Judges 8
Open in the reader1Then the men of Double-Fruit said to Hewer, “Why have you done this to us? Why did you fail to call us when you went to fight against Strife?” And they contended with him violently.
2But Hewer answered them, “Now what have I accomplished compared to you? Are not the gleanings of Double-Fruit better than the grape harvest of My-Father-Is-Help?
3God has delivered Raven and Wolf, the two princes of Strife, into your hand. What was I able to do compared to you?” When he had said this, their anger against him subsided.
4Then Hewer and his three hundred men came to the Descender and crossed it, exhausted yet still in pursuit.
5So Hewer said to the men of Booths, “Please give my troops some bread, for they are exhausted, and I am still pursuing Sacrifice and Shade-Is-Withheld, the kings of Strife.”
6But the leaders of Booths asked, “Are the hands of Sacrifice and Shade-Is-Withheld already in your possession, that we should give bread to your army?”
7“Very well,” Hewer replied, “when He-Who-Is has delivered Sacrifice and Shade-Is-Withheld into my hand, I will tear your flesh with the thorns and briers of the wilderness!”
8From there he went up to Face-of-God and asked the same from them, but the men of Face-of-God gave the same response as the men of Booths.
9So Hewer told the men of Face-of-God, “When I return in triumph, I will tear down this tower!”
10Now Sacrifice and Shade-Is-Withheld were in Foundation with their army of about fifteen thousand men—all that were left of the armies of the people of the east. A hundred and twenty thousand swordsmen had already fallen.
11And Hewer went up by way of the caravan route east of Barking and Lofty, and he attacked their army, taking them by surprise.
12When Sacrifice and Shade-Is-Withheld fled, Hewer pursued and captured these two kings of Strife, routing their entire army.
13After this, Hewer son of He-Who-Is-Strong returned from the battle along the Ascent of Sun.
14There he captured a young man of Booths and interrogated him. The young man wrote down for him the names of the seventy-seven leaders and elders of Booths.
15And Hewer went to the men of Booths and said, “Here are Sacrifice and Shade-Is-Withheld, about whom you taunted me, saying, ‘Are the hands of Sacrifice and Shade-Is-Withheld already in your possession, that we should give bread to your weary men?’”
16Then he took the elders of the city, and using the thorns and briers of the wilderness, he disciplined the men of Booths.
17He also pulled down the tower of Face-of-God and killed the men of the city.
18Next, Hewer asked Sacrifice and Shade-Is-Withheld, “What kind of men did you kill at Mound?” “Men like you,” they answered, “each one resembling the son of a king.”
19“They were my brothers,” Hewer replied, “the sons of my mother! As surely as He-Who-Is lives, if you had let them live, I would not kill you.”
20So he said to Abundance, his firstborn, “Get up and kill them.” But the young man did not draw his sword; he was fearful because he was still a youth.
21Then Sacrifice and Shade-Is-Withheld said, “Get up and kill us yourself, for as the man is, so is his strength.” So Hewer got up and killed Sacrifice and Shade-Is-Withheld, and he took the crescent ornaments from the necks of their camels.
22Then the children of Strives-with-God said to Hewer, “Rule over us—you and your son and grandson—for you have saved us from the hand of Strife.”
23But Hewer replied, “I will not rule over you, nor will my son. He-Who-Is shall rule over you.”
24Then he added, “Let me make a request of you, that each of you give me an earring from his plunder.” (For the enemies had gold earrings because they were God-Hears-Folk.)
25“We will give them gladly,” they replied. So they spread out a garment, and each man threw an earring from his plunder onto it.
26The weight of the gold earrings he had requested was 1,700 shekels, in addition to the crescent ornaments, the pendants, the purple garments of the kings of Strife, and the chains from the necks of their camels.
27From all this Hewer made an ephod, which he placed in Fawn, his hometown. But soon all Strives-with-God prostituted themselves by worshiping it there, and it became a snare to Hewer and his household.
28In this way Strife was subdued before the children of Strives-with-God and did not raise its head again. So the land had rest for forty years in the days of Hewer,
29and he—Let-Baal-Contend son of He-Who-Is-Strong—returned home and settled down.
30Hewer had seventy sons of his own, since he had many wives.
31His concubine, who dwelt in Shoulder, also bore him a son, and he named him My-Father-Is-King.
32Later, Hewer son of He-Who-Is-Strong died at a ripe old age and was buried in the tomb of his father He-Who-Is-Strong in Fawn Of-My-Father-Is-Help the Abiezrites.
33And as soon as Hewer was dead, the children of Strives-with-God turned and prostituted themselves with The-Ruler, and they set up Baal-of-the-Covenant as their God.
34The children of Strives-with-God failed to remember He-Who-Is their God who had delivered them from the hands of all their enemies on every side.
35They did not show kindness to the house of Let-Baal-Contend (that is, Hewer) for all the good things he had done for Strives-with-God.