⁴ (His parents did not know that this was from the Lord,^(A) who was seeking an occasion to confront the Philistines;^(B) for at that time they were ruling over Israel.)^(C)

²⁰ For it was the Lord himself who hardened their hearts^(A) to wage war against Israel, so that he might destroy them totally, exterminating them without mercy, as the Lord had commanded Moses.^(B)

The Birth of Samson

13 Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, so the Lord delivered them into the hands of the Philistines^(A) for forty years.^(B)

⁷ Through Ahaziah’s^(A) visit to Joram, God brought about Ahaziah’s downfall. When Ahaziah arrived, he went out with Joram to meet Jehu son of Nimshi, whom the Lord had anointed to destroy the house of Ahab.

¹⁵ So the king did not listen to the people, for this turn of events was from God,^(A) to fulfill the word the Lord had spoken to Jeroboam son of Nebat through Ahijah the Shilonite.^(B)

³³ While he was still talking to them, the messenger came down to him.

The king said, “This disaster is from the Lord. Why should I wait^(A) for the Lord any longer?”

¹⁵ So the king did not listen to the people, for this turn of events was from the Lord,^(A) to fulfill the word the Lord had spoken to Jeroboam son of Nebat through Ahijah^(B) the Shilonite.

²⁰ Amaziah, however, would not listen, for God so worked that he might deliver them into the hands of Jehoash, because they sought the gods of Edom.^(A)

¹¹ Then 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?^(A) What have you done to us?”

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