Old/New Testament
Samson’s Troubles in Gaza
16 Sometime later, Samson went to Gaza, saw a prostitute there, and went in to have sex with her. 2 When the Gazites were informed,[a] “Samson has come here!” they surrounded him, intending to lay in wait for him at the city gate throughout the entire night. They kept quiet all night, telling each other,[b] “At first light, let’s kill him!”
3 Meanwhile, Samson had sex until midnight, then at midnight he got up, grabbed the doors, the two door posts, and the bars of the city gate, and uprooted them. He put them on his shoulders and carried them to the top of the mountain opposite Hebron.
Samson Meets Delilah
4 After this incident, he loved a woman in Sorek Valley whose name was Delilah. 5 The Philistine officials approached her and told her, “Entice him to discover where his great strength is, and how we can overpower him. We intend to tie him up and torture him. We’ll each pay you 1,100 silver coins.”
6 So Delilah asked Samson, “Please tell me the secret to[c] your great strength and how you may be tied up and tortured.”
7 Samson replied, “If I’m tied up with seven green cords[d] that have never been dried out, then I’ll become weak and just like any other[e] human being.”
8 Then the Philistine leaders brought her seven green cords[f] that had never been dried, and she tied him up with them. 9 Meanwhile, some kidnappers were hiding inside an inner room, waiting for her signal.[g] So she told him, “The Philistines are attacking you!” But he snapped the cords[h] as one might break a burned candle wick.[i] So his secret[j] remained undiscovered.
10 Some time later, Delilah told Samson, “Look here! You’ve been mocking me and lying to me. Now please tell me how you can be tied up.”
11 He told her, “If I’m tied up securely with new ropes that have never been used, then I’ll become weak and just like any other[k] human being.”
12 So Delilah grabbed some new ropes and tied him up. Then she told him, “The Philistines are attacking you, Samson!” because some kidnappers were hiding inside an inner room. But he snapped the ropes[l] from his arms like thread.
13 Later on, Delilah told Samson, “You’re still mocking me and telling me lies! Tell me how to tie you up!”
He answered her, “If you weave the seven locks on my head into a loom and fasten it with a peg, then I will become weak and just like any other human being.”
14 So Delilah took the seven locks on his head and wove them into the loom while he slept.[m] She fastened his hair with a peg and then told him, “The Philistines are attacking you, Samson!” But he woke up from his nap and pulled the pin from the loom and the weaving.
Samson Tells Delilah His Secret
15 Some time later, she asked him, “How can you keep saying ‘I love you!’ when your heart isn’t with me? These three times you’ve lied to me and haven’t told me where your great strength lies.” 16 She nagged him every day with this speech, pestering him until he[n] was annoyed nearly[o] to death.
17 So he finally disclosed everything. He told her,[p] “A razor has never touched my head, because I’ve been a Nazirite for God before I was born.[q] If I am shaved, then my strength will abandon me and I will become weak like every human being.”
18 When Delilah realized that he had disclosed everything[r] to her, she sent for the Philistine officials and told them, “Hurry up and come here at once, because he has told me everything.”[s] So the Philistine officials went to her and brought their money with them. 19 So she enticed him to fall asleep on her lap, called for a man to shave off his seven locks of hair[t] from his head, and so began to humiliate him. Then his strength abandoned him.
20 When she cried out, “The Philistines are attacking you, Samson!” he woke from his sleep and told himself,[u] “I’ll go out like I did at other times like this and shake myself free.” But he didn’t know that the Lord had abandoned him.
Samson is Imprisoned by the Philistines
21 Then the Philistines grabbed him, gouged out his eyes, brought him down to Gaza, tied him up in bronze chains,[v] and made him grind grain in their prison.[w] 22 But the hair on his head began to grow again after it had been shaved off.
23 Some time later, the Philistine officials got together to present a magnificent sacrifice to their god Dagon, and to throw a party, because they were claiming, “Our god has given Samson into our control!”
24 When the people saw Samson,[x] they praised their god, claiming:
Our god has given our enemy into our control;
the one who was destroying our land,
and who has killed many of us.
25 Because they all got good and drunk,[y] they ordered, “Go get Samson, so he can entertain us.” So they called for Samson from the prison, and he entertained them while they made him stand between the pillars.
Samson Kills Himself and 3,000 Philistines
26 Then Samson told the young man who had been leading him around by the hand, “Let me touch and feel the pillars on which this building rests, and I’ll support myself against them.” 27 Now the building was full of men, women, and all the Philistine officials, with about 3,000 men and women on the roof watching Samson while he was entertaining them.
28 Then Samson cried out to the Lord, “Lord God, please remember me. And please strengthen me this one time, God, so that I can repay the Philistines right now for my two eyes.” 29 Then Samson grabbed the two middle pillars upon which the house rested and braced himself against them with one pillar in his right hand and the other in his left.
