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15 After a number of days, during the wheat harvest, Samson came to visit his wife and brought a kid goat with him. He said, “Let me go in to my wife’s room,” but her father did not let him go in.
2 Her father said, “I was so convinced that you hated her that I gave her to your companion. Isn’t her younger sister better than she is? Please take her for yourself instead of her older sister.”
3 Samson said to them, “I am not responsible for the harm I am about to do to the Philistines.” 4 Then Samson went and captured three hundred foxes,[a] took torches, tied the foxes tail to tail, and fastened a torch between each pair of tails. 5 He set fire to the torches and released the foxes into the standing grain of the Philistines. He burned up sheaves of grain, the standing grain, the vineyards, and the olive groves.
6 The Philistines asked, “Who did this?” They were told, “Samson, the son-in-law of the man from Timnah, did it, because the man took Samson’s wife and gave her to his companion.” So the Philistines went up and burned her and her father to death.
7 At that, Samson said to them, “Since you would do something like this, I will take revenge on you. Then I will stop.” 8 He ripped them to pieces[b] in a devastating attack. Then he went down and stayed in the cleft in the Rock of Etam.
9 Meanwhile the Philistines went up, set up camp in Judah, and occupied the territory around Lehi. 10 The men of Judah asked, “Why have you come up against us?”
They said, “We have come up to tie up Samson—to do to him as he did to us.”
11 So three thousand men from Judah went down to the cleft in the Rock of Etam. They said to Samson, “Don’t you know that the Philistines are now ruling over us? So what is this you have done to us?”
Samson answered them, “As they did to me, so I did to them.”
12 They said to him, “We have come down to tie you up and hand you over to the Philistines.”
Samson said to them, “Swear to me that you will not attack me yourselves.”
13 They said to him, “We will not. We will indeed tie you up and hand you over to them, but we will not kill you.” Then they tied him up with two new ropes and brought him up from the rock.
14 When Samson came to Lehi, the Philistines came to meet him, shouting a war cry. But then the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon Samson, and the ropes around his shoulders were like flax charred by fire, and the ropes melted off his wrists. 15 Samson found the fresh jawbone of a donkey, reached out his hand, and took it. With it he struck down a thousand men.
16 Samson said:
With the jawbone of a donkey, heaps upon heaps![c]
With the jawbone of a donkey I have struck down a thousand men.
17 When he finished speaking, he threw the jawbone out of his hand, and he named the place Ramath Lehi.[d]
18 Then he became very thirsty, and he called to the Lord, “You placed this great victory into the hand of your servant. Shall I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?” 19 Then God split the hollow that is in Lehi, and water came out of it. Samson drank, his vitality was restored, and he was revived. For this reason he called the place En Hakkore,[e] which remains in Lehi to this day.
20 Samson judged Israel for twenty years in the days of the Philistines.
16 One time Samson went to Gaza. There he saw a prostitute and went to her. 2 The people of Gaza were told, “Samson has come here.” So they surrounded the town and lay in wait for him all night at the city gate, but they relaxed during the night, saying, “Let’s wait for the light of morning. Then we will kill him.”
3 But Samson slept only until midnight. He got up in the middle of the night, grabbed the doors of the city gate along with the two gateposts, pulled them up crossbar and all, set them on his shoulders, and took them up to the top of the hill opposite Hebron.
Samson and Delilah
4 Sometime after that, Samson fell in love with a woman from the Valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. 5 The serens[f] of the Philistines approached her and said, “Persuade him to reveal where his great strength comes from and how we may overpower him, tie him up, and humiliate him. Each of us will give you eleven hundred shekels of silver.”[g]
6 So Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me what the source of your great strength is, and how you can be tied up in order to humiliate you.”
7 Samson answered her, “If anyone ties me up with seven new bowstrings that have not yet been dried,[h] I will become weak and be like any other man.”
8 So the serens of the Philistines brought her seven new bowstrings that had not yet been dried, and she tied him up with them. 9 She had men hiding in the room waiting to ambush Samson, and she said to him, “Philistines are upon you, Samson!” But he snapped the bowstrings as easily as a flax thread that was scorched when brought near fire. So the source of his strength was not revealed.
10 Then Delilah said to Samson, “Look! You made a fool of me and told me lies. Now please tell me how you can be tied up.”
11 Samson answered her, “Actually, if anyone ties me up with new ropes that have never been used for work, I will become weak and be like any other man.”
12 So Delilah took new ropes and tied him up with them. Then she said to him, “Philistines are upon you, Samson!” There were men hiding in the room waiting to ambush Samson, but he tore the ropes off his arms as if they were thread.
13 Delilah said to Samson, “So far you have made a fool of me and told me lies. Tell me how you may be tied up!”
So he said to her, “If you weave the seven locks of my hair into the fabric of a loom ⎣and fasten them with a pin, I will be as weak as any other man.”
After she had waited for him to fall asleep, Delilah took the seven locks of his hair and wove them in the fabric of a loom.⎦[i] 14 She fastened them with the pin and said to him, “Philistines are upon you, Samson!” But Samson woke up from his sleep and pulled out the pin from the loom along with the fabric.
15 She said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when your heart is not with me? This makes three times you have made a fool of me, and you have not told me where your great strength comes from.” 16 This was how she tormented him with her words day after day and nagged him until he was sick to death of it.
17 Finally he told her everything in his heart. He said to her, “A razor has never touched my head, because I have been a Nazirite dedicated to God from the womb of my mother. If I am ever shaved, my strength will desert me, and I will become weak and be like any other man.”
18 When Delilah saw that he told her everything in his heart, she sent for the serens of the Philistines, saying, “Come back one more time, for he has poured out his heart to me.”
