Judges 16-18 (Amplified Bible)

Judges 16

 ¹THEN SAMSON went to Gaza and saw a harlot there, and went in to her.

    ²The Gazites were told, Samson has come here. So they surrounded the place and lay in wait for him all night at the gate of the city. They were quiet all night, saying, In the morning, when it is light, we will kill him.

    ³But Samson lay until midnight, and [then] he arose and took hold of the doors of the city's gate and the two posts, and pulling them up, bar and all, he put them on his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill that is before Hebron.

    ⁴After this he loved a woman in the Valley of Sorek whose name was Delilah.

    ⁵And the lords of the Philistines came to her and said to her, Entice him and see in what his great strength lies, and by what means we may overpower him that we may bind him to subdue him. And we will each give you 1,100 pieces of silver.

    ⁶And Delilah said to Samson, Tell me, I pray you, wherein your great strength lies, and with what you might be bound to subdue you.

    ⁷And Samson said to her, If they bind me with seven fresh, strong gutstrings, still moist, then shall I be weak and be like any other man.

    ⁸Then the Philistine lords brought to her seven fresh, strong bowstrings, still moist, and she bound him with them.

    ⁹Now she had men lying in wait in an inner room. And she said to him, The Philistines are upon you, Samson! And he broke the bowstrings as a string of tow breaks when it touches the fire. So the secret of his strength was not known.

    ¹⁰And Delilah said to Samson, Behold, you have mocked me and told me lies; now tell me, I pray you, how you might be bound.

    ¹¹And he said to her, If they bind me fast with new ropes that have not been used, then I shall become weak and be like any other man.

    ¹²So Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them and said to him, The Philistines are upon you, Samson! And the men lying in wait were in the inner room. But he snapped the ropes off his arms like [sewing] thread.

    ¹³And Delilah said to Samson, Until now you have mocked me and told me lies; tell me with what you might be bound. And he said to her, If you weave the seven braids of [the hair of] my head with the web.

    ¹⁴And she did so and fastened it with the pin and said to him, The Philistines are upon you, Samson! And he awoke out of his sleep and went away with the pin of the [weaver's] beam and with the web.

    ¹⁵And she said to him, How can you say, I love you, when your heart is not with me? You have mocked me these three times and have not told me in what your great strength lies.

    ¹⁶And when she pressed him day after day with her words and urged him, he was vexed to death.

    ¹⁷Then he told her all his mind and said to her, A razor has never come upon my head, for I have been a Nazirite to God from my birth. If I am shaved, then my strength will go from me, and I shall become weak and be like any other man.

    ¹⁸And when Delilah saw that he had told her all his mind, she went and called for the Philistine lords, saying, Come up this once, for he has told me all he knows. Then the Philistine lords came up to her and brought the money in their hands.

    ¹⁹And she made Samson sleep upon her knees, and she called a man and caused him to shave off the seven braids of his head. Then she began to torment [Samson], and his strength went from him.

    ²⁰She said, The Philistines are upon you, Samson! And he awoke out of his sleep and said, I will go out as I have time after time and shake myself free. For Samson did not know that the Lord had departed from him.

    ²¹But the Philistines laid hold of him, bored out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza and bound him with [two] bronze fetters; and he ground at the mill in the prison.

    ²²But the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaved.

    ²³Then the Philistine lords gathered together to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god and to rejoice, for they said, Our god has given Samson our enemy into our hands.

    ²⁴And when the people saw Samson, they praised their god, for they said, Our god has delivered into our hands our enemy, the ravager of our country, who has slain many of us.

    ²⁵And when their hearts were merry, they said, Call for Samson, that he may make sport for us. So they called [blind] Samson out of the prison, and he made sport before them. They made him stand between the pillars.

    ²⁶And Samson said to the lad who held him by the hand, Allow me to feel the pillars upon which the house rests, that I may lean against them.

    ²⁷Now the house was full of men and women; all the Philistine princes were there, and on the roof were about 3,000 men and women who looked on while Samson made sport.

    ²⁸Then Samson called to the Lord and said, O Lord God, [earnestly] remember me, I pray You, and strengthen me, I pray You, only this once, O God, and let me have one vengeance upon the Philistines for both my eyes.

    ²⁹And Samson laid hold of the two middle pillars by which the house was borne up, one with his right hand and the other with his left.

    ³⁰And Samson cried, Let me die with the Philistines! And he bowed himself mightily, and the house fell upon the princes and upon all the people that were in it. So the dead whom he slew at his death were more than they whom he slew in his life.

    ³¹Then his kinsmen and all the tribal family of his father came down, took his body, and brought it up; and they buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the burial place of Manoah his father. He had judged Israel [that is, had defended the Israelites] twenty years.^(A)

   

Judges 17

 ¹THERE WAS a man of the hill country of Ephraim whose name was Micah.

    ²And he said to his mother, The 1,100 shekels of silver that were taken from you, about which you cursed and also spoke about in my hearing, behold, I have the silver with me; I took it. And his mother said, Blessed be you by the Lord, my son!

    ³He restored the 1,100 shekels of silver to his mother, and she said, I had truly dedicated the silver to the Lord from my hand for my son to make a graven image and a molten image; now therefore, I will restore it to you.

    ⁴So when he restored the money to his mother, she took 200 pieces of silver and gave them to the silversmith, who made of it a graven image and a molten image; and they were in the house of Micah.

