The Berean Pursuit
Then the men of Ephraim assembled and crossed the Jordan to Zaphon. They said to Jephthah, "Why have you crossed over to fight the Ammonites without calling us to go with you? We will burn your house down with you inside!"
But Jephthah replied, "My people and I had a serious conflict with the Ammonites, and when I called, you did not save me out of their hands. When I saw that you would not save me, I risked my life and crossed over to the Ammonites, and the LORD delivered them into my hand. Why then have you come today to fight against me?"
Jephthah then gathered all the men of Gilead and fought against Ephraim. And the men of Gilead struck them down because the Ephraimites had said, "You Gileadites are fugitives in Ephraim, living in the territories of Ephraim and Manasseh."
The Gileadites captured the fords of the Jordan leading to Ephraim, and whenever a fugitive from Ephraim would say, "Let me cross over," the Gileadites would ask him, "Are you an Ephraimite?"
If he answered, "No," they told him, "Please say Shibboleth."
If he said, "Sibboleth," because he could not pronounce it correctly, they seized him and killed him at the fords of the Jordan. So at that time 42,000 Ephraimites were killed.
Jephthah judged Israel six years, and when he died, he was buried in one of the cities of Gilead.
After Jephthah, Ibzan of Bethlehem judged Israel. He had thirty sons, as well as thirty daughters whom he gave in marriage to men outside his clan; and for his sons he brought back thirty wives from elsewhere. Ibzan judged Israel seven years. Then Ibzan died, and he was buried in Bethlehem.
After Ibzan, Elon the Zebulunite judged Israel ten years. Then Elon the Zebulunite died, and he was buried in Aijalon in the land of Zebulun.
After Elon, Abdon son of Hillel, from Pirathon, judged Israel. He had forty sons and thirty grandsons, who rode on seventy donkeys. And he judged Israel eight years. Then Abdon son of Hillel, from Pirathon, died, and he was buried at Pirathon in Ephraim, in the hill country of the Amalekites.
Again the Israelites did evil in the sight of the LORD, so He delivered them into the hand of the Philistines for forty years.
Now there was a man from Zorah named Manoah, from the clan of the Danites, whose wife was barren and had no children. The angel of the LORD appeared to the woman and said to her, "It is true that you are barren and have no children; but you will conceive and give birth to a son. Now please be careful not to drink wine or strong drink, and not to eat anything unclean. For behold, you will conceive and give birth to a son. And no razor shall come over his head, because the boy will be a Nazirite to God from the womb, and he will begin the deliverance of Israel from the hand of the Philistines."
So the woman went and told her husband, "A man of God came to me. His appearance was like the angel of God, exceedingly awesome. I did not ask him where he came from, and he did not tell me his name. But he said to me, 'Behold, you will conceive and give birth to a son. Now, therefore, do not drink wine or strong drink, and do not eat anything unclean, because the boy will be a Nazirite to God from the womb until the day of his death.'?"
Then Manoah prayed to the LORD, "Please, O Lord, let the man of God You sent us come to us again to teach us how to raise the boy who is to be born."
And God listened to the voice of Manoah, and the angel of God returned to the woman as she was sitting in the field; but her husband Manoah was not with her. The woman ran quickly to tell her husband, "Behold, the man who came to me the other day has reappeared!"
So Manoah got up and followed his wife. When he came to the man, he asked, "Are you the man who spoke to my wife?"
"I am," he said.
Then Manoah asked, "When your words come to pass, what will be the boy's rule of life and mission?"
So the angel of the LORD answered Manoah, "Your wife is to do everything I told her. She must not eat anything that comes from the vine, nor drink any wine or strong drink, nor eat anything unclean. She must do everything I have commanded her."
"Please stay here," Manoah said to the angel of the LORD, "and we will prepare a young goat for you."
And the angel of the LORD replied, "Even if I stay, I will not eat your food. But if you prepare a burnt offering, offer it to the LORD." For Manoah did not know that it was the angel of the LORD.
Then Manoah said to the angel of the LORD, "What is your name, so that we may honor you when your word comes to pass?"
"Why do you ask my name," said the angel of the LORD, "since it is beyond comprehension?"
Then Manoah took a young goat and a grain offering and offered them on a rock to the LORD. And as Manoah and his wife looked on, the LORD did a marvelous thing. When the flame went up from the altar to the sky, the angel of the LORD ascended in the flame.
