Old/New Testament
Samson’s Parents
13 And again, the Israelites[a] did evil in the eyes of Yahweh, and Yahweh gave them into the hand of the Philistines forty years.
2 There was a certain man from Zorah, from the tribe of the Danites, and his name was Manoah; his wife was infertile and did not bear children. 3 And an angel of Yahweh appeared to the woman, and he said to her, “Behold, you are infertile and have not borne children, but you will conceive and bear a son. 4 So then, be careful and do not drink wine or strong drink, and do not eat anything unclean, 5 because you will conceive and bear a son. No razor will touch[b] his head, because the boy will be a Nazirite of God[c] from birth.[d] And it is he who will begin to deliver Israel from the hand of the Philistines.” 6 And the woman came and told her husband, saying, “A man of God came to me, and his appearance was like the appearance of an angel of God, very awesome. I did not ask him from where he came, and he did not tell me his name. 7 And he said to me, ‘Look, you will conceive and bear a son, so then, do not drink wine or strong drink, and do not eat anything unclean, for the boy will be a Nazirite of God from birth[e] until the day of his death.’”
8 Then Manoah prayed to Yahweh and said, “Excuse me, my Lord, please let the man of God whom you sent again come to us and teach us what we should do concerning the boy who will be born.” 9 And God listened to the voice of Manoah, and an angel of God came again to the woman; she was sitting in the field, but Manoah her husband was not with her. 10 The woman quickly ran and told her husband, and she said to him, “Look! The man who came to me the other day appeared to me.” 11 So Manoah got up and went after his wife, and he came to the man and said to him, “Are you the man that spoke to the woman?” And he said, “I am.” 12 And Manoah said to him, “Now when your words come true,[f] what will be the boy’s manner of life[g] and work?” 13 And the angel of Yahweh said to Manoah, “Let the woman be attentive to all that I said. 14 She should not eat of anything that comes from the vine, or drink wine or strong drink, or eat anything unclean; she should keep all that I commanded.”
15 And Manoah said to the angel of Yahweh, “Please stay,[h] and let us prepare a young goat[i] for you.” 16 The angel of Yahweh said to Manoah, “If you keep me, I will not eat your food, but if you prepare a burnt offering for Yahweh, you can offer it (for Manoah did not know that he was an angel of Yahweh).” 17 And Manoah said to the angel of Yahweh, “What is your name so that when your words come true we may honor you?” 18 But the angel of Yahweh said to him, “Why do you ask my name? It is too wonderful.”
19 And Manoah took the young goat[j] and the grain offering, and he offered it to Yahweh on the rock, to the one who performs miracles.[k] And Manoah and his wife were watching. 20 And when the flame went up toward the heaven from the altar, the angel of Yahweh went up in the flame of the altar to heaven while Manoah and his wife were watching. And they fell on their faces to the ground. 21 The angel of Yahweh did not appear again to Manoah and his wife, and then Manoah knew that he was a messenger[l] of Yahweh. 22 And Manoah said to his wife, “We will certainly die because we have seen God.” 23 But his wife said to him, “If Yahweh wanted to kill us he would not have taken[m] from our hand the burnt offering and the grain offering, or shown us all these things, or now announced to us things such as these.”
24 The woman bore a son, and she called him Samson; the boy grew big, and Yahweh blessed him. 25 And the Spirit of Yahweh began to stir him in the camp of Dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.
Samson Marries
14 And Samson went down to Timnah, and he saw a woman in Timnah from the daughters of the Philistines. 2 He went up and told his father and mother, and he said, “I saw a woman in Timnah from the daughters of the Philistines; so then, take her for me as a wife.” 3 But his father and mother said to him, “Is there not a wife among the daughters of your relatives, or among all our[n] people, that you must take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?” But Samson said to his father, “Take her for me because she pleases me.”[o] 4 His father and mother did not know that this was from Yahweh; he was seeking for an occasion against the Philistines. Now at that time the Philistines were ruling[p] in Israel.
5 And Samson and his father and mother went down to Timnah, and they came to the vineyards of Timnah, and suddenly a young lion came roaring to meet him. 6 And the Spirit of Yahweh rushed upon him, and he tore the lion apart as one might tear apart a male kid goat (he was bare-handed).[q] But he did not tell his father and mother what he had done. 7 Then he went down and talked to the woman, and she pleased Samson.[r] 8 And he returned after awhile to marry her,[s] and he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion, and there was a swarm of wild honey bees in the body of the lion, and honey. 9 He scraped it out into his hands, and he went on, eating it as he went. And he went to his father and mother and gave some to them, and they ate it. But he did not tell them that he had scraped the honey from the body of the lion.
10 His father went down to the woman, and Samson prepared there a feast, as young men were accustomed to doing this. 11 When they saw him, they took thirty companions, and they were with him. 12 And Samson said to them, “Let me tell you a riddle. If you can fully explain it to me within the seven days of the feast, and find it out, I will give to you thirty linen garments and thirty festal garments. 13 But if you are unable to explain it to me, you must give me thirty linen garments and thirty festal garments.” So they said to him, “Tell your riddle; let us hear it.” 14 He said to them,
“From the eater came out food,
From the strong came out sweet.”
But they were unable to explain the riddle for three days.
15 When it was the fourth[t] day, they said to Samson’s wife, “Entice your husband and tell us the riddle, or we will burn you and your father’s house with fire. Have you invited us to rob us?” 16 And Samson’s wife wept before him, and she said, “You must hate me; you do not love me. You told the riddle to my people,[u] but you have not explained it to me.” He said to her, “I have not explained it to my father and mother. Why should I explain it to you?” 17 She wept before him the seven days of their feast; and it happened, because she nagged him, on the seventh day he explained it to her, and she told the riddle to her people.[v] 18 The men of the city said to him on the seventh day before the sun went down,
“What is sweeter than honey?
