Chronological
Chapter 16
1 Once Samson went to Gaza, where he saw a prostitute and visited her. 2 The people of Gaza were told, “Samson has come here,” and they surrounded him with an ambush at the city gate all night long. And all the night they waited, saying, “At morning light we will kill him.” 3 Samson lay there until midnight. Then he rose at midnight, seized the doors of the city gate and the two gateposts, and tore them loose, bar and all. He hoisted them on his shoulders and carried them to the top of the ridge opposite Hebron.
Samson and Delilah. 4 After that he fell in love with a woman in the Wadi Sorek whose name was Delilah. 5 (A)The lords of the Philistines came up to her and said, “Trick him and find out where he gets his great strength, and how we may overcome and bind him so as to make him helpless. Then for our part, we will each give you eleven hundred pieces of silver.”
6 So Delilah said to Samson, “Tell me where you get your great strength and how you may be bound so as to be made helpless.” 7 “If they bind me with seven fresh bowstrings that have not dried,” Samson answered her, “I shall grow weaker and be like anyone else.” 8 So the lords of the Philistines brought her seven fresh bowstrings that had not dried, and she bound him with them. 9 She had men lying in wait in the room, and she said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” But he snapped the bowstrings as a thread of tow is snapped by a whiff of flame; and his strength remained unexplained.
10 Delilah said to Samson, “You have mocked me and told me lies. Now tell me how you may be bound.” 11 “If they bind me tight with new ropes, with which no work has been done,” he answered her, “I shall grow weaker and be like anyone else.” 12 So Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them. Then she said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” For there were men lying in wait in the room. But he snapped the ropes off his arms like thread.
13 Delilah said to Samson again, “Up to now you have mocked me and told me lies. Tell me how you may be bound.” He said to her, “If you weave the seven locks of my hair into the web and fasten them with the pin, I shall grow weaker and be like anyone else.” 14 So when he went to bed, Delilah took the seven locks of his hair and wove them into the web, and fastened them with the pin. Then she said, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” Awakening from his sleep, he pulled out both the loom and the web.
15 (B)Then she said to him, “How can you say ‘I love you’ when your heart is not mine? Three times already you have mocked me, and not told me where you get your great strength!” 16 (C)She pressed him continually and pestered him till he was deathly weary of it. 17 So he told her all that was in his heart and said, “No razor has touched my head, for I have been a nazirite for God from my mother’s womb.(D) If I am shaved, my strength will leave me, and I shall grow weaker and be like anyone else.” 18 When Delilah realized that he had told her all that was in his heart, she summoned the lords of the Philistines, saying, “Come up this time, for he has told me all that is in his heart.” So the lords of the Philistines came to her and brought the money with them.(E) 19 She put him to sleep on her lap, and called for a man who shaved off the seven locks of his hair. He immediately became helpless, for his strength had left him.[a] 20 When she said “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” he woke from his sleep and thought, “I will go out as I have done time and again and shake myself free.” He did not realize that the Lord had left him. 21 But the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes. Then they brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze fetters, and he was put to grinding grain in the prison. 22 But the hair of his head began to grow as soon as it was shaved.
The Death of Samson. 23 (F)The lords of the Philistines assembled to offer a great sacrifice to their god Dagon[b] and to celebrate. They said, “Our god has delivered Samson our enemy into our power.” 24 When the people saw him, they praised their god. For they said,
“Our god has delivered into our power
our enemy, the ravager of our land,
the one who has multiplied our slain.”
25 When their spirits were high, they said, “Call Samson that he may amuse us.” So they called Samson from the prison, and he provided amusement for them. They made him stand between the columns, 26 and Samson said to the attendant who was holding his hand, “Put me where I may touch the columns that support the temple, so that I may lean against them.” 27 The temple was full of men and women: all the lords of the Philistines were there, and from the roof about three thousand men and women looked on as Samson provided amusement. 28 Samson cried out to the Lord and said, “Lord God, remember me! Strengthen me only this once that I may avenge myself on the Philistines at one blow for my two eyes.” 29 Samson grasped the two middle columns on which the temple rested and braced himself against them, one at his right, the other at his left. 30 Then saying, “Let me die with the Philistines!” Samson pushed hard, and the temple fell upon the lords and all the people who were in it. Those he killed by his dying were more than those he had killed during his lifetime.
