Samson's Marriage

14 ^(A)Samson went down to ^(B)Timnah, and at Timnah he saw one of the daughters of the Philistines. ² Then he came up and told his father and mother, “I saw one of the daughters of the Philistines at Timnah. ^(C)Now get her for me as my wife.” ³ But his father and mother said to him, “Is there not a woman among the daughters ^(D)of your relatives, or among all our people, that you must go to take a wife from the ^(E)uncircumcised Philistines?” But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, for she is right in my eyes.”

⁴ His father and mother did not know that it was ^(F)from the Lord, for he was seeking an opportunity against the Philistines. ^(G)At that time the Philistines ruled over Israel.

⁵ Then Samson went down with his father and mother to Timnah, and they came to the vineyards of Timnah. And behold, a young lion came toward him roaring. ^6 (H)Then the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him, and although he had nothing in his hand, he tore the lion in pieces as one tears a young goat. But he did not tell his father or his mother what he had done. ⁷ Then he went down and talked with the woman, and she was right in Samson's eyes.

⁸ After some days he returned to take her. And he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion, and behold, there was a swarm of bees in the body of the lion, and honey. ⁹ He scraped it out into his hands and went on, eating as he went. And he came to his father and mother and gave some to them, and they ate. But he did not tell them that he had scraped the honey from the carcass of the lion.

¹⁰ His father went down to the woman, and Samson prepared a feast there, for so the young men used to do. ¹¹ As soon as the people saw him, they brought thirty companions to be with him. ¹² And Samson said to them, ^(I)“Let me now put a riddle to you. If you can tell me what it is, within ^(J)the seven days of the feast, and find it out, then I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty ^(K)changes of clothes, ¹³ but if you cannot tell me what it is, then you shall give me thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothes.” And they said to him, “Put your riddle, that we may hear it.” ¹⁴ And he said to them,

And in three days they could not solve the riddle.

¹⁵ On the fourth^[a] day they said to Samson's wife, ^(L)“Entice your husband to tell us what the riddle is, ^(M)lest we burn you and your father's house with fire. Have you invited us here to impoverish us?” ¹⁶ And Samson's wife wept over him and said, ^(N)“You only hate me; you do not love me. You have put a riddle to my people, and you have not told me what it is.” And he said to her, “Behold, I have not told my father nor my mother, and shall I tell you?” ¹⁷ She wept before him the seven days that their feast lasted, and on the seventh day he told her, because ^(O)she pressed him hard. Then she told the riddle to her people. ¹⁸ And the men of the city said to him on the seventh day before the sun went down,

And he said to them,

^19 (P)And the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him, and he went down to ^(Q)Ashkelon and struck down thirty men of the town and took their spoil and gave the garments to those who had told the riddle. In hot anger he went back to his father's house.

¹⁵ And gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw that his face ^(A)was like the face of an angel.

Stephen's Speech

7 And the high priest said, “Are these things so?” ² And Stephen said:

^(B)“Brothers and fathers, hear me. ^(C)The God ^(D)of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, ^(E)before he lived in Haran, ³ and said to him, ^(F)‘Go out from your land and from your kindred and go into the land that I will show you.’ ^4 (G)Then he went out from the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran. And ^(H)after his father died, ^(I)God removed him from there into this land in which you are now living. ⁵ Yet he gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot's length, but promised ^(J)to give it to him as a possession and to his offspring after him, ^(K)though he had no child. ⁶ And God spoke to this effect—that ^(L)his offspring would ^(M)be sojourners in a land belonging to others, who would enslave them and afflict them ^(N)four hundred years. ⁷ ‘But ^(O)I will judge the nation that they serve,’ said God, ‘and after that they shall come out ^(P)and worship me in this place.’ ⁸ And ^(Q)he gave him the covenant of circumcision. And ^(R)so Abraham became the father of Isaac, and ^(S)circumcised him on the eighth day, and ^(T)Isaac became the father of Jacob, and ^(U)Jacob of the twelve patriarchs.

⁹ “And the patriarchs, ^(V)jealous of Joseph, ^(W)sold him into Egypt; but ^(X)God was with him ¹⁰ and rescued him out of all his afflictions and ^(Y)gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt, ^(Z)who made him ruler over Egypt and over all his household. ¹¹ Now ^(AA)there came a famine throughout all Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction, and our fathers could find no food. ^12 (AB)But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent out our fathers on their first visit. ¹³ And ^(AC)on the second visit ^(AD)Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and ^(AE)Joseph's family became known to Pharaoh. ¹⁴ And ^(AF)Joseph sent and summoned Jacob his father and all his kindred, ^(AG)seventy-five persons in all. ¹⁵ And ^(AH)Jacob went down into Egypt, and ^(AI)he died, he ^(AJ)and our fathers, ¹⁶ and ^(AK)they were carried back to Shechem and laid in the tomb that ^(AL)Abraham had bought for a sum of silver from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.

²⁷ Just then ^(A)his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you seek?” or, “Why are you talking with her?” ²⁸ So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, ²⁹ “Come, see a man ^(B)who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” ³⁰ They went out of the town and were coming to him.

³¹ Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, ^(C)“Rabbi, eat.” ³² But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” ³³ So the disciples said to one another, ^(D)“Has anyone brought him something to eat?” ³⁴ Jesus said to them, ^(E)“My food is ^(F)to do the will of him who sent me and ^(G)to accomplish his work. ³⁵ Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that ^(H)the fields are white for harvest. ³⁶ Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that ^(I)sower and ^(J)reaper ^(K)may rejoice together. ³⁷ For here the saying holds true, ^(L)‘One sows and another reaps.’ ³⁸ I sent you to reap ^(M)that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, ^(N)and you have entered into their labor.”

³⁹ Many Samaritans ^(O)from that town believed in him ^(P)because of ^(Q)the woman's testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” ⁴⁰ So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. ⁴¹ And many more believed ^(R)because of his word. ⁴² They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, ^(S)and we know that this is indeed ^(T)the Savior ^(U)of the world.”