When Manoah and his wife saw this, they fell facedown to the ground. And when the angel of the LORD did not appear again to Manoah and his wife, Manoah realized that it had been the angel of the LORD.
"We are going to die," he said to his wife, "for we have seen God!"
But his wife replied, "If the LORD had intended to kill us, He would not have accepted the burnt offering and the grain offering from our hands, nor would He have shown us all these things or spoken to us this way."
So the woman gave birth to a son and named him Samson. The boy grew, and the LORD blessed him. And the Spirit of the LORD began to stir him at Mahaneh-dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.
One day Samson went down to Timnah, where he saw a young Philistine woman. So he returned and told his father and mother, "I have seen a daughter of the Philistines in Timnah. Now get her for me as a wife."
But his father and mother replied, "Can't you find a young woman among your relatives or among any of our people? Must you go to the uncircumcised Philistines to get a wife?"
But Samson told his father, "Get her for me, for she is pleasing to my eyes." (Now his father and mother did not know this was from the LORD, who was seeking an occasion to move against the Philistines; for at that time the Philistines were ruling over Israel.)
Then Samson went down to Timnah with his father and mother and came to the vineyards of Timnah. Suddenly a young lion came roaring at him, and the Spirit of the LORD came powerfully upon him, and he tore the lion apart with his bare hands as one would tear a young goat. But he did not tell his father or mother what he had done. Then Samson continued on his way down and spoke to the woman, because she was pleasing to his eyes.
When Samson returned later to take her, he left the road to see the lion's carcass, and in it was a swarm of bees, along with their honey. So he scooped some honey into his hands and ate it as he went along. And when he returned to his father and mother, he gave some to them and they ate it. But he did not tell them that he had taken the honey from the lion's carcass.
Then his father went to visit the woman, and Samson prepared a feast there, as was customary for the bridegroom. And when the Philistines saw him, they selected thirty men to accompany him.
"Let me tell you a riddle," Samson said to them. "If you can solve it for me within the seven days of the feast, I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty sets of clothes. But if you cannot solve it, you must give me thirty linen garments and thirty sets of clothes."
"Tell us your riddle," they replied. "Let us hear it."
So he said to them:
"Out of the eater came something to eat,
and out of the strong came something sweet."
For three days they were unable to explain the riddle. So on the fourth day they said to Samson's wife, "Entice your husband to explain the riddle to us, or we will burn you and your father's household to death. Did you invite us here to rob us?"
Then Samson's wife came to him, weeping, and said, "You hate me! You do not really love me! You have posed to my people a riddle, but have not explained it to me."
"Look," he said, "I have not even explained it to my father or mother, so why should I explain it to you?"
She wept the whole seven days of the feast, and finally on the seventh day, because she had pressed him so much, he told her the answer. And in turn she explained the riddle to her people.
Before sunset on the seventh day, the men of the city said to Samson:
"What is sweeter than honey?
And what is stronger than a lion?"
So he said to them:
"If you had not plowed with my heifer,
you would not have solved my riddle!"
Then the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him, and he went down to Ashkelon, killed thirty of their men, took their apparel, and gave their clothes to those who had solved the riddle. And burning with anger, Samson returned to his father's house, and his wife was given to one of the men who had accompanied him.
Later on, at the time of the wheat harvest, Samson took a young goat and went to visit his wife. "I want to go to my wife in her room," he said. But her father would not let him enter.
"I was sure that you thoroughly hated her," said her father, "so I gave her to one of the men who accompanied you. Is not her younger sister more beautiful than she? Please take her instead."
Samson said to them, "This time I will be blameless in doing harm to the Philistines."
Then Samson went out and caught three hundred foxes. And he took torches, turned the foxes tail-to-tail, and fastened a torch between each pair of tails. Then he lit the torches and released the foxes into the standing grain of the Philistines, burning up the piles of grain and the standing grain, as well as the vineyards and olive groves.
"Who did this?" the Philistines demanded.
"It was Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite," they were told. "For his wife was given to his companion."
So the Philistines went up and burned her and her father to death.
And Samson told them, "Because you have done this, I will not rest until I have taken vengeance upon you." And he struck them ruthlessly with a great slaughter, and then went down and stayed in the cave at the rock of Etam.
Then the Philistines went up, camped in Judah, and deployed themselves near the town of Lehi.
"Why have you attacked us?" said the men of Judah.
The Philistines replied, "We have come to arrest Samson and pay him back for what he has done to us."
In response, three thousand men of Judah went to the cave at the rock of Etam, and they asked Samson, "Do you not realize that the Philistines rule over us? What have you done to us?"
