Pathrusim, Casluhim, from whom the Philistines come, and Caphtorim.

When they had made a covenant at Beer-sheba, Abimelech, with Phicol the commander of his army, left and returned to the land of the Philistines.

And Abraham resided as an alien many days in the land of the Philistines.

Isaac and Abimelech

Now there was a famine in the land, besides the former famine that had occurred in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Gerar, to King Abimelech of the Philistines.

When Isaac had been there a long time, King Abimelech of the Philistines looked out of a window and saw him fondling his wife Rebekah.

He had possessions of flocks and herds and a great household, so that the Philistines envied him.

(Now the Philistines had stopped up and filled with earth all the wells that his father’s servants had dug in the days of his father Abraham.)

Isaac dug again the wells of water that had been dug in the days of his father Abraham, for the Philistines had stopped them up after the death of Abraham, and he gave them the names that his father had given them.

The Pillars of Cloud and Fire

When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was nearer, for God thought, “If the people face war, they may change their minds and return to Egypt.”

The peoples heard; they trembled; pangs seized the inhabitants of Philistia.

I will set your borders from the Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines and from the wilderness to the Euphrates, for I will hand over to you the inhabitants of the land, and you shall drive them out before you.

This is the land that still remains: all the regions of the Philistines, and all those of the Geshurites

(from the Shihor, which is near Egypt, northward to the boundary of Ekron, it is reckoned as Canaanite; there are five rulers of the Philistines, those of Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron), and those of the Avvim

the five lords of the Philistines, and all the Canaanites, and the Sidonians, and the Hivites who lived on Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baal-hermon as far as Lebo-hamath.

Shamgar

After him came Shamgar son of Anath, who killed six hundred of the Philistines with an oxgoad. He, too, delivered Israel.

Oppression by the Ammonites

The Israelites again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, serving the Baals and the Astartes, the gods of Aram, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites, and the gods of the Philistines. Thus they abandoned the Lord and did not worship him.

So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of the Philistines and into the hand of the Ammonites,

And the Lord said to the Israelites, “Did I not deliver you from the Egyptians and from the Amorites, from the Ammonites and from the Philistines?

The Birth of Samson

The Israelites again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord gave them into the hand of the Philistines forty years.

for you shall conceive and bear a son. No razor is to come on his head, for the boy shall be a nazirite to God from birth. It is he who shall begin to deliver Israel from the hand of the Philistines.”

Samson’s Marriage

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

Then he came up and told his father and mother, “I saw a Philistine woman at Timnah; now get her for me as my wife.”

But his father and mother said to him, “Is there not a woman among your kin or among all our people, that you must go to take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?” But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, because she pleases me.”

His father and mother did not know that this was from the Lord, for he was seeking a pretext to act against the Philistines. At that time the Philistines had dominion over Israel.

Samson Defeats the Philistines

After a while, at the time of the wheat harvest, Samson went to visit his wife, bringing along a kid. He said, “I want to go into my wife’s room.” But her father would not allow him to go in.