Judges 1

The angel of the LORD went up from Gilgal to Bokim and said, "I brought you up out of Egypt and led you into the land that I swore to give to your forefathers. I said, 'I will never break my covenant with you, {2} and you shall not make a covenant with the people of this land, but you shall break down their altars.' Yet you have disobeyed me. Why have you done this? {3} Now therefore I tell you that I will not drive them out before you; they will be thorns in your sides and their gods will be a snare to you." {4} When the angel of the LORD had spoken these things to all the Israelites, the people wept aloud, {5} and they called that place Bokim. There they offered sacrifices to the LORD. {6} After Joshua had dismissed the Israelites, they went to take possession of the land, each to his own inheritance. {7} The people served the LORD throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had seen all the great things the LORD had done for Israel. {8} Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died at the age of a hundred and ten. {9} And they buried him in the land of his inheritance, at Timnath Heres in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash. {10} After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up, who knew neither the LORD nor what he had done for Israel. {11} Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD and served the Baals. {12} They forsook the LORD, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them. They provoked the LORD to anger {13} because they forsook him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths. {14} In his anger against Israel the LORD handed them over to raiders who plundered them. He sold them to their enemies all around, whom they were no longer able to resist. {15} Whenever Israel went out to fight, the hand of the LORD was against them to defeat them, just as he had sworn to them. They were in great distress. {16} Then the LORD raised up judges, who saved them out of the hands of these raiders. {17} Yet they would not listen to their judges but prostituted themselves to other gods and worshiped them. Unlike their fathers, they quickly turned from the way in which their fathers had walked, the way of obedience to the Lord's commands. {18} Whenever the LORD raised up a judge for them, he was with the judge and saved them out of the hands of their enemies as long as the judge lived; for the LORD had compassion on them as they groaned under those who oppressed and afflicted them. {19} But when the judge died, the people returned to ways even more corrupt than those of their fathers, following other gods and serving and worshiping them. They refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways. {20} Therefore the LORD was very angry with Israel and said, "Because this nation has violated the covenant that I laid down for their forefathers and has not listened to me, {21} I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations Joshua left when he died. {22} I will use them to test Israel and see whether they will keep the way of the LORD and walk in it as their forefathers did." {23} The LORD had allowed those nations to remain; he did not drive them out at once by giving them into the hands of Joshua.

Judges 3

These are the nations the LORD left to test all those Israelites who had not experienced any of the wars in Canaan {2} (he did this only to teach warfare to the descendants of the Israelites who had not had previous battle experience): {3} the five rulers of the Philistines, all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites living in the Lebanon mountains from Mount Baal Hermon to Lebo Hamath. {4} They were left to test the Israelites to see whether they would obey the Lord's commands, which he had given their forefathers through Moses. {5} The Israelites lived among the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. {6} They took their daughters in marriage and gave their own daughters to their sons, and served their gods. {7} The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD; they forgot the LORD their God and served the Baals and the Asherahs. {8} The anger of the LORD burned against Israel so that he sold them into the hands of Cushan-Rishathaim king of Aram Naharaim, to whom the Israelites were subject for eight years. {9} But when they cried out to the LORD, he raised up for them a deliverer, Othniel son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother, who saved them. {10} The Spirit of the LORD came upon him, so that he became Israel's judge and went to war. The LORD gave Cushan-Rishathaim king of Aram into the hands of Othniel, who overpowered him. {11} So the land had peace for forty years, until Othniel son of Kenaz died. {12} Once again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD, and because they did this evil the LORD gave Eglon king of Moab power over Israel. {13} Getting the Ammonites and Amalekites to join him, Eglon came and attacked Israel, and they took possession of the City of Palms. {14} The Israelites were subject to Eglon king of Moab for eighteen years. {15} Again the Israelites cried out to the LORD, and he gave them a deliverer--Ehud, a left-handed man, the son of Gera the Benjamite. The Israelites sent him with tribute to Eglon king of Moab. {16} Now Ehud had made a double-edged sword about a foot and a half long, which he strapped to his right thigh under his clothing. {17} He presented the tribute to Eglon king of Moab, who was a very fat man. {18} After Ehud had presented the tribute, he sent on their way the men who had carried it. {19} At the idols near Gilgal he himself turned back and said, "I have a secret message for you, O king." The king said, "Quiet!" And all his attendants left him. {20} Ehud then approached him while he was sitting alone in the upper room of his summer palace and said, "I have a message from God for you." As the king rose from his seat, {21} Ehud reached with his left hand, drew the sword from his right thigh and plunged it into the king's belly. {22} Even the handle sank in after the blade, which came out his back. Ehud did not pull the sword out, and the fat closed in over it. {23} Then Ehud went out to the porch ; he shut the doors of the upper room behind him and locked them. {24} After he had gone, the servants came and found the doors of the upper room locked. They said, "He must be relieving himself in the inner room of the house." {25} They waited to the point of embarrassment, but when he did not open the doors of the room, they took a key and unlocked them. There they saw their lord fallen to the floor, dead. {26} While they waited, Ehud got away. He passed by the idols and escaped to Seirah. {27} When he arrived there, he blew a trumpet in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites went down with him from the hills, with him leading them. {28} "Follow me," he ordered, "for the LORD has given Moab, your enemy, into your hands." So they followed him down and, taking possession of the fords of the Jordan that led to Moab, they allowed no one to cross over. {29} At that time they struck down about ten thousand Moabites, all vigorous and strong; not a man escaped. {30} That day Moab was made subject to Israel, and the land had peace for eighty years. {31} After Ehud came Shamgar son of Anath, who struck down six hundred Philistines with an oxgoad. He too saved Israel.

