Judges 12 - 16
Jephthah Fights Ephraim
12Then the men of Ephraim were summoned, and they crossed 1to Zaphon and asaid to Jephthah, “Why did you cross over to fight against the sons of Ammon, but did not call us to go with you? We will burn your house down on you.” 2Then Jephthah said to them, “I and my people were at great strife with the sons of Ammon. And I cried out to you, but you did not save me from their hand. 3“And I saw that you would not save me, so I 1,atook my life in my hands and crossed over against the sons of Ammon, and Yahweh gave them into my hand. Why then have you come up to me this day to fight against me?” 4Then Jephthah gathered all the men of Gilead and fought Ephraim; and the men of Gilead struck Ephraim down because they said, “You are fugitives of Ephraim, O Gileadites, in the midst of Ephraim and in the midst of Manasseh.” 5And the Gileadites acaptured the fords of the Jordan opposite Ephraim. And it happened when any of the fugitives of Ephraim said, “Let me cross over,” the men of Gilead would say to him, “Are you an Ephraimite?” If he said, “No,” 6then they would say to him, “Say now, ‘Shibboleth.’” But he said, “Sibboleth,” for he could not 1pronounce it correctly. Then they seized him and slaughtered him at the fords of the Jordan. Thus there fell at that time 42,000 of Ephraim.
7And Jephthah judged Israel six years. Then Jephthah the Gileadite died and was buried in one of the cities of Gilead.
Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon Judge Israel
8Then Ibzan of Bethlehem judged Israel after him. 9And he had thirty sons, and thirty daughters whom he 1gave in marriage outside the family, and he brought in thirty daughters from outside for his sons. And he judged Israel seven years. 10Then Ibzan died and was buried in Bethlehem.
11Then Elon the Zebulunite judged Israel after him; and he judged Israel ten years. 12And Elon the Zebulunite died and was buried at Aijalon in the land of Zebulun.
13Then Abdon the son of Hillel the Pirathonite judged Israel after him. 14And he had forty sons and thirty grandsons who rode on seventy donkeys; and he judged Israel eight years. 15Then Abdon the son of Hillel the Pirathonite died and was buried at Pirathon in the land of Ephraim, in the hill country of the Amalekites.
The Birth of Samson
13Then the sons of Israel aagain did what was evil in the eyes of Yahweh, so that Yahweh gave them into the hand of the Philistines forty years.
2And there was a certain man of aZorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was barren and had borne no children. 3aThen the angel of Yahweh appeared to the woman and said to her, “Behold now, you are barren and have borne no children, but you 1shall be with child and give birth to a son. 4“So now, be careful anot to drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing. 5“aFor behold, you 1shall be with child and give birth to a son, and no razor shall come upon his head, for the boy shall be a bNazirite to God from the womb; and he shall begin to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines.” 6Then the woman came and told her husband, saying, “aA man of God came to me, and his appearance was like the appearance of the angel of God, very awesome. And I did not ask him where he came from, nor did he tell me his name. 7“And he said to me, ‘Behold, you 1shall be with child and give birth to a son, so now you shall not drink wine or strong drink, and you shall not eat any unclean thing, for the boy shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb to the day of his death.’”
8Then Manoah entreated Yahweh and said, “O Lord, please let athe man of God whom You have sent come to us again that he may instruct us what to do for the boy who is to be born.” 9And God listened to the voice of Manoah; and athe angel of God came again to the woman as she was sitting in the field, but Manoah her husband was not with her. 10So the woman ran quickly and told her husband, and she said to him, “Behold, athe man who came the other day to me has appeared to me.” 11Then Manoah arose and followed his wife, and when he came to the man he said to him, “Are you athe man who spoke to the woman?” And he said, “I am.” 12So Manoah said, “Now your words will come to pass. What shall be the judgment governing the boy and his work?” 13So athe angel of Yahweh said to Manoah, “bLet the woman be careful in all that I said. 14“She should not eat anything that comes from the avine, nor drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing; let her keep all that I commanded.”
15Then Manoah said to athe angel of Yahweh, “Please let us delay you so that we may prepare a young goat for you.” 16And the angel of Yahweh said to Manoah, “Though you delay me, aI will not eat your 1food, but if you prepare a burnt offering, then offer it to Yahweh.” For Manoah did not know that he was the angel of Yahweh. 17Then Manoah said to the angel of Yahweh, “aWhat is your name, so that when your words come to pass, we may honor you?” 18But the angel of Yahweh said to him, “Why do you ask my name, seeing it is 1,awonderful?” 19So aManoah took the young goat with the grain offering and offered it on the rock to Yahweh, and He did a wondrous thing while Manoah and his wife looked on. 20Indeed, it happened when the flame went up from the altar toward heaven, that the angel of Yahweh went up in the flame of the altar. And Manoah and his wife saw this, so they afell on their faces to the ground.
21Now the angel of Yahweh did not appear to Manoah or his wife again. aThen Manoah knew that he was the angel of Yahweh. 22So Manoah said to his wife, “aWe will surely die, for we have seen God.” 23But his wife said to him, “If Yahweh had desired to put us to death, He would not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering from our hands, nor would He have ashown us all these things, nor would He have let us hear things like this at this time.”
