Judges 10
Open in the reader1After the time of My-Father-Is-King, a man of There-Is-Reward, Crimson-Worm son of Madder-Plant, the son of His-Beloved, rose up to save Strives-with-God. He lived in Diamond, in the hill country of Double-Fruit.
2Crimson-Worm judged Strives-with-God twenty-three years, and when he died, he was buried in Diamond.
3Crimson-Worm was followed by He-Enlightens the Witness-Heap-One, who judged Strives-with-God twenty-two years.
4He had thirty sons who rode on thirty donkeys. And they had thirty towns in the land of Heap-of-Witness, which to this day are called Havvoth-jair.
5When He-Enlightens died, he was buried in Kamon.
6And again the children of Strives-with-God did evil in the sight of He-Who-Is. They served The-Ruler, the Ashtoreths, the gods of Highland, Sidon, and From-the-Father, and the gods of the Kindredites and Philistines. Thus they forsook He-Who-Is and did not serve Him.
7So the anger of He-Who-Is burned against Strives-with-God, and He sold them into the hands of the Philistines and children of Kindred,
8who that very year harassed and oppressed the children of Strives-with-God, and they did so for eighteen years to all the children of Strives-with-God on the other side of the Descender in Heap-of-Witness, the land of the Mountaineers.
9The children of Kindred also crossed the Descender to fight against Praised, Son-of-the-Right-Hand, and the house of Double-Fruit, and Strives-with-God was in deep distress.
10Then the children of Strives-with-God cried out to He-Who-Is, saying, “We have sinned against You, for we have indeed forsaken our God and served The-Ruler.”
11He-Who-Is replied, “When the Strives-with-God, Mountaineers, Ammonites, Philistines,
12Fishery-Ones, children of Amalek, and children of Dwelling oppressed you and you cried out to Me, did I not save you from their hands?
13But you have forsaken Me and served other gods, so I will no longer save you.
14Go and cry out to the gods you have chosen. Let them save you in your time of trouble.”
15“We have sinned,” the children of Strives-with-God said to He-Who-Is. “Deal with us as You see fit; but please deliver us today!”
16So they put away the foreign gods from among them and served He-Who-Is, and He could no longer bear the misery of Strives-with-God.
17Then the children of Kindred were called to arms and camped in Heap-of-Witness, and the children of Strives-with-God assembled and camped at Watchtower.
18And the rulers of Heap-of-Witness said to one another, “Whoever will launch the attack against the children of Kindred will be the head of all who live in Heap-of-Witness.”