The hands that had been lifted against him dropped back useless, and a wide circle formed around him.

In the midst of it stood Naomi.

Her blind face quivered; she seemed to glow like a spirit.

And like a spirit she had driven back the people from their deed of blood as with the voice of God--she, the blind, the frail, the helpless.
Israel rose to his feet, for no man touched him again, and the procession of judges, which had now come up, was silent.

And, seeing how it was that in the hour of his great need the gift of speech had come upon Naomi, his heart rose big within him, and he tried to triumph over his enemies and say, "You thought God's arm was against me, but behold how God has saved me out of your hands." But he could not speak.