30 Then Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines!” He strained with all his strength until the building collapsed on the officials and every person in it. As a result, the dead whom he killed at his death were more than those whom he killed during his lifetime. 31 Afterwards, his brothers and his father’s household servants[z] came down, took him, brought him back, and buried him in his father Manoah’s tomb between Zorah and Eshtaol. He had governed Israel for 20 years.
Micah’s Descent into Idolatry
17 A man named Micah lived in the mountainous region[aa] of the territory of[ab] Ephraim. 2 He told his mother, “Do you remember[ac] those 1,100 silver coins that were stolen from you and about which you uttered a curse when I could hear it? Well, I have the silver. I took it.”
So she replied, “May my son be blessed by the Lord.”
3 Her son gave back the 1,100 silver coins to his mother, and she said, “I’m totally giving this silver—from my hand to the Lord—so my son can make a carved image and a cast image. So I’m returning it to you.”
4 When he had returned the silver to his mother, his mother took 200 of the silver coins and handed them over to a silversmith. He crafted them into a carved image and into a cast image, and they were set up[ad] in Micah’s house. 5 This man Micah had his own shrine,[ae] had crafted his own ephod and some household idols,[af] and had installed one of his sons as a priest.
6 Back in those days, Israel didn’t yet have a king, so each person did whatever seemed right in his own opinion.
7 A young male descendant of Levi happened to be visiting there from Bethlehem in the territory of[ag] Judah. 8 The man had left his city Bethlehem in Judah to live wherever he could. As he traveled along, he eventually arrived at Micah’s house in the mountainous region[ah] of Ephraim, looking for work.
9 Micah asked him, “Where did you come from?”
He replied, “I’m a descendant of Levi from Bethlehem in Judah, and I’m going to stay temporarily wherever I can find a place.”[ai]
10 So Micah replied, “Come live with me! You can be a spiritual father[aj] to me, as well as a priest. I’ll pay you ten silver coins a year, plus a priestly uniform[ak] and an income.” So the descendant of Levi moved in. 11 The descendant of Levi agreed to live with the man, and the young man became like one of the family.[al] 12 Micah set up the descendant of Levi in ministry, and the young man became his priest while he lived in Micah’s house. 13 As for Micah, he kept saying, “Now I know the Lord will make me rich, because I have a descendant of Levi for a priest!”
The Descendants of Dan Learn about Micah
18 Back in those days, Israel didn’t have a king yet, and during that time the tribe of Dan had been seeking a territorial inheritance to live in, because up until that time no territory had been allotted to them as a possession among the tribes of Israel. 2 So the tribe[am] of Dan sent from their families five valiant men of their number from Zorah and Eshtaol to scout the land and search through it. Following their orders, which were “Go and scout the land,” they came to the mountainous region[an] of Ephraim, arrived at Micah’s home, and stayed there.
3 As they approached Micah’s home, they recognized the voice of the young male descendant of Levi. They turned aside from there and spoke to him, asking him, “Who brought you here? What work are you doing here? And what’s your business here?”
4 He answered, “Micah did such and such for me, and has hired me, so I’ve become his priest.”
5 They replied, “Go ask God, please, about whether or not we’ll be successful in this journey.”
6 The priest responded to them, “Travel in peace. The mission that you’re to accomplish is from the Lord.”
7 So the five men left and went to Laish, and observed the people who were living there carefree, as Sidonians tend to do, in peace and quiet. There was no ruler in the land oppressing them for any reason. They were living far away from the Sidonians, and had no dealings with anyone.[ao] 8 When they returned to their relatives at Zorah and Eshtaol, their relatives asked them, “What’s your report?”[ap]
9 They replied, “Let’s get going and attack them. We’ve scouted out the land—and look!—it’s a very good one. Why should we sit still? We can’t wait to go back, invade, and take over the land. 10 When you invade, you’ll meet a carefree people living in a spacious territory. God has given it into your control—it’s a place that lacks nothing on this earth!” 11 So 600 descendants of Dan from Zorah and Eshtaol set out for battle, armed with military weapons. 12 They went out and encamped at Kiriath-jearim in the territory of Judah. (That’s why they call the place Mahaneh-dan to this day. It lies west of Kiriath-jearim.) 13 They proceeded from there to the mountainous region[aq] of Ephraim and arrived at Micah’s house.
The Descendants of Dan Commandeer Micah’s Idols
14 Then the five men who had gone to scout out the territory of Laish told their relatives, “Are you aware that in these houses there’s an ephod, some household idols,[ar] a carved image, and a cast image? You know what you need to do.” 15 So they turned aside from there, went to Micah’s house, and greeted him.
16 While the 600 Danite soldiers, armed with military weapons, stood guard at the entrance to the gate, 17 the five men who had gone to scout out the land arrived, entered Micah’s home[as] and confiscated the carved image, the ephod, the household idols,[at] and the cast image. Meanwhile, the priest stood outside by the entrance to the gate with the 600 men armed with military weapons. 18 After they went into Micah’s home and took possession of the carved image, the ephod, the household idols,[au] and the cast image, the priest challenged them. “What are you doing?” he asked them.
