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 grain of the Philistines and set fire to the stacked grain and the standing grain, 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 twenty years.

Samson and Delilah

16 Samson went to ^(Q)Gaza, and there he saw a prostitute, and he went in to her. ² The Gazites were told, “Samson has come here.” And they ^(R)surrounded the place and set an ambush for him all night at the gate of the city. They kept quiet all night, saying, “Let us wait till the light of the morning; then we will kill him.” ³ But Samson lay till midnight, and at midnight he arose and took hold of the doors of the gate of the city and the two posts, and pulled them up, bar and all, and put them on his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill that is in front of Hebron.

⁴ After this he loved a woman in the Valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. ⁵ And ^(S)the lords of the Philistines came up to her and said to her, ^(T)“Seduce him, and see where his great strength lies, and by what means we may overpower him, that we may bind him to ^(U)humble him. And we will each give you 1,100 pieces of silver.” ⁶ So Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me where your great strength lies, and how you might be bound, that one could ^(V)subdue you.”

⁷ Samson said to her, “If they bind me with seven fresh bowstrings that have not been dried, ^(W)then I shall become weak and be like any other man.” ⁸ Then the lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven fresh bowstrings that had not been dried, and she bound him with them. ⁹ Now she had men lying in ambush in an inner chamber. And she said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” But he snapped the bowstrings, as a thread of flax snaps when it touches the fire. So the secret of his strength was not known.

¹⁰ Then Delilah said to Samson, “Behold, you have mocked me and told me lies. Please tell me how you might be bound.” ¹¹ And he said to her, “If they bind me with ^(X)new ropes that have not been used, then I shall become weak and be like any other man.” ¹² So Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them and said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” And the men lying in ambush were in an inner chamber. But he snapped the ropes off his arms like a thread.

¹³ Then Delilah said to Samson, “Until now you have mocked me and told me lies. Tell me how you might be bound.” And he said to her, “If you weave the seven locks of my head with the web and fasten it tight with the pin, then I shall become weak and be like any other man.” ¹⁴ So while he slept, Delilah took the seven locks of his head and wove them into the web.^[c] And she made them tight with the pin and said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” But he awoke from his sleep and pulled away the pin, the loom, and the web.

¹⁵ And she said to him, ^(Y)“How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when your heart is not with me? You have mocked me these three times, and you have not told me where your great strength lies.” ¹⁶ And ^(Z)when she pressed him hard with her words day after day, and urged him, his soul was vexed to death. ¹⁷ And he told her all his heart, and said to her, ^(AA)“A razor has never come upon my head, for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother's womb. If my head is shaved, then my strength will leave me, and I shall become weak and be like any other man.”

¹⁸ When Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called the lords of the Philistines, saying, “Come up again, for he has told me all his heart.” Then the lords of the Philistines came up to her and brought ^(AB)the money in their hands. ¹⁹ She made him sleep on her knees. And she called a man and had him shave off the seven locks of his head. Then she began ^(AC)to torment him, and his strength left him. ²⁰ And she said, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” And he awoke from his sleep and said, “I will go out as at other times and shake myself free.” But he did not know that ^(AD)the Lord had left him. ²¹ And the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes and brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze shackles. ^(AE)And he ground at the mill in the prison. ²² But the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaved.

The Death of Samson

²³ Now the lords of the Philistines gathered to offer a great sacrifice to ^(AF)Dagon their god and to rejoice, and they said, “Our god has given Samson our enemy into our hand.” ²⁴ And when the people saw him, ^(AG)they praised their god. For they said, “Our god has given our enemy into our hand, the ravager of our country, who has killed many of us.”^{[d] 25} And ^(AH)when their hearts were merry, they said, “Call Samson, that he may entertain us.” So they called Samson out of the prison, and he entertained them. They made him stand between the pillars. ²⁶ And Samson said to the young man who held him by the hand, “Let me feel the pillars on which the house rests, that I may lean against them.” ²⁷ Now the house was full of men and women. All the lords of the Philistines were there, and ^(AI)on the roof there were about 3,000 men and women, who looked on while Samson entertained.

²⁸ Then Samson called to the Lord and said, “O Lord God, ^(AJ)please remember me and please strengthen me only this once, O God, that I may be avenged on the Philistines for my two eyes.” ²⁹ And Samson grasped the two middle pillars on which the house rested, and he leaned his weight against them, his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other. ³⁰ And Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines.” Then he bowed with all his strength, and the house fell upon the lords and upon all the people who were in it. So the dead whom he killed at his death were more than those whom he had killed during his life. ³¹ Then his brothers and all his family came down and took him and brought him up and buried him ^(AK)between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of Manoah his father. He had judged Israel twenty years.

The Sign of Jonah

^29 (A)When the crowds were increasing, he began to say, ^(B)“This generation is an evil generation. ^(C)It seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. ³⁰ For as ^(D)Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. ^31 (E)The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with the men of this generation and ^(F)condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, ^(G)something greater than Solomon is here. ^32 (H)The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and ^(I)condemn it, for ^(J)they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, ^(K)something greater than Jonah is here.

The Light in You

^33 (L)“No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a basket, but on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light. ³⁴ Your eye is ^(M)the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but when it is ^(N)bad, your body is full of darkness. ^35 (O)Therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness. ³⁶ If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright, ^(P)as when a lamp with its rays gives you light.”

Woes to the Pharisees and Lawyers

³⁷ While Jesus^[a] was speaking, ^(Q)a Pharisee asked him to dine with him, so he went in and reclined at table. ³⁸ The Pharisee was astonished to see ^(R)that he did not first wash before dinner. ³⁹ And the Lord said to him, ^(S)“Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of ^(T)greed and wickedness. ^40 (U)You fools! ^(V)Did not he who made the outside make the inside also? ⁴¹ But ^(W)give as alms those things that are within, and behold, ^(X)everything is clean for you.

^42 (Y)“But woe to you Pharisees! For ^(Z)you tithe mint and rue and every herb, and neglect ^(AA)justice and ^(AB)the love of God. ^(AC)These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. ⁴³ Woe to you Pharisees! For ^(AD)you love the best seat in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces. ⁴⁴ Woe to you! ^(AE)For you are like unmarked graves, and people walk over them without knowing it.”

⁴⁵ One of ^(AF)the lawyers answered him, “Teacher, in saying these things you insult us also.” ⁴⁶ And he said, “Woe to you ^(AG)lawyers also! For ^(AH)you load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers. ^47 (AI)Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets whom your fathers killed. ^48 (AJ)So you are witnesses and you ^(AK)consent to the deeds of ^(AL)your fathers, for they killed them, and you build their tombs. ⁴⁹ Therefore also ^(AM)the Wisdom of God said, ^(AN)‘I will send them ^(AO)prophets and apostles, ^(AP)some of whom they will ^(AQ)kill and persecute,’ ⁵⁰ so that ^(AR)the blood of all the prophets, shed ^(AS)from the foundation of the world, may be ^(AT)charged against this generation, ⁵¹ from the blood of ^(AU)Abel to the blood of ^(AV)Zechariah, who perished between ^(AW)the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, it will be ^(AX)required of this generation. ⁵² Woe to you ^(AY)lawyers! ^(AZ)For you have taken away the key of ^(BA)knowledge. You ^(BB)did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering.”

⁵³ As he went away from there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to press him hard and to provoke him to speak about many things, ^54 (BC)lying in wait for him, ^(BD)to catch him in something he might say.