your own against Yahweh your God?

Yahweh sent an angel, who cut off all the mighty men of valor, and the leaders and captains, in the camp of the king of Assyria. So he returned with shame of face to his own land. When he had come into the house of his god, those who came out of his own body killed him there with the sword.

‘Shall mortal man be more just than God? Shall a man be more pure than his Maker?

There the upright might reason with him, so I should be delivered forever from my judge.

“Therefore listen to me, you men of understanding: far be it from God, that he should do wickedness, from the Almighty, that he should commit iniquity.

I will get my knowledge from afar, and will ascribe righteousness to my Maker.

Yahweh sat enthroned at the Flood. Yes, Yahweh sits as King forever.

There is no king saved by the multitude of an army. A mighty man is not delivered by great strength.

Your way was through the sea; your paths through the great waters. Your footsteps were not known.

But you have rejected and spurned. You have been angry with your anointed.

Clouds and darkness are around him. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.

Yahweh is Gracious and righteous. Yes, our God is merciful.

Yahweh, I know that your judgments are righteous, that in faithfulness you have afflicted me.

You are righteous, Yahweh. Your judgments are upright.

Yahweh is righteous in all his ways, and gracious in all his works.

For the backsliding of the simple will kill them. The careless ease of fools will destroy them.

There is a vanity which is done on the earth, that there are righteous men to whom it happens according to the work of the wicked. Again, there are wicked men to whom it happens according to the work of the righteous. I said that this also is vanity.

From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs. Glory to the righteous! But I said, “I pine away! I pine away! woe is me!” The treacherous have dealt treacherously. Yes, the treacherous have dealt very treacherously.

Produce your cause,” says Yahweh. “Bring out your strong reasons!” says the King of Jacob.

Most certainly you are a God who has hidden yourself, God of Israel, the Savior.’ ”

Yes, you didn’t hear. Yes, you didn’t know. Yes, from of old your ear was not opened, for I knew that you dealt very treacherously, and were called a transgressor from the womb.

Therefore a lion out of the forest will kill them. A wolf of the evenings will destroy them. A leopard will watch against their cities. Everyone who goes out there will be torn in pieces, because their transgressions are many and their backsliding has increased.

Yahweh says, “Don’t let the wise man glory in his wisdom. Don’t let the mighty man glory in his might. Don’t let the rich man glory in his riches.

You are righteous, Yahweh, when I contend with you; yet I would like to reason the cause with you. Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why are they all at ease who deal very treacherously?

For even your brothers, and the house of your father, even they have dealt treacherously with you! Even they have cried aloud after you! Don’t believe them, though they speak beautiful words to you.

You have said to me, Lord Yahweh, ‘Buy the field for money, and call witnesses;’ whereas the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans.”

There is a conspiracy of her prophets within it, like a roaring lion ravening the prey. They have devoured souls. They take treasure and precious things. They have made many widows within it.

But they, like Adam, have broken the covenant. They were unfaithful to me, there.

“Israel, you have sinned from the days of Gibeah. There they remained. The battle against the children of iniquity doesn’t overtake them in Gibeah.

For I know that after my departure, vicious wolves will enter in among you, not sparing the flock.

Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past tracing out!