Judges 3:7-16:31

New Catholic Bible

The Period of the Judges

Othniel’s Conquest.^{[a] 7} The Israelites did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, forgetting the Lord, their God, and serving the Baals and the Asherahs. ⁸ The anger of the Lord blazed out against Israel, so he sold them into the hands of Cushan-rishathaim, the king of Aram-naharaim.^[b] The Israelites were subjected to Cushan-rishathaim for eight years. ⁹ When the Israelites cried out to the Lord, the Lord sent the Israelites a liberator. It was Othniel, the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother, and he delivered them. ¹⁰ The Spirit of the Lord^[c] came upon him, and he became a judge of Israel. He went to war, and the Lord delivered Cushan-rishathaim, the king of Aram-naharaim, into his hands. His hand overpowered Cushan-rishathaim. ¹¹ The land was at peace for forty years, and then Othniel, the son of Kenaz, died.

¹² Ehud’s Victory. The Israelites once again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. Because of the evil they had done in the sight of the Lord, the Lord gave Eglon, the king of Moab, power over Israel. ¹³ He joined up with the Ammonites and the Amalekites, and they went and attacked Israel, conquering the City of Palms. ¹⁴ The Israelites were subjects of Eglon, the king of Moab, for eighteen years.

¹⁵ The Israelites cried out to the Lord, and the Lord raised up a liberator for them. He was Ehud, the son of Gera, the Benjaminite, a left-handed man.^[d] The Israelites sent him with tribute to Eglon, the king of Moab. ¹⁶ Ehud had made a double-edged sword that was one foot^[e] long, and he strapped it on under his clothing on his right thigh. ¹⁷ He brought the tribute to Eglon. Now Eglon was a very fat man. ¹⁸ When he had received the tribute, he dismissed the people who were carrying the tribute. ¹⁹ At the idols of Gilgal, he turned back and said, “I have a secret message for you, O king.” He said, “Be quiet,” until all his attendants left him. ²⁰ Ehud then approached him while he was sitting alone in the upper room. Ehud said, “I have a message from God for you.” As he got out of his seat, ²¹ Ehud reached in with his left hand, drew the sword out from his right thigh, and stuck it into his stomach. ²² It went in so far that even the handle of the sword was covered over by fat, and he could not draw the sword out from his stomach. In fact, excrement came out.

²³ When Ehud went out onto the porch, he shut and locked the doors to the upper room behind himself. ²⁴ When he left, the servants came back. They saw that the doors to the upper room were locked, and they said, “He must be relieving himself in the summer chamber.” ²⁵ They waited so long that they became anxious, but he still did not open the doors of the upper room. They took a key and opened it, and they found their lord dead on the ground.

²⁶ While they were waiting, Ehud was able to escape. Passing beyond the idols, he hurried to Seirah. ²⁷ When he arrived, he blew a trumpet in the hill country of Ephraim. The Israelites went down with him from the hill country of Ephraim, and he stood in front of them. ²⁸ He said, “Follow me, for the Lord has delivered your enemies, the Moabites, into your hands.” They followed him, and they captured the fords of the Jordan opposite Moab, and they did not let anyone cross over. ²⁹ They slew around ten thousand of the Moabites that day, all of them robust and courageous warriors, and not one of them escaped. ³⁰ Moab was vanquished that day under the hand of Israel, and there was peace in the land for eighty years.

³¹ Deliverance by Shamgar. He was succeeded by Shamgar,^[f] the son of Anath. He killed six hundred Philistines with an oxgoad, and he delivered Israel.

Chapter 4

Judges Deborah and Barak. ¹ After Ehud died the Israelites once again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. ² The Lord sold them into the hands of Jabin, the king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. The commander of his army was Sisera who lived in Harosheth-haggoyim. ³ The Israelites cried out to the Lord, for he had nine hundred iron chariots. He oppressed the Israelites terribly for twenty years.

⁴ Now Deborah, the wife of Lappidoth, a prophetess, was then a judge in Israel.^{[g] 5} She used to sit underneath the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim. The Israelites would come up to her for judgment there. ⁶ She summoned Barak, the son of Ahinoam, from Kadesh of Naphtali, and she said to him, “The Lord, the God of Israel, commands you, ‘Go, take ten thousand men from Naphtali and Zebulun with yourself and march toward Mount Tabor.^{[h] 7} I will lure Sisera, the commander of Jabin’s army, along with his chariots and his forces, to the Kishon River, and I will deliver him up into your hands.’ ” ⁸ Barak said to her, “If you go with me, then I will go, but if you do not go with me, then I will not go.” ⁹ She said, “Fine, I will go with you. But because of how you are doing this, it will not work out to your glory. The Lord will hand Sisera over into the hands of a woman.” So Deborah rose up and went with Barak to Kedesh. ¹⁰ Barak had summoned Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh. Ten thousand men were under his command, and Deborah went up with him.

¹¹ Now Heber, the Kenite, had moved away from the Kenites, the descendants of Hobab, the father-in-law of Moses. He pitched his tent by the terebinth of Zaanannim, which is near Kedesh.

¹² They reported to Sisera that Barak, the son of Abinoam, had gone up to Mount Tabor. ¹³ Sisera gathered together his nine hundred iron chariots and all of the men who were with him, and he traveled from Harosheth-haggoyim to the Wadi Kishon. ¹⁴ Deborah said to Barak, “Rise up, for this is the day that the Lord has delivered Sisera into your hands. Has the Lord not gone out before you?” So Barak went down Mount Tabor, followed by his men.

¹⁵ The Lord routed Sisera before Barak at the edge of the sword along with all his chariots and all his troops. Sisera climbed down from his chariot and fled on foot. ¹⁶ Barak pursued the chariots and the army as far as Harosheth-haggoyim. All of the troops of Sisera fell to the sword; there was not a survivor left among them.

