16 When Samson went to Gaza, he saw a prostitute there who pleased him, so he went in to be with her. ² Word went out to the men of Gaza that Samson had arrived. So they surrounded the house and waited quietly for him at the city gate, thinking, “When morning comes, we will strike him down.” ³ But Samson fooled the men of Gaza: he stayed with the prostitute only until midnight. Then he rose from the bed, took hold of the closed city gates, and pulled them, still barred, and the posts that held them, out of the ground. Then he hoisted them onto his shoulders and carried them up onto the hill in front of Hebron.

⁴ After this he fell in love with Delilah, a woman from the valley of Sorek. ⁵ The rulers of the Philistines came to her with a plan.

⁶ Delilah agreed. On one of their visits, she questioned him.

⁸ The Philistine rulers brought Delilah seven fresh bowstrings. As Samson slept, she bound him with them. ⁹ When the warriors had taken their places in the inner chamber, Delilah called out to him.

But he snapped the bowstrings the way a thread snaps when it is touched by a flame and fended off the attackers. So the secret of his strength remained hidden.

¹² Using new ropes Delilah bound Samson as he slept. When the warriors had taken their places in the inner chamber, Delilah called out to him.

But he snapped the ropes like a thread and fended off the attackers. So the secret of his strength remained hidden.

¹⁴ While he slept, Delilah wove his seven locks of hair into the loom’s web and tightened it with the weaver’s comb. When the warriors had taken their places in the inner chamber, Delilah called out,

But Samson woke up and easily pulled out the comb from the loom and his hair from the web and fended off the attackers. So the secret of his strength remained hidden.

¹⁶ She continued to ask him, day after day, always nagging; and finally he was tired of it, so tired he couldn’t stand to hear it any longer. ¹⁷ Samson told her the truth.

¹⁸ Delilah at last saw that he was telling her the truth. She sent for the rulers of the Philistines and told them, “This time he has told me his whole secret.” So the lords of the Philistines came, bringing the money they had promised to pay her for betraying Samson.

¹⁹ She helped Samson fall asleep in her lap and called in a man to shave off the seven locks of Samson’s hair. Immediately his strength left him. ²⁰ This time she called to him.

His strength was gone. Samson woke up and thought he would shake himself free, as he had before, because he did not know that the Spirit of the Eternal had left him.

²¹ But this time the Philistines seized and held him. They put out his eyes. Then they took him to Gaza, where they bound him with bronze chains and put him to work grinding grain in the prison mill. ²² But while he was there, his hair began to grow back.

²³ One day, the rulers of the Philistines gathered for a festival of sacrifice to their god Dagon to celebrate Dagon giving their great enemy, Samson, into their control. ²⁴ Whenever the Philistines saw Samson trudging in the mill, it made them joyful.

²⁵ And during the festival when they were feeling merry, they called for Samson.

So Samson was led out of the prison and brought before all the people gathered for the festival. They displayed him between the pillars for their entertainment, ²⁶ and Samson spoke to the boy leading him.

²⁷ For this occasion the building was full of people—men and women and all the rulers of the Philistines were there. About 3,000 people stood on the roof watching as Samson leaned against the pillars. The crowd watched and waited with anticipation.

²⁹ He took hold of the two main pillars of the building, the ones supporting the roof, and he leaned hard against them, his right hand on one, his left hand on the other.

He pushed with all his might. The pillars gave; the building collapsed on the rulers and all the Philistine people who were in it. The number of enemies that he killed at his death was greater than the number of Philistines he had killed during the rest of his life.

³¹ Then his brothers and the rest of his family came down from the hill country and took his body back up to be buried between the towns of Zorah and Eshtaol in the burial ground of his father Manoah. Samson had been judge of Israel for 20 years.

17 A man named Micah lived in the hill country of Ephraim.

³ He returned the 1,100 pieces of silver to her.

⁴ After Micah returned the silver, she took 200 of the coins returned by her son and gave them to the silversmith, who cast an idol that was kept in Micah’s house. ⁵ Micah had a shrine, and in his house he had a priestly vest used in seeking oracles and the images of household gods. He had set aside one of his sons to be his priest. ⁶ In those days of the judges, there was no king in Israel, and everyone did what seemed right in his own eyes.

⁷ Now in Bethlehem in Judah, there was a young man who was a Levite, from the tribe of priests, and he was sojourning among the clan of Judah. ⁸ He left Bethlehem in Judah to make his way as best he could. On his way, he arrived at Micah’s home in the hill country of Ephraim seeking work.

¹¹ The Levite agreed to stay with Micah and came in to live with him like one of his sons. ¹² So Micah installed the Levite as priest in his house.

18 During this period, Israel had no king, and the tribe of Dan was searching for a territory they could call their own because at that time they had not been assigned land among the other peoples of Israel. ² So the people of Dan chose five brave men from out of the entire tribe, men from the towns of Zorah and Eshtaol, to explore the land and to seek a new home for them. “Go and explore the land,” was their charge.

