Judges 13–16

The Birth of Samson

13Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, so the Lord delivered them into the hands of the Philistines^q for forty years.^r

²A certain man of Zorah,^s named Manoah,^t from the clan of the Danites,^u had a wife who was childless,^v unable to give birth. ³The angel of the Lord^w appeared to her^x and said, “You are barren and childless, but you are going to become pregnant and give birth to a son.^{y 4}Now see to it that you drink no wine or other fermented drink^z and that you do not eat anything unclean.^{a 5}You will become pregnant and have a son^b whose head is never to be touched by a razor^c because the boy is to be a Nazirite,^d dedicated to God from the womb. He will take the lead^e in delivering Israel from the hands of the Philistines.”

⁶Then the woman went to her husband and told him, “A man of God^f came to me. He looked like an angel of God,^g very awesome.^h I didn’t ask him where he came from, and he didn’t tell me his name. ⁷But he said to me, ‘You will become pregnant and have a son. Now then, drink no wineⁱ or other fermented drink^j and do not eat anything unclean, because the boy will be a Nazirite of God from the womb until the day of his death.^k’ ”

⁸Then Manoah^l prayed to the Lord: “Pardon your servant, Lord. I beg you to let the man of God^m you sent to us come again to teach us how to bring up the boy who is to be born.”

⁹God heard Manoah, and the angel of God came again to the woman while she was out in the field; but her husband Manoah was not with her. ¹⁰The woman hurried to tell her husband, “He’s here! The man who appeared to meⁿ the other day!”

¹¹Manoah got up and followed his wife. When he came to the man, he said, “Are you the man who talked to my wife?”

“I am,” he said.

¹²So Manoah asked him, “When your words are fulfilled, what is to be the rule that governs the boy’s life and work?”

¹³The angel of the Lord answered, “Your wife must do all that I have told her. ¹⁴She must not eat anything that comes from the grapevine, nor drink any wine or other fermented drink^o nor eat anything unclean.^p She must do everything I have commanded her.”

¹⁵Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, “We would like you to stay until we prepare a young goat^q for you.”

¹⁶The angel of the Lord replied, “Even though you detain me, I will not eat any of your food. But if you prepare a burnt offering,^r offer it to the Lord.” (Manoah did not realize^s that it was the angel of the Lord.)

¹⁷Then Manoah inquired of the angel of the Lord, “What is your name,^t so that we may honor you when your word comes true?”

¹⁸He replied, “Why do you ask my name?^u It is beyond understanding.^a” ¹⁹Then Manoah took a young goat, together with the grain offering, and sacrificed it on a rock^v to the Lord. And the Lord did an amazing thing while Manoah and his wife watched: ²⁰As the flame^w blazed up from the altar toward heaven, the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame. Seeing this, Manoah and his wife fell with their faces to the ground.^{x 21}When the angel of the Lord did not show himself again to Manoah and his wife, Manoah realized^y that it was the angel of the Lord.

²²“We are doomed^z to die!” he said to his wife. “We have seen^a God!”

²³But his wife answered, “If the Lord had meant to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and grain offering from our hands, nor shown us all these things or now told us this.”^b

²⁴The woman gave birth to a boy and named him Samson.^c He grew^d and the Lord blessed him,^{e 25}and the Spirit of the Lord began to stir^f him while he was in Mahaneh Dan,^g between Zorah and Eshtaol.

Samson’s Marriage

14Samson^h went down to Timnahⁱ and saw there a young Philistine woman. ²When he returned, he said to his father and mother, “I have seen a Philistine woman in Timnah; now get her for me as my wife.”^j

³His father and mother replied, “Isn’t there an acceptable woman among your relatives or among all our people?^k Must you go to the uncircumcised^l Philistines to get a wife?^m”

But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me. She’s the right one for me.” ⁴(His parents did not know that this was from the Lord,ⁿ who was seeking an occasion to confront the Philistines;^o for at that time they were ruling over Israel.)^p

⁵Samson went down to Timnah together with his father and mother. As they approached the vineyards of Timnah, suddenly a young lion came roaring toward him. ⁶The Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him^q so that he tore the lion apart^r with his bare hands as he might have torn a young goat. But he told neither his father nor his mother what he had done. ⁷Then he went down and talked with the woman, and he liked her.

⁸Some time later, when he went back to marry her, he turned aside to look at the lion’s carcass, and in it he saw a swarm of bees and some honey. ⁹He scooped out the honey with his hands and ate as he went along. When he rejoined his parents, he gave them some, and they too ate it. But he did not tell them that he had taken the honey from the lion’s carcass.