    ⁵And the man Micah had a house of gods, and he made an ephod and teraphim and dedicated one of his sons, who became his priest.

    ⁶In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his own eyes.

    ⁷And there was a young man in Bethlehem of Judah, of the family of Judah, who was a Levite; and he sojourned there.

    ⁸And the man departed from the town of Bethlehem in Judah to sojourn where he could find a place, and as he journeyed he came to the hill country of Ephraim to the house of Micah.

    ⁹And Micah said to him, From where do you come? And he said to him, I am a Levite of Bethlehem in Judah, and I go to sojourn where I may find a place.

    ¹⁰And Micah said to him, Dwell with me and be to me a father and a priest, and I will give you ten pieces of silver each year, a suit of clothes, and your living. So the Levite went in.

    ¹¹And the Levite was content to dwell with the man, and the young man was to Micah as one of his sons.

    ¹²And Micah consecrated the Levite, and the young man became his priest and was in the house of Micah.

    ¹³Then said Micah, Now I know that the Lord will favor me, since I have a Levite to be my priest.

   

Judges 18

 ¹IN THOSE days there was no king in Israel. And in those days the tribe of the Danites sought for itself an inheritance to dwell in, for until then no [sufficient] inheritance had been acquired by them among the tribes of Israel.

    ²So the Danites sent from the whole number of their tribe five brave men from Zorah and Eshtaol to spy out the land and to explore it, and they said to them, Go, explore the land. They came to the hill country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, and lodged there.

    ³When they went by the house of Micah, they recognized the voice of the young Levite, and they turned aside there and said to him, Who brought you here? And what do you do in this place? And what have you here?

    ⁴And he said to them, Thus and thus Micah deals with me and has hired me, and I am his priest.

    ⁵And they said to him, Ask counsel, we pray you, of God that we may know whether our journey will be successful.

    ⁶And the priest said to them, Go in peace. The way in which you go is before (under the eye of) the Lord.

    ⁷Then the five men departed and came to Laish and saw the people who were there, how they dwelt securely after the manner of the Sidonians, quiet and feeling safe; and there was no magistrate in the land, who might put them to shame in anything or injure them; and they were far from the Sidonians and had no dealings with anyone.

    ⁸The five men came back to their brethren at Zorah and Eshtaol, and their brethren said to them, What do you say?

    ⁹They said, Arise, let us go up against them, for we have seen the land, and behold, it is very fertile. And will you do nothing? Do not be slow to go and enter in and possess the land.

    ¹⁰When you go, you will come to people [feeling] safe and secure. The land is broad [widely extended on all sides]; and God has given it into your hands--a place where there is no want of anything that is in the earth.

    ¹¹And there went from there of the tribe of the Danites, out of Zorah and Eshtaol, 600 men armed with weapons of war.

    ¹²And they went up and encamped at Kiriath-jearim in Judah. Therefore they called that place Mahaneh-dan [camp of Dan] to this day; it is west of Kiriath-jearim.

    ¹³And they passed from there to the hill country of Ephraim and came to Micah's house.

    ¹⁴Then the five men who had gone to spy out the country of Laish said to their brethren, Do you know that there are in these houses an ephod, teraphim, a graven image, and a molten image? Now therefore, consider what you have to do.

    ¹⁵And they turned in that direction and came to the house of the young Levite, at the home of Micah, and saluted him.

    ¹⁶Now the 600 Danites with their weapons of war stood at Micah's gate.

    ¹⁷And the five men who had gone to spy out the land went up and entered the house and took the graven image, the ephod, the teraphim, and the molten image, while the priest stood by the entrance of the gate with the 600 men armed with weapons of war.

    ¹⁸And when these went into Micah's house and took the carved image, the ephod, the teraphim, and the molten image, the priest said to them, What are you doing?

    ¹⁹And they said to him, Be still, put your hand over your mouth, and come with us, and be to us a father and a priest. Is it better for you to be a priest to the house of one man, or that you be a priest to a tribe and family in Israel?

    ²⁰And the priest's heart was glad, and he took the ephod, the teraphim, and the graven image, and went in the midst of the people.

    ²¹So they turned and departed and put the little ones, the cattle, and the baggage in front of them.

    ²²When they were a good way from the house of Micah, the men who were Micah's near neighbors were called out and overtook the Danites.

    ²³They shouted to the Danites, who turned and said to Micah, What ails you, that you come with such a company?

    ²⁴And he said, You take away my gods which I made and the priest, and go away; and what have I left? How can you say to me, What ails you?

    ²⁵And the men of Dan said to him, Let not your voice be heard among us, lest angry fellows fall upon you and you lose your life with the lives of your household.

    ²⁶And the Danites went their way; and when Micah saw that they were too strong for him, he turned and went back to his house.

    ²⁷And they took the things which Micah had made, and his priest, and came to Laish, to a people quiet and feeling secure, and they smote them with the sword and burned the city.

    ²⁸And there was no deliverer because it was far from Sidon, and they had no business with anyone. It was in the valley which belongs to Beth-rehob. And they rebuilt the city and dwelt in it.

    ²⁹They named the city Dan, after Dan their forefather who was born to Israel; however, the name of the city was Laish at first.

    ³⁰And the Danites set up the graven image for themselves; and Jonathan son of Gershom, the son of Moses, and his sons were priests to the tribe of Dan until the day of the captivity of the land.

    ³¹So they set them up Micah's graven image which he made, as long as the house of God was at Shiloh.