Judges 16-18

Complete Jewish Bible

16 Shimshon went to ‘Azah, where he saw a prostitute and went in to spend the night with her. ² The people in ‘Azah were told that Shimshon had come, so they surrounded the place where he was and also set an ambush for him all night at the city gate. Their plan was to do nothing at night, but to wait until morning and then kill him. ³ However, Shimshon stayed in bed until midnight; then he got up, took hold of the doors of the city gate and the two posts as well, pulled them up, bar and all, hoisted them on his shoulders, and carried them up to the top of the hill overlooking Hevron.

⁴ After this, he fell in love with a woman who lived in the Sorek Valley, whose name was D’lilah. ⁵ The chiefs of the P’lishtim went up to her and said, “Coax him into telling you where his great strength comes from and how we can overcome him, so that we can tie him up and subdue him. If you do, each of us will give you 1,100 pieces of silver.” ⁶ D’lilah said to Shimshon, “Please tell me what it is that makes you so strong, and how someone could tie you up and subdue you.” ⁷ Shimshon replied, “If they tie me up with seven fresh bowstrings that have never been dried, I will become as weak as any other man.” ⁸ The chiefs of the P’lishtim brought up to her seven fresh bowstrings which had not been dried, and she tied him up with them. ⁹ Now she had people lying in wait in the inside room. So she said to him, “Shimshon! The P’lishtim have come for you!” But he snapped the bowstrings as easily as a piece of straw breaks when it touches fire, and the source of his strength remained unknown.

¹⁰ D’lilah said to Shimshon, “You’re making fun of me, telling me lies. Now, come on, tell me what it takes to tie you up.” ¹¹ “All it takes,” he answered, “is to tie me up with new ropes that haven’t been used. Then I’ll become weak and be like anyone else.” ¹² So D’lilah took new ropes, tied him up, and said to him, “Shimshon! The P’lishtim have come for you!” (The people lying in wait were in the inside room.) But he broke the ropes from off his arms like a thread.

¹³ D’lilah said to Shimshon, “Till now you’ve been making fun of me and telling me lies. Tell me what it takes to tie you up.” He said, “If you weave the seven locks of my hair across thread on a loom.” ¹⁴ So she fastened her cloth work in the loom with a pin and wove his hair in, then said to him, “Shimshon! The P’lishtim have come for you!” He awoke from his sleep and pulled away the loom pin and the interwoven cloth. ¹⁵ She said to him, “How can you say you love me when your heart isn’t with me? Three times you’ve made fun of me, and you haven’t told me the source of your great strength.”

¹⁶ Every day she kept nagging at him and pressing at him, till it bothered him to death, ¹⁷ so that he finally told her everything. He said to her, “No razor has ever touched my head, because I have been a nazir of God since I was born. If someone shaves me, then my strength will leave me; and I will be like any other man.” ¹⁸ When D’lilah saw that he had really confided in her, she sent and summoned the chiefs of the P’lishtim with the message, “Come up this one last time, because he has finally told me the truth.” The chiefs of the P’lishtim went up to her and brought the money with them. ¹⁹ She had him go to sleep in her lap and called for a man to shave off his seven locks of hair. Then she began tormenting him, but his strength had gone away. ²⁰ She said, “Shimshon! The P’lishtim have come for you!” He awoke from his sleep and said, “I’ll get out this time, just as I shook myself loose before.” But he didn’t know that Adonai had left him. ²¹ So the P’lishtim seized him, gouged out his eyes and took him down to ‘Azah. There they bound him with two bronze chains and put him to work grinding grain at the mill in the prison. ²² However, after the hair on his head had been cut off, it began growing back again.

²³ The chiefs of the P’lishtim assembled to offer a great sacrifice to their god Dagon. As they celebrated they sang,

²⁴ Upon seeing him, the people praised their god:

²⁵ When they were in high spirits they said, “Summon Shimshon to amuse us.” So they called Shimshon out of the prison, and he amused them. When they put him between the columns, ²⁶ Shimshon said to the boy holding him by the hand, “Let me feel the columns supporting the building, so that I can lean on them.” ²⁷ The building was full of men and women; and all the chiefs of the P’lishtim were there; in addition to them, there were about three thousand men and women on the roof, watching, as Shimshon performed. ²⁸ Shimshon called to Adonai, “Adonai Elohim, just this once, please, think of me, and please, give me strength, so that I can take revenge on the P’lishtim for at least one of my two eyes.” ²⁹ Shimshon got a good hold on the two middle columns supporting the building and leaned on them, on one with his right hand and on the other with his left. ³⁰ Then, crying, “Let me die with the P’lishtim!” he pushed with all his might; and the building collapsed on the chiefs and on all the people inside. So he killed more at his death than he had killed during his life.

³¹ His brothers and all his father’s family came down, took him, brought him up and buried him between Tzor‘ah and Eshta’ol, in the tomb of his father Manoach. He had judged Isra’el twenty years.

17 There was a man from the hills of Efrayim named Mikhay’hu. ² He said to his mother, “You know the 1,100 pieces of silver that were taken from you — you pronounced a curse about it, and you told me about it? Well, the money is with me. I took it.” His mother said, “May Adonai bless my son,” ³ as he restored the 1,100 pieces of silver to his mother. Then his mother said, “I solemnly dedicate this money of mine to Adonai, in order for my son to make a carved image overlaid with silver. So now I’m giving it back to you.” ⁴ But he returned the money to his mother, and she took 200 pieces of silver and gave them to the metalworker, who made a carved image overlaid with silver which was put in Mikhay’hu’s house. ⁵ This man Mikhah owned a house of God; so he made a ritual vest and household gods and consecrated one of his sons, who became his cohen. ⁶ At that time there was no king in Isra’el; a man simply did whatever he thought was right.