24Then the woman gave birth to a son and named him Samson; and the achild grew up, and Yahweh blessed him. 25And athe Spirit of Yahweh began to stir him in 1,bMahaneh-dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.
Samson Takes a Philistine as His Wife
14Then Samson went down to Timnah and saw a woman in Timnah, one of the daughters of the Philistines. 2So he came back up and told his father and 1mother, “I saw a woman in Timnah, one of the daughters of the Philistines; so now, take her for me as a wife.” 3But his father and his mother said to him, “Is there no woman among the daughters of your 1,arelatives, or among all 2our people, that you go to btake a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?” But Samson said to his father, “Take her for me, for she is right in my eyes.” 4However, his father and mother did not know that ait was of Yahweh, for He was seeking an occasion against the Philistines. Now at that time the Philistines were ruling over Israel.
5Then Samson went down to Timnah with his father and mother, and they came as far as the vineyards of Timnah; and behold, a young lion came roaring toward him. 6aAnd the Spirit of Yahweh 1came upon him mightily, so that bhe tore it as one tears a young goat, though he had nothing in his hand; but he did not tell his father or mother what he had done. 7So he went down and spoke to the woman; and she was right in the eyes of Samson. 8Then he returned later to take her, and he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion; and behold, a swarm of bees and honey were in the body of the lion. 9So he scraped 1the honey into his 2hands and went on, eating as he went. Then he went to his father and mother, and he gave some to them, and they ate it; but he did not tell them that he had scraped the honey out of the body of the lion.
10Then his father went down to the woman; and Samson made a feast there, for the young men customarily did this. 11Now it happened that when they saw him, they took thirty companions to be with him. 12Then Samson said to them, “Let me now apropound a riddle to you; if you will indeed tell it to me within the seven days of the feast and find it out, then I will give you thirty linen wraps and thirty bchanges of clothes. 13“But if you are unable to tell me, then you shall give me thirty linen wraps and thirty changes of clothes.” And they said to him, “Propound your riddle, that we may hear it.” 14So he said to them, “Out of the eater came something to eat,And out of the strong came something sweet.” But they could not tell the riddle in three days.
15Then it happened on the 1fourth day that they said to Samson’s wife, “aEntice your husband, so that he will tell us the riddle, bor we will burn you and your father’s house with fire. Have you invited us to impoverish us? Is this not so?” 16So Samson’s wife wept before him and said, “aYou only hate me, and you do not love me; you have propounded a riddle to the sons of my people and have not told it to me.” And he said to her, “Behold, I have not told it to my father or mother; so should I tell you?” 17However she wept before him seven days while their feast lasted. And on the seventh day he told her because she pressed him so hard. She then told the riddle to the sons of her people. 18So the men of the city said to him on the seventh day before the sun went down, “What is sweeter than honey?And what is stronger than a lion?” And he said to them,“If you had not plowed with my heifer,You would not have found out my riddle.”
19Then athe Spirit of Yahweh 1came upon him mightily, and he went down to Ashkelon and struck down thirty of them and took their spoil and gave the changes of clothes to those who told the riddle. And his anger burned, and he went up to his father’s house. 20But Samson’s wife was agiven to his companion who had been his 1friend.
Samson Strikes Down the Philistines
15Now it happened that after a while, in the time of the wheat harvest, Samson visited his wife awith a young goat and said, “I will go in to my wife in her room.” But her father did not let him enter. 2And her father said, “I really thought that you hated her intensely; so I agave her to your companion. Is not her younger sister better than she? Please let her be yours 1instead.” 3Samson then said to them, “This time I shall be innocent in regard to the Philistines when I do them harm.” 4So Samson went and caught 300 foxes and took torches and turned the foxes tail to tail and put one torch in the middle between two tails. 5Then he set fire to the torches and sent 1the foxes into the standing grain of the Philistines. So he caused both the shocks and the standing grain, along with the vineyards and groves, to burn. 6Then the Philistines said, “Who did this?” And they said, “Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because 1he took his wife and gave her to his companion.” So the Philistines came up and aburned her and her father with fire. 7Then Samson said to them, “If you act like this, then I will surely take revenge on you, but after that I will cease.” 8And he struck them 1ruthlessly with a great slaughter; and he went down and lived in the cleft of the rock of Etam.
9Then the Philistines went up and camped in Judah and spread out in Lehi. 10So the men of Judah said, “Why have you come up against us?” And they said, “We have come up to bind Samson in order to do to him as he did to us.” 11Then 3,000 men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam and said to Samson, “Do you not know athat the Philistines are rulers over us? What then is this that you have done to us?” And he said to them, “As they did to me, so I have done to them.” 12And they said to him, “We have come down to bind you so that we may give you into the hand of the Philistines.” And Samson said to them, “Swear to me that you yourselves will not 1kill me.” 13So they said to 1him, “No, but we will bind you fast and give you into their hands; yet surely we will not put you to death.” Then they bound him with two new ropes and brought him up from the rock.
