And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gedeon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets:
The time - suitable for an letter. He accumulates some out of many examples.
Gedeon - put before Barak, not chronologically, but as more celebrated. Samson for the same reason is put before Jephthah. The mention of Jephthah's "faith" makes it unlikely that he actually sacrificed his daughter's life for a rash vow. David, the warrior-king and prophet, forms the transition from warrior-chiefs to the "prophets," of whom "Samuel" is the first.