The serens of the Philistines came up to her and brought the silver in their hands. 19 Delilah let Samson fall asleep on her lap. Then she called for a man and shaved off the seven locks of his head. She began his humiliation, because his strength had left him. 20 She said, “Philistines are upon you, Samson!” He awoke from his sleep and said, “I will go out as I have time after time, and I will shake myself free.” But he did not realize that the Lord had left him.
21 The Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes, brought him down to Gaza, and restrained him with bronze shackles. He had to grind grain in the prison.
22 But the hair on his head began to grow after it had been shaved.
Samson’s Death
23 Meanwhile, the serens of the Philistines gathered to make a great sacrifice to their god Dagon and to celebrate. They said, “Our god has given our enemy Samson into our hands.”
24 When the people saw him, they praised their god: “Our god has given our enemy into our hands, the devastator of our land, who has caused the death of many of us.”
25 When they were feeling good, they said, “Send for Samson, so that he can provide amusement for us.” They summoned Samson from the prison, and he served as their entertainment.
They made Samson stand between the pillars. 26 He said to the young man who led him by his hand, “Put me where I can touch the pillars that support the building, so I can lean upon them.” 27 The building was full of men and women, as well as all the serens of the Philistines. On the roof were about three thousand more men and women watching Samson as he was amusing them.
28 Samson called out to the Lord. He said, “Lord God, remember me, I pray. Give me strength, I pray, this one more time, O God. Let me get revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes in one act of vengeance.” 29 Samson then grasped the two central pillars supporting the building. He leaned against them, one with his right hand and one with his left. 30 Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines.” He pushed with all his strength, and the building fell upon the serens and upon all the people who were inside.
The Philistines he put to death when he died were more numerous than those he had put to death during his lifetime.
31 Then his brothers and his father’s entire household went down, carried him back, and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of Manoah his father. He had served as judge of Israel for twenty years.
Jesus Changes Water Into Wine
2 Three days later, there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there. 2 Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding.
3 When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no wine.”
4 Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does that have to do with you and me? My time has not come yet.”
5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
6 Six stone water jars, which the Jews used for ceremonial cleansing, were standing there, each holding twenty or thirty gallons.[a] 7 Jesus told them, “Fill the jars with water.” So they filled them to the brim. 8 Then he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.” And they did.
9 When the master of the banquet tasted the water that had now become wine, he did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew). The master of the banquet called the bridegroom 10 and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when the guests have had plenty to drink, then the cheaper wine. You saved the good wine until now!”
11 This, the beginning of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed in Cana of Galilee. He revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him.
12 After this, he went down to Capernaum with his mother, brothers, and disciples, and they stayed there for a few days.
Jesus Clears Out the Temple
13 The Jewish Passover was near, so Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
14 In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and money changers sitting at tables. 15 He made a whip of cords and drove everyone out of the temple courts, along with the sheep and oxen. He scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. 16 To those selling doves he said, “Get these things out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a place of business!”
17 His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”[b]
18 So the Jews responded, “What sign are you going to show us to prove you can do these things?”
19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up again.”
20 The Jews said, “It took forty-six years to build this temple! And you are going to raise it in three days?” 21 But Jesus was speaking about the temple of his body. 22 When Jesus was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this. Then they believed the Scripture and what Jesus had said.
23 While he was in Jerusalem for the Passover Festival, many believed in his name as they observed the miraculous signs he was doing. 24 But Jesus, on his part, was not entrusting himself to them, because he knew them all. 25 He did not need anyone to testify about man, because he himself knew what was in man.
Psalm 103
Bless the Lord, Who Forgives All Your Sins
Heading
By David.
Invitation to Praise
1 Bless the Lord,[a] O my soul.
All that is within me, bless his holy name.
Praise for Personal Blessings
2 Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and do not forget all his benefits—
3 who pardons all your guilt,
who heals all your diseases,
4 who redeems your life from the pit,
who crowns you with mercy and compassion,
5 who satisfies your life[b] with goodness,
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle.
Praise for Blessings Through Moses
6 The Lord performs righteousness and justice for all the oppressed.
7 He made known his ways to Moses,
his deeds to the people of Israel.
God’s Great Mercy
8 The Lord is compassionate and gracious,
slow to anger, abounding in mercy.
9 He will not always accuse.
He will not keep his anger forever.
10 He does not treat us as our sins deserve.
He does not repay us according to our guilty deeds.
God’s Mercy Illustrated
11 Yes, as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so powerful is his mercy toward those who fear him.
12 As distant as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our rebellious acts from us.
13 As a father has compassion on his children,
so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him.
14 For he knows how we were formed.
He remembers that we are dust.
Man’s Short Life
15 As for man, his days are like grass.
Like a wildflower he blossoms.
16 Then the wind blows over it, and it is gone,
and its place recognizes it no more.
The Covenant With Moses Proclaims God’s Eternal Mercy
17 But the Lord’s mercy is from eternity to eternity
over those who fear him,
and his righteousness is with their children’s children,
18 with those who keep his covenant,
with those who remember his precepts in order to obey them.
Closing Praise
19 The Lord has established his throne in the heavens,
and his royal power rules over all.
20 Bless the Lord, you his angels,
you strong warriors who obey his word
by listening to what he says.
21 Bless the Lord, all his armies,
you who minister to him,
you who do whatever pleases him.
22 Bless the Lord, everything he has made
in all places where he rules.
Bless the Lord, O my soul.
17 A short-tempered person acts foolishly,
and a schemer is hated.
18 Gullible people inherit stupidity,
but sensible people embrace knowledge.
19 Evil people will bow down to good people,
and wicked people will bow at the gates of the righteous.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.