14When he came to Lehi, the Philistines shouted as they met him. And athe Spirit of Yahweh 1came upon him mightily so that the ropes that were on his arms were as flax that is burned with fire, and his bonds 2dropped from his hands. 15And he found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, so he sent forth his hand and took it and struck down a1,000 men with it. 16Then Samson said, “With the jawbone of a donkey,1Heaps upon heaps,With the jawbone of a donkeyI have struck down 1,000 men.”
17Now it happened that when he had finished speaking, he threw the jawbone from his hand; and he named that place 1Ramath-lehi. 18Then he became very thirsty, and he acalled to Yahweh and said, “You have given this great salvation by the hand of Your slave, but now 1shall I die of thirst 2and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?” 19So God split the hollow place that is in Lehi and water came out of it. Then he drank, aand his spirit returned, and he revived. Therefore he named it 1En-hakkore, which is in Lehi to this day. 20And ahe judged Israel twenty years in bthe days of the Philistines.
Samson and Delilah
16Then Samson went to aGaza and saw a harlot there and went in to her. 2And it was told to the Gazites, saying, “Samson has come here,” so they asurrounded the place and lay in wait for him all night at the gate of the city. And they kept silent all night, saying, “Let us wait until the morning light; then we will kill him.” 3But Samson lay until midnight, and at midnight he arose and seized the doors of the city gate and the two posts and pulled them up along with the bars; then he put them on his shoulders and brought them up to the top of the mountain which is opposite Hebron.
4Now it happened afterwards that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, and her name was Delilah. 5And the alords of the Philistines came up to her and said to her, “bEntice him, and see where his great strength lies and 1how we may overpower him that we may bind him to afflict him. Then we will each give you 1,100 pieces of silver.” 6So Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me where your great strength is and 1how you may be bound to afflict you.” 7Samson said to her, “If they bind me with seven fresh cords that have not been dried, then I will become weak and be like any other man.” 8Then the lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven fresh cords that had not been dried, and she bound him with them. 9Now she had men lying in wait, sitting in an inner room. And she said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” But he snapped the cords as a string of tinder snaps when it 1touches fire. So his strength was still not known.
10Then Delilah said to Samson, “Behold, you have deceived me and told me lies; now please tell me 1how you may be bound.” 11And he said to her, “If they bind me tightly with new ropes 1which have not been used for work, then I will become weak and be like any other man.” 12So Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them and said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” Now the men lying in wait were sitting in the inner room. But he snapped 1the ropes from his arms like a thread.
13Then Delilah said to Samson, “Up to now you have deceived me and told me lies; tell me 1how you may be bound.” And he said to her, “If you weave the seven locks of my head with the web 2[and fasten it with a pin, then I will become weak and be like any other man.” 14So while he slept, Delilah took the seven locks of his 1hair and wove them into the web]. And she fastened it with the pin and said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” But he awoke from his sleep and pulled out the pin of the loom and the web.
15Then she said to him, “aHow can you say, ‘I love you,’ when your heart is not with me? You have deceived me these three times and have not told me where your great strength is.” 16Now it happened when she pressed him daily with her words and urged him, that his soul was 1annoyed to death. 17So he told her all that was in his heart and said to her, “A razor has never come on my head, for I have been a aNazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If I am shaved, then my strength will leave me and I will become weak and be like every other man.”
18And Delilah saw that he had told her all that was in his heart, so she sent and called the lords of the Philistines, saying, “Come up once more, for he has told me all that is in his heart.” Then the lords of the Philistines came up to her and brought up the silver in their hands. 19Then she made him sleep on her knees and called for a man and had him shave off the seven locks of his head. Then she began to afflict him, and his strength left him. 20And she said, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” And he awoke from his sleep and said, “I will go out as at other times and shake myself free.” But he did not know that aYahweh had left him. 21Then the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes; and they brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze chains, and he was a grinder in the prison. 22However, the hair of his head began to grow again after it was shaved off.
23Now the lords of the Philistines assembled to offer a great sacrifice to aDagon their god and to be glad; and they said, “Our god has given Samson our enemy into our hands.”
24Then the people saw him and apraised their god, for they said, “Our god has given our enemy into our hands,Even the destroyer of our country,Who has slain many of us.”
25So it happened when their hearts were merry, that they said, “Call for Samson, that he may amuse us.” So they called for Samson from the prison, and he 1entertained them. And they made him stand between the pillars. 26Then Samson said to the boy who was holding his hand, “Let me feel the pillars on which the house is established, that I may lean against them.” 27Now the house was full of men and women, and all the lords of the Philistines were there. And about 3,000 men and women were on the roof looking on while Samson was amusing them.
Samson’s Revenge
28aThen Samson called to Yahweh and said, “O Lord Yahweh, please remember me and please strengthen me just this time, O God, that I may at once bbe avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes.” 29Samson grasped the two middle pillars on which the house was established and supported himself against them, the one with his right hand and the other with his left. 30And Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines!” And he bent with his strength so that the house fell on the lords and all the people who were in it. So the dead whom he put to death by his death were more than those whom he put to death in his life. 31Then his brothers and all his father’s household came down, carried him, brought him up, and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol, in the tomb of Manoah his father. aThus he had judged Israel twenty years.