Lead Me in Your Righteousness

To the choirmaster: for the flutes. A Psalm of David.

O Lord, Deliver My Life

To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments; according to ^(A)The Sheminith.^[a] A Psalm of David.

Samson's Marriage

14 ^(A)Samson went down to ^(B)Timnah, and at Timnah he saw one of the daughters of the Philistines. ² Then he came up and told his father and mother, “I saw one of the daughters of the Philistines at Timnah. ^(C)Now get her for me as my wife.” ³ But his father and mother said to him, “Is there not a woman among the daughters ^(D)of your relatives, or among all our people, that you must go to take a wife from the ^(E)uncircumcised Philistines?” But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, for she is right in my eyes.”

⁴ His father and mother did not know that it was ^(F)from the Lord, for he was seeking an opportunity against the Philistines. ^(G)At that time the Philistines ruled over Israel.

⁵ Then Samson went down with his father and mother to Timnah, and they came to the vineyards of Timnah. And behold, a young lion came toward him roaring. ^6 (H)Then the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him, and although he had nothing in his hand, he tore the lion in pieces as one tears a young goat. But he did not tell his father or his mother what he had done. ⁷ Then he went down and talked with the woman, and she was right in Samson's eyes.

⁸ After some days he returned to take her. And he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion, and behold, there was a swarm of bees in the body of the lion, and honey. ⁹ He scraped it out into his hands and went on, eating as he went. And he came to his father and mother and gave some to them, and they ate. But he did not tell them that he had scraped the honey from the carcass of the lion.

¹⁰ His father went down to the woman, and Samson prepared a feast there, for so the young men used to do. ¹¹ As soon as the people saw him, they brought thirty companions to be with him. ¹² And Samson said to them, ^(I)“Let me now put a riddle to you. If you can tell me what it is, within ^(J)the seven days of the feast, and find it out, then I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty ^(K)changes of clothes, ¹³ but if you cannot tell me what it is, then you shall give me thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothes.” And they said to him, “Put your riddle, that we may hear it.” ¹⁴ And he said to them,

And in three days they could not solve the riddle.

¹⁵ On the fourth^[a] day they said to Samson's wife, ^(L)“Entice your husband to tell us what the riddle is, ^(M)lest we burn you and your father's house with fire. Have you invited us here to impoverish us?” ¹⁶ And Samson's wife wept over him and said, ^(N)“You only hate me; you do not love me. You have put a riddle to my people, and you have not told me what it is.” And he said to her, “Behold, I have not told my father nor my mother, and shall I tell you?” ¹⁷ She wept before him the seven days that their feast lasted, and on the seventh day he told her, because ^(O)she pressed him hard. Then she told the riddle to her people. ¹⁸ And the men of the city said to him on the seventh day before the sun went down,

And he said to them,

^19 (P)And the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him, and he went down to ^(Q)Ashkelon and struck down thirty men of the town and took their spoil and gave the garments to those who had told the riddle. In hot anger he went back to his father's house. ²⁰ And Samson's wife was given to ^(R)his companion, ^(S)who had been his best man.

Divisions in the Church

3 But I, brothers,^[a] could not address you as ^(A)spiritual people, but as ^(B)people of the flesh, as ^(C)infants in Christ. ^2 (D)I fed you with milk, not solid food, for ^(E)you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, ³ for you are still of the flesh. For while there is ^(F)jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? ⁴ For ^(G)when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” ^(H)are you not being merely human?

⁵ What then is Apollos? What is Paul? ^(I)Servants through whom you believed, ^(J)as the Lord assigned to each. ^6 (K)I planted, ^(L)Apollos watered, ^(M)but God gave the growth. ⁷ So ^(N)neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. ⁸ He who plants and he who waters are one, and each ^(O)will receive his wages according to his labor. ⁹ For we are ^(P)God's fellow workers. You are God's field, ^(Q)God's building.

^10 (R)According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled^[b] master builder I laid a ^(S)foundation, and ^(T)someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. ¹¹ For no one can lay a ^(U)foundation other ^(V)than that which is laid, ^(W)which is Jesus Christ. ¹² Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— ^13 (X)each one's work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed ^(Y)by fire, and ^(Z)the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. ¹⁴ If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, ^(AA)he will receive a reward. ¹⁵ If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, ^(AB)but only as through fire.

^16 (AC)Do you not know that you^[c] are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? ¹⁷ If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For ^(AD)God's temple is holy, and you are that temple.

^18 (AE)Let no one deceive himself. ^(AF)If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. ¹⁹ For ^(AG)the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, ^(AH)“He catches the wise in their craftiness,” ²⁰ and again, ^(AI)“The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.” ²¹ So ^(AJ)let no one boast in men. For ^(AK)all things are yours, ²² whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, ²³ and ^(AL)you are Christ's, and ^(AM)Christ is God's.