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.

² Now there was a certain man from ^(D)Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was barren and had no children. ³ And the ^(E)Angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, “Indeed now, you are barren and have borne no children, but you shall conceive and bear a son. ⁴ Now therefore, please be careful ^(F)not to drink wine or similar drink, and not to eat anything unclean. ⁵ For behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. And no ^(G)razor shall come upon his head, for the child shall be ^(H)a Nazirite to God from the womb; and he shall ^(I)begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines.”

⁶ So the woman came and told her husband, saying, ^(J)“A Man of God came to me, and His ^(K)countenance^[a] was like the countenance of the Angel of God, very awesome; but I ^(L)did not ask Him where He was from, and He did not tell me His name. ⁷ And He said to me, ‘Behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. Now drink no wine or similar drink, nor eat anything unclean, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb to the day of his death.’ ”

⁸ Then Manoah prayed to the Lord, and said, “O my Lord, please let the Man of God whom You sent come to us again and teach us what we shall do for the child who will be born.”

⁹ And God listened to the voice of Manoah, and the Angel of God came to the woman again as she was sitting in the field; but Manoah her husband was not with her. ¹⁰ Then the woman ran in haste and told her husband, and said to him, “Look, the Man who came to me the other day has just now appeared to me!”

¹¹ So Manoah arose and followed his wife. When he came to the Man, he said to Him, “Are You the Man who spoke to this woman?”

And He said, “I am.”

¹² Manoah said, “Now let Your words come to pass! What will be the boy’s rule of life, and his work?”

¹³ So the Angel of the Lord said to Manoah, “Of all that I said to the woman let her be careful. ¹⁴ She may not eat anything that comes from the vine, ^(M)nor may she drink wine or similar drink, nor eat anything unclean. All that I commanded her let her observe.”

¹⁵ Then Manoah said to the Angel of the Lord, “Please ^(N)let us detain You, and we will prepare a young goat for You.”

¹⁶ And the Angel of the Lord said to Manoah, “Though you detain Me, I will not eat your food. But if you offer a burnt offering, you must offer it to the Lord.” (For Manoah did not know He was the Angel of the Lord.)

¹⁷ Then Manoah said to the Angel of the Lord, “What is Your name, that when Your words come to pass we may honor You?”

¹⁸ And the Angel of the Lord said to him, ^(O)“Why do you ask My name, seeing it is wonderful?”

¹⁹ So Manoah took the young goat with the grain offering, ^(P)and offered it upon the rock to the Lord. And He did a wondrous thing while Manoah and his wife looked on— ²⁰ it happened as the flame went up toward heaven from the altar—the Angel of the Lord ascended in the flame of the altar! When Manoah and his wife saw this, they ^(Q)fell on their faces to the ground. ²¹ When the Angel of the Lord appeared no more to Manoah and his wife, ^(R)then Manoah knew that He was the Angel of the Lord.

²² And Manoah said to his wife, ^(S)“We shall surely die, because we have seen God!”

²³ But his wife said to him, “If the Lord had desired to kill us, He would not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering from our hands, nor would He have shown us all these things, nor would He have told us such things as these at this time.”

²⁴ So the woman bore a son and called his name ^(T)Samson; and ^(U)the child grew, and the Lord blessed him. ^25 (V)And the Spirit of the Lord began to move upon him at ^[b]Mahaneh Dan ^(W)between Zorah and ^(X)Eshtaol.

Samson’s Philistine Wife

14 Now Samson went down ^(Y)to Timnah, and ^(Z)saw a woman in Timnah of the daughters of the Philistines. ² So he went up and told his father and mother, saying, “I have seen a woman in Timnah of the daughters of the Philistines; now therefore, ^(AA)get her for me as a wife.”

³ Then his father and mother said to him, “Is there no woman among the daughters of ^(AB)your brethren, or among all my people, that you must go and get a wife from the ^(AC)uncircumcised Philistines?”

And Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, for ^[c]she pleases me well.”

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

⁵ So Samson went down to Timnah with his father and mother, and came to the vineyards of Timnah.

Now to his surprise, a young lion came roaring against him. ⁶ And ^(AF)the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and he tore the lion apart as one would have torn apart a young goat, though he had nothing in his hand. But he did not tell his father or his mother what he had done.

⁷ Then he went down and talked with the woman; and she pleased Samson well. ⁸ After some time, when he returned to get her, he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion. And behold, a swarm of bees and honey were in the carcass of the lion. ⁹ He took some of it in his hands and went along, eating. When he came to his father and mother, he gave some to them, and they also ate. But he did not tell them that he had taken the honey out of the ^(AG)carcass of the lion.