¹⁷ Sisera fled on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, for there was peace between Jabin, the king of Hazor, and Heber the Kenite. ¹⁸ Jael went out to greet Sisera. She said to him, “Come in, my lord, come right in. Do not be afraid.” He came into the tent, and she covered him with a blanket. ¹⁹ He said to her, “Please give me a little water to drink for I am thirsty.” She opened up a skin of milk, gave him some to drink, and covered him again. ²⁰ He told her, “Stand at the entrance to the tent. If anyone comes by and asks, ‘Is there anyone here,’ tell that person, ‘No.’ ” ²¹ But Jael, Heber’s wife, got a tent peg, she took a hammer in her hands, and she snuck up to him when he was in a deep sleep. She drove it through his temple into the ground, and he died.^[i]

²² Barak passed by in pursuit of Sisera, and Jael came out to him and said to him, “Come in, I will show you the man you are looking for.” He found Sisera dead, the peg through his temple. ²³ On that day the Lord brought Jabin, the king of Canaan, into subjection to the Israelites. ²⁴ The hand of the Israelites constantly grew stronger against Jabin, the king of Canaan, until they had crushed Jabin, the king of Canaan.

Chapter 5^[j]

The Song of Deborah. ¹ On that day Deborah and Barak, the son of Abinoam, sang,

There was then peace in the land for forty years.

Chapter 6^[q]

Gideon’s Call.^{[r] 1} The Israelites once again did what is evil in the sight of the Lord, so the Lord delivered them into the hands of Midian for seven years. ² The hand of Midian weighed heavy upon Israel, and because of the Midianites, the Israelites prepared refuges for themselves in mountain caverns, caves, and strongholds. ³ Whenever the Israelites sowed their crops, the Midianites, the Amalekites and other peoples from the East would attack them. ⁴ They camped against them and devastated the produce of the land all the way up to Gaza. They did not leave a living thing in Israel, not a sheep, nor an ox, nor a donkey. ⁵ They came up with their livestock and their tents like swarms of locusts. They and their camels were impossible to count; they invaded the land and laid it waste.

⁶ The Midianites oppressed Israel so terribly that the Israelites cried out to the Lord. ⁷ When the Israelites cried out to the Lord on account of the Midianites, ⁸ the Lord sent the Israelites a prophet^[s] who said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘I brought you up from the land of Egypt, bringing you forth from the land of your slavery. ⁹ I delivered you out of the hands of the Egyptians, out of the hands of everyone who oppressed you. I drove them out before you and gave you their land. ¹⁰ I said to you, “I am the Lord, your God. Do not show reverence to the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell.” But you did not listen to my voice.’ ”

¹¹ The angel came and sat under the oak in Ophrah^[t] that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite. It was there that Gideon, his son, was threshing wheat in a winepress to hide his activities from the Midianites. ¹² When the angel of the Lord appeared, he said, “The Lord is with you, O mighty warrior.” ¹³ Gideon said to him, “O my Lord, if the Lord is with us, then why has all of this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our fathers told us about when they said, ‘Did the Lord not bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us into the hands of the Midianites.” ¹⁴ The Lord looked at him and said, “Go in your might and rescue Israel out of the hands of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?” ¹⁵ But he said to him, “O Lord, how can I save Israel. My clan is the poorest in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father’s household.” ¹⁶ The Lord said to him, “I will be with you,^[u] and you will strike down the Midianites as if they were only one man.” ¹⁷ He answered him, “If I truly have found favor in your sight, then show me a sign that it is you speaking to me. ¹⁸ Please do not leave here until I return to you, bringing my offering that I will set before you.” He said, “I will wait here until you come back.”

¹⁹ Gideon went off and prepared a kid goat and unleavened bread made from an ephah of flour. He put the meat in a basket and the broth in a pot, and brought them out to lay them down under the oak, presenting them to him. ²⁰ The angel of God said, “Take the meat and the unleavened bread and lay them on this rock, then pour out the broth.” He did these things. ²¹ The angel of the Lord stretched forth the end of the staff that was in his hand, touching the meat and the unleavened bread. Fire rose up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened bread. Then the angel of the Lord vanished from his sight.

²² When Gideon realized that it had been the angel of the Lord, he said, “Alas, O Lord God, for now I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face.” ²³ But the angel of the Lord said to him, “Peace be with you. Do not be afraid; you will not die.” ²⁴ Then Gideon built an altar to the Lord there and called it, “The Lord is peace.” It is still in Ophrah of the Abiezrites up to the present.

^25 [v]Now that same night the Lord said to him, “Take your father’s spare ox, the ox that is seven years old. Break down the altar to Baal that belongs to your father, and cut down the Asherah that is beside it. ²⁶ Build a proper altar to the Lord, your God, on top of this rock. Offer up the spare ox as a burnt offering, using the wood from the Asherah you cut down.”

²⁷ So Gideon took ten of his servants and did what the Lord had told him to do. Because he was afraid of his father’s household and the men of the city, he could not do it during the day; he did it at night.

²⁸ Early in the morning the men from the city arose and saw the altar of Baal demolished and the Asherah alongside of it cut down. The spare ox had also been offered on the newly built altar. ²⁹ They asked one another, “Who has done this?” When they carefully investigated it, they were told, “Gideon, the son of Joash, did this.” ³⁰ The men from the city told Joash, “Bring your son out. He must die, because he demolished the altar to Baal and he cut down the Asherah that was alongside of it.” ³¹ But Joash said to all those who were confronting him, “Are you going to defend Baal’s cause? Are you trying to save him? Whoever defends his cause will be put to death by tomorrow morning. If he is really a god, then he can fight for himself when someone breaks down his altar.” ³² From that day on they called him Jerubbaal, saying, “Let Baal fight with him,” because he cast down his altar.

³³ All of the Midianites, the Amalekites, and the peoples from the east gathered together. They crossed over the Jordan, and camped in the Valley of Jezreel.

³⁴ The Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon, and he blew his trumpet, summoning those who were in Abiezer to follow him.^{[w] 35} He sent messengers all throughout Manasseh, summoning them to follow him. He also sent messengers to Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, so that they too gathered around him.

³⁶ Gideon said to God, “If you intend to save Israel by my hands, as you have told me, ³⁷ then I will put a wool fleece on the floor. If there is dew on the fleece itself, but the ground around it is dry, then I will know that you are going to save Israel by my hands, as you said.” ³⁸ Gideon got up early the next morning. He squeezed the fleece, and dew flowed out of the fleece, producing a bowl full of water.

