Jephthah’s Vow

²⁹ Then the spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah, and he passed through Gilead and Manasseh. He passed on to Mizpah of Gilead, and from Mizpah of Gilead he passed on to the Ammonites.^{(A) 30} And Jephthah made a vow to the Lord and said, “If you will give the Ammonites into my hand, ³¹ then whatever^[a] comes out of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return victorious from the Ammonites, shall be the Lord’s, to be offered up by me as a burnt offering.” ³² So Jephthah crossed over to the Ammonites to fight against them, and the Lord gave them into his hand. ³³ He inflicted a massive defeat on them from Aroer to the neighborhood of Minnith, twenty towns, and as far as Abel-keramim. So the Ammonites were subdued before the Israelites.^(B)

Jephthah’s Daughter

³⁴ Then Jephthah came to his home at Mizpah, and there was his daughter coming out to meet him with timbrels and with dancing. She was his only child; he had no son or daughter except her.^{(C) 35} When he saw her, he tore his clothes and said, “Alas, my daughter! You have brought me very low; you have become the cause of great trouble to me. For I have opened my mouth to the Lord, and I cannot take back my vow.”^{(D) 36} She said to him, “My father, if you have opened your mouth to the Lord, do to me according to what has gone out of your mouth, now that the Lord has given you vengeance against your enemies, the Ammonites.”^{(E) 37} And she said to her father, “Let this thing be done for me: grant me two months, so that I may go and wander^[b] on the mountains and bewail my virginity, my companions and I.” ³⁸ “Go,” he said, and he sent her away for two months. So she departed, she and her companions, and bewailed her virginity on the mountains. ³⁹ At the end of two months, she returned to her father, who did with her according to the vow he had made. She had never slept with a man. So there arose an Israelite custom that ⁴⁰ for four days every year the daughters of Israel would go out to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite.

Intertribal Dissension

12 The men of Ephraim were called to arms, and they crossed to Zaphon and said to Jephthah, “Why did you cross over to fight against the Ammonites and did not call us to go with you? We will burn your house down over you!”^{(F) 2} Jephthah said to them, “My people and I were engaged in conflict with the Ammonites who oppressed us^[c] severely. But when I called you, you did not deliver me from their hand. ³ When I saw that you would not deliver me, I took my life in my hand and crossed over against the Ammonites, and the Lord gave them into my hand. Why then have you come up to me this day, to fight against me?”^{(G) 4} Then Jephthah gathered all the men of Gilead and fought with Ephraim, and the men of Gilead defeated Ephraim, because they said, “You are fugitives from Ephraim, you Gileadites, in the heart of Ephraim and Manasseh.”^{[d](H) 5} Then the Gileadites took the fords of the Jordan against the Ephraimites. Whenever one of the fugitives of Ephraim said, “Let me go over,” the men of Gilead would say to him, “Are you an Ephraimite?” When he said, “No,”^{(I) 6} they said to him, “Then say Shibboleth,” and he said, “Sibboleth,” for he could not pronounce it right. Then they seized him and killed him at the fords of the Jordan. Forty-two thousand of the Ephraimites fell at that time.

⁷ Jephthah judged Israel six years. Then Jephthah the Gileadite died and was buried in his town in Gilead.^[e](J)

A Call to Persevere

¹⁹ Therefore, my brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus,^{(A) 20} by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain (that is, through his flesh),^{(B) 21} and since we have a great priest over the house of God,^{(C) 22} let us approach with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.^{(D) 23} Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful.^{(E) 24} And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, ²⁵ not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.^(F)

²⁶ For if we willfully persist in sin after having received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins^{(G) 27} but a fearful prospect of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.^{(H) 28} Anyone who has violated the law of Moses dies without mercy “on the testimony of two or three witnesses.”^{(I) 29} How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by those who have spurned the Son of God, profaned the blood of the covenant by which they were sanctified, and outraged the Spirit of grace?^{(J) 30} For we know the one who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.”^[a] And again, “The Lord will judge his people.”^{(K) 31} It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

³² But recall those earlier days when, after you had been enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings,^{(L) 33} sometimes being publicly exposed to insults and afflictions and sometimes becoming partners with those so treated.^{(M) 34} For you had compassion for those who were in prison, and you cheerfully accepted the plundering of your possessions, knowing that you yourselves possessed something better and more lasting.^{[b](N) 35} Do not, therefore, abandon that boldness of yours; it brings a great reward. ³⁶ For you need endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what was promised.^{(O) 37} For yet

³⁹ But we are not among those who shrink back and so are lost but among those who have faith and so preserve our souls.^(R)

The Birth of Samson

13 The Israelites again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord gave them into the hand of the Philistines forty years.^(A)

² There was a certain man of Zorah, of the tribe of the Danites, whose name was Manoah. His wife was barren, having borne no children.^{(B) 3} And the angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, “Although you are barren, having borne no children, you shall conceive and bear a son.^{(C) 4} Now be careful not to drink wine or strong drink or to eat anything unclean,^{(D) 5} for you shall conceive and bear a son. No razor is to come on his head, for the boy shall be a nazirite to God from birth. It is he who shall begin to deliver Israel from the hand of the Philistines.”^{(E) 6} Then the woman came and told her husband, “A man of God came to me, and his appearance was like that of an angel^[a] of God, most awe-inspiring; I did not ask him where he came from, and he did not tell me his name,^{(F) 7} but he said to me, ‘You shall conceive and bear a son. So then, drink no wine or strong drink and eat nothing unclean, for the boy shall be a nazirite to God from birth to the day of his death.’ ”

