Judges 13–16

13^*And the children of Israel ^†adid evil again in the sight of the Lord; ^||and the Lord delivered them ^binto the hand of the Philistines forty years. ²And there was a certain man of ^cZorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was ^dbarren, and bare not. ³And the ^eangel of the Lord appeared unto the woman, and said unto her, Behold now, thou art barren, and bearest not: but thou shalt conceive, and bear a son. ⁴Now therefore beware, I pray thee, and ^fdrink not wine nor strong drink, and eat not any unclean thing: ⁵For, lo, thou shalt conceive, and bear a son; and no ^grasor shall come on his head: for the child shall be ^ha Nazarite unto God from the womb: and he shall ⁱbegin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines. ⁶Then the woman came and told her husband, saying, ^jA man of God came unto me, and his ^kcountenance was like the countenance of an angel of God, very terrible: but I ^lasked him not ^lwhence he was, neither told he me ^mhis name: ⁷But he said unto me, ⁿBehold, thou shalt conceive, and bear a son; and now drink no wine nor strong drink, neither eat any unclean thing: for the child shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb to the day of his death.

⁸Then Manoah intreated the Lord, and said, O my Lord, let the man of God which thou didst send come again unto us, and teach us what we shall do unto the child that shall be born. ⁹And God hearkened to the voice of Manoah; and the angel of God came again unto the woman as she sat in the field: but Manoah her husband was not with her. ¹⁰And the woman made haste, and ran, and shewed her husband, and said unto him, Behold, the man hath appeared unto me, that came unto me the other day. ¹¹And Manoah arose, and went after his wife, and came to the man, and said unto him, Art thou the man that spakest unto the woman? And he said, I am. ¹²And Manoah said, Now let thy words come to pass. ^†How shall we order the child, and ^||how shall we do unto him? ¹³And the angel of the Lord said unto Manoah, Of all that I said unto the woman let her beware. ¹⁴She may not eat of any thing that cometh of the vine, ^oneither let her drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing: all that I commanded her let her observe. ¹⁵And Manoah said unto the angel of the Lord, I pray thee, ^plet us detain thee, until we shall have made ready a kid ^†for thee. ¹⁶And the angel of the Lord said unto Manoah, Though thou detain me, I will not eat of thy bread: and if thou wilt offer a burnt offering, thou must offer it unto the Lord. For Manoah knew not that he was an angel of the Lord. ¹⁷And Manoah said unto the angel of the Lord, ^qWhat is thy name, that when thy sayings come to pass we may do thee honour? ¹⁸And the angel of the Lord said unto him, ^rWhy askest thou thus after my name, seeing it is ^||secret? ¹⁹So Manoah ^stook a kid with ^ta meat offering, and offered it upon a rock unto the Lord: and the angel did wondrously; and Manoah and his wife looked on. ²⁰For it came to pass, ^uwhen the flame went up toward heaven from off the altar, that the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame of the altar. And Manoah and his wife looked on it, and ^wfell on their faces to the ground. ²¹But the angel of the Lord did no more appear to Manoah and to his wife. ^xThen Manoah knew that he was an angel of the Lord. ²²And Manoah said unto his wife, ^yWe shall surely die, because we have seen God. ²³But his wife said unto him, If the Lord were pleased to kill us, he would not have received ^za burnt offering and a meat offering at our hands, neither would he have shewed us all these things, nor would as at this time have told us such things as these.

²⁴And the woman bare a son, and called his name ^aSamson: and ^bthe child grew, and the Lord blessed him. ^25cAnd the Spirit of the Lord began to ^dmove him at times in ^†the camp of Dan ^ebetween Zorah and Eshtaol.

14^*And Samson went down ^ato Timnath, and saw a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines. ²And he came up, and told his father and his mother, and said, I have seen a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines: now therefore ^bget her for me to wife. ³Then his father and his mother said unto him, Is there never a woman among the daughters of ^cthy brethren, or among all my people, that thou goest to take a wife of the ^duncircumcised Philistines? And Samson said unto his father, Get her for me; for ^†she pleaseth me well. ⁴But his father and his mother knew not that it was ^eof the Lord, that he sought an occasion against the Philistines: for at that time ^fthe Philistines had dominion over Israel. ⁵Then went Samson down, and his father and his mother, to Timnath, and came to the vineyards of Timnath: and, behold, ^ga young lion roared ^†against him. ⁶And ^hthe Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and he rent him as he would have rent a kid, and he had nothing in his hand: but he told not his father or his mother what he had done. ⁷And he went down, and talked with the woman; and she pleased Samson well.