Judges 4

On that day Deborah and Barak son of Abinoam sang this song: {2} "When the princes in Israel take the lead, when the people willingly offer themselves-- praise the LORD! {3} "Hear this, you kings! Listen, you rulers! I will sing to the LORD, I will sing; I will make music to the LORD, the God of Israel. {4} "O LORD, when you went out from Seir, when you marched from the land of Edom, the earth shook, the heavens poured, the clouds poured down water. {5} The mountains quaked before the LORD, the One of Sinai, before the LORD, the God of Israel. {6} "In the days of Shamgar son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the roads were abandoned; travelers took to winding paths. {7} Village life in Israel ceased, ceased until I, Deborah, arose, arose a mother in Israel. {8} When they chose new gods, war came to the city gates, and not a shield or spear was seen among forty thousand in Israel. {9} My heart is with Israel's princes, with the willing volunteers among the people. Praise the LORD! {10} "You who ride on white donkeys, sitting on your saddle blankets, and you who walk along the road, consider {11} the voice of the singers at the watering places. They recite the righteous acts of the LORD, the righteous acts of his warriors in Israel. "Then the people of the LORD went down to the city gates. {12} 'Wake up, wake up, Deborah! Wake up, wake up, break out in song! Arise, O Barak! Take captive your captives, O son of Abinoam.' {13} "Then the men who were left came down to the nobles; the people of the LORD came to me with the mighty. {14} Some came from Ephraim, whose roots were in Amalek; Benjamin was with the people who followed you. From Makir captains came down, from Zebulun those who bear a commander's staff. {15} The princes of Issachar were with Deborah; yes, Issachar was with Barak, rushing after him into the valley. In the districts of Reuben there was much searching of heart. {16} Why did you stay among the campfires to hear the whistling for the flocks? In the districts of Reuben there was much searching of heart. {17} Gilead stayed beyond the Jordan. And Dan, why did he linger by the ships? Asher remained on the coast and stayed in his coves. {18} The people of Zebulun risked their very lives; so did Naphtali on the heights of the field. {19} "Kings came, they fought; the kings of Canaan fought at Taanach by the waters of Megiddo, but they carried off no silver, no plunder. {20} From the heavens the stars fought, from their courses they fought against Sisera. {21} The river Kishon swept them away, the age-old river, the river Kishon. March on, my soul; be strong! {22} Then thundered the horses' hoofs-- galloping, galloping go his mighty steeds. {23} 'Curse Meroz,' said the angel of the LORD. 'Curse its people bitterly, because they did not come to help the LORD, to help the LORD against the mighty.' {24} "Most blessed of women be Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, most blessed of tent-dwelling women. {25} He asked for water, and she gave him milk; in a bowl fit for nobles she brought him curdled milk. {26} Her hand reached for the tent peg, her right hand for the workman's hammer. She struck Sisera, she crushed his head, she shattered and pierced his temple. {27} At her feet he sank, he fell; there he lay. At her feet he sank, he fell; where he sank, there he fell--dead. {28} "Through the window peered Sisera's mother; behind the lattice she cried out, 'Why is his chariot so long in coming? Why is the clatter of his chariots delayed?' {29} The wisest of her ladies answer her; indeed, she keeps saying to herself, {30} 'Are they not finding and dividing the spoils: a girl or two for each man, colourful garments as plunder for Sisera, colourful garments embroidered, highly embroidered garments for my neck-- all this as plunder?' {31} "So may all your enemies perish, O LORD! But may they who love you be like the sun when it rises in its strength." Then the land had peace forty years.

Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty warrior. His father was Gilead; his mother was a prostitute. {2} Gilead's wife also bore him sons, and when they were grown up, they drove Jephthah away. "You are not going to get any inheritance in our family," they said, "because you are the son of another woman." {3} So Jephthah fled from his brothers and settled in the land of Tob, where a group of adventurers gathered around him and followed him. {4} Some time later, when the Ammonites made war on Israel, {5} the elders of Gilead went to get Jephthah from the land of Tob. {6} "Come," they said, "be our commander, so we can fight the Ammonites." {7} Jephthah said to them, "Didn't you hate me and drive me from my father's house? Why do you come to me now, when you're in trouble?" {8} The elders of Gilead said to him, "Nevertheless, we are turning to you now; come with us to fight the Ammonites, and you will be our head over all who live in Gilead." {9} Jephthah answered, "Suppose you take me back to fight the Ammonites and the LORD gives them to me--will I really be your head?" {10} The elders of Gilead replied, "The LORD is our witness; we will certainly do as you say." {11} So Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and commander over them. And he repeated all his words before the LORD in Mizpah. {12} Then Jephthah sent messengers to the Ammonite king with the question: "What do you have against us that you have attacked our country?" {13} The king of the Ammonites answered Jephthah's messengers, "When Israel came up out of Egypt, they took away my land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, all the way to the Jordan. Now give it back peaceably." {14} Jephthah sent back messengers to the Ammonite king, {15} saying: "This is what Jephthah says: Israel did not take the land of Moab or the land of the Ammonites. {16} But when they came up out of Egypt, Israel went through the desert to the Red Sea and on to Kadesh. {17} Then Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, 'Give us permission to go through your country,' but the king of Edom would not listen. They sent also to the king of Moab, and he refused. So Israel stayed at Kadesh. {18} "Next they traveled through the desert, skirted the lands of Edom and Moab, passed along the eastern side of the country of Moab, and camped on the other side of the Arnon. They did not enter the territory of Moab, for the Arnon was its border. {19} "Then Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, who ruled in Heshbon, and said to him, 'Let us pass through your country to our own place.' {20} Sihon, however, did not trust Israel to pass through his territory. He mustered all his men and encamped at Jahaz and fought with Israel. {21} "Then the LORD, the God of Israel, gave Sihon and all his men into Israel's hands, and they defeated them. Israel took over all the land of the Amorites who lived in that country, {22} capturing all of it from the Arnon to the Jabbok and from the desert to the Jordan. {23} "Now since the LORD, the God of Israel, has driven the Amorites out before his people Israel, what right have you to take it over? {24} Will you not take what your god Chemosh gives you? Likewise, whatever the LORD our God has given us, we will possess. {25} Are you better than Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever quarrel with Israel or fight with them? {26} For three hundred years Israel occupied Heshbon, Aroer, the surrounding settlements and all the towns along the Arnon. Why didn't you retake them during that time? {27} I have not wronged you, but you are doing me wrong by waging war against me. Let the LORD, the Judge, decide the dispute this day between the Israelites and the Ammonites." {28} The king of Ammon, however, paid no attention to the message Jephthah sent him. {29} Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah. He crossed Gilead and Manasseh, passed through Mizpah of Gilead, and from there he advanced against the Ammonites. {30} And Jephthah made a vow to the LORD: "If you give the Ammonites into my hands, {31} whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites will be the Lord's, and I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering." {32} Then Jephthah went over to fight the Ammonites, and the LORD gave them into his hands. {33} He devastated twenty towns from Aroer to the vicinity of Minnith, as far as Abel Keramim. Thus Israel subdued Ammon. {34} When Jephthah returned to his home in Mizpah, who should come out to meet him but his daughter, dancing to the sound of tambourines! She was an only child. Except for her he had neither son nor daughter. {35} When he saw her, he tore his clothes and cried, "Oh! My daughter! You have made me miserable and wretched, because I have made a vow to the LORD that I cannot break." {36} "My father," she replied, "you have given your word to the LORD. Do to me just as you promised, now that the LORD has avenged you of your enemies, the Ammonites. {37} But grant me this one request," she said. "Give me two months to roam the hills and weep with my friends, because I will never marry." {38} "You may go," he said. And he let her go for two months. She and the girls went into the hills and wept because she would never marry. {39} After the two months, she returned to her father and he did to her as he had vowed. And she was a virgin. From this comes the Israelite custom {40} that each year the young women of Israel go out for four days to commemorate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite.

The men of Ephraim called out their forces, crossed over to Zaphon and said to Jephthah, "Why did you go to fight the Ammonites without calling us to go with you? We're going to burn down your house over your head." {2} Jephthah answered, "I and my people were engaged in a great struggle with the Ammonites, and although I called, you didn't save me out of their hands. {3} When I saw that you wouldn't help, I took my life in my hands and crossed over to fight the Ammonites, and the LORD gave me the victory over them. Now why have you come up today to fight me?" {4} Jephthah then called together the men of Gilead and fought against Ephraim. The Gileadites struck them down because the Ephraimites had said, "You Gileadites are renegades from Ephraim and Manasseh." {5} The Gileadites captured the fords of the Jordan leading to Ephraim, and whenever a survivor of Ephraim said, "Let me cross over," the men of Gilead asked him, "Are you an Ephraimite?" If he replied, "No," {6} they said, "All right, say 'Shibboleth.'" If he said, "Sibboleth," because he could not pronounce the word correctly, they seized him and killed him at the fords of the Jordan. Forty-two thousand Ephraimites were killed at that time. {7} Jephthah led Israel six years. Then Jephthah the Gileadite died, and was buried in a town in Gilead. {8} After him, Ibzan of Bethlehem led Israel. {9} He had thirty sons and thirty daughters. He gave his daughters away in marriage to those outside his clan, and for his sons he brought in thirty young women as wives from outside his clan. Ibzan led Israel seven years. {10} Then Ibzan died, and was buried in Bethlehem. {11} After him, Elon the Zebulunite led Israel ten years. {12} Then Elon died, and was buried in Aijalon in the land of Zebulun. {13} After him, Abdon son of Hillel, from Pirathon, led Israel. {14} He had forty sons and thirty grandsons, who rode on seventy donkeys. He led Israel eight years. {15} Then Abdon son of Hillel died, and was buried at Pirathon in Ephraim, in the hill country of the Amalekites.

Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD, so the LORD delivered them into the hands of the Philistines for forty years. {2} A certain man of Zorah, named Manoah, from the clan of the Danites, had a wife who was sterile and remained childless. {3} The angel of the LORD appeared to her and said, "You are sterile and childless, but you are going to conceive and have a son. {4} Now see to it that you drink no wine or other fermented drink and that you do not eat anything unclean, {5} because you will conceive and give birth to a son. No razor may be used on his head, because the boy is to be a Nazirite, set apart to God from birth, and he will begin the deliverance of Israel from the hands of the Philistines." {6} Then the woman went to her husband and told him, "A man of God came to me. He looked like an angel of God, very awesome. I didn't ask him where he came from, and he didn't tell me his name. {7} But he said to me, 'You will conceive and give birth to a son. Now then, drink no wine or other fermented drink and do not eat anything unclean, because the boy will be a Nazirite of God from birth until the day of his death.'" {8} Then Manoah prayed to the LORD: "O Lord, I beg you, let the man of God you sent to us come again to teach us how to bring up the boy who is to be born." {9} God 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. {10} The woman hurried to tell her husband, "He's here! The man who appeared to me the other day!" {11} Manoah got up and followed his wife. When he came to the man, he said, "Are you the one who talked to my wife?" "I am," he said. {12} So Manoah asked him, "When your words are fulfilled, what is to be the rule for the boy's life and work?" {13} The angel of the LORD answered, "Your wife must do all that I have told her. {14} She must not eat anything that comes from the grapevine, nor drink any wine or other fermented drink nor eat anything unclean. She must do everything I have commanded her." {15} Manoah said to the angel of the LORD, "We would like you to stay until we prepare a young goat for you." {16} The 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, offer it to the LORD." (Manoah did not realise that it was the angel of the LORD.) {17} Then Manoah inquired of the angel of the LORD, "What is your name, so that we may honor you when your word comes true?" {18} He replied, "Why do you ask my name? It is beyond understanding." {19} Then Manoah took a young goat, together with the grain offering, and sacrificed it on a rock to the LORD. And the LORD did an amazing thing while Manoah and his wife watched: {20} As the flame 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. {21} When the angel of the LORD did not show himself again to Manoah and his wife, Manoah realised that it was the angel of the LORD. {22} "We are doomed to die!" he said to his wife. "We have seen God!" {23} But 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." {24} The woman gave birth to a boy and named him Samson. He grew and the LORD blessed him, {25} and the Spirit of the LORD began to stir him while he was in Mahaneh Dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.

Samson went down to Timnah and saw there a young Philistine woman. {2} When 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." {3} His father and mother replied, "Isn't there an acceptable woman among your relatives or among all our people? Must you go to the uncircumcised Philistines to get a wife?" 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, who was seeking an occasion to confront the Philistines; for at that time they were ruling over Israel.) {5} Samson 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. {6} The Spirit of the LORD came upon him in power so that he tore the lion apart 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. {7} Then he went down and talked with the woman, and he liked her. {8} Some time later, when he went back to marry her, he turned aside to look at the lion's carcass. In it was a swarm of bees and some honey, {9} which he scooped out 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. {10} Now his father went down to see the woman. And Samson made a feast there, as was customary for bridegrooms. {11} When he appeared, he was given thirty companions. {12} "Let me tell you a riddle," Samson said to them. "If you can give me the answer within the seven days of the feast, I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty sets of clothes. {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." {14} He replied, "Out of the eater, something to eat; out of the strong, something sweet." For three days they could not give the answer. {15} On the fourth day, they said to Samson's wife, "Coax your husband into explaining the riddle for us, or we will burn you and your father's household to death. Did you invite us here to rob us?" {16} Then Samson's wife threw herself on him, sobbing, "You hate me! You don't really love me. 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?" {17} She cried the whole seven days 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. {18} Before sunset on the seventh day the men of the town said to him, "What is sweeter than honey? What is stronger than a lion?" Samson said to them, "If you had not plowed with my heifer, you would not have solved my riddle." {19} Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon him in power. He went down to Ashkelon, struck down thirty of their men, stripped them of their belongings and gave their clothes to those who had explained the riddle. Burning with anger, he went up to his father's house. {20} And Samson's wife was given to the friend who had attended him at his wedding.

Later on, at the time of wheat harvest, Samson took a young goat and went to visit his wife. He said, "I'm going to my wife's room." But her father would not let him go in. {2} "I was so sure you thoroughly hated her," he said, "that I gave her to your friend. Isn't her younger sister more attractive? Take her instead." {3} Samson said to them, "This time I have a right to get even with the Philistines; I will really harm them." {4} So he went out and caught three hundred foxes and tied them tail to tail in pairs. He then fastened a torch to every pair of tails, {5} lit the torches and let the foxes loose in the standing grain of the Philistines. He burned up the shocks and standing grain, together with the vineyards and olive groves. {6} When the Philistines asked, "Who did this?" they were told, "Samson, the Timnite's son-in-law, because his wife was given to his friend." So the Philistines went up and burned her and her father to death. {7} Samson said to them, "Since you've acted like this, I won't stop until I get my revenge on you." {8} He attacked them viciously and slaughtered many of them. Then he went down and stayed in a cave in the rock of Etam. {9} The Philistines went up and camped in Judah, spreading out near Lehi. {10} The men 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." {11} Then three thousand men from Judah went down to the cave in the rock of Etam and said to Samson, "Don't you realise that the Philistines are rulers over us? What have you done to us?" He answered, "I merely did to them what they did to me." {12} They said to him, "We've come to tie you up and hand you over to the Philistines." Samson said, "Swear to me 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 and led him up from the rock. {14} As he approached Lehi, the Philistines came toward him shouting. The Spirit of the LORD came upon him in power. The ropes on his arms became like charred flax, and the bindings dropped from his hands. {15} Finding a fresh jawbone of a donkey, he grabbed it and struck down a thousand men. {16} Then Samson said, "With a donkey's jawbone I have made donkeys of them. With a donkey's jawbone I have killed a thousand men." {17} When he finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone; and the place was called Ramath Lehi. {18} Because he was very thirsty, he cried out to the LORD, "You have given your servant this great victory. Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?" {19} Then God opened up the hollow place in Lehi, and water came out of it. When Samson drank, his strength returned and he revived. So the spring was called En Hakkore, and it is still there in Lehi. {20} Samson led Israel for twenty years in the days of the Philistines.

