Book of Common Prayer

God is good, so thank him^[a]

This is a song that David wrote to praise God.

An alphabet of praise^[a]

¹⁵ Then Delilah said to him, ‘I realize that you do not really love me, because you will not tell me your secret. You have deceived me three times, as if I was a fool. You have refused to tell me what makes you so strong.’ ¹⁶ She continued to say the same thing to Samson many times. Her words made Samson very upset. He felt that he wanted to die.

¹⁷ Finally, Samson told her his secret. He said to her, ‘No one has ever cut my hair. Even before I was born, I belonged to God as a Nazirite. If someone cuts off my hair, I would have no more strength. I would become as weak as any other man.’

¹⁸ Delilah realized that Samson had told her the truth. So she sent a message to the rulers of the Philistines. She told them, ‘Samson has now told me his secret. So come back once more.’ So the Philistine rulers went to visit Delilah again. They took their pieces of silver with them. ¹⁹ Delilah made Samson sleep with his head on her knees. She called a man to come and he cut off the seven tails of Samson's hair. This made Samson helpless, so that he had no more strength.

²⁰ Then Delilah shouted, ‘Samson, the Philistines are here!’ He woke up and he thought, ‘I will make myself free as I have always done before.’ But he did not realize that the Lord had gone away from him.

²¹ The Philistines took hold of Samson. They cut out his eyes. They tied him up with bronze chains. They made him do hard work as their prisoner. He had to push a heavy stone to make grain into flour.

²² But after they had cut off Samson's hair, it began to grow again.

Samson dies

²³ One day, the rulers of the Philistines met together to have a big feast. They offered a great sacrifice to their god, Dagon. They said, ‘Dagon has put our enemy, Samson, under our power.’

²⁴ When the people saw what had happened to Samson, they praised their god. They said, ‘Our god has let us catch our enemy. He was the enemy who destroyed our land and who killed many of us.’

²⁵ The people were very happy at the feast. They shouted, ‘Bring Samson here for us to see him! He can help us to enjoy our party.’

So they brought Samson out of the prison. The people were happy to see him. They made him stand between the pillars of the temple. ²⁶ A young man held Samson's hand to lead him. Samson said to him, ‘Put me where I can touch the pillars which hold up the temple's roof. I want to rest my body on them.’

²⁷ The temple was full of men and women, as well as all the Philistine rulers. About 3,000 people were on the roof as they watched Samson. They were laughing at him. ²⁸ Samson prayed to the Lord, ‘Remember me, Almighty Lord. Please make me strong again one more time. I want to punish the Philistines because they cut out my two eyes.’

²⁹ Then Samson put his hands on the two pillars in the centre of the building. He put his right hand on one pillar and his left hand on the other pillar. He got ready to push. ³⁰ Samson shouted out, ‘Let me die with the Philistines!’ Then he pushed the pillars with all his strength. The temple fell down on the rulers and all the other people in it. In that way, Samson killed more people as he died than he had killed while he lived.

³¹ Then his brothers and all his father's family came to get his body. They carried it back home. They buried him in the grave of his father, Manoah. That was between Zorah and Eshtaol. Samson had led Israel for 20 years.

Paul's third visit to Corinth

13 This is the third time that I will be coming to visit you. Remember this: ‘There must be two or three people to say certainly that another person has done something wrong. Two or three people must agree what has happened.’^{[a] 2} I have already warned those people who did wrong things before. I did that when I was with you on my second visit. Now I am warning them again, while I am away from you. So, when I come to you the next time, nobody will go free. I will punish those people and all the others who have done wrong things. ³ That will tell you what you want to know about me. You will surely know that I speak with the authority of Christ himself. Christ is not weak when he works in you. He shows his power among you. ⁴ People killed Christ on the cross as a weak person. But he now lives by God's power. We are also weak as we serve Christ, like he was weak. But we live, because he now lives. So, when we come to you, we will show God's power among you.

⁵ Think carefully about how you are living. Are you really believing the message about Christ? I hope you know that Jesus Christ is in you. You ought to know that, unless you have completely failed. ⁶ I hope that you will know that we ourselves have not failed. We do belong to Christ, as you do.

⁷ Now we pray to God that you will not do any wrong things. We do not pray this to show that God has accepted us as good. We pray like that because we want you to do what is right. We want that, even if we ourselves seem to have failed. ⁸ We can only work to show what is true. We cannot do anything against what is true. ⁹ We are happy when we seem to be weak, if you become strong as a result. We pray that you will become completely as you should be.

¹⁰ That is why I am writing these things to you now, while I am away from you. Then, when I arrive, I will not need to be angry with you. I will not have to use my authority to punish you. The Lord gave that authority to me to help you to become stronger as believers. He did not give it to me so that I could destroy you.

Paul finishes his letter

¹¹ Now I say ‘goodbye’ to you, my Christian friends. Do only what is right. Let my message make you strong. Agree with each other. Live together in peace. I pray that God will be with you. He is the one who loves us and gives us peace in our minds.

²⁵ There was a sick woman who had lost blood for 12 years. ²⁶ She had paid many doctors to help her to become well. But they could not do anything. Now she had spent all her money. She had not become well. Instead, she was now worse. ²⁷ People had told her about Jesus. So she came in the crowd behind him and she touched his coat. ²⁸ She said, ‘Even if I can only touch his clothes, I will become well again.’ ²⁹ As soon as she touched Jesus' coat, the blood stopped. She felt in her body that her illness was better. She knew that she was well again.

³⁰ Jesus knew immediately that something powerful had gone out from him. So he turned around in the crowd and he asked, ‘Who touched my clothes?’

³¹ His disciples replied, ‘You can see that the crowd is pushing against you. So you cannot ask who touched you!’

³² But Jesus looked around him. He wanted to see who had touched him. ³³ The woman knew what had happened to her. She felt very afraid. But she came to Jesus, and she went down on her knees in front of him. Then she told him everything that had happened to her. ³⁴ Jesus said to her, ‘Young woman, you are now well again because you believed in me. Have peace in your mind. Go now and have no more pain.’