¹⁰ So his father went down to the woman. And Samson gave a feast there, for young men used to do so. ¹¹ And it happened, when they saw him, that they brought thirty companions to be with him.

¹² Then Samson said to them, “Let me ^(AH)pose a riddle to you. If you can correctly solve and explain it to me ^(AI)within the seven days of the feast, then I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty ^(AJ)changes of clothing. ¹³ But if you cannot explain it to me, then you shall give me thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothing.”

And they said to him, ^(AK)“Pose your riddle, that we may hear it.”

¹⁴ So he said to them:

Now for three days they could not explain the riddle.

¹⁵ But it came to pass on the ^[d]seventh day that they said to Samson’s wife, ^(AL)“Entice your husband, that he may explain the riddle to us, ^(AM)or else we will burn you and your father’s house with fire. Have you invited us in order to take what is ours? Is that not so?”

¹⁶ Then Samson’s wife wept on him, and said, ^(AN)“You only hate me! You do not love me! You have posed a riddle to the sons of my people, but you have not explained it to me.”

And he said to her, “Look, I have not explained it to my father or my mother; so should I explain it to you?” ¹⁷ Now she had wept on him the seven days while their feast lasted. And it happened on the seventh day that he told her, because she pressed him so much. Then she explained the riddle to the sons of her people. ¹⁸ So the men of the city said to him on the seventh day before the sun went down:

And he said to them:

¹⁹ Then ^(AO)the Spirit of the Lord came upon him mightily, and he went down to Ashkelon and killed thirty of their men, took their apparel, and gave the changes of clothing to those who had explained the riddle. So his anger was aroused, and he went back up to his father’s house. ²⁰ And Samson’s wife ^(AP)was given to his companion, who had been ^(AQ)his best man.

The Lamb of God^(A)

²⁹ The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! ^(B)The Lamb of God ^(C)who takes away the sin of the world! ³⁰ This is He of whom I said, ‘After me comes a Man who ^[a]is preferred before me, for He was before me.’ ³¹ I did not know Him; but that He should be revealed to Israel, ^(D)therefore I came baptizing with water.”

^32 (E)And John bore witness, saying, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him. ³³ I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, ^(F)this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ ³⁴ And I have seen and testified that this is the ^(G)Son of God.”

The First Disciples

³⁵ Again, the next day, John stood with two of his disciples. ³⁶ And looking at Jesus as He walked, he said, ^(H)“Behold the Lamb of God!”

³⁷ The two disciples heard him speak, and they ^(I)followed Jesus. ³⁸ Then Jesus turned, and seeing them following, said to them, “What do you seek?”

They said to Him, “Rabbi” (which is to say, when translated, Teacher), “where are You staying?”

³⁹ He said to them, “Come and see.” They came and saw where He was staying, and remained with Him that day (now it was about the tenth hour).

⁴⁰ One of the two who heard John speak, and followed Him, was ^(J)Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. ⁴¹ He first found his own brother Simon, and said to him, “We have found the ^[b]Messiah” (which is translated, the Christ). ⁴² And he brought him to Jesus.

Now when Jesus looked at him, He said, “You are Simon the son of ^[c]Jonah. ^(K)You shall be called Cephas” (which is translated, ^[d]A Stone).

Philip and Nathanael

⁴³ The following day Jesus wanted to go to Galilee, and He found ^(L)Philip and said to him, “Follow Me.” ⁴⁴ Now ^(M)Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. ⁴⁵ Philip found ^(N)Nathanael and said to him, “We have found Him of whom ^(O)Moses in the law, and also the ^(P)prophets, wrote—Jesus ^(Q)of Nazareth, the ^(R)son of Joseph.”

⁴⁶ And Nathanael said to him, ^(S)“Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”

Philip said to him, “Come and see.”

⁴⁷ Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward Him, and said of him, “Behold, ^(T)an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit!”

⁴⁸ Nathanael said to Him, “How do You know me?”

Jesus answered and said to him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.”

⁴⁹ Nathanael answered and said to Him, “Rabbi, ^(U)You are the Son of God! You are ^(V)the King of Israel!”

⁵⁰ Jesus answered and said to him, “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” ⁵¹ And He said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, ^(W)hereafter^[e] you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”

The Lord’s Eternal Love

A Prayer of the afflicted, ^(A)when he is overwhelmed and pours out his complaint before the Lord.