One day Samson went to Gaza, where he saw a prostitute. He went in to spend the night with her. {2} The people of Gaza were told, "Samson is here!" So they surrounded the place and lay in wait for him all night at the city gate. They made no move during the night, saying, "At dawn we'll kill him." {3} But Samson lay there only until the middle of the night. Then he got up and took hold of the doors of the city gate, together with the two posts, and tore them loose, bar and all. He lifted them to his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill that faces Hebron. {4} Some time later, he fell in love with a woman in the Valley of Sorek whose name was Delilah. {5} The rulers of the Philistines went to her and said, "See if you can lure him into showing you the secret of his great strength and how we can overpower him so we may tie him up and subdue him. Each one of us will give you eleven hundred shekels of silver." {6} So Delilah said to Samson, "Tell me the secret of your great strength and how you can be tied up and subdued." {7} Samson answered her, "If anyone ties me with seven fresh thongs that have not been dried, I'll become as weak as any other man." {8} Then the rulers of the Philistines brought her seven fresh thongs that had not been dried, and she tied him with them. {9} With men hidden in the room, she called to him, "Samson, the Philistines are upon you!" But he snapped the thongs as easily as a piece of string snaps when it comes close to a flame. So the secret of his strength was not discovered. {10} Then Delilah said to Samson, "You have made a fool of me; you lied to me. Come now, tell me how you can be tied." {11} He said, "If anyone ties me securely with new ropes that have never been used, I'll become as weak as any other man." {12} So Delilah took new ropes and tied him with them. Then, with men hidden in the room, she called to him, "Samson, the Philistines are upon you!" But he snapped the ropes off his arms as if they were threads. {13} Delilah then said to Samson, "Until now, you have been making a fool of me and lying to me. Tell me how you can be tied." He replied, "If you weave the seven braids of my head into the fabric on the loom and tighten it with the pin, I'll become as weak as any other man." So while he was sleeping, Delilah took the seven braids of his head, wove them into the fabric {14} and tightened it with the pin. Again she called to him, "Samson, the Philistines are upon you!" He awoke from his sleep and pulled up the pin and the loom, with the fabric. {15} Then she said to him, "How can you say, 'I love you,' when you won't confide in me? This is the third time you have made a fool of me and haven't told me the secret of your great strength." {16} With such nagging she prodded him day after day until he was tired to death. {17} So he told her everything. "No razor has ever been used on my head," he said, "because I have been a Nazirite set apart to God since birth. If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me, and I would become as weak as any other man." {18} When Delilah saw that he had told her everything, she sent word to the rulers of the Philistines, "Come back once more; he has told me everything." So the rulers of the Philistines returned with the silver in their hands. {19} Having put him to sleep on her lap, she called a man to shave off the seven braids of his hair, and so began to subdue him. And his strength left him. {20} Then she called, "Samson, the Philistines are upon you!" He awoke from his sleep and thought, "I'll go out as before and shake myself free." But he did not know that the LORD had left him. {21} Then the Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes and took him down to Gaza. Binding him with bronze shackles, they set him to grinding in the prison. {22} But the hair on his head began to grow again after it had been shaved. {23} Now the rulers of the Philistines assembled to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god and to celebrate, saying, "Our god has delivered Samson, our enemy, into our hands." {24} When the people saw him, they praised their god, saying, "Our god has delivered our enemy into our hands, the one who laid waste our land and multiplied our slain." {25} While they were in high spirits, they shouted, "Bring out Samson to entertain us." So they called Samson out of the prison, and he performed for them. When they stood him among the pillars, {26} Samson said to the servant who held his hand, "Put me where I can feel the pillars that support the temple, so that I may lean against them." {27} Now the temple was crowded with men and women; all the rulers of the Philistines were there, and on the roof were about three thousand men and women watching Samson perform. {28} Then Samson prayed to the LORD, "O Sovereign LORD, remember me. O God, please strengthen me just once more, and let me with one blow get revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes." {29} Then Samson reached toward the two central pillars on which the temple stood. Bracing himself against them, his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other, {30} Samson said, "Let me die with the Philistines!" Then he pushed with all his might, and down came the temple on the rulers and all the people in it. Thus he killed many more when he died than while he lived. {31} Then his brothers and his father's whole family went down to get him. They brought him back and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of Manoah his father. He had led Israel twenty years.

Now a man named Micah from the hill country of Ephraim {2} said to his mother, "The eleven hundred shekels of silver that were taken from you and about which I heard you utter a curse--I have that silver with me; I took it." Then his mother said, "The LORD bless you, my son!" {3} When he returned the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother, she said, "I solemnly consecrate my silver to the LORD for my son to make a carved image and a cast idol. I will give it back to you." {4} So he returned the silver to his mother, and she took two hundred shekels of silver and gave them to a silversmith, who made them into the image and the idol. And they were put in Micah's house. {5} Now this man Micah had a shrine, and he made an ephod and some idols and installed one of his sons as his priest. {6} In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit. {7} A young Levite from Bethlehem in Judah, who had been living within the clan of Judah, {8} left that town in search of some other place to stay. On his way he came to Micah's house in the hill country of Ephraim. {9} Micah asked him, "Where are you from?" "I'm a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah," he said, "and I'm looking for a place to stay." {10} Then Micah said to him, "Live with me and be my father and priest, and I'll give you ten shekels of silver a year, your clothes and your food." {11} So the Levite agreed to live with him, and the young man was to him like one of his sons. {12} Then Micah installed the Levite, and the young man became his priest and lived in his house. {13} And Micah said, "Now I know that the LORD will be good to me, since this Levite has become my priest."