³⁹ Then Gideon said to God, “Do not be angry with me if I make this request. Let me test the fleece one more time. This time let the fleece remain dry and the ground all around it be covered with dew.” ⁴⁰ This is what God did that night. Only the fleece was dry, for there was dew on the ground that surrounded it.

Chapter 7

Midian’s Defeat. ¹ Early in the morning Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) and all of the people who were with him camped at the well of Harod. The Midianite army was to the north of them, in the valley by the hill of Moreh.

² The Lord said to Gideon, “You have too many people with you for me to deliver over the Midianites into your hands. Otherwise, Israel might vaunt themselves against me saying, ‘We have saved ourselves by our own efforts.’ ³ Announce to the people, ‘Whoever is afraid and panicking, let him go back and leave Mount Gilead.’ ” Twenty-two thousand of the men left, and there were ten thousand left.

⁴ Then the Lord said to Gideon, “There are still too many men. Bring them down to the water, and I will test them for you. Of whomever I say to you, ‘This one will go with you,’ that is the one who will go with you. Of whomever I say to you, ‘This one will not go with you,’ that one will not go with you.” ⁵ He brought the men down to the water. The Lord said to Gideon, “You will set apart everyone who laps up water like a dog from anyone who kneels down to drink.” ⁶ There were three hundred men who lapped up water by holding their hands to their face. The rest of the men knelt down to drink their water. ⁷ The Lord said to Gideon, “I will save you through the three hundred men who lapped up their water. I will deliver the Midianites into your hands. Let everyone else go back home.”^{[x] 8} So they took the other people’s provisions, and they placed their trumpets in their hands. Gideon sent all the other Israelite men back to their homes, but he kept three hundred men with him.

The army of Midian was camped in the valley below them. ⁹ That same night the Lord said to him, “Rise up, go down against the army, for I have delivered them into your hands. ¹⁰ Draw near them until you can hear what they are saying, ¹¹ and then your hands will be strengthened so that you can descend upon the camp.” So he and his servant Purah went down to the outskirts of the camp. ¹² The Midianites, the Amalekites, and all of the other easterners were lying in the valley, as thick as locusts. There were so many camels that they could not be counted; there were as many of them as there is sand on the seashore.

¹³ Gideon arrived just as a man was telling his friend about a dream. He said, “I dreamed that a barley cake^[y] came tumbling into the Midianite camp. It hit a tent so hard that it overturned and collapsed.” ¹⁴ His friend said, “This can only be the sword of Gideon, the son of Joash, the Israelite. God has delivered Midian and its entire army into his hands.”

¹⁵ When Gideon heard the content of the dream and its interpretation, he worshiped. He returned to the army of Israel and said, “Rise up, for the Lord has delivered the army of Midian into your hands.”

¹⁶ He divided the three hundred men into three groups, and he placed trumpets and empty jars with torches inside them into each man’s hands. ¹⁷ He said to them, “Watch me. Do whatever I do. When we reach the edge of the camp, do whatever I do. ¹⁸ When I and all those who are with me blow our trumpets, then blow your trumpets all around the camp and shout out, ‘For the Lord and for Gideon!’ ”

¹⁹ Gideon and the three hundred men who were with him reached the edge of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, just after they had changed the guard. They blew their trumpets and broke the jars that were in their hands. ²⁰ The three groups blew their trumpets and broke their jars, holding the torches in their left hands and the trumpets in their right hands. They blew their trumpets and cried out, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon.”

²¹ While each man stood in his place around the camp, the army ran away crying. ²² When the three hundred men blew their trumpets, the Lord caused each man to attack his fellow soldiers with his sword. The army fled to Beth-shittah, toward Zeredah, coming to the border of Abel-meholah near Tabbath.^[z]

²³ The men of Israel from out of Naphtali, from out of Asher, and from out of Manasseh gathered together and pursued the Midianites. ²⁴ Gideon sent messengers all throughout the hill country of Ephraim who said, “Come down against the Midianites, and capture the fords of the Jordan at Beth-barah before they reach them.” So all the men from Ephraim gathered together and captured the fords of the Jordan at Beth-barah. ²⁵ They also captured Oreb and Zeeb, two of the princes of the Midianites. They killed Oreb upon the rock of Oreb, and they killed Zeeb at the winepress of Zeeb. They pursued the Midianites, and brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon who was alongside of the Jordan.

Chapter 8

Gideon’s Second Campaign. ¹ The Ephraimites said to him, “Why have you treated us this way? Why did you not summon us when you went out to fight against the Midianites?” And they rebuked him severely. ² He answered them, “What have I ever done that could be compared to what you have done? Are not the gleanings of the grapes in Ephraim better than the vintage of Abiezer? ³ God delivered Oreb and Zeeb, the princes of Midian, into your hands. What was I able to do compared with what you did?” Their anger against him calmed down when he said that.

⁴ Gideon and the three hundred men with him came to and crossed over the Jordan, exhausted, but still in pursuit. ⁵ He said to the men of Succoth, “Give some bread to the men who are with me, for they are weary, and I am chasing after Zebah and Zal-munna, the kings of Midian.” ⁶ The princes of Succoth asked, “Do you already have the hands^[aa] of Zebah and Zalmunna in your possession? Why should we give bread to your soldiers?” ⁷ Gideon answered, “For this, when the Lord has delivered Zebah and Zalmunna into my hands, I will tear at your flesh with desert thorns and briars.”

⁸ He went up to Penuel and said the same thing to them. The men of Penuel answered him the same way that the men of Succoth had, ⁹ so he said to the men of Penuel, “When I come back again in peace, I will tear down this tower.”

¹⁰ Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor, and they had their armies with them, fifteen thousand men. These were all that were left from the armies of the easterners, for some one hundred and twenty thousand swordsmen had fallen. ¹¹ Gideon went up by the nomad route to the east of Nobah and Jogbehah and he fell upon the unsuspecting army. ¹² Zebah and Zalmunna fled away, and he chased after the two kings of Midian and captured them. Zebah, Zalmunna and their entire army were routed.