"I have done to them what they did to me," he replied.
But they said to him, "We have come down to arrest you and hand you over to the Philistines."
Samson replied, "Swear to me that you will not kill me yourselves."
"No," they answered, "we will not kill you, but we will tie you up securely and hand you over to them." So they bound him with two new ropes and led him up from the rock.
When Samson arrived in Lehi, the Philistines came out shouting against him. And the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him. The ropes on his arms became like burnt flax, and the bonds broke loose from his hands. He found the fresh jawbone of a donkey, reached out his hand and took it, and struck down a thousand men. Then Samson said:
"With the jawbone of a donkey
I have piled them into heaps.
With the jawbone of a donkey
I have slain a thousand men."
And when Samson had finished speaking, he cast the jawbone from his hand; and he named that place Ramath-lehi.
And being very thirsty, Samson cried out to the LORD, "You have accomplished this great deliverance through Your servant. Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?"
So God opened up the hollow place in Lehi, and water came out of it. When Samson drank, his strength returned, and he was revived. That is why he named it En-hakkore, and it remains in Lehi to this day.
And Samson judged Israel for twenty years in the days of the Philistines.
One day Samson went to Gaza, where he saw a prostitute and went in to spend the night with her.
When the Gazites heard that Samson was there, they surrounded that place and lay in wait for him all night at the city gate. They were quiet throughout the night, saying, "Let us wait until dawn; then we will kill him."
But Samson lay there only until midnight, when he got up, took hold of the doors of the city gate and both gateposts, and pulled them out, bar and all. Then he put them on his shoulders and took them to the top of the mountain overlooking Hebron.
Some time later, Samson fell in love with a woman in the Valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. The lords of the Philistines went to her and said, "Entice him and find out the source of his great strength and how we can overpower him to tie him up and subdue him. Then each one of us will give you eleven hundred shekels of silver."
So Delilah said to Samson, "Please tell me the source of your great strength and how you can be tied up and subdued."
Samson told her, "If they tie me up with seven fresh bowstrings that have not been dried, I will become as weak as any other man."
So the lords of the Philistines brought her seven fresh bowstrings that had not been dried, and she tied him up with them. While the men were hidden in her room, she called out, "Samson, the Philistines are here!"
But he snapped the bowstrings like a strand of yarn seared by a flame. So the source of his strength remained unknown.
Then Delilah said to Samson, "You have mocked me and lied to me! Now please tell me how you can be tied up."
He replied, "If they tie me up with new ropes that have never been used, I will become as weak as any other man."
So Delilah took new ropes, tied him up with them, and called out, "Samson, the Philistines are here!"
But while the men were hidden in her room, he snapped the ropes off his arms like they were threads.
Then Delilah said to Samson, "You have mocked me and lied to me all along! Tell me how you can be tied up."
He told her, "If you weave the seven braids of my head into the web of a loom and tighten it with a pin, I will become as weak as any other man."
So while he slept, Delilah took the seven braids of his hair and wove them into the web. Then she tightened it with a pin and called to him, "Samson, the Philistines are here!"
But he awoke from his sleep and pulled out the pin with the loom and the web.
"How can you say, 'I love you,'?" she asked, "when your heart is not with me? This is the third time you have mocked me and failed to reveal to me the source of your great strength!"
Finally, after she had pressed him daily with her words and pleaded until he was sick to death, Samson told her all that was in his heart: "My hair has never been cut, because I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother's womb. If I am shaved, my strength will leave me, and I will become as weak as any other man."
When Delilah realized that he had revealed to her all that was in his heart, she sent this message to the lords of the Philistines: "Come up once more, for he has revealed to me all that is in his heart."
Then the lords of the Philistines came to her, bringing the money in their hands.
And having lulled him to sleep on her lap, she called a man to shave off the seven braids of his head. In this way she began to subdue him, and his strength left him. Then she called out, "Samson, the Philistines are here!"
When Samson awoke from his sleep, he thought, "I will escape as I did before and shake myself free." But he did not know that the LORD had departed from him.
Then the Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, where he was bound with bronze shackles and forced to grind grain in the prison.
However, the hair of his head began to grow back after it had been shaved.
Now the lords of the Philistines gathered together to offer a great sacrifice to their god Dagon. They rejoiced and said, "Our god has delivered Samson our enemy into our hands."
And when the people saw him, they praised their god, saying:
"Our god has delivered into our hands
our enemy who destroyed our land
and multiplied our dead."
