Judges 13–16

CHAPTER 13

The Birth of Samson

¹Then 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 ^1awonderful?”

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 ^1bMahaneh-dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.

CHAPTER 14

Samson Takes a Philistine as His Wife

¹Then 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 ^1arelatives, 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.

CHAPTER 15

Samson Strikes Down the Philistines

¹Now 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 …