⁸And after a time he returned to take her, and he turned aside to see the carcase of the lion: and, behold, there was a swarm of bees and honey in the carcase of the lion. ⁹And he took thereof in his hands, and went on eating, and came to his father and mother, and he gave them, and they did eat: but he told not them that he had taken the honey out of the carcase of the lion. ¹⁰So his father went down unto the woman: and Samson made there a feast; for so used the young men to do. ¹¹And it came to pass, when they saw him, that they brought thirty companions to be with him. ¹²And Samson said unto them, I will now ⁱput forth a riddle unto you: if ye can certainly declare it me within ^kthe seven days of the feast, and find it out, then I will give you thirty ^||sheets and thirty ^lchange of garments: ¹³But if ye cannot declare it me, then shall ye give me thirty ^||sheets and thirty ^lchange of garments. And they said unto him, Put forth thy riddle, that we may hear it. ¹⁴And he said unto them,

Out of the eater came forth meat,

And out of the strong came forth sweetness.

And they could not in three days expound the riddle. ¹⁵And it came to pass on the seventh day, that they said unto Samson’s wife, ^mEntice thy husband, that he may declare unto us the riddle, ⁿlest we burn thee and thy father’s house with fire: have ye called us ^†to take that we have? is it not so? ¹⁶And Samson’s wife wept before him, and said, ^oThou dost but hate me, and lovest me not: thou hast put forth a riddle unto the children of my people, and hast not told it me. And he said unto her, Behold, I have not told it my father nor my mother, and shall I tell it thee? ¹⁷And she wept before him ^||the seven days, while their feast lasted: and it came to pass on the seventh day, that he told her, because ^pshe lay sore upon him: and she told the riddle to the children of her people. ¹⁸And the men of the city said unto 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 unto them,

If ye had not plowed with my heifer,

Ye had not found out my riddle.

¹⁹And ^qthe Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he went down to ^rAshkelon, and slew thirty men of them, and took their ^||spoil, and gave ^lchange of garments unto them which expounded the riddle. And his anger was kindled, and he went up to his father’s house. ²⁰But Samson’s wife ^swas given to his companion, whom he had ^tused as his friend.

15^*But it came to pass within a while after, in the time of wheat harvest, that Samson visited his wife with ^aa kid; and he said, I will go in to my wife into the chamber. But her father would not suffer him to go in. ²And her father said, I verily thought that thou hadst utterly hated her; therefore I gave her to thy companion: is not her younger sister fairer than she? ^†take her, I pray thee, instead of her. ³And Samson said concerning them, ^||Now shall I be more blameless than the Philistines, though I do them a displeasure. ⁴And Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took ^||firebrands, and turned tail to tail, and put a firebrand in the midst between two tails. ⁵And when he had set the brands on fire, he let them go into the standing corn of the Philistines, and burnt up both ^bthe shocks, and also ^bthe standing corn, with the vineyards and olives. ⁶Then the Philistines said, Who hath done this? And they answered, Samson, the son in law of the Timnite, because he had taken his wife, and given her to his companion. And the Philistines came up, and ^cburnt her and her father with fire. ⁷And Samson said unto them, Though ye have done this, yet will I be avenged of you, and after that I will cease. ⁸And he smote them hip and thigh with a great slaughter: and he went down and dwelt in ^dthe top of the rock ^eEtam.

⁹Then the Philistines went up, and pitched in Judah, and ^fspread themselves in ^gLehi. ¹⁰And the men of Judah said, Why are ye come up against us? And they answered, To bind Samson are we come up, to do to him as he hath done to us. ¹¹Then three thousand men of Judah ^†went to ^dthe top of the rock Etam, and said to Samson, Knowest thou not that the Philistines are ^hrulers over us? what is this that thou hast done unto us? And he said unto them, As they did unto me, so have I done unto them. ¹²And they said unto him, We are come down to bind thee, that we may deliver thee into the hand of the Philistines. And Samson said unto them, Swear unto me, that ye will not fall upon me yourselves. ¹³And they spake unto him, saying, No; but we will bind thee fast, and deliver thee into their hand: but surely we will not kill thee. And they bound him with two ⁱnew cords, and brought him up from the rock. ¹⁴And when he came unto Lehi, the Philistines shouted against him: and ^jthe Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and ⁱthe cords that were upon his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire, and his bands ^†loosed from off his hands. ¹⁵And he found a ^†…