19 They told him, “Shut up and keep quiet.[av] Come with us and be our spiritual[aw] father and priest. It’s better for you, isn’t it, to be a priest to an entire[ax] tribe and family in Israel than to be priest to the home of one man?”
20 The priest was happy to oblige,[ay] so he took the ephod, the household idols,[az] and the carved image and went along with the army. 21 Then they turned around and left, sending their little ones, their livestock, and their valuables on ahead. 22 When they had been gone a short distance from Micah’s home, some of Micah’s neighbors assembled a search party and overtook the descendants of Dan. 23 They yelled at the descendants of Dan, who turned around to face Micah and asked, “What’s wrong[ba] with you? You’ve assembled together…?”
24 Micah[bb] replied, “You took my gods that I crafted, along with the priest, and left! What do I have left? So what’s with this ‘What’s wrong with you?’”
25 The descendants of Dan answered him, “You had better not talk to us about this,[bc] or else these bad guys here will attack you. You will lose your life, along with the lives of your whole[bd] household.”
26 Then the descendants of Dan went on their way. Because Micah saw that they were too strong for him, he turned and went back home. 27 But the descendants of Dan[be] took what Micah had made, along with the priest who had worked for him, and went to Laish, to a quiet and carefree people, and killed them with swords. Then they set fire to the city. 28 They had no one else to deliver them,[bf] because they lived far from Sidon and had no dealings with anyone.[bg] It lay in the valley near Beth-rehob. They rebuilt the city and lived in it. 29 They renamed the city Dan, after the name of their ancestor Dan, who had been born in Israel. The former name of the city was Laish. 30 The descendants of Dan set up the carved image, and Gershom’s son Jonathan, a descendant of Manasseh, served along with his descendants as priests to the tribe of Dan until the land was taken captive. 31 Micah’s carved image, that he himself had crafted, was in place during the entire time that God’s tent was set up at Shiloh.
Jesus Heals a Centurion’s Servant(A)
7 After Jesus[a] had finished saying all these things[b] to the people who were there listening, he went to Capernaum. 2 There a centurion’s servant, whom he valued highly, was sick and about to die. 3 When the centurion[c] heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders to him to ask him to come and save his servant’s life. 4 So they went to Jesus and begged him repeatedly, “He deserves to have this done for him, 5 because he loves our people and built our synagogue for us.”
6 So Jesus went with them. He was not far from the house when the centurion sent friends to tell Jesus,[d] “Sir,[e] stop troubling yourself, because I’m not worthy to have you come under my roof. 7 That’s why I didn’t presume to come to you. But just say the word, and let my servant be healed, 8 because I, too, am a man under authority and have soldiers under me. I say to one ‘Go’ and he goes, to another ‘Come’ and he comes, and to my servant ‘Do this’ and he does it.”
9 When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him. Turning to the crowd that was following him, he said, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found this kind of faith!” 10 Then the men who had been sent returned to the house and found the servant in perfect health.
Jesus Raises a Widow’s Son
11 Soon afterwards, Jesus[f] went to a city called Nain. His disciples and a large crowd were going along with him. 12 As he approached the entrance to the city, a man who had died was being carried out. He was his mother’s only living[g] son, and she was a widow. A large crowd from the city was with her.
13 When the Lord saw her, he felt compassion for her. He told her, “You can stop crying.” 14 Then he went up and touched the bier, and the men who were carrying it stopped. He said, “Young man, I say to you, get up!” 15 The man who had been dead sat up and began to speak, and Jesus[h] gave him back to his mother.
16 Fear gripped everyone, and they began to praise God. “A great prophet has appeared among us,” they said, and “God has helped his people.” 17 This news about Jesus[i] spread throughout Judea and all the surrounding countryside.
John the Baptist Sends Messengers to Jesus(B)
18 John’s disciples told him about all these things. So John called two of his disciples 19 and sent them to the Lord to ask, “Are you the Coming One, or should we wait for someone else?”
20 When the men had come to Jesus,[j] they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to you to ask, ‘Are you the Coming One, or should we wait for someone else?’”
21 At that time Jesus[k] had healed many people of diseases, plagues, and evil spirits, and had given sight to many who were blind. 22 So he answered them, “Go and tell John what you have observed and heard: the blind see, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear again, the dead are raised, and the destitute hear the good news. 23 How blessed is anyone who is not offended by me!”
24 When John’s messengers had gone, Jesus[l] began to ask the crowds about John. “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? 25 Really, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fancy clothes? Look! Those who wear fine clothes and live in luxury are in royal palaces. 26 Really, what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and even more than a prophet! 27 This is the man about whom it is written,
‘See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way before you.’[m]
28 I tell you, no one has ever been born who is[n] greater than John. Yet even the least important person in the kingdom of God is greater than he.”
29 By having been baptized with John’s baptism, all the people who listened, including the tax collectors, acknowledged God’s justice.[o] 30 But the Pharisees and the experts in the Law rejected God’s plan for themselves[p] by refusing to be baptized by John.[q]
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