¹¹ Then three thousand men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam, and said to Samson, “Do you not know that the Philistines ^(A)rule over us? What is this you have done to us?”

And he said to them, “As they did to me, so I have done to them.”

⁴ But his father and mother did not know that it was ^(A)of the Lord—that He was seeking an occasion to move against the Philistines. For at that time ^(B)the Philistines had dominion over Israel.

The Birth of Samson^(A)

13 Again the children of Israel ^(B)did evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord delivered them ^(C)into the hand of the Philistines for forty years.

^47 (A)“Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and gladness of heart, ^(B)for the abundance of everything, ⁴⁸ therefore you shall serve your enemies, whom the Lord will send against you, in ^(C)hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in need of everything; and He ^(D)will put a yoke of iron on your neck until He has destroyed you.

¹³ And the Lord will make ^(A)you the head and not the tail; you shall be above only, and not be beneath, if you ^[a]heed the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, and are careful to observe them.