When they reached the hill country of Ephraim, they stayed in Micah’s home. ³ As they came near Micah’s house, they recognized from his speech that the Levite priest was not from around there.

⁷ The five spies went on their way and came to Laish, in the northern of the land of Canaan, where they observed that the people seemed to live without concern for their security, like the people of Sidon, quiet and without suspicion, lacking in nothing, and in peace. They were far from Sidon and were not allied with anyone.

⁸ So the men returned to their people at Zorah and Eshtaol, who wanted to hear their report. They told their people about the land of Laish.

¹¹ Then 600 men from the tribe of Dan armed themselves for war and set out from Zorah and Eshtaol. ¹² These warriors of Dan went up and camped at Kiriath-jearim, or city of forests, in Judah, which is why the place just to the west is still called Mahaneh-dan, camp of Dan. ¹³ From there, they entered the hill country of Ephraim and approached Micah’s house. ¹⁴ The five spies who had scouted out the land of Laish spoke to their fellow warriors.

¹⁵ They turned and went in the direction of the young Levite’s house at Micah’s place and greeted him. ¹⁶ So the 600 Danite warriors waited outside the gate, ready to attack, ¹⁷ while the five men who had spied out the land were to go inside to take the sacred objects: the ritual vestment, the household gods, and the cast image of silver. The priest stood at the gates with the warriors; ¹⁸ and when the five took the priestly vest, household gods, and the cast image of silver, he said to them,

²⁰ The priest agreed. He took possession of the ritual vestment, household idols, and carved image and joined the people of Dan on their journey. ²¹ They traveled on, putting their children, livestock, and their possessions in front of the procession. ²² But when they had traveled some distance from Micah’s home, his friends who lived nearby gathered together and chased after the people of Dan.

When they caught up to them, ²³ they shouted after the people of Dan.

²⁶ With this the people of Dan went on their way. Micah saw that there were too many of them for him to protest any further, so he turned and went back home.

²⁷ The people of Dan, having taken Micah’s household gods and his priest, came to Laish; and there they attacked those people who were quiet and without suspicion, killed them without mercy, and burned down their city. ²⁸ No one came to save the people of Laish, since they were far from Sidon and had no treaties with anyone. This all happened in the valley that is near Beth-rehob, house of a broad place. The Danites rebuilt the city there and lived in it. ²⁹ They changed the name of the city from Laish to Dan, after their ancestor and namesake who was born to Israel (also called Jacob). ³⁰ There the people of Dan set up the carved image for themselves, and Jonathan (son of Gershom, son of Moses) and his sons became the priests to Dan and were their priests until the people of Israel were taken off into captivity. ³¹ They kept the carved image of Micah as their own for as long as the house of the True God was at Shiloh.

7 Jesus shared all these sayings with the crowd that day on the plain. When He was finished, He went into the town of Capernaum. ² There, a Centurion had a slave he loved dearly. The slave was sick—about to die— ³ so when the Centurion heard about Jesus, he contacted some Jewish elders. He sent them to ask Jesus to come and heal his dear slave. ⁴ With great emotion and respect, the elders presented their request to Jesus.

⁶ So Jesus accompanied them. When they approached the Centurion’s home, the Centurion sent out some friends to bring a message to Jesus.

⁹ Jesus was deeply impressed when He heard this. He turned to the crowd that followed Him.

¹⁰ The friends of the Centurion returned home, and they found the slave was completely healed.

¹¹ It wasn’t long after this when Jesus entered a city called Nain. Again all of His disciples accompanied Him, along with a huge crowd. ¹² He was coming near the gate of the city as a corpse was being carried out. This man was the only child and support of his widowed mother, and she was accompanied by a large funeral crowd.

¹³ As soon as the Lord saw her, He felt compassion for her.

¹⁴ Then He came to the stretcher, and those carrying it stood still.

¹⁵ The dead man immediately sat up and began talking. Jesus presented him to his mother, ¹⁶ and everyone was both shocked and jubilant. They praised God.

¹⁷ News of Jesus spread across the whole province of Judea and beyond to the surrounding regions. ¹⁸ When these reports reached John’s disciples, they brought news to John himself, who was known for his preaching and ritual cleansing.^{[a] 19} John sent two of his disciples to ask the Lord, “Are You the Promised One, or shall we keep looking for someone else?”

²⁰ They came to Jesus and asked their question exactly as directed by John the Baptist.

²¹ Before He answered John’s messengers, Jesus cured many from various diseases, health conditions, and evil spirits. He even caused many blind people to regain their sight.

²⁴ When John’s messengers left, Jesus talked to the crowds about John.

²⁹ The common people and tax collectors heard God’s own wisdom in Jesus’ assessment of John because they had been ritually cleansed through baptism by John. ³⁰ But the Pharisees and religious scholars hardened their hearts and turned their backs on God’s purposes for them because they had refused John’s baptism.^[d]