In those days Israel had no king. And in those days the tribe of the Danites was seeking a place of their own where they might settle, because they had not yet come into an inheritance among the tribes of Israel. {2} So the Danites sent five warriors from Zorah and Eshtaol to spy out the land and explore it. These men represented all their clans. They told them, "Go, explore the land." The men entered the hill country of Ephraim and came to the house of Micah, where they spent the night. {3} When they were near Micah's house, they recognised the voice of the young Levite; so they turned in there and asked him, "Who brought you here? What are you doing in this place? Why are you here?" {4} He told them what Micah had done for him, and said, "He has hired me and I am his priest." {5} Then they said to him, "Please inquire of God to learn whether our journey will be successful." {6} The priest answered them, "Go in peace. Your journey has the Lord's approval." {7} So the five men left and came to Laish, where they saw that the people were living in safety, like the Sidonians, unsuspecting and secure. And since their land lacked nothing, they were prosperous. Also, they lived a long way from the Sidonians and had no relationship with anyone else. {8} When they returned to Zorah and Eshtaol, their brothers asked them, "How did you find things?" {9} They answered, "Come on, let's attack them! We have seen that the land is very good. Aren't you going to do something? Don't hesitate to go there and take it over. {10} When you get there, you will find an unsuspecting people and a spacious land that God has put into your hands, a land that lacks nothing whatever." {11} Then six hundred men from the clan of the Danites, armed for battle, set out from Zorah and Eshtaol. {12} On their way they set up camp near Kiriath Jearim in Judah. This is why the place west of Kiriath Jearim is called Mahaneh Dan to this day. {13} From there they went on to the hill country of Ephraim and came to Micah's house. {14} Then the five men who had spied out the land of Laish said to their brothers, "Do you know that one of these houses has an ephod, other household gods, a carved image and a cast idol? Now you know what to do." {15} So they turned in there and went to the house of the young Levite at Micah's place and greeted him. {16} The six hundred Danites, armed for battle, stood at the entrance to the gate. {17} The five men who had spied out the land went inside and took the carved image, the ephod, the other household gods and the cast idol while the priest and the six hundred armed men stood at the entrance to the gate. {18} When these men went into Micah's house and took the carved image, the ephod, the other household gods and the cast idol, the priest said to them, "What are you doing?" {19} They answered him, "Be quiet! Don't say a word. Come with us, and be our father and priest. Isn't it better that you serve a tribe and clan in Israel as priest rather than just one man's household?" {20} Then the priest was glad. He took the ephod, the other household gods and the carved image and went along with the people. {21} Putting their little children, their livestock and their possessions in front of them, they turned away and left. {22} When they had gone some distance from Micah's house, the men who lived near Micah were called together and overtook the Danites. {23} As they shouted after them, the Danites turned and said to Micah, "What's the matter with you that you called out your men to fight?" {24} He replied, "You took the gods I made, and my priest, and went away. What else do I have? How can you ask, 'What's the matter with you?'" {25} The Danites answered, "Don't argue with us, or some hot-tempered men will attack you, and you and your family will lose your lives." {26} So the Danites went their way, and Micah, seeing that they were too strong for him, turned around and went back home. {27} Then they took what Micah had made, and his priest, and went on to Laish, against a peaceful and unsuspecting people. They attacked them with the sword and burned down their city. {28} There was no one to rescue them because they lived a long way from Sidon and had no relationship with anyone else. The city was in a valley near Beth Rehob. The Danites rebuilt the city and settled there. {29} They named it Dan after their forefather Dan, who was born to Israel--though the city used to be called Laish. {30} There the Danites set up for themselves the idols, and Jonathan son of Gershom, the son of Moses, and his sons were priests for the tribe of Dan until the time of the captivity of the land. {31} They continued to use the idols Micah had made, all the time the house of God was in Shiloh.

