Judges 13:24–16:31

²⁴So the woman gave birth to a boy and named him Samson. He grew, and the Lord blessed him. ²⁵The Spirit of the Lord began to work in Samson while he was in the city of Mahaneh Dan, between the cities of Zorah and Eshtaol.

Samson’s First Marriage

14Samson went down to the city of Timnah where he saw a Philistine woman. ²When he returned home, he said to his father and mother, “I saw a Philistine woman in Timnah. I want you to get her for me so I can marry her.”

³His father and mother answered, “Surely there is a woman from Israel you can marry. Do you have to marry a woman from the Philistines, who are not circumcised?”

But Samson said, “Get that woman for me! She is the one I want!” ⁴(Samson’s parents did not know that the Lord wanted this to happen because he was looking for a way to challenge the Philistines, who were ruling over Israel at this time.) ⁵Samson went down with his father and mother to Timnah, as far as the vineyard near there. Suddenly, a young lion came roaring toward Samson! ⁶The Spirit of the Lord entered Samson with great power, and he tore the lion apart with his bare hands. For him it was as easy as tearing apart a young goat. But Samson did not tell his father or mother what he had done. ⁷Then he went down to the city and talked to the Philistine woman, and he liked her.

⁸Several days later Samson went back to marry her. On his way he went over to look at the body of the dead lion and found a swarm of bees and honey in it. ⁹Samson got some of the honey with his hands and walked along eating it. When he came to his parents, he gave some to them. They ate it, too, but Samson did not tell them he had taken the honey from the body of the dead lion.

¹⁰Samson’s father went down to see the Philistine woman. And Samson gave a feast, as was the custom for the bridegroom. ¹¹When the people saw him, they sent thirty friends to be with him.

Samson’s Riddle

¹²Samson said to them, “Let me tell you a riddle. Try to find the answer during the seven days of the feast. If you can, I will give you thirty linen shirts and thirty changes of clothes. ¹³But if you can’t, you must give me thirty linen shirts and thirty changes of clothes.”

So they said, “Tell us your riddle so we can hear it.”

¹⁴Samson said,

“Out of the eater comes something to eat.

Out of the strong comes something sweet.”

After three days, they had not found the answer.

¹⁵On the fourth ⁿ day they said to Samson’s wife, “Did you invite us here to make us poor? Trick your husband into telling us the answer to the riddle. If you don’t, we will burn you and everyone in your father’s house.”

¹⁶So Samson’s wife went to him, crying, and said, “You hate me! You don’t really love me! You told my people a riddle, but you won’t tell me the answer.”

Samson said, “I haven’t even told my father or mother. Why should I tell you?”

¹⁷Samson’s wife cried for the rest of the seven days of the feast. So he finally gave her the answer on the seventh day, because she kept bothering him. Then she told her people the answer to the riddle.

¹⁸Before sunset on the seventh day of the feast, the Philistine men had the answer. They came to Samson and said,

“What is sweeter than honey?

What is stronger than a lion?”

Then Samson said to them,

“If you had not plowed with my young cow,

you would not have solved my riddle!”

¹⁹Then the Spirit of the Lord entered Samson and gave him great power. Samson went down to the city of Ashkelon and killed thirty of its men and took all that they had and gave the clothes to the men who had answered his riddle. Then he went to his father’s house very angry. ²⁰And Samson’s wife was given to his best man.

Samson Troubles the Philistines

15At the time of the wheat harvest, Samson went to visit his wife, taking a young goat with him. He said, “I’m going to my wife’s room,” but her father would not let him go in.

²He said to Samson, “I thought you really hated your wife, so I gave her to your best man. Her younger sister is more beautiful. Take her instead.”

³But Samson said to them, “This time no one will blame me for hurting you Philistines!” ⁴So Samson went out and caught three hundred foxes. He took two foxes at a time, tied their tails together, and then tied a torch to the tails of each pair of foxes. ⁵After he lit the torches, he let the foxes loose in the grainfields of the Philistines so that he burned up their standing grain, the piles of grain, their vineyards, and their olive trees.

⁶The Philistines asked, “Who did this?”

Someone told them, “Samson, the son-in-law of the man from Timnah, did because his father-in-law gave his wife to his best man.”

So the Philistines burned Samson’s wife and her father to death. ⁷Then Samson said to the Philistines, “Since you did this, I won’t stop until I pay you back!” ⁸Samson attacked the Philistines and killed many of them. Then he went down and stayed in a cave in the rock of Etam.

