Samson Defeats the Philistines

15 After some days, at the time of wheat harvest, Samson went to visit his wife with ^(A)a young goat. And he said, “I will go in to my wife in the chamber.” But her father would not allow him to go in. ² And her father said, “I really thought that you utterly hated her, ^(B)so I gave her to your companion. Is not her younger sister more beautiful than she? Please take her instead.” ³ And Samson 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 he turned them tail to tail and put a torch between each pair of tails. ⁵ And when he had set fire to the torches, he let the foxes go into the standing corn of the Philistines and set fire to the stacked corn and the standing corn, as well as the olive orchards. ⁶ Then the Philistines said, “Who has done this?” And they said, “Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he has taken his wife ^(C)and given her to his companion.” And the Philistines came up and ^(D)burned her and her father with fire. ⁷ And Samson said to them, “If this is what you do, I swear I will be avenged on you, and after that I will quit.” ⁸ And he struck them hip and thigh with a great blow, and he went down and stayed in the ^(E)cleft of the rock of Etam.

⁹ Then the Philistines came up and encamped in Judah and ^(F)made a raid on ^(G)Lehi. ¹⁰ And the men of Judah said, “Why have you come up against us?” They said, “We have come up to bind Samson, 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 that ^(H)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 have I done to them.” ¹² And they said to him, “We have come down to bind you, that we may give you into the hands of the Philistines.” And Samson said to them, “Swear to me that you will not attack me yourselves.” ¹³ They said to him, “No; we will only bind you and give you into their hands. We will surely not kill you.” So they bound him with two ^(I)new ropes and brought him up from the rock.

¹⁴ When he came to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting to meet him. ^(J)Then the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him, and the ropes that were on his arms became as flax that has caught fire, and his bonds melted off his hands. ¹⁵ And he found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, and put out his hand and took it, ^(K)and with it he struck 1,000 men. ¹⁶ And Samson said,

¹⁷ As soon as he had finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone out of his hand. And that place ^(L)was called Ramath-lehi.^[a]

¹⁸ And he was very thirsty, and he called upon the Lord and said, ^(M)“You have granted this great salvation by the hand of your servant, and shall I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?” ¹⁹ And God split open the hollow place that is ^(N)at Lehi, and water came out from it. And when he drank, ^(O)his spirit returned, and he revived. Therefore the name of it was called En-hakkore;^[b] it is at Lehi to this day. ²⁰ And he judged Israel ^(P)in the days of the Philistines for twenty years.

Paul in Ephesus

19 And it happened that while ^(A)Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed ^(B)through the inland^[a] country and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples. ² And he said to them, ^(C)“Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” And they said, “No, ^(D)we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” ³ And he said, ^(E)“Into what then were you baptized?” They said, “Into ^(F)John's baptism.” ⁴ And Paul said, ^(G)“John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people ^(H)to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Jesus.” ⁵ On hearing this, ^(I)they were baptized in^[b] the name of the Lord Jesus. ⁶ And ^(J)when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and ^(K)they began speaking in tongues and ^(L)prophesying. ⁷ There were about twelve men in all.

⁸ And ^(M)he entered the synagogue and for three months spoke boldly, reasoning and persuading them ^(N)about the kingdom of God. ^9 (O)But when some became stubborn and ^(P)continued in unbelief, speaking evil of ^(Q)the Way before the congregation, he withdrew from them and took the disciples with him, reasoning daily in the hall of Tyrannus.^{[c] 10} This continued for ^(R)two years, so that ^(S)all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.

The Sons of Sceva

¹¹ And ^(T)God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, ^12 (U)so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them and ^(V)the evil spirits came out of them. ¹³ Then some of the itinerant Jewish ^(W)exorcists ^(X)undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, ^(Y)“I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims.” ¹⁴ Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this. ¹⁵ But the evil spirit answered them, ^(Z)“Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?” ¹⁶ And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered all^[d] of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. ¹⁷ And this became known to all the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks. And fear fell upon them all, and ^(AA)the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled. ¹⁸ Also many of those who were now believers came, ^(AB)confessing and divulging their practices. ¹⁹ And a number of those who had practised magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver. ²⁰ So the word of the Lord ^(AC)continued to increase and prevail mightily.

A Riot at Ephesus

²¹ Now after these events Paul resolved in the Spirit ^(AD)to pass through ^(AE)Macedonia and Achaia and ^(AF)go to Jerusalem, saying, “After I have been there, ^(AG)I must also see Rome.” ²² And having sent into Macedonia two of ^(AH)his helpers, ^(AI)Timothy and Erastus, he himself stayed in Asia ^(AJ)for a while.