In those days Israel had no king. Now a Levite who lived in a remote area in the hill country of Ephraim took a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah. {2} But she was unfaithful to him. She left him and went back to her father's house in Bethlehem, Judah. After she had been there four months, {3} her husband went to her to persuade her to return. He had with him his servant and two donkeys. She took him into her father's house, and when her father saw him, he gladly welcomed him. {4} His father-in-law, the girl's father, prevailed upon him to stay; so he remained with him three days, eating and drinking, and sleeping there. {5} On the fourth day they got up early and he prepared to leave, but the girl's father said to his son-in-law, "Refresh yourself with something to eat; then you can go." {6} So the two of them sat down to eat and drink together. Afterward the girl's father said, "Please stay tonight and enjoy yourself." {7} And when the man got up to go, his father-in-law persuaded him, so he stayed there that night. {8} On the morning of the fifth day, when he rose to go, the girl's father said, "Refresh yourself. Wait till afternoon!" So the two of them ate together. {9} Then when the man, with his concubine and his servant, got up to leave, his father-in-law, the girl's father, said, "Now look, it's almost evening. Spend the night here; the day is nearly over. Stay and enjoy yourself. Early tomorrow morning you can get up and be on your way home." {10} But, unwilling to stay another night, the man left and went toward Jebus (that is, Jerusalem), with his two saddled donkeys and his concubine. {11} When they were near Jebus and the day was almost gone, the servant said to his master, "Come, let's stop at this city of the Jebusites and spend the night." {12} His master replied, "No. We won't go into an alien city, whose people are not Israelites. We will go on to Gibeah." {13} He added, "Come, let's try to reach Gibeah or Ramah and spend the night in one of those places." {14} So they went on, and the sun set as they neared Gibeah in Benjamin. {15} There they stopped to spend the night. They went and sat in the city square, but no one took them into his home for the night. {16} That evening an old man from the hill country of Ephraim, who was living in Gibeah (the men of the place were Benjamites), came in from his work in the fields. {17} When he looked and saw the traveler in the city square, the old man asked, "Where are you going? Where did you come from?" {18} He answered, "We are on our way from Bethlehem in Judah to a remote area in the hill country of Ephraim where I live. I have been to Bethlehem in Judah and now I am going to the house of the LORD. No one has taken me into his house. {19} We have both straw and fodder for our donkeys and bread and wine for ourselves your servants--me, your maidservant, and the young man with us. We don't need anything." {20} "You are welcome at my house," the old man said. "Let me supply whatever you need. Only don't spend the night in the square." {21} So he took him into his house and fed his donkeys. After they had washed their feet, they had something to eat and drink. {22} While they were enjoying themselves, some of the wicked men of the city surrounded the house. Pounding on the door, they shouted to the old man who owned the house, "Bring out the man who came to your house so we can have sex with him." {23} The owner of the house went outside and said to them, "No, my friends, don't be so vile. Since this man is my guest, don't do this disgraceful thing. {24} Look, here is my virgin daughter, and his concubine. I will bring them out to you now, and you can use them and do to them whatever you wish. But to this man, don't do such a disgraceful thing." {25} But the men would not listen to him. So the man took his concubine and sent her outside to them, and they raped her and abused her throughout the night, and at dawn they let her go. {26} At daybreak the woman went back to the house where her master was staying, fell down at the door and lay there until daylight. {27} When her master got up in the morning and opened the door of the house and stepped out to continue on his way, there lay his concubine, fallen in the doorway of the house, with her hands on the threshold. {28} He said to her, "Get up; let's go." But there was no answer. Then the man put her on his donkey and set out for home. {29} When he reached home, he took a knife and cut up his concubine, limb by limb, into twelve parts and sent them into all the areas of Israel. {30} Everyone who saw it said, "Such a thing has never been seen or done, not since the day the Israelites came up out of Egypt. Think about it! Consider it! Tell us what to do!"

Then all the Israelites from Dan to Beersheba and from the land of Gilead came out as one man and assembled before the LORD in Mizpah. {2} The leaders of all the people of the tribes of Israel took their places in the assembly of the people of God, four hundred thousand soldiers armed with swords. {3} (The Benjamites heard that the Israelites had gone up to Mizpah.) Then the Israelites said, "Tell us how this awful thing happened." {4} So the Levite, the husband of the murdered woman, said, "I and my concubine came to Gibeah in Benjamin to spend the night. {5} During the night the men of Gibeah came after me and surrounded the house, intending to kill me. They raped my concubine, and she died. {6} I took my concubine, cut her into pieces and sent one piece to each region of Israel's inheritance, because they committed this lewd and disgraceful act in Israel. {7} Now, all you Israelites, speak up and give your verdict." {8} All the people rose as one man, saying, "None of us will go home. No, not one of us will return to his house. {9} But now this is what we'll do to Gibeah: We'll go up against it as the lot directs. {10} We'll take ten men out of every hundred from all the tribes of Israel, and a hundred from a thousand, and a thousand from ten thousand, to get provisions for the army. Then, when the army arrives at Gibeah in Benjamin, it can give them what they deserve for all this vileness done in Israel." {11} So all the men of Israel got together and united as one man against the city. {12} The tribes of Israel sent men throughout the tribe of Benjamin, saying, "What about this awful crime that was committed among you? {13} Now surrender those wicked men of Gibeah so that we may put them to death and purge the evil from Israel." But the Benjamites would not listen to their fellow Israelites. {14} From their towns they came together at Gibeah to fight against the Israelites. {15} At once the Benjamites mobilised twenty-six thousand swordsmen from their towns, in addition to seven hundred chosen men from those living in Gibeah. {16} Among all these soldiers there were seven hundred chosen men who were left-handed, each of whom could sling a stone at a hair and not miss. {17} Israel, apart from Benjamin, mustered four hundred thousand swordsmen, all of them fighting men. {18} The Israelites went up to Bethel and inquired of God. They said, "Who of us shall go first to fight against the Benjamites?" The LORD replied, "Judah shall go first." {19} The next morning the Israelites got up and pitched camp near Gibeah. {20} The men of Israel went out to fight the Benjamites and took up battle positions against them at Gibeah. {21} The Benjamites came out of Gibeah and cut down twenty-two thousand Israelites on the battlefield that day. {22} But the men of Israel encouraged one another and again took up their positions where they had stationed themselves the first day. {23} The Israelites went up and wept before the LORD until evening, and they inquired of the LORD. They said, "Shall we go up again to battle against the Benjamites, our brothers?" The LORD answered, "Go up against them." {24} Then the Israelites drew near to Benjamin the second day. {25} This time, when the Benjamites came out from Gibeah to oppose them, they cut down another eighteen thousand Israelites, all of them armed with swords. {26} Then the Israelites, all the people, went up to Bethel, and there they sat weeping before the LORD. They fasted that day until evening and presented burnt offerings and fellowship offerings to the LORD. {27} And the Israelites inquired of the LORD. (In those days the ark of the covenant of God was there, {28} with Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, ministering before it.) They asked, "Shall we go up again to battle with Benjamin our brother, or not?" The LORD responded, "Go, for tomorrow I will give them into your hands." {29} Then Israel set an ambush around Gibeah. {30} They went up against the Benjamites on the third day and took up positions against Gibeah as they had done before. {31} The Benjamites came out to meet them and were drawn away from the city. They began to inflict casualties on the Israelites as before, so that about thirty men fell in the open field and on the roads--the one leading to Bethel and the other to Gibeah. {32} While the Benjamites were saying, "We are defeating them as before," the Israelites were saying, "Let's retreat and draw them away from the city to the roads." {33} All the men of Israel moved from their places and took up positions at Baal Tamar, and the Israelite ambush charged out of its place on the west of Gibeah. {34} Then ten thousand of Israel's finest men made a frontal attack on Gibeah. The fighting was so heavy that the Benjamites did not realise how near disaster was. {35} The LORD defeated Benjamin before Israel, and on that day the Israelites struck down 25,100 Benjamites, all armed with swords. {36} Then the Benjamites saw that they were beaten. Now the men of Israel had given way before Benjamin, because they relied on the ambush they had set near Gibeah. {37} The men who had been in ambush made a sudden dash into Gibeah, spread out and put the whole city to the sword. {38} The men of Israel had arranged with the ambush that they should send up a great cloud of smoke from the city, {39} and then the men of Israel would turn in the battle. The Benjamites had begun to inflict casualties on the men of Israel (about thirty), and they said, "We are defeating them as in the first battle." {40} But when the column of smoke began to rise from the city, the Benjamites turned and saw the smoke of the whole city going up into the sky. {41} Then the men of Israel turned on them, and the men of Benjamin were terrified, because they realised that disaster had come upon them. {42} So they fled before the Israelites in the direction of the desert, but they could not escape the battle. And the men of Israel who came out of the towns cut them down there. {43} They surrounded the Benjamites, chased them and easily overran them in the vicinity of Gibeah on the east. {44} Eighteen thousand Benjamites fell, all of them valiant fighters. {45} As they turned and fled toward the desert to the rock of Rimmon, the Israelites cut down five thousand men along the roads. They kept pressing after the Benjamites as far as Gidom and struck down two thousand more. {46} On that day twenty-five thousand Benjamite swordsmen fell, all of them valiant fighters. {47} But six hundred men turned and fled into the desert to the rock of Rimmon, where they stayed four months. {48} The men of Israel went back to Benjamin and put all the towns to the sword, including the animals and everything else they found. All the towns they came across they set on fire..'"

