Judges 16–18

Samson and Delilah

16Samson went to ^zGaza, and there he saw a prostitute, and he went in to her. ²The Gazites were told, “Samson has come here.” And they ^asurrounded the place and set an ambush for him all night at the gate of the city. They kept quiet all night, saying, “Let us wait till the light of the morning; then we will kill him.” ³But Samson lay till midnight, and at midnight he arose and took hold of the doors of the gate of the city and the two posts, and pulled them up, bar and all, and put them on his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill that is in front of Hebron.

⁴After this he loved a woman in the Valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. ⁵And ^bthe lords of the Philistines came up to her and said to her, ^c“Seduce him, and see where his great strength lies, and by what means we may overpower him, that we may bind him to ^dhumble him. And we will each give you 1,100 pieces of silver.” ⁶So Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me where your great strength lies, and how you might be bound, that one could ^dsubdue you.”

⁷Samson said to her, “If they bind me with seven fresh bowstrings that have not been dried, ^ethen I shall become weak and be like any other man.” ⁸Then the lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven fresh bowstrings that had not been dried, and she bound him with them. ⁹Now she had men lying in ambush in an inner chamber. And she said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” But he snapped the bowstrings, as a thread of flax snaps when it touches the fire. So the secret of his strength was not known.

¹⁰Then Delilah said to Samson, “Behold, you have mocked me and told me lies. Please tell me how you might be bound.” ¹¹And he said to her, “If they bind me with ^fnew ropes that have not been used, then I shall 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!” And the men lying in ambush were in an inner chamber. But he snapped the ropes off his arms like a thread.

¹³Then Delilah said to Samson, “Until now you have mocked me and told me lies. Tell me how you might be bound.” And he said to her, “If you weave the seven locks of my head with the web and fasten it tight with the pin, then I shall become weak and be like any other man.” ¹⁴So while he slept, Delilah took the seven locks of his head and wove them into the web.¹ And she made them tight with the pin and said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” But he awoke from his sleep and pulled away the pin, the loom, and the web.

¹⁵And she said to him, ^g“How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when your heart is not with me? You have mocked me these three times, and you have not told me where your great strength lies.” ¹⁶And ^hwhen she pressed him hard with her words day after day, and urged him, his soul was vexed to death. ¹⁷And he told her all his heart, and said to her, ⁱ“A razor has never come upon my head, for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If my head is shaved, then my strength will leave me, and I shall become weak and be like any other man.”

¹⁸When Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called the lords of the Philistines, saying, “Come up again, for he has told me all his heart.” Then the lords of the Philistines came up to her and brought ^jthe money in their hands. ¹⁹She made him sleep on her knees. And she called a man and had him shave off the seven locks of his head. Then she began ^kto torment 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 ^lthe Lord had left him. ²¹And the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes and brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze shackles. ^mAnd he ground at the mill in the prison. ²²But the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaved.

The Death of Samson

²³Now the lords of the Philistines gathered to offer a great sacrifice to ⁿDagon their god and to rejoice, and they said, “Our god has given Samson our enemy into our hand.” ²⁴And when the people saw him, ^othey praised their god. For they said, “Our god has given our enemy into our hand, the ravager of our country, who has killed many of us.”^{2 25}And ^pwhen their hearts were merry, they said, “Call Samson, that he may entertain us.” So they called Samson out of the prison, and he entertained them. They made him stand between the pillars. ²⁶And Samson said to the young man who held him by the hand, “Let me feel the pillars on which the house rests, that I may lean against them.” ²⁷Now the house was full of men and women. All the lords of the Philistines were there, and ^qon the roof there were about 3,000 men and women, who looked on while Samson entertained.

²⁸Then Samson called to the Lord and said, “O Lord God, ^rplease remember me and please strengthen me only this once, O God, that I may be avenged on the Philistines for my two eyes.” ²⁹And Samson grasped the two middle pillars on which the house rested, and he leaned his weight against them, his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other. ³⁰And Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines.” Then he bowed with all his strength, and the house fell upon the lords and upon all the people who were in it. So the dead whom he killed at his death were more than those whom he had killed during his life. ³¹Then his brothers and all his family came down and took him and brought him up and buried him ^sbetween Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of Manoah his father. He had judged Israel twenty years.

Micah and the Levite

17There was a man of ^tthe hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Micah. ²And he said to his mother, “The 1,100 pieces of silver that were taken from you, about which you uttered a curse, and also spoke it in my ears, behold, the silver is with me; I took it.” And his mother said, ^u“Blessed be my son by the Lord.” ³And he restored the 1,100 pieces of silver to his mother. And his mother said, “I dedicate the silver to the Lord from my hand for my son, to make ^va carved image and ^wa metal image. Now therefore I will restore it to you.” ⁴So when he restored the money to his mother, his mother ^xtook 200 pieces of silver and gave it to the silversmith, who made it into a carved image and a metal image. And it was in the house of Micah. ⁵And the man Micah had a shrine, and he made ^yan ephod and ^zhousehold gods, and ^aordained¹ one of his sons, who became his priest. ^6bIn those days there was no king in Israel. ^cEveryone did what was right in his own eyes.

⁷Now there was a young man of ^dBethlehem in Judah, of the family of Judah, who was a Levite, and he sojourned there. ⁸And the man departed from the town of Bethlehem in Judah to sojourn where he could find a place. And as he journeyed, he came to ^ethe hill country of Ephraim to the house of Micah. ⁹And Micah said to him, “Where do you come from?” And he said to him, “I am a Levite of Bethlehem in Judah, and I am going to sojourn where I may find a place.” ¹⁰And Micah said to him, “Stay with me, and be to me ^fa father and a priest, and I will give you ten pieces of silver a year and a suit of clothes and your living.” And the Levite went in. ¹¹And the Levite ^gwas content to dwell with the man, and the young man became to him like one of his sons. ¹²And Micah ^hordained the Levite, and the young man ⁱbecame his priest, and was in the house of Micah. ¹³Then Micah said, “Now I know that the Lord will prosper me, because I have a Levite as priest.”

Danites Take the Levite and the Idol

18^jIn those days there was no king in Israel. And in those days ^kthe tribe of the people of Dan was seeking for itself an inheritance to dwell in, for until then no inheritance among the tribes of Israel had fallen to them. ²So the people of Dan sent five able men from the whole number of their tribe, ^lfrom Zorah and from Eshtaol, ^mto spy out the land and to explore it. And they said to them, “Go and explore the land.” And they came ⁿto the hill country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, and lodged there. ³When they were by the house of Micah, they recognized the voice of the young Levite. And they turned aside and said to him, “Who brought you here? What are you doing in this place? What is your business here?” ⁴And he said to them, “This is how Micah dealt with me: ^ohe has hired me, and I have become his priest.” ⁵And they said to him, ^p“Inquire of God, please, that we may know whether the journey on which we are setting out will succeed.” ⁶And the priest said to them, ^q“Go in peace. The journey on which you go is under the eye of the Lord.”

⁷Then the five men departed and came to ^rLaish and saw the people who were there, how they lived in security, after the manner of the Sidonians, ^squiet and unsuspecting, lacking¹ nothing that is in the earth and possessing wealth, and how ^tthey were far from the Sidonians and had no dealings with anyone. ⁸And when they came to their brothers at ^uZorah and Eshtaol, their brothers said to them, “What do you report?” ⁹They said, ^v“Arise, and let us go up against them, for we have seen the land, and behold, it is very good. ^wAnd will you do nothing? ^xDo not be slow to go, to enter in and possess the land. ¹⁰As soon as you go, you will come to an ^yunsuspecting people. The land is spacious, for God has given it into your hands, ^za place where there is no lack of anything that is in the earth.”

¹¹So 600 men of the tribe of Dan, ^aarmed with weapons of war, set out from Zorah and Eshtaol, ¹²and went up and encamped at Kiriath-jearim in Judah. On this account that place is called ^bMahaneh-dan² to this day; behold, it is west of ^cKiriath-jearim. ¹³And they passed on from there to ^dthe hill country of Ephraim, and came to the house of Micah.

¹⁴Then the five men who had gone to scout out the country of Laish said to their brothers, “Do…