¹⁰Now his father went down to see the woman. And there Samson held a feast,^s as was customary for young men. ¹¹When the people saw him, they chose thirty men to be his companions.

¹²“Let me tell you a riddle,^t” Samson said to them. “If you can give me the answer within the seven days of the feast,^u I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty sets of clothes.^{v 13}If you can’t tell me the answer, you must give me thirty linen garments and thirty sets of clothes.”

“Tell us your riddle,” they said. “Let’s hear it.”

¹⁴He replied,

“Out of the eater, something to eat;

out of the strong, something sweet.”^w

For three days they could not give the answer.

¹⁵On the fourth^a day, they said to Samson’s wife, “Coax^x your husband into explaining the riddle for us, or we will burn you and your father’s household to death.^y Did you invite us here to steal our property?”

¹⁶Then Samson’s wife threw herself on him, sobbing, “You hate me! You don’t really love me.^z You’ve given my people a riddle, but you haven’t told me the answer.”

“I haven’t even explained it to my father or mother,” he replied, “so why should I explain it to you?” ¹⁷She cried the whole seven days^a of the feast. So on the seventh day he finally told her, because she continued to press him. She in turn explained the riddle to her people.

¹⁸Before sunset on the seventh day the men of the town said to him,

“What is sweeter than honey?

What is stronger than a lion?”^b

Samson said to them,

“If you had not plowed with my heifer,

you would not have solved my riddle.”

¹⁹Then the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him.^c He went down to Ashkelon,^d struck down thirty of their men, stripped them of everything and gave their clothes to those who had explained the riddle. Burning with anger,^e he returned to his father’s home. ²⁰And Samson’s wife was given to one of his companions^f who had attended him at the feast.

Samson’s Vengeance on the Philistines

15Later on, at the time of wheat harvest,^g Samson^h took a young goatⁱ and went to visit his wife. He said, “I’m going to my wife’s room.”^j But her father would not let him go in.

²“I was so sure you hated her,” he said, “that I gave her to your companion.^k Isn’t her younger sister more attractive? Take her instead.”

³Samson said to them, “This time I have a right to get even with the Philistines; I will really harm them.” ⁴So he went out and caught three hundred foxes^l and tied them tail to tail in pairs. He then fastened a torch^m to every pair of tails, ⁵lit the torchesⁿ and let the foxes loose in the standing grain of the Philistines. He burned up the shocks^o and standing grain, together with the vineyards and olive groves.

⁶When the Philistines asked, “Who did this?” they were told, “Samson, the Timnite’s son-in-law, because his wife was given to his companion.^p”

So the Philistines went up and burned her^q and her father to death.^{r 7}Samson said to them, “Since you’ve acted like this, I swear that I won’t stop until I get my revenge on you.” ⁸He attacked them viciously and slaughtered many of them. Then he went down and stayed in a cave in the rock^s of Etam.^t

⁹The Philistines went up and camped in Judah, spreading out near Lehi.^{u 10}The people of Judah asked, “Why have you come to fight us?”

“We have come to take Samson prisoner,” they answered, “to do to him as he did to us.”

¹¹Then three thousand men from Judah went down to the cave in the rock of Etam and said to Samson, “Don’t you realize that the Philistines are rulers over us?^v What have you done to us?”

He answered, “I merely did to them what they did to me.”

¹²They said to him, “We’ve come to tie you up and hand you over to the Philistines.”

Samson said, “Swear to me^w that you won’t kill me yourselves.”

¹³“Agreed,” they answered. “We will only tie you up and hand you over to them. We will not kill you.” So they bound him with two new ropes^x and led him up from the rock. ¹⁴As he approached Lehi,^y the Philistines came toward him shouting. The Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him.^z The ropes on his arms became like charred flax,^a and the bindings dropped from his hands. ¹⁵Finding a fresh jawbone of a donkey, he grabbed it and struck down a thousand men.^b

¹⁶Then Samson said,

“With a donkey’s jawbone

I have made donkeys of them.^ac

With a donkey’s jawbone

I have killed a thousand men.”

¹⁷When he finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone; and the place was called Ramath Lehi.^bd

¹⁸Because he was very thirsty, he cried out to the Lord,^e “You have given your servant this great victory.^f Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?” ¹⁹Then God opened up the hollow place in Lehi, and water came out of it. When Samson drank, his strength returned and he revived.^g So the spring^h was called En Hakkore,^c and it is still there in Lehi.

²⁰Samson led^d Israel for twenty yearsⁱ in the days of the Philistines.

Samson and Delilah

16One day Samson^j went to Gaza,^k where he saw a prostitute.^l He went…