The men of Israel had taken an oath at Mizpah: "Not one of us will give his daughter in marriage to a Benjamite." {2} The people went to Bethel, where they sat before God until evening, raising their voices and weeping bitterly. {3} "O LORD, the God of Israel," they cried, "why has this happened to Israel? Why should one tribe be missing from Israel today?" {4} Early the next day the people built an altar and presented burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. {5} Then the Israelites asked, "Who from all the tribes of Israel has failed to assemble before the LORD?" For they had taken a solemn oath that anyone who failed to assemble before the LORD at Mizpah should certainly be put to death. {6} Now the Israelites grieved for their brothers, the Benjamites. "Today one tribe is cut off from Israel," they said. {7} "How can we provide wives for those who are left, since we have taken an oath by the LORD not to give them any of our daughters in marriage?" {8} Then they asked, "Which one of the tribes of Israel failed to assemble before the LORD at Mizpah?" They discovered that no one from Jabesh Gilead had come to the camp for the assembly. {9} For when they counted the people, they found that none of the people of Jabesh Gilead were there. {10} So the assembly sent twelve thousand fighting men with instructions to go to Jabesh Gilead and put to the sword those living there, including the women and children. {11} "This is what you are to do," they said. "Kill every male and every woman who is not a virgin." {12} They found among the people living in Jabesh Gilead four hundred young women who had never slept with a man, and they took them to the camp at Shiloh in Canaan. {13} Then the whole assembly sent an offer of peace to the Benjamites at the rock of Rimmon. {14} So the Benjamites returned at that time and were given the women of Jabesh Gilead who had been spared. But there were not enough for all of them. {15} The people grieved for Benjamin, because the LORD had made a gap in the tribes of Israel. {16} And the elders of the assembly said, "With the women of Benjamin destroyed, how shall we provide wives for the men who are left? {17} The Benjamite survivors must have heirs," they said, "so that a tribe of Israel will not be wiped out. {18} We can't give them our daughters as wives, since we Israelites have taken this oath: 'Cursed be anyone who gives a wife to a Benjamite.' {19} But look, there is the annual festival of the LORD in Shiloh, to the north of Bethel, and east of the road that goes from Bethel to Shechem, and to the south of Lebonah." {20} So they instructed the Benjamites, saying, "Go and hide in the vineyards {21} and watch. When the girls of Shiloh come out to join in the dancing, then rush from the vineyards and each of you seize a wife from the girls of Shiloh and go to the land of Benjamin. {22} When their fathers or brothers complain to us, we will say to them, 'Do us a kindness by helping them, because we did not get wives for them during the war, and you are innocent, since you did not give your daughters to them.'" {23} So that is what the Benjamites did. While the girls were dancing, each man caught one and carried her off to be his wife. Then they returned to their inheritance and rebuilt the towns and settled in them. {24} At that time the Israelites left that place and went home to their tribes and clans, each to his own inheritance. {25} In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit.