Judges Chapter 12. Jephthah's conflict with Ephraim. The men of Ephraim were called to arms, and they crossed to Zaphon and said to Jephthah, Why did you cross over to fight against the Ammonites and did not call us to go with you? We will burn your house over you with fire. And Jephthah said to them, I and my people had a great dispute with the Ammonites, and when I called you, you did not save me from their hand, and when I saw that you would not save me, I took my life in my hand and crossed over against the Ammonites, and the Lord gave them into my hand. Why then have you come up to me this day to fight against me? Then Jephthah gathered all the men of Gilead and fought with Ephraim. And the men of Gilead struck Ephraim because they said, You are fugitives of Ephraim, you Gileadites in the midst of Ephraim and Manasseh. And the Gileadites captured the Fords of the Jordan against the Ephraimites. And when any of the fugitives of Ephraim said, Let me go over, the men of Gilead said to him, Are you an Ephraimite? When he said no, they said to him, Then say Shibboleth, and he said Shibboleth, for he could not pronounce it right. Then they seized him and slaughtered him at the Fords of the Jordan, and at that time, 42,000 of the Ephraimites fell. When Jephthah judged Israel six years, then Jephthah the Gileadite died and was buried in his city in Gilead. Ibsan, Elan, and Abdan. After him, Ibsan of Bethlehem judged Israel. He had 30 sons and 30 daughters he gave in marriage outside his clan, and 30 daughters he brought in from outside for his sons. And he judged Israel seven years. Then Ibsan died and was buried at Bethlehem. After him, Elan, the Zebulonite, judged Israel, and he judged Israel ten years. Then Elan the Zebulonite died and was buried at Aulon in the land of Zebulon. After him, Abdan, the son of Hillel, the Pyrethonite, judged Israel. He had 40 sons and 30 grandsons who rode on 70 donkeys, and he judged Israel eight years. Then Abdan the son of Hillel, the Pyrethonite, died and was buried at Pyrethon in the land of Ephraim in the hill country of the Amalekites. Judges chapter 13, the birth of Samson. And then the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, so the Lord gave them into the hand of the Philistines for 40 years. There was a certain man of Zorah, of the tribe of the Danites, whose name was Manoa, and his wife was barren and had no children, and the angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, Behold, you are barren and have not born children, but you shall conceive and bear a son. Therefore be careful and drink no wine or strong drink and eat nothing unclean. For behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. No razor shall come upon his head, for the child shall be a Nazareite, to God, from the womb, and he shall begin to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines. Then the woman came and told her husband, 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 where he was from, and he did not tell me his name. But he said to me, Behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. So then drink no wine or strong drink and eat nothing unclean, for the child shall be a Nazareite to God, from the womb to the day of his death. Then Manoa prayed to the Lord and said, O Lord, please let the man of God whom you sent come again to us, and teach us what we are to do with the child whom we will be born. Then God listened to the voice of Manoa, and the angel of God came again to the woman as she sat in the field, but Manoa, her husband, was not with her. So the woman ran quickly and told her husband, Behold, the man who came to me the other day has appeared to me. And Manoa arose and went after his wife and came to the man and said to him, Are you the man who spoke to this woman? And he said, I am. And Manoa said, Now when your words come true, what is to be the child's manner of life? And what is his mission? And the angel of the Lord said to Manoa, Of all that I said to the woman, let her be careful. She may not eat of anything that comes from the vine. Neither let her drink wine or strong drink or eat any unclean thing. All that I commanded her, let her observe. Manoa said to the angel of the Lord, Please let us detain you and prepare a young goat for you. And the angel of the Lord said to Manoa, If you detain me, I will not eat of your food. But if you prepare a burnt offering, then offer it to the Lord. For Manoa did not know that he was an angel of the Lord. And Manoa said to the angel of the Lord, What is your name? So that when your words come true, we may honor you. And the angel of the Lord said to him, Why do you ask my name? Seeing it is wonderful. So Manoa took the young goat with the grain offering and offered it on the rock to the Lord, to the one who works wonders. And Manoa and his wife were watching. And when the flame went up toward heaven from the altar, the angel of the Lord went up in the flame of the altar. Now Manoa and his wife were watching and they fell on their faces to the ground. The angel of the Lord appeared no more to Manoa and to his wife. Then Manoa knew that he was the angel of the Lord. And Manoa said to his wife, We shall surely die for we have seen God. But his wife said to him, If the Lord had meant to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering in our hands. Or shown us all these things or now announced to us such things as these. And the woman bore a son and called his name Samson. And the young man grew and the Lord blessed him. And the spirit of the Lord began to stir him in Mahanadan between Zora and Eshtail. John chapter 6 verses 60 through 71. The words of eternal life. When many of his disciples heard it, they said, This is a hard saying. Who can listen to it? But Jesus knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, Do you take offense at this? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the spirit who gives life, the flesh who has no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe. Or Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe and who it was who would betray him. And he said, This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father. After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the twelve, Do you want me to go away as well? Simon Peter answered him, Lord to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life and we have believed and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God. Jesus answered them, Did I not choose you, the twelve? And yet one of you is a devil. He spoke of Judas the son of Simon as scary it, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray him. John chapter 7 verses 1 through 13. Jesus at the Feast of Booths After this Jesus went about in Galilee. He would not go about in Judea because the Jews were seeking to kill him. Now the Jews Feast of Booths was at hand, so his brothers said to him, Leave here and go to Judea that your disciples also may see the works you are doing, for no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things show yourself to the world for not even his brothers believed in him. Jesus said to them, My time has not yet come, but your time is always here. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil. You go up to the Feast, I am not going up to this Feast, for my time has not yet fully come. After saying this he remained in Galilee. But after his brothers had gone up to the Feast, then he also went up, not publicly but in private. The Jews were looking for him at the Feast and saying, Where is he? And there was such muttering about him among the people, while some said, He is a good man, others said, No, he is leading the people astray. And for fear of the Jews no one spoke openly of him. Psalm 78 verses 9 through 16. The Ephraimites armed with the bow turned back on the day of battle. They did not keep God's covenant, but refused to walk according to his law. They forgot his works and the wonders that he had shown them. In the sight of their fathers he performed wonders in the land of Egypt. In the fields of zone, he divided the sea and let them pass through it and made the waters stand like a heap. In the daytime he led them with a cloud and all the night with a fiery light. He split rocks in the wilderness and gave them drink abundantly. As from the deep, he made streams come out of the rock and caused waters to flow down like rivers.