¹³ Gideon, the son of Joash, then returned from the battle by the Pass of Heres. ¹⁴ He captured a young man from Succoth and questioned him. He wrote down the names of the seventy-seven princes and elders of Succoth for him. ¹⁵ He came to the men of Succoth and said, “Look at Zebah and Zalmunna, the ones about whom you taunted me when you said, ‘Are Zebah and Zalmunna in your hands now that we should give bread to your weary men?’ ” ¹⁶ He picked out the elders of the city, and he taught the men of Succoth a lesson with desert thorns and briars. ¹⁷ He also smashed down the tower of Penuel and he killed the men of the city.

¹⁸ Then he said to Zebah and Zalmunna, “Where are the men whom you killed at Tabor?” They replied, “Each one of them looked like you, like the son of a king.” ¹⁹ He said, “They were my brothers, the sons of my mother. I swear to God, if you had spared them, I would not kill you.”

²⁰ Then he said to Jether,^[ab] his firstborn, “Stand up, kill them.” But the young man did not draw his sword because he was afraid; he was still quite young. ²¹ Then Zebah and Zalmunna said, “Get up yourself and fall upon us! It takes the courage of a man.” So Gideon stood up and killed Zebah and Zalmunna, and he took the ornaments off the necks of their camels.

²² The Israelites said to Gideon, “Rule over us, you, and your son, and your grandson, for you have delivered us out of the hands of Midian.” ²³ But Gideon said to them, “Neither I nor my son will rule over you. The Lord will rule over you!”

²⁴ Gideon continued, “I do have one request to make of you. Let each man give me an earring from his share of the plunder.” (They had gold earrings, for they were Ishmaelites.)^{[ac] 25} They answered, “We would be glad to give them to you.” They spread out a garment, and each man threw his earrings from the plunder onto it. ²⁶ The weight of the golden earnings he had asked for was one thousand, seven hundred golden shekels, not counting the ornaments, the necklaces, the purple garments that had been worn by the kings of Midian, and the chains that had been on the necks of their camels.

²⁷ Gideon had the gold made into an ephod^[ad] which he placed in Ophrah, his hometown. All of Israel prostituted itself by worshiping it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and his household. ²⁸ This is how Midian was subjected to the Israelites, so that they did not lift up their heads again. During Gideon’s lifetime there was peace in the land, for forty years.

²⁹ Abimelech, Son of Gideon. Jerubbaal went to his home and lived there. ³⁰ Gideon had seventy sons of his own, for he had many wives. ³¹ His concubine^[ae] who lived in Shechem also had a son who was called Abimelech. ³² Gideon, the son of Joash, lived to a good old age, and he was buried in the tomb of his father Joash in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

³³ As soon as Gideon died, the Israelites turned again and prostituted themselves after the Baals. They set up Baal-berith^[af] as their god ³⁴ and the Israelites forgot that the Lord, their God, had delivered them out of the hands of their enemies who surrounded them. ³⁵ They also failed to respect the family of Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) for all of the good things that he had done for Israel.

Chapter 9

^1 [ag]Abimelech, the son of Jerubbaal, traveled to Shechem to see his mother’s brothers, and he said to them and to all of his mother’s clan,^{[ah] 2} “Ask in the hearing of the men of Shechem, ‘Which is better for you, that you have the seventy sons of Jerubbaal rule over you, or that you have one rule over you?’ Remember that I am your flesh and blood.” ³ When his mother’s brothers proclaimed this in the hearing of the men of Shechem, they were inclined to agree with Abimelech about this matter, for they said, “He is our brother.” ⁴ They gave him seventy shekels of silver from the temple of Baal-berith, and Abimelech used it to hire some worthless and reckless fellows who followed him. ⁵ Then he went to his father’s house at Ophrah and he killed his brothers, the sons of Jerubbaal, seventy men, upon one stone. There was no one left except for Jotham, the son of Jerubbaal, the youngest, for he had hid himself. ⁶ All of the men in Shechem and Beth-millo assembled together and they went and made Abimelech king by the oak of the pillar that is in Shechem.

⁷ When Jotham was told about it, he went and stood on top of Mount Gerizim and shouted out, “Listen to me, O men of Shechem, so that God might listen to you. ⁸ Once the trees went out to anoint a king for themselves. They said to the olive tree, ‘Reign over us.’ ⁹ But the olive tree said to them, ‘Why should I give up my oil, with which God and men are honored, to go and hold sway over the trees?’ ¹⁰ Then the trees said to the fig tree, ‘You come and reign over us.’ ¹¹ But the fig tree said to them, ‘Why should I give up my sweetness and my good fruit to go and hold sway over the trees?’ ¹² Then the trees said to the vine, ‘You come and reign over us.’ ¹³ But the vine said to them, ‘Why should I give up my wine which cheers both God and man^[ai] to go and hold sway over the trees?’ ¹⁴ Then all of the trees said to the bramble, ‘You come and reign over us.’ ¹⁵ The bramble said to the trees, ‘If you truly intend to anoint me as your king, then come, and take refuge in my shade. If not, then let fire come out of the bramble and consume the cedars of Lebanon.’

¹⁶ “Now if you have truly and in all sincerity made Abimelech king, if you have treated Abimelech and his household well, dealing with him as he deserved, ¹⁷ for my father fought for you, he risked his life and delivered you out of the hands of Midian, ¹⁸ but you have risen up against my father’s household, killing his sons, seventy men on one stone, and you have made Abimelech, the son of his handmaid, as king of the men of Shechem because he is your relative, ¹⁹ if you have truly and in all sincerity dealt with Jerubbaal and his household today, then rejoice in Abimelech and let him also rejoice in you. ²⁰ But if not, then let fire come out of Abimelech and consume the men of Shechem and Beth-millo, and let fire come out from the men of Shechem and Beth-millo and consume Abimelech.”

