Judges 16–18

Chapter 16

Samson’s Weakness

¹Now Samson went to ^aGaza and saw a harlot there, and went in to her.

²When it was told to the Gazites, saying, “Samson has come here,” 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.”

³Now Samson lay until midnight, and at midnight he arose and took hold of 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 carried them up to the top of the mountain which is opposite Hebron.

⁴After this it came about that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah.

⁵The ^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 eleven hundred 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 in an inner room. And she said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” But he snapped the cords as a string of tow snaps when it ¹touches fire. So his strength was not discovered.

¹⁰Then Delilah said to Samson, “Behold, you have deceived me and told me lies; now please tell me ¹how you may be bound.”

¹¹He said to her, “If they bind me tightly with new ropes ¹which have not been used, 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!” For the men were lying in wait 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 ²hair with the web ³and 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.

Delilah Extracts His Secret

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.”

¹⁶It came about 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 any other man.”

¹⁸When Delilah saw that he had told her all that was in his heart, 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 the money in their hands.

¹⁹She made him sleep on her knees, and called for a man and had him shave off the seven locks of his ¹hair. Then she began to afflict him, and his strength left him.

²⁰She 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 ^athe Lord had departed from 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 rejoice, for they said,

“Our god has given Samson our enemy into our hands.”

²⁴When the people saw him, ^athey praised 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.”

²⁵It so happened when ¹they were in high spirits, that they said, “Call for Samson, that he may amuse us.” So they called for Samson from the prison, and he ²entertained 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 rests, 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 Is Avenged

^28aThen Samson called to the Lord and said, “O Lord ¹God, 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 rested, and braced 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 ¹all his might so that the house fell on the lords and all the people who were in it. So the dead whom he killed at his death were more than those whom he killed in his life.

³¹Then his brothers and all his father’s household came down, took 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.

Chapter 17

Micah’s Idolatry

¹Now there was a man of the hill country of Ephraim whose name was Micah.

²He said to his mother, “The eleven hundred pieces of silver which were taken from you, about which you uttered a curse ¹in my hearing, behold, the silver is with me; I took it.” And his mother said, “Blessed be my son by the Lord.”

³He then returned the eleven hundred pieces of silver to his mother, and his mother said, “I wholly dedicate the silver from my hand to the Lord for my son ^ato make a graven image and a molten image; now therefore, I will return ¹them to you.”

⁴So when he returned the silver to his mother, his mother took two hundred pieces of silver and gave them to the silversmith who made ¹them into a graven image and a molten image, and ²they were in the house of Micah.

⁵And the man Micah had a ^1ashrine and he made an ^bephod and ^2chousehold idols and ³consecrated one of his sons, ^dthat he might become his priest.

⁶In those days ^athere was no king in Israel; ^bevery man did what was right in his own eyes.

⁷Now there was a young man from ^aBethlehem in Judah, of the family of Judah, who was a Levite; and he was ¹staying there.

⁸Then the man departed from the city, from Bethlehem in Judah, to ¹stay wherever he might find a place; and as he made his journey, he came to the ^ahill country of Ephraim to the house of Micah.

⁹Micah said to him, “Where do you come from?” And he said to him, “I am a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah, and I am going to ¹stay wherever I may find a place.”

¹⁰Micah then said to him, “Dwell with me and be ^aa father and a priest to me, and I will give you ten pieces of silver a year, a suit of clothes, and your maintenance.” So the Levite went in.

¹¹The Levite agreed to live with the man, and the young man became to him like one of his sons.

¹²So Micah ¹consecrated the Levite, and the young man ^abecame his priest and ²lived in the house of Micah.

¹³Then Micah said, “Now I know that the Lord will prosper me, seeing I have a Levite as priest.”

Chapter 18

Danites Seek Territory

^1aIn those days there was no king of Israel; and ^bin those days the tribe of the Danites was seeking an inheritance for themselves to live in, for until that day ¹an inheritance had not ²been allotted to them as a possession among the tribes of Israel.

²So the sons of Dan sent from their family five men out of their whole number, ¹valiant men from ^aZorah and Eshtaol, to spy out the land and to search it; and they said to them, “Go, search the land.” And they came to ^bthe hill country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, and lodged there.

³When they were near the house of Micah, they recognized the voice of the young man, the Levite; and they turned aside there and said to him, “Who brought you here? And what are you doing in this place? And what do you have here?”

⁴He said to them, “Thus and so has Micah done to me, and he has hired me and ^aI have become his priest.”

⁵They said to him, “Inquire of God, please, that we may know whether our way on which we are going will be prosperous.”

⁶The priest said to them, “Go in peace; your way in which you are going ¹has the Lord’s approval.”

⁷Then the five men departed and came to ^aLaish and saw the people who were in it living in security, after the manner of the Sidonians, quiet and secure; for there was no ¹ruler humiliating them for anything in the land, and they were far from the Sidonians and had no dealings with anyone.

⁸When they came back to their brothers at Zorah and Eshtaol, their brothers said to them, “What do you report?”

⁹They said, “Arise, and let us go up against them; for we have seen the land, and behold, it is very good. And will you ¹sit still? Do not delay to go, to enter, to possess the land.

¹⁰“When you enter, you will come to a secure people with a spacious land; for God has given it into your hand, ^aa place where there is no lack of anything that is on the earth.”

¹¹Then from the family of the Danites, from Zorah and from Eshtaol, six hundred men armed with weapons of war set out.

¹²They went up and camped at Kiriath-jearim in Judah. Therefore they called that place ^1aMahaneh-dan to this day; behold, it is ²west of Kiriath-jearim.

¹³They passed from there to the hill country of Ephraim and came to the house of Micah.

Danites Take Micah’s Idols

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