And while their hearts were merry, they said, "Call for Samson to entertain us." So they called Samson out of the prison to entertain them. And they stationed him between the pillars.
Samson said to the servant who held his hand, "Lead me where I can feel the pillars supporting the temple, so I can lean against them."
Now the temple was full of men and women; all the lords of the Philistines were there, and about three thousand men and women were on the roof watching Samson entertain them.
Then Samson called out to the LORD: "O Lord GOD, please remember me. Strengthen me, O God, just once more, so that with one vengeful blow I may pay back the Philistines for my two eyes."
And Samson reached out for the two central pillars supporting the temple. Bracing himself against them with his right hand on one pillar and his left hand on the other, Samson said, "Let me die with the Philistines."
Then he pushed with all his might, and the temple fell on the lords and all the people in it. So in his death he killed more than he had killed in his life.
Then Samson's brothers and his father's family came down, carried him back, and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of his father Manoah. And he had judged Israel twenty years.
Hallelujah!
Praise the LORD, O my soul.
I will praise the LORD all my life;
I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.
Put not your trust in princes,
in mortal man, who cannot save.
When his spirit departs, he returns to the ground;
on that very day his plans perish.
Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the LORD his God,
the Maker of heaven and earth,
the sea, and everything in them.
He remains faithful forever.
He executes justice for the oppressed
and gives food to the hungry.
The LORD sets the prisoners free,
the LORD opens the eyes of the blind,
the LORD lifts those who are weighed down,
the LORD loves the righteous.
The LORD protects foreigners;
He sustains the fatherless and the widow,
but the ways of the wicked He frustrates.
The LORD reigns forever,
your God, O Zion, for all generations.
Hallelujah!
On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women came to the tomb, bringing the spices they had prepared. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were puzzling over this, suddenly two men in radiant apparel stood beside them.
As the women bowed their faces to the ground in terror, the two men asked them, "Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; He has risen! Remember how He told you while He was still in Galilee: 'The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.'"
Then they remembered His words. And when they returned from the tomb, they reported all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles. But their words seemed like nonsense to them, and they did not believe the women.
Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. And after bending down and seeing only the linen cloths, he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.
That same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. And as they talked and deliberated, Jesus Himself came up and walked along with them. But their eyes were kept from recognizing Him.
He asked them, "What are you discussing so intently as you walk along?"
They stood still, with sadness on their faces. One of them, named Cleopas, asked Him, "Are You the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in recent days?"
"What things?" He asked.
"The events involving Jesus of Nazareth," they answered. "This man was a prophet, powerful in speech and action before God and all the people. Our chief priests and rulers delivered Him up to the sentence of death, and they crucified Him. But we were hoping He was the One who would redeem Israel. And besides all this, it is the third day since these things took place.
Furthermore, some of our women astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, but they did not find His body. They came and told us they had seen a vision of angels, who said that Jesus was alive. Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had described. But Him they did not see."
Then Jesus said to them, "O foolish ones, how slow are your hearts to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and then to enter His glory?" And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He explained to them what was written in all the Scriptures about Himself.
As they approached the village where they were headed, He seemed to be going farther. But they pleaded with Him, "Stay with us, for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over."
So He went in to stay with them. While He was reclining at the table with them, He took bread, spoke a blessing and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Jesus-and He disappeared from their sight.
They asked each other, "Were not our hearts burning within us as He spoke with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?" And they got up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem.
There they found the Eleven and those with them, gathered together and saying, "The Lord has indeed risen and has appeared to Simon!"
Then the two told what had happened on the road, and how they had recognized Jesus in the breaking of the bread.
While they were describing these events, Jesus Himself stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." But they were startled and frightened, thinking they had seen a spirit.
"Why are you troubled," Jesus asked, "and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at My hands and My feet. It is I Myself. Touch Me and see-for a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have." And when He had said this, He showed them His hands and feet.
While they were still in disbelief because of their joy and amazement, He asked them, "Do you have anything here to eat?" So they gave Him a piece of broiled fish, and He took it and ate it in front of them.
Jesus said to them, "These are the words I spoke to you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about Me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms." Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.
And He told them, "This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and in His name repentance and forgiveness of sins will be proclaimed to all nations, beginning in Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.
And behold, I am sending the promise of My Father upon you. But remain in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high."
When Jesus had led them out as far as Bethany, He lifted up His hands and blessed them. While He was blessing them, He left them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped Him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, praising God continually in the temple.