The Birth of Samson

13 Then the sons of Israel ^(A)again did what was evil in the eyes of Yahweh, so that Yahweh gave them into the hand of the Philistines forty years.

² And there was a certain man of ^(B)Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was barren and had borne no children. ^3 (C)Then the angel of Yahweh appeared to the woman and said to her, “Behold now, you are barren and have borne no children, but you ^[a]shall be with child and give birth to a son. ⁴ So now, be careful ^(D)not to drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing. ^5 (E)For behold, you ^[b]shall be with child and give birth to a son, and no razor shall come upon his head, for the boy shall be a ^(F)Nazirite to God from the womb; and he shall begin to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines.” ⁶ Then the woman came and told her husband, saying, “^(G)A man of God came to me, and his appearance was like the appearance of the angel of God, very awesome. And I did not ask him where he came from, nor did he tell me his name. ⁷ And he said to me, ‘Behold, you ^[c]shall be with child and give birth to a son, so now you shall not drink wine or strong drink, and you shall not eat any unclean thing, for the boy shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb to the day of his death.’”

⁸ Then Manoah entreated Yahweh and said, “O Lord, please let ^(H)the man of God whom You have sent come to us again that he may instruct us what to do for the boy who is to be born.” ⁹ And God listened to the voice of Manoah; and ^(I)the angel of God came again to the woman as she was sitting in the field, but Manoah her husband was not with her. ¹⁰ So the woman ran quickly and told her husband, and she said to him, “Behold, ^(J)the man who came the other day to me has appeared to me.” ¹¹ Then Manoah arose and followed his wife, and when he came to the man he said to him, “Are you ^(K)the man who spoke to the woman?” And he said, “I am.” ¹² So Manoah said, “Now your words will come to pass. What shall be the judgment governing the boy and his work?” ¹³ So ^(L)the angel of Yahweh said to Manoah, “^(M)Let the woman be careful in all that I said. ¹⁴ She should not eat anything that comes from the ^(N)vine, nor drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing; let her keep all that I commanded.”

¹⁵ Then Manoah said to ^(O)the angel of Yahweh, “Please let us delay you so that we may prepare a young goat for you.” ¹⁶ And the angel of Yahweh said to Manoah, “Though you delay me, ^(P)I will not eat your ^[d]food, but if you prepare a burnt offering, then offer it to Yahweh.” For Manoah did not know that he was the angel of Yahweh. ¹⁷ Then Manoah said to the angel of Yahweh, “^(Q)What is your name, so that when your words come to pass, we may honor you?” ¹⁸ But the angel of Yahweh said to him, “Why do you ask my name, seeing it is ^[e](R)wonderful?” ¹⁹ So ^(S)Manoah took the young goat with the grain offering and offered it on the rock to Yahweh, and He did a wondrous thing while Manoah and his wife looked on. ²⁰ Indeed, it happened when the flame went up from the altar toward heaven, that the angel of Yahweh went up in the flame of the altar. And Manoah and his wife saw this, so they ^(T)fell on their faces to the ground.

²¹ Now the angel of Yahweh did not appear to Manoah or his wife again. ^(U)Then Manoah knew that he was the angel of Yahweh. ²² So Manoah said to his wife, “^(V)We will surely die, for we have seen God.” ²³ But his wife said to him, “If Yahweh had desired to put us to death, He would not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering from our hands, nor would He have ^(W)shown us all these things, nor would He have let us hear things like this at this time.”

²⁴ Then the woman gave birth to a son and named him Samson; and the ^(X)child grew up, and Yahweh blessed him. ²⁵ And ^(Y)the Spirit of Yahweh began to stir him in ^[f](Z)Mahaneh-dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.