⁹The Philistines went up and camped in the land of Judah, near a place named Lehi. ¹⁰The men of Judah asked them, “Why have you come here to fight us?”

They answered, “We have come to make Samson our prisoner, to pay him back for what he did to our people.”

¹¹Then three thousand men of Judah went to the cave in the rock of Etam and said to Samson, “What have you done to us? Don’t you know that the Philistines rule over us?”

Samson answered, “I only paid them back for what they did to me.”

¹²Then they said to him, “We have come to tie you up and to hand you over to the Philistines.”

Samson said to them, “Promise me you will not hurt me yourselves.”

¹³The men from Judah said, “We agree. We will just tie you up and give you to the Philistines. We will not kill you.” So they tied Samson with two new ropes and led him up from the cave in the rock. ¹⁴When Samson came to the place named Lehi, the Philistines came to meet him, shouting for joy. Then the Spirit of the Lord entered Samson and gave him great power. The ropes on him weakened like burned strings and fell off his hands! ¹⁵Samson found the jawbone of a dead donkey, took it, and killed a thousand men with it!

¹⁶Then Samson said,

“With a donkey’s jawbone

I made donkeys out of them.

With a donkey’s jawbone

I killed a thousand men!”

¹⁷When he finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone. So that place was named Ramath Lehi. ⁿ

¹⁸Samson was very thirsty, so he cried out to the Lord, “You gave me, your servant, this great victory. Do I have to die of thirst now? Do I have to be captured by people who are not circumcised?” ¹⁹Then God opened up a hole in the ground at Lehi, and water came out. When Samson drank, he felt better; he felt strong again. So he named that spring Caller’s Spring, which is still in Lehi.

²⁰Samson judged Israel for twenty years in the days of the Philistines.

Samson Goes to the City of Gaza

16One day Samson went to Gaza and saw a prostitute there. He went in to spend the night with her. ²When the people of Gaza heard, “Samson has come here!” they surrounded the place and waited for him near the city gate all night. They whispered to each other, “When dawn comes, we will kill Samson!”

³But Samson only stayed with the prostitute until midnight. Then he got up and took hold of the doors and the two posts of the city gate and tore them loose, along with the bar. He put them on his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill that faces the city of Hebron.

Samson and Delilah

⁴After this, Samson fell in love with a woman named Delilah, who lived in the Valley of Sorek. ⁵The Philistine rulers went to Delilah and said, “Find out what makes Samson so strong. Trick him into telling you how we can overpower him and capture him and tie him up. If you do this, each one of us will give you twenty-eight pounds of silver.”

⁶So Delilah said to Samson, “Tell me why you are so strong. How can someone tie you up and capture you?”

⁷Samson answered, “Someone would have to tie me up with seven new bowstrings that have not been dried. Then I would be as weak as any other man.”

⁸The Philistine rulers brought Delilah seven new bowstrings that had not been dried, and she tied Samson with them. ⁹Some men were hiding in another room. Delilah said to him, “Samson, the Philistines are here!” But Samson broke the bowstrings like pieces of burned string. So the Philistines did not find out the secret of Samson’s strength.

¹⁰Then Delilah said to Samson, “You made a fool of me. You lied to me. Now tell me how someone can tie you up.”

¹¹Samson said, “They would have to tie me with new ropes that have not been used before. Then I would become as weak as any other man.”

¹²So Delilah took new ropes and tied Samson. Some men were hiding in another room. She called out to him, “Samson, the Philistines are here!” But he broke the ropes as easily as if they were threads.

¹³Then Delilah said to Samson, “Again you have made a fool of me. You lied to me. Tell me how someone can tie you up.”

He said, “Using the loom, ⁿ weave the seven braids of my hair into the cloth, and tighten it with a pin. Then I will be as weak as any other man.”

While Samson slept, Delilah wove the seven braids of his hair into the cloth. ¹⁴Then she fastened it with a pin.

Again she said to him, “Samson, the Philistines are here!” Samson woke up and pulled out the pin and the loom with the cloth.

¹⁵Then Delilah said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when you don’t even trust me? This is the third time you have made a fool of me. You haven’t told me the secret of your great strength.” ¹⁶She kept bothering Samson about his secret day after day until he felt he was going to die!

¹⁷So he told her everything. He said, “I have never had my hair cut, because I have been set apart to God as a Nazirite since I was born. If someone shaved my head, I would lose my strength and be as weak as any other man.”

¹⁸When Delilah saw that he had told her everything sincerely, she sent a message to the Philistine rulers. She said, “Come back one more time, because he has told me everything.” So the Philistine rulers came back to…