²¹ Jotham ran away and fled, going to Beer where he remained, for he was afraid of Abimelech his brother. ²² Now Abimelech ruled over Israel for three years. ²³ Then God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem, and the men of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech. ²⁴ This happened because of the violence that was done to the seventy sons of Jerubbaal, so that their blood might be upon Abimelech, their brother, and upon the men of Shechem, who had assisted in killing his brothers.

²⁵ The men of Shechem sat in ambush against him upon the mountain tops. They robbed all of those who passed by on the road, and Abimelech was told about it. ²⁶ Now Gaal, the son of Ebed, arrived in Shechem, and the men of Shechem trusted him. ²⁷ They went out into the fields and gathered the grapes, treading them. They threw a celebration and went in to the temple of their god, eating and drinking and cursing Abimelech. ²⁸ Then Gaal, the son of Ebed, asked, “Who is Abimelech, and who is Shechem, that we should serve him? Is he not the son of Jerubbaal, and is not Zebul his assistant? Serve the men of Hamor, the father of Shechem. Why should we serve him? ²⁹ I wish that the people were under my authority, for then I would get rid of Abimelech. I would say to Abimelech, ‘Gather your army and come out!’ ”

³⁰ Zebul, the ruler of the city, heard what Gaal, the son of Ebed, had said and he grew angry at him. ³¹ He secretly sent messengers to Abimelech saying, “Gaal, the son of Ebed, and his brethren have come to Shechem, and they are stirring up the city against you. ³² You and your men should come up by night and lie in wait in the fields. ³³ In the morning, at sunrise, advance on the city. He and his men will come out against you, and you can do whatever you see fit to them.”

³⁴ So Abimelech and all the men who were with him arose, and they laid in wait near Shechem during the night. They were divided into four companies. ³⁵ Now Gaal, the son of Ebed, had gone out and he was standing at the entrance to the city just as Abimelech and his men were coming out from their hiding places. ³⁶ When Gaal saw them, he said to Zebul, “Look, people are coming down from the mountain tops.” Zebul said to him, “You are just seeing the shadows on the mountain, they just look like men.” ³⁷ But Gaal said, “Look, people are coming down from Tabbur-haarez. Another company is coming by way of the Diviner’s Terebinth.” ³⁸ Then Zebul said to him, “Where is your mouth now, you who said, ‘Who is Abimelech that we should serve him?’ Are these not the men whom you despised? So go out, now, and fight them!”

³⁹ Gaal went out with the men of Shechem and they fought against Abimelech. ⁴⁰ Abimelech chased after him, and he fled away from him. A large number fell wounded at the entrance to the city. ⁴¹ Abimelech dwelt in Arumah, and Zebul expelled Gaal and his brethren so that they could no longer live in Shechem. ⁴² The next day the people went out into the field, and they told Abimelech. ⁴³ He took his men, divided them into three companies, and lay in wait in the fields for them. He kept watch, and when they came out of the city, he rose up and attacked them. ⁴⁴ Abimelech and the company that was with him rushed forward and stood in the entranceway to the gate of the city; the other two companies rushed upon the people who were in the fields and killed them. ⁴⁵ Abimelech fought against the city all day long, and he captured the city and killed the people who were there. He demolished the city and sowed it with salt.

⁴⁶ When the men in the tower of Shechem^[aj] heard about this, they entered the stronghold in the temple of El-berith. ⁴⁷ Abimelech was told that all the men from the tower of Shechem were gathered together, ⁴⁸ so Abimelech and all the people who were with him climbed up Mount Zalmon. Abimelech took an ax in his hand and cut down a branch from a tree, and he carried it on his shoulder. He said to the people who were with him, “Hurry up and do what I just did.” ⁴⁹ So each of the men cut a branch like he had and they followed Abimelech. They laid them next to the stronghold, and they set fire to them so that all of the men in the tower of Shechem died, a thousand men and women.

⁵⁰ Abimelech went off to Thebez. He camped before Thebez and captured it. ⁵¹ There was a strong tower in the city, so all the men and women from the city fled there and shut themselves in, climbing up to the top of the tower. ⁵² So Abimelech came up to the tower and fought against it. He approached the door of the tower to set it on fire.

^53 [ak]A certain woman cast the upper part of a millstone down upon Abimelech’s head, and it cracked his skull. ⁵⁴ He called out quickly to his young man, his armor-bearer, and he said, “Draw out your sword and kill me, so that they cannot say, ‘A woman killed him.’ ” His young man thrust him through, and he died. ⁵⁵ When the Israelites saw that Abimelech was dead, they left, each man going home.

⁵⁶ God repaid Abimelech for the wicked thing that he had done against his father by killing his seventy brothers. ⁵⁷ The Lord repaid all of the evil that the men of Shechem had done upon their own heads, for the curse of Jotham, the son of Jerubbaal, came down upon them.

Chapter 10

Tola and Jair. ¹ After Abimelech, a certain Tola, the son of Puah, the son of Dodo, an Issacharite, rose up to deliver Israel. He dwelt in Shamir in the hill country of Ephraim. ² He was judge over Israel for twenty-three years, and when he died, he was buried at Shamir.

³ After him Jair, the Gileadite, rose up and he was judge over Israel for twenty-two years. ⁴ He had thirty sons who rode on thirty donkeys, and they also possessed thirty towns. These are called Havvoth-jair up to the present, and they are in the land of Gilead. ⁵ Jair died and was buried in Kamon.

Israelites Subject to the Ammonites. ⁶ The Israelites again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. They served the Baals and the Ashtoreths, the gods of Syria, the gods of Sidon, the gods of the Ammonites, and the gods of the Philistines. They abandoned the Lord and did not serve him. ⁷ The anger of the Lord blazed out against Israel, and he sold them into the hands of the Philistines and the hands of the Ammonites. ⁸ From that year on they oppressed and afflicted them for eighteen years, that is, all of the Israelites who were on the other side of the Jordan in the land of the Amorites, that is, in Gilead.

⁹ The Ammonites also crossed over the Jordan to fight against Judah, against Benjamin, and against the house of Ephraim, so that Israel was sorely distressed. ¹⁰ The Israelites called upon the Lord saying, “We have sinned against you because we have abandoned our God and served the Baals.”

