Nations Remaining in the Land

3 Now these are the nations that the Lord left to test all those in Israel who had no experience of any war in Canaan

¹⁶ So they put away the foreign gods from among them and worshiped the Lord; and he could no longer bear to see Israel suffer.

³⁷ And she said to her father, “Let this thing be done for me: Grant me two months, so that I may go and wander^[a] on the mountains, and bewail my virginity, my companions and I.” ³⁸ “Go,” he said and sent her away for two months. So she departed, she and her companions, and bewailed her virginity on the mountains. ³⁹ At the end of two months, she returned to her father, who did with her according to the vow he had made. She had never slept with a man. So there arose an Israelite custom that

Samson’s Marriage

14 Once Samson went down to Timnah, and at Timnah he saw a Philistine woman.

Samson and Delilah

16 Once Samson went to Gaza, where he saw a prostitute and went in to her.

Gibeah’s Crime

²² While they were enjoying themselves, the men of the city, a perverse lot, surrounded the house, and started pounding on the door. They said to the old man, the master of the house, “Bring out the man who came into your house, so that we may have intercourse with him.”