What is stronger than a lion?”
And he said to them,
“If you had not plowed with my heifer,
you would not have found out my riddle.”
19 And the Spirit of Yahweh rushed on him, and he went down to Ashkelon. He killed thirty men from them, and he took their belongings, and he gave festal garments to the ones that explained the riddle. He was angry,[w] and he went up to his father’s house. 20 And Samson’s wife was given to his companion who was his best man.[x]
Samson Defeats the Philistines
15 After a while, at the time of the wheat harvest, Samson visited his wife with a young goat.[y] He said, “I want to go to my wife’s private room.” But her father would not allow him to enter. 2 Her father said, “I really thought that you hated her, so I gave her to your companion. Is not her younger sister more beautiful than she? Please, take her instead.”[z] 3 And Samson said to them, “This time, as far as the Philistines are concerned, when I do something evil I am without blame.” 4 And Samson went and captured three hundred foxes, and he took torches. He turned them tail to tail, and he put one torch between two tails. 5 He set fire to the torches and let the foxes go into the standing grain of the Philistines, and he burned both the stacks[aa] of sheaves and the standing grain, up to the vineyards[ab] of olive groves. 6 And the Philistines said, “Who has done this?” And they said, “Samson the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he took his wife and gave her to his companion.” And the Philistines went up and burned her and her father with fire. 7 Samson said to them, “If you want to behave like this, I swear I will not rest unless I have taken revenge on you.” 8 And he gave them a thorough beating,[ac] and he went down and stayed in the cleft of the rock of Etam.
9 Then the Philistines came up and encamped in Judah, and they overran Lehi. 10 And the men of Judah said, “Why have you come up against us?” And they said, “To bind Samson; to do to him just as he did to us.” 11 Then three thousand men from Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam, and they said to Samson, “Do you not know that the Philistines are ruling over us? What is this that you have done to us?” And he said to them, “Just as they did to me, so I have done to them.” 12 They said to him, “We have come down to bind you and give you over into the hand of the Philistines.” And Samson said to them, “Swear to me that you will not attack me yourselves.” 13 They said to him, “No, we will only bind you and give you into their hand; we will certainly not kill you.” So they bound him with two new ropes, and they brought him up from the rock.
14 As he came up to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting to meet him; and the Spirit of Yahweh rushed on him, and the ropes that were on his arms became like flax that has burned with fire, and his bindings melted from his hands. 15 And he found a fresh jawbone of a donkey; he reached down and took it and killed one thousand men with it. 16 And Samson said,
“With the jawbone of the donkey,
heap upon heap;
with the jawbone of the donkey,
I struck dead one thousand men.”
17 And it happened, when he finished speaking he threw the jawbone from his hand; and he called that place Ramath Lehi.[ad]
18 And he was very thirsty, and he called to Yahweh and said, “You gave this great victory into the hand of your servant, but now I must die of thirst and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised?” 19 So God split the hollow place that is at Lehi, and water came out from it; and he drank, and his spirit returned, and he was revived. Thus he called its name The Spring of Ha-Qore,[ae] which is at Lehi to this day. 20 And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.
The Sermon on the Plain: Love for Enemies
27 “But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. 29 To the one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from the one who takes away your cloak, do not withhold your tunic also. 30 Give to everyone who asks you, and from the one who takes away your things, do not ask for them back.[a] 31 And just as you want people to do[b] to you, do the same[c] to them.
32 “And if you love those who love you, what kind of credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them! 33 And if[d] you do good to those who do good to you, what kind of credit is that to you? Even the sinners do the same! 34 And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive back, what kind of credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, so that they may get back an equal amount! 35 But love your enemies, and do good, and lend expecting back nothing, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. 36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful![e]
The Sermon on the Plain: On Judging Others
37 “And do not judge, and you will never be judged. And do not condemn, and you will never be condemned. Pardon, and you will be pardoned. 38 Give, and it will be given to you, a good measure—pressed down, shaken, overflowing—they will pour out into your lap. For with the measure by which you measure out, it will be measured out to you in return.”
39 And he also told them a parable: “Surely a blind person cannot lead the blind, can he?[f] Will they not both fall into a pit? 40 A disciple is not superior to his[g] teacher, but everyone, when he[h] is fully trained, will be like his teacher. 41 And why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the beam of wood that is in your own eye? 42 How are you able to say to your brother, “Brother, allow me to remove the speck that is in your eye,” while[i] you yourself do not see the beam of wood in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the beam of wood from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck that is in your brother’s eye!
The Sermon on the Plain: Trees and Their Fruit
43 “For there is no good tree that produces bad fruit, nor on the other hand a bad tree that produces good fruit, 44 for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thorn plants, nor are grapes harvested from thorn bushes. 45 The good person out of the good treasury of his heart brings forth good, and the evil person out of his[j] evil treasury[k] brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.
46 “And why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I tell you?[l]
The Sermon on the Plain: Two Houses and Two Foundations
47 “Everyone who comes to me and listens to my words and does them—I will show you what he is like: 48 he is like a man building a house, who dug and went down deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when[m] a flood came, the river burst against that house and was not able to shake it, because it had been built well. 49 But the one who hears my words[n] and does not do them[o] is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation, which the river burst against, and immediately it collapsed—and the collapse of that house was great!”
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