¹¹ The Lord said to the Israelites, “When the Egyptians, the Amorites, the Ammonites, the Philistines, ¹² the Sidonians, the Amalekites, and the Midianites oppressed you, and you cried out to me, did I not save you from out of their hands? ¹³ But you have abandoned me for other gods, therefore I will not save you anymore. ¹⁴ Go and cry out to the gods that you have chosen. Let them save you in the hour of your desperation.”^[al]

¹⁵ The Israelites said to the Lord, “We have sinned. Do with us however you see fit, but please rescue us today.” ¹⁶ They removed their foreign gods from their midst, and they served the Lord. Finally, he could no longer bear Israel’s misery.^{[am] 17} The Ammonites gathered together and they camped in Gilead. The Israelites also gathered together, and they camped at Mizpah. ¹⁸ The people and the leaders of Gilead said to one another, “Who will begin the battle against the Ammonites? That man will be the leader of all of those who live in Gilead.”

Chapter 11

Jephthah. ¹ Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty warrior, but he was the son of a prostitute. Gilead was the father of Jephthah. ² Gilead’s wife bore him sons, but when his wife’s sons grew up, they drove Jephthah out and said to him, “You shall not have an inheritance in our father’s house, for you are the son of another woman.”

³ Jephthah fled from his brothers and dwelt in the land of Tob. Jephthah gathered some worthless fellows around himself, and they went out with him.

⁴ After some time, the Ammonites made war against Israel. ⁵ When the Ammonites fought against Israel, the elders of Israel went to bring back Jephthah from the land of Tob. ⁶ They said to Jephthah, “Come and be our leader so that we can fight against the Ammonites.” ⁷ Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, “Did you not hate me and drive me out of my father’s house? Why have you come to me now that you are in trouble?” ⁸ The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “This is why we have returned to you, so that you can go with us and fight against the Ammonites and be the leader of all of those who live in Gilead.” ⁹ Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, “If you take me back to fight against the Ammonites, and the Lord delivers them up to me, will I then be your leader?” ¹⁰ The elders of Gilead answered, “The Lord will be a witness between us if we do not do what you have said.” ¹¹ Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him their leader and commander. Jephthah spoke all of his words before the Lord at Mizpah.

¹² Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites asking, “What do you have against us? Why have you come here to fight in our land?” ¹³ The king of the Ammonites said to the messengers of Jephthah, “It is because Israel took away my land when they came up out of Egypt. It is the land that lies between the Arnon and the Jabbok, all along the Jordan. Now, give it back to me peacefully.” ¹⁴ Jephthah sent the messengers back to the king of the Ammonites ¹⁵ saying, “This is what Jephthah says, ‘Israel did not take away the land of the Moabites nor the land of the Ammonites. ¹⁶ When they came up out of Egypt, the people of Israel passed through the desert up to the Red Sea and then on to Kadesh. ¹⁷ Israel then sent messengers to the king of Edom saying, “Please let me pass through your land,” but the king of Edom would not listen. The same thing happened when they sent to the king of Moab; he would not agree, so Israel remained in Kadesh.

¹⁸ “ ‘They then went through the desert, skirting the land of Edom and the land of Moab. Passing along on the eastern side of Moab, they camped on the far side of the Arnon. They did not cross over the border with Moab, for the Arnon was the border with Moab.

¹⁹ “ ‘Then Israel sent messengers to Sihon, the king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon. Israel said to him, “Please let us pass through your land into our territory.” ²⁰ But Sihon did not trust Israel enough to let them pass through his land. Sihon and all of his forces camped at Jahaz and fought against Israel. ²¹ The Lord, the God of Israel, delivered Sihon and all of his men into Israel’s hands. They defeated them, and so Israel took possession of all of the land of the Amorites who lived in that territory. ²² They captured the entire land of the Amorites from the Arnon to the Jabbok, and from the wilderness to the Jordan.

²³ “ ‘Now since it was the Lord, the God of Israel, who has driven the Amorites out from before the people of Israel, who are you that you should take it over? ²⁴ Should you not possess what Chemosh,^[an] your god, has given you to possess? Whatever the Lord, our God, has given us to possess, we will possess it.

²⁵ “ ‘Are you any better than Balak, the son of Zippor, the king of Moab? Did he ever quarrel with Israel or fight against it? ²⁶ Israel lived in Heshbon and the towns dependent upon it, in Aroer and the towns dependent upon it, and in all of the cities that lie along the Arnon for three hundred years. Why did you not take it back then? ²⁷ I have not wronged you, but you have done this evil to me by attacking me. Let the Lord, the judge, decide between the Israelites and the Ammonites today.’ ”

²⁸ The king of the Ammonites did not heed the message that Jephthah had sent him. ²⁹ The Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah. He crossed over into Gilead and Manasseh, passing through Mizpah of Gilead, and from Mizpah of Gilead he advanced against the Ammonites.

³⁰ Jephthah’s Vow.^[ao] Jephthah made a vow to the Lord saying, “If you deliver the Ammonites into my hands, ³¹ then whatever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me when I come back in peace from the Ammonites, I will surely offer it up to the Lord as a burnt offering.”

³² Jephthah went to fight the Ammonites, and the Lord delivered them into his hands. ³³ He devastated some twenty cities between Aroer and up to near Minnith, as far away as Abel-keramim. It was a total massacre, and the Ammonites were subjected to the Israelites.

³⁴ When Jephthah came back to Mizpah, to his home, it was his daughter who came out to meet him dancing and playing the tambourines. (She was his only child, for beside her there were no other sons or daughters.) ³⁵ When he saw her, he tore his clothes and said, “Woe is me, for my daughter has made me miserable and wretched. I made a vow to the Lord; I cannot break it.” ³⁶ “My father,” she said, “you have made a vow to the Lord. Do to me what you have vowed to do, for the Lord has taken vengeance for you upon your enemies, the Ammonites. ³⁷ Only let me do this one thing, my father,” she continued, “may I roam around the hill country to mourn my virginity, for I will never marry.” ³⁸ He answered, “Go!” She and her friends went into the hill country for two months, mourning her virginity. ³⁹ When the two months were over, she returned to her father. He did what he had promised in his vow to do to her. She never knew any man. This is why there is a custom in Israel ⁴⁰ for young women in Israel to mourn the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite for four days every year.

