Judges 16–18

Samson and Delilah

16Samson went down to Gaza; there he saw a prostitute and had sex with her.^{a 2}The Gazites were told, “Samson has come here,” so they surrounded the place and lay in ambush for him all night at the city gate. They kept silent all night, saying, “We will wait until the morning light, and then we will kill him.” ³But Samson lay until the middle of the night; he got up in the middle of the night and took hold of the doors of the city gate and the two door posts, tore them loose with the bar, put them on his shoulders, and carried them up to the top of the hill that is in front of^b Hebron.

⁴After this he fell in love with a woman in the wadi^c of Sorek, and her name was Delilah. ⁵And the rulers of the Philistines came up to her and said, “Entice him and find out what makes his strength so great, and how we can overpower him, so that we may bind him up in order to subdue him; each of us will give you eleven hundred pieces of silver. ⁶So Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me what makes your strength so great, and with what can you be tied up to subdue you?” ⁷Samson said to her, “If you tie me up with seven fresh bowstrings that are not dried up, I will become weak like everyone else.” ⁸So the rulers of the Philistines brought up to her seven fresh bowstrings that were not dried up, and she tied him up with them. ⁹The ambush was sitting in wait for her in an inner room. And she said to him, “The Philistines are upon you Samson!” And he snapped the bowstrings just as flax fiber snaps when it comes close to fire. And the secret of his strength remained unknown. ¹⁰Delilah said to Samson, “Look, you have mocked me and told me lies. Please tell me how you can be bound.” ¹¹He said to her, “If they tie me tightly with new ropes that have not been used, I will become weak and be like everyone else.” ¹²So Delilah took new ropes and tied him up with them, and she said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” (The ambush was sitting in an inner room.) But he snapped them from his arms like thread.

¹³And Delilah said to Samson, “Until now you have mocked me and told lies to me. Tell me how you can be bound.” And he said to her, “If you weave seven locks of my head with warp-threads.”^{d 14}She fastened it with the pin and said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” And Samson woke up from his sleep and tore loose the loom pin of the web and the warp-threads.^e

¹⁵And she said to him, “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 how your strength is so great.” ¹⁶And because she nagged him day after day with her words, and pestered him, his soul grew impatient to the point of death.^{f 17}So he confided everything to her,^g and he said to her, “A razor has never touched^h my head, for I am a Nazirite of Godⁱ from birth.^j If I am shaved my strength will leave me, and I will become weak, like everyone else.

¹⁸Delilah realized that he had confided in her,^k so she sent and called the rulers of the Philistines, saying, “Come up one more time, for he has confided in me.”^l And the rulers of the Philistines came up, and they brought the money with them.^{m 19}And she put him to sleep on her lap; then she called the menⁿ and shaved off seven locks of his head. Then she began to subdue him,^o and his strength went away from him. ²⁰And she said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” And he woke up from his sleep and said, “I will go out just like every other time and shake myself free,” but he did not know that Yahweh had left him. ²¹And the Philistines seized him, gouged his eyes, and brought him to Gaza. They tied him up with bronze shackles, and he became a grinder in the prison.^{p 22}But the hair of his head began to grow back after it had been shaved off.

²³The rulers of the Philistines had gathered to sacrifice a great sacrifice to Dagon their god and to rejoice. And they said, “Our god has given Samson our enemy into our hand.” ²⁴And the people saw him, and they praised their god, for they said, “Our god has given into our hand those who hate us, devastate our land, and have killed many of us.”^{q 25}After awhile, when their hearts^r were merry, they said, “Call Samson and let him entertain us.” And they called Samson from the prison,^s and he entertained them.^t And they made him stand between the pillars. ²⁶Then Samson said to the servant who was holding him by his hand, “Position me so that I can touch the pillars on which the house^u rests, so I can lean on them.” ²⁷And the house^v was full of men and women, and all of the rulers of the Philistines were there—about three thousand men and women were on the roof watching the performance of Samson.

Samson’s Revenge

²⁸And Samson called to Yahweh and said, “My Lord Yahweh, remember me! Please give me strength this one time, O God, so that I can repay with one act of revenge to the Philistines for my eyes.” ²⁹And Samson reached out and held two of the middle pillars on which the house^w was resting, and he leaned on them, one on his right and one on his left. ³⁰And Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines.” And he pushed^x with all his strength, and the house^y fell on the rulers and all of the people who were with him. And the dead whom he killed in his death were more than those he killed in his life.