Samson Strikes Down the Philistines

15 Now it happened that after a while, in the time of the wheat harvest, Samson visited his wife ^(A)with a young goat and said, “I will go in to my wife in her room.” But her father did not let him enter. ² And her father said, “I really thought that you hated her intensely; so I ^(B)gave her to your companion. Is not her younger sister better than she? Please let her be yours ^[a]instead.” ³ Samson then said to them, “This time I shall be innocent in regard to the Philistines when I do them harm.” ⁴ So Samson went and caught 300 foxes and took torches and turned the foxes tail to tail and put one torch in the middle between two tails. ⁵ Then he set fire to the torches and sent ^[b]the foxes into the standing grain of the Philistines. So he caused both the shocks and the standing grain, along with the vineyards and groves, to burn. ⁶ Then the Philistines said, “Who did this?” And they said, “Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because ^[c]he took his wife and gave her to his companion.” So the Philistines came up and ^(C)burned her and her father with fire. ⁷ Then Samson said to them, “If you act like this, then I will surely take revenge on you, but after that I will cease.” ⁸ And he struck them ^[d]ruthlessly with a great slaughter; and he went down and lived in the cleft of the rock of Etam.

⁹ Then the Philistines went up and camped in Judah and spread out in Lehi. ¹⁰ So the men of Judah said, “Why have you come up against us?” And they said, “We have come up to bind Samson in order to do to him as he did to us.” ¹¹ Then 3,000 men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam and said to Samson, “Do you not know ^(D)that the Philistines are rulers over us? What then is this that you have done to us?” And he said to them, “As they did to me, so I have done to them.” ¹² And they said to him, “We have come down to bind you so that we may give you into the hand of the Philistines.” And Samson said to them, “Swear to me that you yourselves will not ^[e]kill me.” ¹³ So they said to ^[f]him, “No, but we will bind you fast and give you into their hands; yet surely we will not put you to death.” Then they bound him with two new ropes and brought him up from the rock.

¹⁴ When he came to Lehi, the Philistines shouted as they met him. And ^(E)the Spirit of Yahweh ^[g]came upon him mightily so that the ropes that were on his arms were as flax that is burned with fire, and his bonds ^[h]dropped from his hands. ¹⁵ And he found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, so he sent forth his hand and took it and struck down ^(F)1,000 men with it. ¹⁶ Then Samson said,

¹⁷ Now it happened that when he had finished speaking, he threw the jawbone from his hand; and he named that place ^[j]Ramath-lehi. ¹⁸ Then he became very thirsty, and he ^(G)called to Yahweh and said, “You have given this great salvation by the hand of Your slave, but now ^[k]shall I die of thirst ^[l]and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?” ¹⁹ So God split the hollow place that is in Lehi and water came out of it. Then he drank, ^(H)and his spirit returned, and he revived. Therefore he named it ^[m]En-hakkore, which is in Lehi to this day. ²⁰ And ^(I)he judged Israel twenty years in ^(J)the days of the Philistines.

²¹ Then the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes; and they brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze chains, and he was a grinder in the prison. ²² However, the hair of his head began to grow again after it was shaved off.

²³ Now the lords of the Philistines assembled to offer a great sacrifice to ^(A)Dagon their god and to be glad; and they said,

²⁴ Then the people saw him and ^(B)praised their god, for they said,

²⁵ So it happened when their hearts were merry, that they said, “Call for Samson, that he may amuse us.” So they called for Samson from the prison, and he ^[a]entertained them. And they made him stand between the pillars. ²⁶ Then Samson said to the boy who was holding his hand, “Let me feel the pillars on which the house is established, that I may lean against them.” ²⁷ Now the house was full of men and women, and all the lords of the Philistines were there. And about 3,000 men and women were on the roof looking on while Samson was amusing them.

Samson’s Revenge

^28 (C)Then Samson called to Yahweh and said, “O Lord Yahweh, please remember me and please strengthen me just this time, O God, that I may at once ^(D)be avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes.” ²⁹ Samson grasped the two middle pillars on which the house was established and supported himself against them, the one with his right hand and the other with his left. ³⁰ And Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines!” And he bent with his strength so that the house fell on the lords and all the people who were in it. So the dead whom he put to death by his death were more than those whom he put to death in his life. ³¹ Then his brothers and all his father’s household came down, carried him, brought him up, and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol, in the tomb of Manoah his father. ^(E)Thus he had judged Israel twenty years.