²³ About that time ^(AK)there arose no little disturbance concerning ^(AL)the Way. ²⁴ For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Artemis, ^(AM)brought no little business to the craftsmen. ^25 (AN)These he gathered together, with the workmen in similar trades, and said, “Men, you know that from this business we have our wealth. ²⁶ And you see and hear that not only in Ephesus but in almost all of Asia this Paul has persuaded and turned away a great many people, ^(AO)saying that ^(AP)gods made with hands are not gods. ²⁷ And there is danger not only that this trade of ours may come into disrepute but also that the temple of the ^(AQ)great goddess Artemis may be counted as nothing, and that she may even be deposed from her magnificence, she whom all Asia and the world worship.”

²⁸ When they heard this they were enraged and were crying out, ^(AR)“Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” ²⁹ So the city was filled with the confusion, and they rushed together into the theatre, dragging with them Gaius and ^(AS)Aristarchus, Macedonians who were Paul's ^(AT)companions in travel. ³⁰ But when Paul wished to go in among the crowd, the disciples would not let him. ³¹ And even some of the Asiarchs,^[e] who were friends of his, sent to him and were urging him not to venture into the theatre. ^32 (AU)Now some cried out one thing, some another, for the assembly was in confusion, and most of them did not know why they had come together. ³³ Some of the crowd prompted Alexander, whom the Jews had put forward. And Alexander, ^(AV)motioning with his hand, wanted to make a defence to the crowd. ³⁴ But when they recognized that he was a Jew, for about two hours they all cried out with one voice, ^(AW)“Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”

³⁵ And when the town clerk had quietened the crowd, he said, “Men of Ephesus, who is there who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is temple keeper of the great Artemis, and of the sacred stone that fell from ^(AX)the sky?^{[f] 36} Seeing then that these things cannot be denied, you ought to be quiet and do nothing rash. ³⁷ For you have brought ^(AY)these men here who are neither ^(AZ)sacrilegious nor blasphemers of our goddess. ³⁸ If therefore Demetrius and the craftsmen with him have a complaint against anyone, the courts are open, and there are ^(BA)proconsuls. Let them bring charges against one another. ³⁹ But if you seek anything further,^[g] it shall be settled in the regular assembly. ⁴⁰ For we really are in danger of being charged with rioting today, since there is no cause that we can give to justify this commotion.” ⁴¹ And when he had said these things, he dismissed the assembly.

Hananiah the False Prophet

28 In that same year, at the beginning of the reign of ^(A)Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fifth month of the fourth year, Hananiah the son of ^(B)Azzur, the prophet from ^(C)Gibeon, spoke to me in the house of the Lord, in the presence of the priests and all the people, saying, ² “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ^(D)I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon. ^3 (E)Within ^(F)two years I will bring back to this place all the vessels of the Lord's house, which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took away from this place and carried to Babylon. ⁴ I will also bring back to this place ^(G)Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and all the exiles from Judah who went to Babylon, declares the Lord, ^(H)for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.”

⁵ Then the prophet Jeremiah spoke to Hananiah the prophet in the presence of the priests and all the people who were standing in the house of the Lord, ⁶ and the prophet Jeremiah said, ^(I)“Amen! May the Lord do so; may the Lord make the words that you have prophesied come true, and bring back to this place from Babylon the vessels of the house of the Lord, and all the exiles. ⁷ Yet hear now this word that I speak in your hearing and in the hearing of all the people. ^8 (J)The prophets who preceded you and me from ancient times prophesied war, famine, and pestilence against many countries and great kingdoms. ^9 (K)As for the prophet who prophesies peace, when the word of that prophet comes to pass, then it will be known that the Lord has truly sent the prophet.”

¹⁰ Then the prophet Hananiah took the ^(L)yoke-bars from the neck of Jeremiah the prophet and broke them. ¹¹ And Hananiah spoke in the presence of all the people, saying, ^(M)“Thus says the Lord: ^(N)Even so will I break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon from the neck of ^(O)all the nations within two years.” But Jeremiah the prophet went his way.

¹² Sometime after the prophet ^(P)Hananiah had broken the yoke-bars from off the neck of Jeremiah the prophet, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: ¹³ “Go, tell Hananiah, ‘Thus says the Lord: You have broken wooden bars, but you have made in their place bars of iron. ¹⁴ For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: I have put upon the neck of all these nations ^(Q)an iron yoke to serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, ^(R)and they shall serve him, ^(S)for I have given to him even the beasts of the field.’” ¹⁵ And Jeremiah the prophet said to the prophet Hananiah, “Listen, Hananiah, ^(T)the Lord has not sent you, ^(U)and you have made this people trust in a lie. ¹⁶ Therefore thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, I will remove you from the face of the earth. This year you shall die, ^(V)because you have uttered rebellion against the Lord.’”

¹⁷ In that same year, in the seventh month, the prophet Hananiah died.