³¹His brothers and his whole family^z came down and picked him up; and they brought him up and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of Manoah his father; he judged Israel twenty years.

Micah’s Idolatry

17There was a man from the hill country of Ephraim; his name was Micah. ²And he said to his mother, “The eleven hundred pieces of silver that were taken from you, and about which you also pronounced a curse in my hearing,^a are with me; I took it.” And his mother said, “Blessed be my son by Yahweh.” ³He returned the eleven hundred pieces^b of silver to his mother, and his mother thought, “I will certainly consecrate to Yahweh the pieces^c of silver from my hand for my son to make an idol of cast metal; now then, I will return them^d to you.” ⁴When he returned the pieces^e of silver to his mother, his mother took two hundred pieces^f of silver, and she gave it to the smith, and he made it into an idol of cast metal; and it was in the house of Micah. ⁵The man Micah had for himself a shrine,^g and he made an ephod and teraphim, and he appointed one of his sons^h who became a priest for him. ⁶In those days there was no king in Israel, and each one did what was right in his own eyes.

⁷There was a young man from Bethlehem in Judah, from the clan of Judah; he was a Levite and was dwelling as a foreignerⁱ there. ⁸And the man went from the town of Bethlehem in Judah to live as a foreigner^j wherever he could find a place. And he came to the hill country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, to continue his journey. ⁹And Micah said to him, “From where do you come?” And he said to him, “I am a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah; I am going to dwell as a foreigner^k wherever I can find a place.” ¹⁰And Micah said to him, “Stay with me and be to me a father and a priest, and I will give to you ten pieces^l of silver a year, a set of clothes, and your food.” So the Levite went with him. ¹¹The Levite agreed to stay with the man; and the young man became as one of his sons. ¹²So Micah appointed the Levite,^m and the young man became a priest for him; and he was in the house of Micah. ¹³And Micah said, “Now I know Yahweh will make me prosperous, because the Levite has become my priest.”

The Tribe of Dan Seeks Territory

18In those days there was no king in Israel. And in those days the tribe of the Danites was seeking territory for itself to live in, because until that day it had not been allotted territory among the tribes of Israel. ²The descendants^a of Dan sent from the whole number of their clan five capable men^b from Zorah and Eshtaol to spy out the land and to explore it. And they said to them, “Go, explore the land.” And they went to the hill country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, and they spent the night there.^{c 3}While they were with the house of Micah, they recognized the voice of the young Levite, and they turned aside there and said to him, “Who brought you here? What are you doing in this place, and what is your business here?”^{d 4}And he said to them, “Micah did such and such for me and hired me, and I became his priest.” ⁵And they said to him, “Please inquire of God that we may know whether our journey that we are going on will be successful.” ⁶And the priest said to them, “Go in peace. Yahweh is in front of you on the journey you want to go on.”

⁷And the five men went and came to Laish, and they observed the people who were living according to the customs of the Sidonians, quiet and unsuspecting, and lacking nothing in the land, and possessing restraint.^e And they were far from the Sidonians and had no word with anyone. ⁸They came to their relatives^f at Zorah and Eshtaol, and their relatives^g said to them, “What do you report?” ⁹And they said to them, “Come, let us go up against them; for we have seen the land, and it is very good. Will you do nothing? Do not hesitate to go, to enter, to possess the land. ¹⁰When you go you will come to an unsuspecting people, and the land is spread out on all sides;^h God has given a place into your hands where there is no lack of anything that is on the earth.”

¹¹Six hundred men from the clan of the Danites from Zorah and Eshtaol, armed with weapons of war, set out from there. ¹²They went up and encamped at Kiriath Jearim in Judah. Therefore they called this place Camp of Danⁱ to this day; it is west of Kiriath Jearim. ¹³From there they crossed over to the hill country of Ephraim, and they came to the house of Micah.

¹⁴And the five men that went out to spy out the land (that is, Laish) responded and said to their relatives,^j “Do you know that there are in these houses an ephod, teraphim, and an idol of cast…