Book of Common Prayer

A Prayer for Victory

A song of David.

Praise God Who Creates and Saves

Samson Goes to the City of Gaza

16 One day Samson went to Gaza. He saw a prostitute there. He went in to spend the night with her. ² Someone told the people of Gaza, “Samson has come here!” So they surrounded the place and hid and waited for him. Remaining very quiet, they stayed near the city gate all night. They said to each other, “When dawn comes, we will kill Samson!”

³ But Samson only stayed with the prostitute until midnight. Then he got up and took hold of the doors and the two posts of the city gate. He tore them loose, along with the bar. Then he put them on his shoulders. And he carried them to the top of the hill that faces the city of Hebron!

Samson and Delilah

⁴ After this, Samson fell in love with a woman named Delilah. She lived in the Valley of Sorek. ⁵ The kings of the Philistines went to Delilah. They said, “Try to find out what makes Samson so strong. Try to trick him into telling you. Find out how we could capture him and tie him up. Then we will be able to control him. If you do this, each one of us will give you 28 pounds of silver.”

⁶ So Delilah said to Samson, “Tell me why you are so strong. How could someone tie you up and take control of you?”

⁷ Samson answered, “Someone would have to tie me up. He would have to use seven new bowstrings that have not been dried. If he did that, I would be as weak as any other man.”

⁸ Then the kings of the Philistines brought seven new bowstrings to Delilah. They had not been dried. She tied Samson with them. ⁹ Some men were hiding in another room. Delilah said to Samson, “Samson, the Philistines are about to capture you!” But Samson easily broke the bowstrings. They broke like pieces of string burned in a fire. So the Philistines did not find out the secret of Samson’s strength.

¹⁰ Then Delilah said to Samson, “You’ve made me look foolish. You lied to me. Please tell me. How could someone tie you up?”

¹¹ Samson said, “They would have to tie me with new ropes that have not been used before. Then I would become as weak as any other man.”

¹² So Delilah took new ropes and tied Samson. Some men were hiding in another room. Then she called out to him, “Samson, the Philistines are about to capture you!” But he broke the ropes as easily as if they were threads.

¹³ Then Delilah said to Samson, “Until now, you have made me look foolish. You have lied to me. Tell me how someone could tie you up.”

He said, “Use the loom.^[a] Weave the seven braids of my hair into the cloth. Tighten it with a pin. Then I will become as weak as any other man.”

Then Samson went to sleep. So Delilah wove the seven braids of his hair into the cloth. ¹⁴ Then she fastened it with a pin.

Again she called out to him, “Samson, the Philistines are about to capture you!” Samson woke up and pulled up the pin and the loom with the cloth.

³⁰ “After 40 years Moses was in the desert near Mount Sinai. An angel appeared to him in the flames of a burning bush. ³¹ When Moses saw this, he was amazed. He went near to look closer at it. Moses heard the Lord’s voice. ³² The Lord said, ‘I am the God of your ancestors. I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.’^[a] Moses began to shake with fear and was afraid to look. ³³ The Lord said to him, ‘Take off your sandals. You are standing on holy ground. ³⁴ I have seen the troubles my people have suffered in Egypt. I have heard their cries. I have come down to save them. And now, Moses, I am sending you back to Egypt.’^[b]

³⁵ “This Moses was the same man the Jews said they did not want. They had said to him, ‘Who made you our ruler and judge?’^[c] Moses is the same man God sent to be a ruler and savior, with the help of an angel. This was the angel Moses saw in the burning bush. ³⁶ So Moses led the people out of Egypt. He worked miracles and signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea, and then in the desert for 40 years. ³⁷ This is the same Moses that said to the Jewish people: ‘God will give you a prophet like me. He will be one of your own people.’^{[d] 38} This is the same Moses who was with the gathering of the Jews in the desert. He was with the angel that spoke to him at Mount Sinai, and he was with our ancestors. He received commands from God that give life, and he gave those commands to us.

³⁹ “But our fathers did not want to obey Moses. They rejected him. They wanted to go back to Egypt again. ⁴⁰ They said to Aaron, ‘Moses led us out of Egypt. But we don’t know what has happened to him. So make us gods who will lead us.’^{[e] 41} So the people made an idol that looked like a calf. Then they brought sacrifices to it. The people were proud of what they had made with their own hands! ⁴² But God turned against them. He did not try to stop them from worshiping the sun, moon and stars. This is what is written in the book of the prophets: God says,

Jesus Heals a Man at a Pool

5 Later Jesus went to Jerusalem for a special Jewish feast. ² In Jerusalem there is a pool with five covered porches. In the Jewish language^[a] it is called Bethzatha.^[b] This pool is near the Sheep Gate. ³ Many sick people were lying on the porches beside the pool. Some were blind, some were crippled, and some were paralyzed [and they waited for the water to move. ⁴ Sometimes an angel of the Lord came down to the pool and stirred up the water. After the angel did this, the first person to go into the pool was healed from any sickness he had].^{[c] 5} There was a man lying there who had been sick for 38 years. ⁶ Jesus saw the man and knew that he had been sick for a very long time. So Jesus asked him, “Do you want to be well?”

⁷ The sick man answered, “Sir, there is no one to help me get into the pool when the water starts moving. I try to be the first one into the water. But when I try, someone else always goes in before I can.”

⁸ Then Jesus said, “Stand up. Pick up your mat and walk.” ⁹ And immediately the man was well. He picked up his mat and began to walk.

The day all this happened was a Sabbath day. ¹⁰ So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “Today is the Sabbath. It is against our law for you to carry your mat on the Sabbath day.”

¹¹ But he answered, “The man who made me well told me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’”

¹² Then they asked him, “Who is the man who told you to pick up your mat and walk?”

¹³ But the man who had been healed did not know who it was. There were many people in that place, and Jesus had left.

¹⁴ Later, Jesus found the man at the Temple. Jesus said to him, “See, you are well now. But stop sinning or something worse may happen to you!”

¹⁵ Then the man left and went back to the Jews. He told them that Jesus was the one who had made him well.

¹⁶ Jesus was doing this on the Sabbath day. So the Jews began to do bad things to him. ¹⁷ But Jesus said to them, “My Father never stops working. And so I work, too.”

¹⁸ This made the Jews try harder to kill him. They said, “First Jesus was breaking the law about the Sabbath day. Then he said that God is his own Father! He is making himself equal with God!”