Judges 13-16

International Children’s Bible

The Birth of Samson

13 Again the people of Israel did what the Lord said was wrong. So he let the Philistines rule over them for 40 years.

² There was a man named Manoah from the city of Zorah. Manoah was from the tribe of Dan. He had a wife, but she could not have children. ³ The angel of the Lord appeared to Manoah’s wife. He said, “You have not been able to have children. But you will become pregnant and have a son! ⁴ Don’t drink wine or beer. Don’t eat anything that is unclean. ⁵ You will become pregnant and have a son. You must never cut his hair because he will be a Nazirite. He will be given to God from birth. He will begin the work of saving Israel from the power of the Philistines.”

⁶ Then Manoah’s wife went to him and told him what had happened. She said, “A man from God came to me. He looked like an angel from God. His appearance was frightening. I didn’t ask him where he was from. And he didn’t tell me his name. ⁷ But he said to me, ‘You will be pregnant and will have a son. Don’t drink wine or beer. Don’t eat anything that is unclean. The reason is that the boy will be a Nazirite to God. He will be that from his birth until the day of his death.’”

⁸ Then Manoah said a prayer to the Lord: “Lord, I beg you to let the man of God come to us again. Let him teach us what we should do for the boy who will be born to us.”

⁹ God heard Manoah’s prayer. The angel of God came to Manoah’s wife again. This was while she was sitting in a field. But her husband Manoah was not with her. ¹⁰ So she ran to tell him, “He is here! The man who appeared to me the other day is here!”

¹¹ Manoah got up and followed his wife. When he came to the man, he said, “Are you the man who spoke to my wife?”

The man said, “I am.”

¹² So Manoah asked, “When what you say happens, what kind of life should the boy live? What should he do?”

¹³ The angel of the Lord said, “Your wife must do everything I told her to do. ¹⁴ She must not eat anything that grows on a grapevine. She must not drink any wine or beer. She must not eat anything that is unclean. She must do everything I have commanded her to do.”

¹⁵ Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, “We would like you to stay awhile. We want to cook a young goat for you.”

¹⁶ The angel of the Lord answered, “Even if I stay awhile, I would not eat your food. But if you want to prepare something, offer a burnt offering to the Lord.” (Manoah did not understand that the man was really the angel of the Lord.)

¹⁷ Then Manoah asked the angel of the Lord, “What is your name? We want to know. Then we may honor you when what you have said really happens.”

¹⁸ The angel of the Lord said, “Why do you ask my name? It is too wonderful for you to understand.” ¹⁹ Then Manoah sacrificed a young goat on a rock. He also offered some grain as a gift to the Lord. The Lord did an amazing thing. Manoah and his wife watched what happened. ²⁰ The flames went up to the sky from the altar. As the fire burned, the angel of the Lord went up to heaven in the fire! When Manoah and his wife saw that, they bowed facedown on the ground. ²¹ The angel of the Lord did not appear to them again. Then Manoah understood that the man was really the angel of the Lord. ²² Manoah said, “We have seen God! Surely we will die because of this!”

²³ But his wife said to him, “The Lord does not want to kill us. If he wanted to kill us, he would not have accepted our burnt offering or grain offering. He would not have shown us all these things. And he would not have told us all this.”

²⁴ So the woman gave birth to a boy. She named him Samson. Samson grew, and the Lord blessed him. ²⁵ The Spirit of the Lord began to work in Samson. This was while he was in the city of Mahaneh Dan. It is between the cities of Zorah and Eshtaol.

Samson’s Marriage

14 Samson went down to the city of Timnah. There he saw a young Philistine woman. ² When he returned home, he said to his father and mother, “I saw a Philistine woman in Timnah. I want you to get her for me. I want to marry her.”

³ His father and mother answered, “Surely there is a woman from Israel you can marry. Do you have to marry a woman from the Philistines? The Philistines are not even circumcised.”

But Samson said, “Get that woman for me! She is the one I want!” ⁴ (Samson’s parents did not know that the Lord wanted this to happen. He was looking for a way to start a fight with the Philistines. They were ruling over Israel at this time.) ⁵ Samson went down with his father and mother to Timnah. They went as far as the vineyard near there. Suddenly, a young lion came roaring toward Samson! ⁶ The Spirit of the Lord entered Samson with great power. Samson tore the lion apart with his bare hands. For him it was as easy as tearing apart a young goat. But Samson did not tell his father or mother what he had done. ⁷ Then he went down to the city. There he talked to the Philistine woman, and he liked her.

⁸ Several days later Samson went back to marry her. On his way he went over to look at the body of the dead lion. He found a swarm of bees in it. They had made some honey. ⁹ Samson got some of the honey with his hands. He walked along eating it. When he came to his parents, he gave some to them. They ate it, too. But Samson did not tell them he had taken the honey from the body of the dead lion.

¹⁰ Samson’s father went down to see the Philistine woman. The custom was for the bridegroom to give a feast. So Samson gave a feast. ¹¹ When the people saw him, they sent 30 men to be with him.