⁷ There was a young man from Beit-Lechem in Y’hudah, from the family of Y’hudah, who was a Levi. He had been staying ⁸ in Beit-Lechem, but he left there to find another place to live and came to the hills of Efrayim, where eventually he made his way to the house of Mikhah. ⁹ Mikhah asked him, “Where are you coming from?” He answered, “I am a Levi from Beit-Lechem in Y’hudah, and I’m looking for a place to live.” ¹⁰ Mikhah replied, “Stay with me, and be a father and cohen for me; I will give you ten pieces of silver a year, in addition to your clothing and food.” So the Levi went in ¹¹ and agreed to stay with the man; the young man became like one of his sons. ¹² After Mikhah consecrated the Levi, the young man became his cohen and stayed there in Mikhah’s house. ¹³ Mikhah said, “Now I know that Adonai will treat me well, because I have a Levi for a cohen.

18 At that time there was no king in Isra’el, and it was also at that time that the tribe of Dan was looking for a place to claim ownership of and settle in, since they had not yet been given any land of their own among the tribes of Isra’el. ² The people of Dan sent five leading men from Tzor‘ah and Eshta’ol, representing their whole tribe, to spy out and explore the land. They instructed them, “Go, and explore the land.” They came to the hills of Efrayim, to the house of Mikhah, and stayed there. ³ While they were at Mikhah’s house they recognized the accent of the young man, the Levi, so they approached him and said, “Who brought you here? What are you doing in this place? What is there for you here?” ⁴ He answered, “Here’s the arrangement Mikhah has made with me: he pays me a wage, and I serve as his cohen.” ⁵ They said to him, “Please ask God whether our journey will be successful.” ⁶ The cohen replied, “Don’t worry. Adonai is with you on this journey.”

⁷ The five men left, came to Layish and saw the people there living securely according to the customs of the Tzidonim, quietly and securely; since no one in the land was exercising authority that might shame them in any respect; moreover, they were far away from the Tzidonim and had no dealings with other peoples. ⁸ When they returned to their kinsmen in Tzor‘ah and Eshta’ol, they asked them what they had to report. ⁹ They said, “Let’s go up and attack them. We’ve seen the land, and it’s excellent. Don’t delay; start moving! Go in, and take the land! ¹⁰ When you go, you will come to a people who feel safe. There’s plenty of land, the place lacks nothing, it has everything there is on earth, and God has given it to you.”

¹¹ So from the tribe of Dan 600 men equipped for war set out from there, from Tzor‘ah and Eshta’ol. ¹² They went up and camped at Kiryat-Ye‘arim, in Y’hudah, which is why that place is called Machaneh-Dan [the camp of Dan] to this day (actually, it’s behind Kiryat-Ye‘arim). ¹³ From there they passed on into the hills of Efrayim and came to Mikhah’s house. ¹⁴ The men who had gone to spy out the land of Layish then said to their kinsmen, “Are you aware that in these buildings there is a ritual vest, household gods and a carved image overlaid with silver? Decide what you ought to do.” ¹⁵ They turned off the road and went to the house of the young Levi, that is, to Mikhah’s house, and asked how he was doing. ¹⁶ The 600 soldiers from Dan stayed at the gate, ¹⁷ while the five who had spied out the land went in and took the idol overlaid with silver, the vest and the household gods. The cohen had stayed with the 600 soldiers by the gate. ¹⁸ But when they went into Mikhah’s house and took the silver-covered image, the vest and the household gods, the cohen asked them, “What are you doing?” ¹⁹ They replied, “Be quiet, keep your mouth shut, and come with us. Be a father and a cohen for us. Which is better? To be a cohen in the house of one man or to be cohen to a whole tribe and family in Isra’el?” ²⁰ This made the cohen feel very good; so he took the ritual vest, the household gods and the image and went off with the people. ²¹ So they turned and left, with their children, cattle and belongings going ahead of them.

²² When they were a good distance from Mikhah’s house, the men who lived in the houses near his got together [with him], overtook the people from Dan ²³ and began shouting at them. The people from Dan turned and said to Mikhah, “What’s wrong with you, that you’ve gathered such a crowd?” ²⁴ He answered, “You’ve taken away my god, which I made, and gone off with the cohen! What more have I got? How can you ask me, ‘What’s wrong with you?’” ²⁵ The men from Dan replied, “You had best say no more to us, because some of us might get angry and attack you. You could lose your life, and so might the others in your household.” ²⁶ Then the people from Dan went their way; and when Mikhah saw that they were too strong for him, he turned and went back to his house. ²⁷ So they took what Mikhah had made and his cohen.

They came to Layish, to a quiet and trusting people. They attacked, killed them and burned down the city. ²⁸ No one came to rescue them, because it was far from Tzidon, and they had no dealings with other peoples. This was in the valley near Beit-Rechov.

Then the people of Dan rebuilt the city and settled there. ²⁹ They named the city Dan, after Dan their ancestor, who was born to Isra’el; although the city had previously been called Layish. ³⁰ The people of Dan set up the image for themselves. Y’honatan the son of Gershom, the son of M’nasheh, and his sons were cohanim for the tribe of the people of Dan until the day of the exile from the land. ³¹ Thus they erected for themselves Mikhah’s idol which he had made, and it remained there as long as the house of God was in Shiloh.