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"In those days there was no king in Israel, and everyone did as he saw fit."

"So he said to them: Out of the eater came what is eaten, and out of the strong came what is sweet. But three days went by and they could not solve the riddle."

"If ye had not plowed with my heifer, ye had not found out my riddle."

"He asked for water; she gave him milk; she offered him curds in a lordly dish. She reached her hand out to seize the peg, her right hand to seize the workman's mallet. She hammered Sisera, she crushed his head, she pierced his temple and shattered it. Between her feet, he crumpled, he fell, he lay; at her feet, he crumpled, he fell. Where he crumpled, there he fell, destroyed. At the window, she leans and watches, Sisera's mother, through the lattice, 'Why is his chariot so long coming? Why so delayed the hoof-beats from his chariot?'"

"The people arose as one man."

"He smote them hip and thigh."

"The next stage in Israelite history is the era of the judges, or tribal chiefs. The most famous of them, Samson, establishes his reputation by killing thirty men during his wedding feast because he needs their clothing to pay off a bet. Then, to avenge the killing of his wife and her father, he slaughters a thousand Philistines and sets fire to their crops; after escaping capture, he kills another thousand with the jawbone of an ass. When he is finally captured and his eyes are burned out, God gives him the strength for a 9/11-like suicide attack in which he implodes a large building, crushing the three thousand men and women who are worshipping inside it."

"But Jael the wife of Heber took a tent-peg and picked up a mallet; she crept up softly to him and drove the peg into his temple right through to the ground. He was lying fast asleep, worn out; and so he died."

"הֲיֵֽלְכ֥וּ שְׁנַ֖יִם יַחְדָּ֑ו בִּלְתִּ֖י אִם־נוֹעָֽדוּ"

"They then said, 'Very well, say Shibboleth.' If anyone said, "Sibboleth", because he could not pronounce it, then they would seize him and kill him by the fords of the Jordan. Forty-two thousand Ephraimites fell on this occasion."

"The sword of the LORD, and of Gideon."

"'I will make up to you for the years devoured by grown locust and hopper, by shearer and young locust, my great army which I sent to invade you."

"אַרְיֵ֥ה שָׁאָ֖ג מִ֣י לֹ֣א יִירָ֑א אֲדֹנָ֚י יֱהֹוִה֙ דִּבֶּ֔ר מִ֖י לֹ֥א יִנָּבֵֽא"

"People from the Negeb will occupy the Mount of Esau, people from the lowlands the country of the Philistines; they will occupy Ephraim and Samaria, and Benjamin will occupy Gilead."

"For the violence done to your brother Jacob, shame will cover you and you will be annihilated for ever."

"Just as you have drunk on my holy mountain, so will all the nations drink continually, they will drink, will drink greedily, but they will be as though they had never been!"

"The Lord was standing by a wall that had been built true to plumb, with a plumb line in his hand. And the Lord asked me, "What do you see, Amos?" "A plumb line," I replied. Then the Lord said, "Look, I am setting a plumb line among my people Israel; I will spare them no longer.""

"The days are coming- declares the Lord Yahweh- when I shall send a famine on the country, not hunger for food, not thirst for water, but famine for hearing Yahweh's word. People will stagger from sea to sea, will wander from the north to the east, searching for Yahweh's word, but will not find it."

"The days are coming- declares Yahweh- when the ploughman will tread on the heels of the reaper, and the trader of grapes on the heels of the sower of seed, and the mountains will run with new wine and the hills all flow with it. I shall restore the fortunes of my people Israel; they will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them, they will plant vineyards and drink their wine, they will lay out gardens and eat their produce. And I shall plant them in their own soil and they will never be uprooted again from the country which I have given them, declares Yahweh, your God."

"This is what he showed me: the Lord standing by a wall, with a plumb-line in his hand. 'What do you see, Amos?' Yahweh asked me. 'A plumb-line,' I said. Then the Lord said, 'Look, I am going to put a plumb-line in among my people Israel; never again will I overlook their offences."

"Will not the Day of Yahweh be darkness, not light, totally dark, without a ray of light?"