Samson’s Riddle

¹² Then Samson said to the 30 men, “Let me tell you a riddle. This feast will last for seven days. Try to find the answer during that time. If you can, I will give you 30 linen shirts. I will also give you 30 changes of clothes. ¹³ But if you can’t tell me the answer, you must pay me. You must give me 30 linen shirts and 30 changes of clothes.”

So they said, “Tell us your riddle. We want to hear it.”

¹⁴ Samson said,

The 30 men tried for three days to figure it out. But they could not find the answer.

¹⁵ On the fourth^[a] day, they came to Samson’s wife. They said, “Did you invite us here to make us poor? Trick your husband into telling us the answer to the riddle. If you don’t, we will burn you and everyone in your father’s house!”

¹⁶ So Samson’s wife went to him and began crying. She said, “You hate me! You don’t really love me! You told my people a riddle, but you won’t tell me the answer.”

Samson said, “I haven’t even told my father or mother. Why should I tell you?”

¹⁷ Samson’s wife cried for the rest of the seven days of the feast. So he finally gave her the answer on the seventh day. He told her because she kept bothering him. Then she told her people the answer to the riddle.

¹⁸ Before sunset on the seventh day of the feast, the Philistine men had the answer. They came to Samson and said,

Then Samson said to them,

¹⁹ The Spirit of the Lord entered Samson and gave him great power. Samson went down to the city of Ashkelon. He killed 30 of their men and took all their clothes and property. He gave those clothes to the men who had answered his riddle. Then he went to his father’s house very angry. ²⁰ And Samson’s wife was given to his best man at the wedding.

Samson Troubles the Philistines

15 At the time of the wheat harvest, Samson went to visit his wife. He took a young goat with him. He said, “I’m going to my wife’s room.” But her father would not let Samson go in.

² He said to Samson, “I thought you really hated your wife. So I gave her to the best man from the wedding. Her younger sister is more beautiful. Take her.”

³ But Samson said to him, “Now I have a good reason to hurt you Philistines. No one will blame me!” ⁴ So Samson went out and caught 300 foxes. He took 2 foxes at a time and tied their tails together. Then he tied a torch to the tails of each pair of foxes. ⁵ Samson lit the torches. Then he let the foxes loose in the grainfields of the Philistines. In this way he burned up their standing grain and the piles of grain. He also burned up their vineyards and their olive trees.

⁶ The Philistines asked, “Who did this?”

Someone told them, “Samson, the son-in-law of the man from Timnah, did. He did this because his father-in-law gave his wife to his best man.”

So the Philistines burned Samson’s wife and her father to death. ⁷ Then Samson said to the Philistines, “Since you did this, I will hurt you, too! I won’t stop until I pay you back!” ⁸ Samson attacked the Philistines and killed many of them. Then he went down and stayed in a cave. It was in the rock of Etam.

⁹ Then the Philistines went up and camped in the land of Judah. They stopped near a place named Lehi. ¹⁰ The men of Judah asked them, “Why have you come here to fight us?”

They answered, “We have come to make Samson our prisoner. We want to pay him back for what he did to our people.”

¹¹ Then 3,000 men of Judah went to the cave in the rock of Etam. They said to Samson, “What have you done to us? Don’t you know that the Philistines rule over us?”

Samson answered, “I only paid them back for what they did to me!”

¹² Then they said to him, “We have come to tie you up. We will give you to the Philistines.”

Samson said to them, “Promise me you will not hurt me yourselves.”

¹³ The men from Judah said, “We agree. We will just tie you up and give you to the Philistines. We will not kill you.” So they tied Samson with two new ropes. Then they led him up from the cave in the rock. ¹⁴ When Samson came to the place named Lehi, the Philistines came to meet him. They were shouting for joy. Then the Spirit of the Lord entered Samson and gave him great power. The ropes on him became weak like strings that had been burned. They fell off his hands! ¹⁵ Samson found a jawbone of a donkey that had just died. He took it and killed 1,000 men with it!

¹⁶ Then Samson said,

¹⁷ When he finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone. So that place was named Ramath Lehi.^[b]

¹⁸ Samson was very thirsty. So he cried out to the Lord. He said, “I am your servant. You gave me this great victory. Do I have to die of thirst now? Do I have to be captured by people who are not circumcised?” ¹⁹ Then God opened up a hole in the ground at Lehi, and water came out. When Samson drank that water, he felt better. He felt strong again. So he named that spring Caller’s Spring. It is still there in Lehi to this day.

²⁰ So Samson judged Israel for 20 years. That was in the days of the Philistines.

Samson Goes to the City of Gaza

16 One day Samson went to Gaza. He saw a prostitute there. He went in to spend the night with her. ² Someone told the people of Gaza, “Samson has come here!” So they surrounded the place and hid and waited for him. Remaining very quiet, they stayed near the city gate all night. They said to each other, “When dawn comes, we will kill Samson!”

