Judges Chapter 16 Samson and Delilah Samson went to Gaza and there he saw a prostitute and he went into her. The Gaizites were told, Samson has come here. And they surrounded the place and set an ambush for him all night at the gate of the city. They kept quiet all night saying, Let us wait till the light of the morning, then we will kill him. But Samson lay till midnight and at midnight he arose and took hold of the doors of the gate of the city and the two posts and pulled them up far and all and put them on his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill that is in front of Hebron. After this he loved a woman of the valley of Zorak whose name was Delilah and the lords of the Philistines came up to her and said to her, seduce him and see where his great strength lies and by what means we may overpower him. That we may bind him to humble him and we will each give you 1,100 pieces of silver. So Delilah said to Samson, Please tell me where your great strengths lie and how you might be bound that one could subdue you. Samson said to her, If they bind me with seven fresh bow strings that have not been dried then I shall become weak and be like any other man. Then the lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven fresh bow strings that had not been dried and she bound him with them. Now she had men lying in ambush in an inner chamber and she said to him, The Philistines are upon you Samson, but he snapped the bow strings as a thread of flax snaps when it touches the fire, so the secret of his strength was not known. Then Delilah said to Samson, Behold you have mocked me and told me lies, Please tell me how you might be bound. And he said to her, If they bind me with new ropes that have not been used then I shall become weak and be like any other man. So Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them and said to him, The Philistines are upon you Samson. And the men lying in ambush were in an inner chamber but he snapped the ropes off his arms like a thread. Then Delilah said to Samson, Until now you have mocked me and told me lies, Tell me how you might be bound. And he said to her, If you weave the seven locks of my head with the web and fasten it tight with the pin then I shall become weak and be like any other man. So while he slept Delilah took the seven locks of his head and wove them into the web. And she made them tight with the pin and said to him, The Philistines are upon you Samson. But he awoke from his sleep and pulled away the pin, the loom and the web. And she said to him, How can you say I love you when your heart is not with me? You have mocked me these three times and you have not told me where your great strengths lie. And when she pressed him hard with her words day after day and urged him his soul was vexed to death. And he told her all his heart and said to her, A razor has never come upon my head, for I have been a Nazarete to God from my mother's womb. If my head is shaved then my strength will leave me and I shall become weak and be like any other man. When Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart she sent and called the lords of the Philistines saying, Come up again, for he has told me all his heart. Then the lords of the Philistines came up to her and brought the money in their hands. She made him sleep on her knees and she called a man and had him shave off the seven locks of his head. Then she began to torment him and his strength left him. And she said, The Philistines are upon you, Samson. And he awoke from his sleep and said, I will go out as at other times and shake myself free. But he did not know that the Lord had left him. And the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes and brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze shackles. And he ground at the mill in the prison. But the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaved. The Death of Samson Now the lords of the Philistines gathered to offer great sacrifice to Dagon their God and to rejoice and they said, Our God has given Samson our enemy into our hand. And when the people saw him they praised their God for they said, Our God has given our enemy into our hand. The ravager of our country who has killed many of us. And when their hearts were merry they said, Call Samson that he may entertain us. So they called Samson out of the prison and he entertained them. They made him stand between the pillars and Samson said to the young man who held him by the hand, Let me feel the pillars on which the house rests that I may lean against them. Now the house was full of men and women. All the lords of the Philistines were there and on the roof there were about three thousand men and women who looked on while Samson entertained. Then Samson called the Lord and said, Oh Lord God please remember me and please strengthen me only this once. Oh God that I may be avenged on the Philistines for my two eyes. And Samson grasped the two middle pillars on which the house rested and he leaned his weight against them. His right hand on the one and his left hand on the other. And Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines. And he bowed with all his strength and the house fell upon the lords and upon all the people who were in it. So the dead whom he killed at his death were more than those whom he had killed during his life. Then his brothers and all his family came down and took him and brought him up and buried him between Zora and Eshtayol on the tomb of Minua, his father. He had judged Israel twenty years. Chapter 17 Micah and the Levite. There was a man of the hill country of Ephraim whose name was Micah. And he said to his mother, The one thousand one hundred pieces of silver that were taken from you about which you uttered a curse and also spoke it in my ears. Behold the silver is with me. I took it. And his mother said, Blessed be my son by the Lord. And he restored the one thousand one hundred pieces of silver to his mother. And his mother said, I dedicate the silver to the Lord for my hand for my son to make a carved image and a metal image. Now therefore I will restore it to you. So when he restored the money to his mother, his mother took two hundred pieces of silver and gave it to the silversmith who made it into a carved image and a metal image. And it was in the house of Micah. And the man Micah had a shrine. And he made an ephod and a household gods and ordained one of his sons who became his priest. And in those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. Now therefore a young man of Bethlehem and Judah, of the family of Judah, who was a Levite. And he sojourned there and the man departed from the town of Bethlehem and Judah to sojourn where he could find a place. And as he journeyed he came to the hill country of Ephraim to the house of Micah. And Micah said to him, Where do you come from? And he said to him, I am a Levite of Bethlehem and Judah and I am going to sojourn where I may find a place. And Micah said to him, Stay with me and be to me a father and a priest and I will give you ten pieces of silver a year and a suit of clothes and your living. And the Levite went in. And the Levite was content to dwell with the man and the young man became to him like one of his sons. And Micah ordained the Levite and the young man became his priest and was in the house of Micah. Then Micah said, Now I know that the Lord will prosper me because I have a Levite as priest. John chapter 7 verses 45 through 53. The officers then came to the chief priests and Pharisees who said to them, Why did you not bring him? The officers answered, No one ever spoke like this man. The Pharisees answered them, Have you also been deceived? Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him? But this crowd that does not know the law has accursed. Micah had gone to him before and who was one of them said to them, Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does? They replied, Are you from Galilee too? Search and see that no prophet arises from Galilee. The woman caught in adultery. They went each to his own house. John chapter 8 verses 1 through 11. But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him and he sat down and taught them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery and placing her in the midst they said to him, Teacher this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone each woman. So what do you say? This they said to test him, That they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. As they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her. And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones. And Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus stood up and said to her, Woman where are they? Has no one condemned you? She said, No one Lord. And Jesus said, Neither do I commend you, go, and from now on sin no more. Psalm chapter 78 verses 32 through 39. In spite of all this they still sinned, despite his wonders they did not believe, so he made their days vanish like a breath, and their years in terror. When he killed them they sought him, they repented and sought God earnestly. They remembered that God was their rock, the most high God their redeemer. But they flattered him with their mouths, they lied to him with their tongues. Their heart was not steadfast toward him. They were not faithful to his covenant. Yet he, being compassionate, atoned for their iniquity, and did not destroy them. He restrained his anger often, and did not stir up all his wrath. They remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passes and comes not again.
