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.”

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)

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)

⁴⁷ Because you did not serve^(A) the Lord your God joyfully and gladly^(B) in the time of prosperity, ⁴⁸ therefore in hunger and thirst,^(C) in nakedness and dire poverty, you will serve the enemies the Lord sends against you. He will put an iron yoke^(D) on your neck^(E) until he has destroyed you.

¹³ The Lord will make you the head, not the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the Lord your God that I give you this day and carefully follow^(A) them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom.^(B)