Chapter 12

Shibboleth Murders. ¹ The Ephraimites gathered together and they traveled northward to Jephthah and they said, “Why did you go out to fight against the Ammonites and you did not summon us to go with you? We are going to set your house on fire!”

² Jephthah answered, “I and the people who were with me fought a great battle against the Ammonites, and although I summoned you, you did not deliver me out of their hands. ³ When I realized that you would not help me, I put my life in my hands and crossed over to fight against the Ammonites. It is the Lord who delivered them into my hands. Why have you come here today to fight against me?” ⁴ Jephthah then summoned the Gileadites and they fought against the Ephraimites. The Gileadites struck down the Ephraimites, because the Ephraimites had said, “You Gileadites are nothing more than refugees from Ephraim and Manasseh.”

⁵ The Gileadites captured the fords of the Jordan that lead to Ephraim. When one of the survivors of the Ephraimites said, “Let us cross over,” the Gileadites said to him, “Are you an Ephraimite?” If he replied, “No,” ⁶ then they said to him, “Say Shibboleth.” If he said, “Sibboleth,” because he could not pronounce it correctly, they would seize him and kill him at the fords of the Jordan. At that time forty-two thousand Ephraimites were killed.

⁷ Jephthah was a judge over Israel for six years. Jephthah the Gileadite died, and he was buried in one of the cities of Gilead.

Ibzan.^{[ap] 8} After him, Ibzan of Bethlehem was a judge over Israel. ⁹ He had thirty sons and thirty daughters. He gave his thirty daughters away in marriage to those outside of his clan, and he took in thirty young women from outside of his clan for his sons to marry. Ibzan was a judge over Israel for seven years. ¹⁰ When Ibzan died, he was buried in Bethlehem.

¹¹ Elon. After him, Elon the Zebulunite was a judge over Israel for ten years. ¹² When Elon the Zebulunite died, he was buried in Aijalon of Zebulun.

¹³ Abdon. After him, Abdon, the son of Hillel, the Pirathonite was a judge over Israel. ¹⁴ He had forty sons and thirty grandsons who rode on seventy donkeys. He was a judge over Israel for eight years. ¹⁵ When Adbon, the son of Hillel the Pirathonite, died, he was buried in Pirathon in the land of the Ephraimites in the hill country of the Amalekites.

Chapter 13

The Angel and Manoah.^{[aq] 1} The Israelites once again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. The Lord delivered them over into the hands of the Philistines for forty years.

² There was a certain man from Zorah, named Manoah, who was a Danite. His wife was barren and childless. ³ The angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, “Behold, you are barren and childless, but you will conceive and have a son. ⁴ Make sure you do not drink any wine or strong drink. Do not eat any unclean thing, ⁵ for you will conceive and have a son. No razor is ever to touch his head, for he will be a Nazirite,^[ar] one dedicated to God from the womb. He will begin the deliverance of Israel out of the hands of the Philistines.”

⁶ The woman went and told her husband, “A man of God has visited me. He looked like an angel of God, truly wondrous. I did not ask him where he came from, nor did he tell me his name. ⁷ He said to me, ‘Behold, you will conceive and have a son. Do not drink any wine or strong drink. Do not eat anything unclean, for from the womb until the day he dies he will be a Nazirite of God.’ ”

⁸ Manoah prayed to the Lord, “O Lord, let the man of God whom you sent to us visit us again so that he might teach us how to raise the child who is to be born.”

⁹ God listened to Manoah, and the angel of God visited the woman again when she was out in the fields, but Manoah, her husband, was not with her. ¹⁰ The woman quickly ran to tell her husband, “Behold, the man who appeared to me the other day is here.”

¹¹ Manoah got up and followed his wife. When he came to the man, he said, “Are you the man who spoke to my wife?” He answered, “I am.” ¹² Manoah asked him, “When your words are fulfilled, how should we treat the child?” ¹³ The angel of the Lord said to Manoah, “Your wife must do the things I said to her. ¹⁴ She cannot eat any of the products of the vine nor drink any strong drink nor eat anything unclean. She is to do everything that I commanded her to do.”

¹⁵ Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, “Would you please stay here until we prepare a kid goat for you?” ¹⁶ The angel of the Lord answered Manoah, “Even though you hold me here, I will not eat anything. If you prepare a burnt offering, offer it up to the Lord.” (Manoah did not realize that it was an angel of the Lord.) ¹⁷ Manoah asked the angel of the Lord, “What is your name, so that we can honor you when these things happen?” ^18 [as]The angel of the Lord answered, “Why do you ask me my name? It is a mystery.”

¹⁹ Manoah took a young goat together with a grain offering and he offered them up to the Lord on a rock. He did a wondrous thing as Manoah and his wife looked on. ²⁰ As the flames rose up from the altar into the heavens, the angel of the Lord rose up from the altar in the flames as Manoah and his wife looked on. They fell prostrate on the ground.

²¹ When the angel of the Lord did not appear again to Manoah and his wife, Manoah realized that it had been an angel of the Lord. ²² Manoah said to his wife, “We will surely die, for we have seen God!” ²³ But his wife answered, “If the Lord wanted to kill us, then he would not have accepted the burnt offering and the grain offering from our hands, nor would he have revealed all of these things, nor would he have told us these things.”

²⁴ The woman gave birth to a son whose name was Samson. The child grew and the Lord blessed him. ²⁵ The Spirit of the Lord began to stir in him while he was in Mahaneh-dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.

Chapter 14

Samson’s Marriage. ¹ Samson went down to Timnah and he saw a Philistine woman in Timnah. ² When he returned, he told his father and his mother, “I have seen a woman in Timnah, a Philistine. Arrange for her to be my wife.” ³ His father and his mother answered, “Is there no maiden among your relatives or your countrymen that you would go to take a wife from among the uncircumcised Philistines?” But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, for she is the one I want.” ⁴ (His father and his mother did not know that this was the Lord’s plan. He was seeking an opportunity to oppose the Philistines, for the Philistines were ruling over Israel.)^[at]

⁵ Samson went down to Timnah with his father and his mother. As they were approaching the vineyards of Timnah, a young roaring lion came toward them. ⁶ The Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him, and he tore it apart with his bare hands as if he were tearing apart a young goat. He told his father and his mother not to tell anyone what he had done.

