A reading from the Book of Judges. After some days, at the time of wheat harvest, Samson went to visit his wife with a young goat and he said, I will go into my wife in the chamber, but her father would not allow him to go in. And her father said, I really thought that you utterly hated her, so I gave her to your companion is not her younger sister more beautiful than she please take her instead. And Samson said to them. This time I shall be innocent in regard to the Philistines when I do them harm. So Samson went and caught 300 foxes and took torches and he turned them tail to tail and put a torch between each pair of tails. And when he had set fire to the torches, he let the foxes go into the standing grain of the Philistines and set fire to the stacked grain and the standing grain as well as the olive orchards. Then the Philistines said, who has done this? And they said, Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he has taken his wife and given her to his companion. And the Philistines came up and burned her and her father with fire and Samson said to them, if this is what you do, I swear I will be avenged on you and after that I will quit. And he struck them hip and thigh with a great blow and he went down and stayed in the cleft of the rock of Edom. Then the Philistines came up and encamped in Judah and made a raid on Lehi and the men of Judah said, why have you come up against us? They said, we have come up to bind Samson to do to him as he did to us. Then 3000 men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Edom and said to Samson, do you not know that the Philistines are rulers over us? What then is this that you have done to us? And he said to them, as they did to me, so have I done to them. And they said to him, we have come down to bind you that we may give you into the hands of the Philistines. And Samson said to them, swear to me that you will not attack me yourselves. They said to him, no, we will only bind you and give you into their hands. We will surely not kill you. So they bound him with two new ropes and brought him up from the rock. When he came to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting to meet him. And the spirit of the Lord rushed upon him and the ropes that were on his arms became as flax that has caught fire. And his bonds melted off his hands and he found a fresh jawbone of a donkey and put out his hand and took it. And with it he struck 1000 men and Samson said, with the jawbone of a donkey heaps upon heaps with the jawbone of a donkey have I struck down 1000 men. As soon as he had finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone out of his hand and that place was called Ramath Lehi. And he was very thirsty and he called upon the Lord and said, you have granted this great salvation by the hand of your servant and shall I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised. And God split open the hollow place that is at Lehi and water came out from it. And when he drank his spirit returned and he revived. Therefore the name of it was called in Hacary. It is at Lehi to this day and he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines 20 years. Samson went to Geza and there he saw a prostitute and he went into her. The Gezites 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 in the two posts and pulled them up, barred 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 in the valley of Saurik 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 1100 pieces of silver. Delilah said to Samson, please tell me where your great strength lies 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 and ambushing in 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 and ambush wearing 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 pen 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 pen and said to him, the Philistines are upon you Samson. But he awoke from his sleep and pulled away the pen, 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 strength lies. 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 Nazarite to God from my mother's womb. If my head is shaven 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 Philistine Saint. Come up again for he has told me all his heart. And 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 Giza 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. Now the Lords of the Philistines gathered to offer a 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 to 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. Then he bowed with all his strength and the house fell upon the Lord 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 Estio and the tomb of Manoa, his father. He had judged Israel 20 years. A reading from the book of Psalms. Praise the Lord. Praise, O servants of the Lord. Praise the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and forevermore. From the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the Lord is to be praised. The Lord is high above all nations and is glory above the heavens. Who is like the Lord our God? Who is seated on high? Who looks far down on the heavens and the earth? He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap to make him a to make them sit with the princes of his people. He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children. Praise the Lord. A reading from the book of 1 Corinthians. This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful. But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself, for I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness, and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God. I have applied all these things to myself and apostles for your benefit, brothers, that you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up in favor of one against another, for who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it? Already you have all you want, already you have become rich, without us you have become kings, and would that you did reign, so that we might share the rule with you. For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels and to men. We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute. To the present hour we hunger and thirst. We are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless, and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled we bless, when persecuted we endure, when slandered we entreat, we have become and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things. I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for I became your father in Christ Jesus through the Gospel. I urge you then be imitators of me. That is why I sent you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach them everywhere in every church. Some are arrogant, as though I were not coming to you, but I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I will find out not the talk of these arrogant people, but their power, for the kingdom of God does not consist in talk, but in power. What do you wish? Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love and a spirit of gentleness? It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father's wife, and you are arrogant. Art you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you. For though absent in body, I am present in spirit, and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus, and my spirit is present with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump, cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened? For Christ, our Passover lamb has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people, not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy in swindlers or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world, but now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother, if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard or swindler, not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside, purge the evil person from among you.