"I hate, I scorn your festivals, I take no pleasure in your solemn assemblies. When you bring me burnt offerings . . . your oblations, I do not accept them and I do not look at your communion sacrifices of fat cattle. Spare me the din of your chanting, let me hear none of your strumming on lyres, but let justice flow like water, and uprightness like a never-failing stream!"

"If thieves were to come to you (or robbers during the night) surely they would steal only as much as they wanted? If grape-pickers were to come to you, surely they would leave a few gleanings? But how you have been pillaged!"

"I despise your religious festivals; your assemblies are a stench to me. Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them. Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!"

"וְלֹֽא־יָֽדְע֥וּ עֲשֽׂוֹת־נְכֹחָ֖ה נְאֻם־יְהֹוָ֑ה הָאֽוֹצְרִ֛ים חָמָ֥ס וָשֹׁ֖ד בְּאַרְמְנֽוֹתֵיהֶֽם"

"לָכֵ֕ן כֹּ֥ה אֶֽעֱשֶׂה־לְּךָ֖ יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל עֵקֶב כִּי־זֹ֣את אֶֽעֱשֶׂה־לָּ֔ךְ הִכּ֥וֹן לִקְרַאת־אֱלֹהֶ֖יךָ יִשְׂרָאֵֽל"

"For look, he it is who forges the mountains, creates the wind, who reveals his mind to humankind, changes the dawn into darkness and strides on the heights of the world: Yahweh, God Sabaoth, is his name."

"Seek good and not evil so that you may survive, and Yahweh, God Sabaoth, be with you as you claim he is. Hate evil, love good, let justice reign at the city gate: it may be that Yahweh."

"She cried, 'The Philistines are on you, Samson!' He awoke from sleep, thinking, 'I shall break free as I have done time after time and shake myself clear.' But he did not know that Yahweh had left him. The Philistines seized him, put out his eyes and took him down to Gaza. They fettered him with a double chain of bronze and he spent his time turning the mill in the prison."

"Your allies all pursued you right to the frontier, your confederates kept you in suspense, then got the better of you, your own guests laid a trap for you, 'He has quite lost his wits.'"

"You are not a better judge than the LORD, or wiser than the Most High!"

"When the Most High made the world and Adam and all who have come from him, he first prepared the judgment and the things that pertain to the judgment."

"For the world hath lost his youth, and the times begin to wax old."

"Then were the entrances of this world made narrow, full of sorrow and travail: they are but few and evil, full of perils, and very painful For the entrances of the elder world were wide and sure, and brought immortal fruit. If then they that live labour not to enter these strait and van things, they can never receive those that are laid up for them."

"Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God's."

"And he died in a good old age, full of days, riches, and honour: and Solomon his son reigned in his stead."

"And king Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all her desire, whatsoever she asked, beside that which she had brought unto the king."

"For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. Herein thou hast done foolishly: therefore from henceforth thou shalt have wars."

"For we are strangers before thee, and sojourners, as were all our fathers: our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding."

"You have been told, O mortal, what is good, And what GOD requires of you: only to do justice and to love goodness, and to walk modestly with your God."

"For the wealthy of the city are full of violence, and its residents speak lies; the tongues in their mouths are deceitful."

"Once her young people were brighter than snow, whiter than milk; rosier than coral their bodies, their hue like sapphire. Now their faces are blacker than soot, they are not recognized in the streets, the skin has shrunk over their bones, as dry as a stick."

"The breath of our nostrils, Yahweh's anointed, was caught in their traps, he of whom we said, 'In his shadow we shall live among the nations."

"The very jackals give the breast, and suckle their young: but the daughter of my people is as cruel as the ostriches of the desert."

"For the wickedness of the daughter of my people exceeded the sins of Sodom, which was overthrown in a moment without a hand being laid on it."

"Our skin is as hot as an oven, from the scorch of famine."

"My eyes are worn out with weeping, my inmost being is in ferment, my heart plummets at the destruction of my young people, as the children and babies grow faint in the streets of the city."

"Jerusalem remembers her days of misery and distress; when her people fell into the enemy's clutches there was no one to help her. Her enemies looked on and laughed at her downfall."

"Surely Yahweh's mercies are not over, his deeds of faithful love not exhausted; Every morning they are renewed; great is his faithfulness!"

"Yahweh is good to those who trust him, to all who search for him."