⁸ Then Manoah entreated the Lord and said, “O my Lord, I pray, let the man of God whom you sent come to us again and teach us what we are to do concerning the boy who will be born.”^{(G) 9} God listened to Manoah, and the angel of God came again to the woman as she sat in the field, but her husband Manoah was not with her. ¹⁰ So the woman ran quickly and told her husband, “The man who came to me the other day has appeared to me.” ¹¹ Manoah got up and followed his wife and came to the man and said to him, “Are you the man who spoke to this woman?” And he said, “I am.” ¹² Then Manoah said, “Now when your words come true, what is to be the boy’s rule of life; what is he to do?” ¹³ The angel of the Lord said to Manoah, “Let the woman give heed to all that I said to her.^{(H) 14} She may not eat of anything that comes from the vine. She is not to drink wine or strong drink or eat any unclean thing. She is to observe everything that I commanded her.”^(I)

¹⁵ Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, “Allow us to detain you and prepare a kid for you.”^{(J) 16} The angel of the Lord said to Manoah, “If you detain me, I will not eat your food, but if you want to prepare a burnt offering, then offer it to the Lord.” (For Manoah did not know that he was the angel of the Lord.)^{(K) 17} Then Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, “What is your name, so that we may honor you when your words come true?”^{(L) 18} But the angel of the Lord said to him, “Why do you ask my name? It is too wonderful.”^(M)

¹⁹ So Manoah took the kid with the grain offering and offered it on the rock to the Lord, to him who works^[b] wonders.^{[c](N) 20} When the flame went up toward heaven from the altar, the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame of the altar while Manoah and his wife looked on, and they fell on their faces to the ground.^{(O) 21} The angel of the Lord did not appear again to Manoah and his wife. Then Manoah realized that it was the angel of the Lord.^{(P) 22} And Manoah said to his wife, “We shall surely die, for we have seen God.”^{(Q) 23} But his wife said to him, “If the Lord had meant to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering at our hands or shown us all these things or^[d] announced to us such things as these.”

²⁴ The woman bore a son and named him Samson. The boy grew, and the Lord blessed him.^{(R) 25} The spirit of the Lord began to stir him in Mahaneh-dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.^(S)

The Meaning of Faith

11 Now faith is the assurance^[a] of things hoped for, the conviction^[b] of things not seen.^{(A) 2} Indeed, by faith^[c] our ancestors received approval. ³ By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible.^[d](B)

The Examples of Abel, Enoch, and Noah

⁴ By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable^[e] sacrifice than Cain’s. Through this he received approval as righteous, God himself giving approval to his gifts; he died, but through his faith^[f] he still speaks.^{(C) 5} By faith Enoch was taken so that he did not experience death, and “he was not found, because God had taken him.” For it was attested before he was taken away that “he had pleased God.”^{(D) 6} And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would approach God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. ⁷ By faith Noah, warned by God about events as yet unseen, respected the warning and built an ark to save his household; by this he condemned the world and became an heir to the righteousness that is in accordance with faith.^(E)

The Faith of Abraham

⁸ By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to set out for a place that he was to receive as an inheritance, and he set out, not knowing where he was going.^{(F) 9} By faith he stayed for a time in the land he had been promised, as in a foreign land, living in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise.^{(G) 10} For he looked forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.^{(H) 11} By faith, with Sarah’s involvement, he received power of procreation, even though he was too old, because he considered^[g] him faithful who had promised.^{(I) 12} Therefore from one person, and this one as good as dead, descendants were born, “as many as the stars of heaven and as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.”^(J)

¹³ All of these died in faith without having received the promises, but from a distance they saw and greeted them. They confessed that they were strangers and foreigners on the earth,^{(K) 14} for people who speak in this way make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. ¹⁵ If they had been thinking of the land that they had left behind, they would have had opportunity to return. ¹⁶ But as it is, they desire a better homeland, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; indeed, he has prepared a city for them.^(L)

¹⁷ By faith Abraham, when put to the test, offered up Isaac. He who had received the promises was ready to offer up his only son,^{(M) 18} of whom he had been told, “It is through Isaac that descendants shall be named for you.”^{(N) 19} He considered the fact that God is able even to raise someone from the dead—and, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.^{(O) 20} By faith Isaac invoked blessings for the future on Jacob and Esau. ²¹ By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, “bowing in worship over the top of his staff.”^{(P) 22} By faith Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave instructions about his burial.^[h](Q)

The Faith of Moses

²³ By faith Moses was hidden by his parents for three months after his birth, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.^{[i](R) 24} By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called a son of Pharaoh’s daughter, ²⁵ choosing rather to share ill-treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. ²⁶ He considered abuse suffered for the Christ^[j] to be greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking ahead to the reward. ²⁷ By faith he left Egypt, unafraid of the king’s anger, for he persevered as though^[k] he saw him who is invisible. ²⁸ By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel.^[l](S)

The Faith of Other Israelite Heroes

²⁹ By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as if it were dry land, but when the Egyptians attempted to do so they were drowned.^{(T) 30} By faith the walls of Jericho fell after they had been encircled for seven days.^{(U) 31} By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient,^[m] because she had received the spies in peace.^(V)

³² And what more should I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets, ³³ who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions,^{(W) 34} quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.^{(X) 35} Women received their dead by resurrection. Others were tortured, refusing to accept release, in order to obtain a better resurrection.^{(Y) 36} Others suffered mocking and flogging and even chains and imprisonment.^{(Z) 37} They were stoned to death; they were sawn in two;^[n] they were killed by the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, persecuted, tormented^(AA)— ³⁸ of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains and in caves and holes in the ground.^(AB)

³⁹ Yet all these, though they were commended for their faith, did not receive what was promised, ⁴⁰ since God had provided something better so that they would not, apart from us, be made perfect.^(AC)