³ But Samson only stayed with the prostitute until midnight. Then he got up and took hold of the doors and the two posts of the city gate. He tore them loose, along with the bar. Then he put them on his shoulders. And he carried them to the top of the hill that faces the city of Hebron!

Samson and Delilah

⁴ After this, Samson fell in love with a woman named Delilah. She lived in the Valley of Sorek. ⁵ The kings of the Philistines went to Delilah. They said, “Try to find out what makes Samson so strong. Try to trick him into telling you. Find out how we could capture him and tie him up. Then we will be able to control him. If you do this, each one of us will give you 28 pounds of silver.”

⁶ So Delilah said to Samson, “Tell me why you are so strong. How could someone tie you up and take control of you?”

⁷ Samson answered, “Someone would have to tie me up. He would have to use seven new bowstrings that have not been dried. If he did that, I would be as weak as any other man.”

⁸ Then the kings of the Philistines brought seven new bowstrings to Delilah. They had not been dried. She tied Samson with them. ⁹ Some men were hiding in another room. Delilah said to Samson, “Samson, the Philistines are about to capture you!” But Samson easily broke the bowstrings. They broke like pieces of string burned in a fire. So the Philistines did not find out the secret of Samson’s strength.

¹⁰ Then Delilah said to Samson, “You’ve made me look foolish. You lied to me. Please tell me. How could someone tie you up?”

¹¹ Samson said, “They would have to tie me with new ropes that have not been used before. Then I would become as weak as any other man.”

¹² So Delilah took new ropes and tied Samson. Some men were hiding in another room. Then she called out to him, “Samson, the Philistines are about to capture you!” But he broke the ropes as easily as if they were threads.

¹³ Then Delilah said to Samson, “Until now, you have made me look foolish. You have lied to me. Tell me how someone could tie you up.”

He said, “Use the loom.^[c] Weave the seven braids of my hair into the cloth. Tighten it with a pin. Then I will become as weak as any other man.”

Then Samson went to sleep. So Delilah wove the seven braids of his hair into the cloth. ¹⁴ Then she fastened it with a pin.

Again she called out to him, “Samson, the Philistines are about to capture you!” Samson woke up and pulled up the pin and the loom with the cloth.

¹⁵ Then Delilah said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when you don’t even trust me? This is the third time you have made me look foolish. You haven’t told me the secret of your great strength.” ¹⁶ She kept bothering Samson about his secret day after day. He became so tired of it he felt he was going to die!

¹⁷ So he told her everything. He said, “I have never had my hair cut. I have been set apart to God as a Nazirite since I was born. If someone shaved my head, then I would lose my strength. I would become as weak as any other man.”

¹⁸ Delilah saw that he had told her everything sincerely. So she sent a message to the kings of the Philistines. She said, “Come back one more time. He has told me everything.” So the kings of the Philistines came back to Delilah. They brought the silver they had promised to give her. ¹⁹ Delilah got Samson to go to sleep. He was lying in her lap. Then she called in a man to shave off the seven braids of Samson’s hair. In this way she began to make him weak. And Samson’s strength left him.

²⁰ Then she called out to him, “Samson, the Philistines are about to capture you!”

He woke up and thought, “I’ll get loose as I did before and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the Lord had left him.

²¹ Then the Philistines captured Samson. They tore out his eyes. And they took him down to Gaza. They put bronze chains on him. They put him in prison and made him grind grain. ²² But his hair began to grow again.

Samson Dies

²³ The kings of the Philistines gathered to celebrate. They were going to offer a great sacrifice to their god Dagon. They said, “Our god has given us Samson our enemy.” ²⁴ When they saw him, they praised their god. They said,

²⁵ The people were having a good time at the celebration. They said, “Bring Samson out to perform for us.” So they brought Samson from the prison. He performed for them. They made him stand between the pillars of the temple of Dagon. ²⁶ A servant was holding his hand. Samson said to him, “Let me feel the pillars that hold up the temple. I want to lean against them.” ²⁷ Now the temple was full of men and women. All the kings of the Philistines were there. There were about 3,000 men and women on the roof.^[d] They watched Samson perform. ²⁸ Then Samson prayed to the Lord. He said, “Lord God, remember me. God, please give me strength one more time. Let me pay these Philistines back for putting out my two eyes!” ²⁹ Then Samson held the two center pillars of the temple. These two pillars supported the whole temple. He braced himself between the two pillars. His right hand was on one, and his left hand was on the other. ³⁰ Samson said, “Let me die with these Philistines!” Then he pushed as hard as he could. And the temple fell on the kings and all the people in it. So Samson killed more of the Philistines when he died than when he was alive.

³¹ Samson’s brothers and his whole family went down to get his body. They brought him back and buried him in the tomb of Manoah, his father. That tomb is between the cities of Zorah and Eshtaol. Samson was a judge for the people of Israel for 20 years.