31 His kinsmen and all his father’s house went down and bore him up for burial in the grave of Manoah his father between Zorah and Eshtaol. He had judged Israel for twenty years.(G)
III. Further Stories of the Tribes of Dan and Benjamin
Chapter 17
Micah and the Levite. 1 There was a man from the mountain region of Ephraim whose name was Micah. 2 [c]He said to his mother, “The eleven hundred pieces of silver that were taken from you, about which you pronounced a curse and even said it in my hearing—I have that silver. I took it. So now I will restore it to you.” Then his mother said, “May my son be blessed by the Lord!” 3 When he restored the eleven hundred pieces of silver to his mother, she said, “I consecrate the silver to the Lord from my own hand on behalf of my son to make an idol overlaid with silver.”[d](H) 4 So when he restored the silver to his mother, she took two hundred pieces and gave them to the silversmith, who made of them an idol overlaid with silver. So it remained in the house of Micah. 5 The man Micah had a shrine, and he made an ephod and teraphim,[e](I) and installed one of his sons, who became his priest.(J) 6 [f]In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in their own eyes.(K)
7 There was a young man from Bethlehem of Judah, from the clan of Judah; he was a Levite residing there.(L) 8 The man set out from the city, Bethlehem of Judah, to take up residence wherever he could find a place. On his journey he came into the mountain region of Ephraim as far as the house of Micah. 9 “Where do you come from?” Micah asked him. He answered him, “I am a Levite, from Bethlehem in Judah, and I am on my way to take up residence wherever I can find a place.” 10 “Stay with me,” Micah said to him. “Be father and priest to me,(M) and I will give you ten silver pieces a year, a set of garments, and your living.” He pressed the Levite, 11 and he agreed to stay with the man. The young man became like one of his own sons. 12 [g]Micah installed the Levite, and the young man became his priest, remaining in the house of Micah. 13 Then Micah said, “Now I know that the Lord will prosper me, since I have the Levite as my priest.”
Chapter 18
Migration of the Danites. 1 In those days there was no king in Israel.(N) In those days the tribe of the Danites were in search of a heritage to dwell in, for up to that time no heritage had been allotted[h] to them among the tribes of Israel.(O)
2 So the Danites sent from their clans five powerful men of Zorah and Eshtaol, to reconnoiter the land and scout it. “Go, scout the land,” they were told. They went into the mountain region of Ephraim, and they spent the night there. 3 While they were near the house of Micah,(P) they recognized the voice[i] of the young Levite,(Q) so they turned aside. They asked him, “Who brought you here? What are you doing here? What is your interest here?” 4 “This is what Micah has done for me,” he replied to them. “He has hired me and I have become his priest.”(R) 5 They said to him, “Consult God, that we may know whether the journey we are making will lead to success.”(S) 6 The priest said to them, “Go in peace! The journey you are making is under the eye of the Lord.”
7 So the five men went on and came to Laish. They saw the people there living securely after the manner of the Sidonians, quiet and trusting, with no lack of any natural resource. They were distant from the Sidonians and had no dealings with the Arameans.[j] 8 When the five returned to their kin in Zorah and Eshtaol, they were asked, “What do you have to report?” 9 They replied, “Come, let us attack them, for we have seen the land and it is very good. Are you going to hesitate? Do not be slow to go in and take possession of the land! 10 When you go you will come to a trusting people. The land stretches out in both directions, and God has indeed given it into your power—a place where no natural resource is lacking.”(T)
11 So six hundred of the clan of the Danites, men armed with weapons of war, set out from Zorah and Eshtaol. 12 They marched up into Judah and encamped near Kiriath-jearim; for this reason the place is called Mahaneh-dan[k] to this day (it lies west of Kiriath-jearim).(U)
13 From there they passed on into the mountain region of Ephraim and came to the house of Micah. 14 Then the five men who had gone to reconnoiter the land spoke up and said to their kindred, “Do you know that in these houses there are an ephod, teraphim, and an idol overlaid with silver?(V) Now decide what you must do!” 15 So turning in that direction, they went to the house of the young Levite at the home of Micah and greeted him. 16 The six hundred Danites stationed themselves at the entrance of the gate armed with weapons of war. 17 The five men who had gone to reconnoiter the land went up 18 and entered the house of Micah with the priest standing there. They took the idol, the ephod, the teraphim and the metal image. When the priest said to them, “What are you doing?” 19 they said to him, “Be still! Put your hand over your mouth! Come with us and be our father and priest.(W) Is it better for you to be priest for the family of one man or to be priest for a tribe and a clan in Israel?” 20 The priest, agreeing, took the ephod, the teraphim, and the idol, and went along with the troops. 21 As they turned to depart, they placed their little ones, their livestock, and their goods at the head of the column.
22 (X)When the Danites had gone some distance from the house of Micah, Micah and the men in the houses nearby mustered and overtook them. 23 They called to the Danites, who turned and said to Micah, “What do you want that you have called this muster?” 24 “You have taken my god, which I made for myself, and you have gone off with my priest as well,” he answered. “What is left for me? How, then, can you ask me, ‘What do you want?’” 25 The Danites said to him, “Do not let your voice be heard near us, or aggravated men will attack you, and you will have forfeited your life and the lives of your family!” 26 Then the Danites went on their way, and Micah, seeing that they were too strong for him, turned back and went home.
27 (Y)Having taken what Micah had made and his priest, they marched against Laish, a quiet and trusting people; they put them to the sword and destroyed the city by fire. 28 No one came to their aid, since the city was far from Sidon and they had no dealings with the Arameans; the city was in the valley that belongs to Beth-rehob. The Danites then rebuilt the city and occupied it. 29 They named it Dan after their ancestor Dan, who was born to Israel.(Z) But Laish was the name of the city formerly. 30 [l]The Danites set up the idol for themselves, and Jonathan, son of Gershom, son of Moses,(AA) and his descendants were priests for the tribe of the Danites until the time the land went into captivity. 31 They maintained the idol Micah had made as long as the house of God was in Shiloh.[m]
Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.