⁷ They went down and talked with the woman, and Samson liked her. ⁸ Sometime later, when he went down to marry her, he stepped off the road to look at the lion’s carcass. There was a bee’s nest and some honey in the lion’s carcass. ⁹ He took some of it in his hands, and ate it along the way. When he rejoined his father and his mother, he gave them some to eat, but he did not tell them that he had taken the honey from the carcass of the lion.

¹⁰ His father went down to see the woman. Samson prepared a feast there, as is the custom among young men. ¹¹ When they met him, they brought in thirty companions to be with him. ¹² Samson said to them, “I will give you a riddle. If you can figure it out and solve it for me during these seven days of celebration, I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothing. ¹³ If you cannot solve it, then you will have to give me thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothing.” They answered him, “Tell us your riddle. Let’s hear it.” ¹⁴ He told them, “From out of the eater came forth something to eat, from out of the strong one came something sweet.” For three days they could not figure out the riddle.

¹⁵ On the fourth day, they said to Samson’s wife, “Coax Samson to explain the riddle for us, or else we will burn you and your father’s house. Did you invite us here to rob us?” ¹⁶ Samson’s wife came to him crying and she said, “You hate me. You don’t really love me. You posed a riddle to my people, and you did not explain it to me.” He told her, “I have not even explained it to my father or my mother; why should I explain it to you?”

¹⁷ She cried before him for the entire seven days of the celebration. On the seventh day he finally told her, for she had worn him out, and she explained the riddle to her people. ¹⁸ On the seventh day, before sunset, the men from the city said to him, “What is sweeter than honey? What is stronger than a lion?” He said to them, “You would not have figured out my riddle if you had not plowed with my heifer.”^{[au] 19} Then the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him. He went down to Ashkelon and he killed thirty men there. He took their belongings and gave a change of clothing to those who had explained the riddle. Burning with rage, he went back to his father’s home. ²⁰ Samson’s wife was given to his friend who had been his best man.

Chapter 15

Samson’s Revenge on the Philistines. ¹ Later on, during the wheat harvest, Samson visited his wife, bringing her a kid goat. He said, “I am going in to my wife’s room,” but her father would not let him go in. ² The father said, “I was so sure that you hated her that I gave her to your friend. Her younger sister is prettier than she is. Please, take her instead.” ³ But Samson said to them, “It is no longer my fault if I harm the Philistines.”

⁴ Samson went out and caught three hundred foxes. He tied them together, tail to tail. He then fastened a torch between each pair of tails. ⁵ He set the torches on fire and let them go into the Philistine’s standing grain. It burned up both the standing grain and the stacks of grain, as well as the vineyards and the olive orchards.

⁶ When the Philistines asked, “Who did this,” they were told, “It was Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite. He did it because they took his wife and gave her to his friend.” The Philistines therefore went and burned her and her father to death. ⁷ Samson said to them, “Because you have done this, I will never stop getting my vengeance on you.” ⁸ He struck them ruthlessly, slaughtering many of them. He then went down and dwelt in a fissure of the rock of Etam.

⁹ The Philistines went up and camped in Judah, spreading out near Lehi. ¹⁰ The Judahites asked, “Why have you come to fight against us?” They answered, “To take Samson prisoner so that we can do to him what he did to us.” ¹¹ Three thousand men from Judah went down to the fissure of the rock of Etam and said to Samson, “Did you not know that the Philistines are ruling over us? What have you done to us?” He answered, “I just did to them what they did to me.” ¹² They said to him, “We have come to take you prisoner and to deliver you over to the Philistines.” He said to them, “Swear to me that you will not kill me yourselves.” ¹³ They said, “No, but we will tie you up and hand you over to them. We will not kill you.” So they bound him with two new ropes and led him away from the rock.

¹⁴ As he approached Lehi, the Philistines came toward him shouting. The Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him. The ropes that were around his arms became like charred flax, and the binding fell off of his hands.

¹⁵ He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, and he reached out and took it in his hand. He then killed one thousand men with it. ¹⁶ Samson said,

¹⁷ When he finished speaking, he dropped the jawbone from out of his hand. The name of that place is Ramath-lehi.

¹⁸ Now he was very thirsty, so he called out to the Lord, “You have given this great victory through the hand of your servant. Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?”^{[av] 19} God split open a hollow place in Lehi, and water came out. When he drank it, his strength returned and his spirit was revived. The spring is called En-hakkore, and it is still in Lehi today. ²⁰ Samson was a judge over Israel for forty years during the days of the Philistines.

Chapter 16

Samson at Gaza. ¹ One day Samson went to Gaza. He saw a prostitute there, and he had sex with her. ² The people in Gaza were told, “Samson is here.” They surrounded the place where he was staying, and they lay in wait for him all night at the city gate. They kept quiet all night, saying, “In the morning we will kill him.” ³ Samson lay there until midnight, and then at midnight he got up and took hold of the city gates with its two posts. He lifted up the gates, put them on his shoulders, and carried them to the top of the hill that faces Hebron.

Samson and Delilah. ⁴ Sometime later he fell in love with a woman who lived in the Valley of Sorek. Her name was Delilah. ⁵ The lords of the Philistines visited her and said, “Entice him and see if you can find out the source of his great strength and how we can overpower him and tie him up and subdue him. Each one of us will give you eleven hundred pieces of silver.”

⁶ Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me the source of your great strength and how you could be tied up and subdued.” ⁷ Samson answered her, “If anyone were to tie me up with seven fresh bowstrings that have never been dried, then I would become as weak as everyone else.” ⁸ The lords of the Philistines brought her seven fresh bowstrings that had not been dried, and she tied him up with them. ⁹ There were some men hiding in the room when she cried out to him, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you.” He broke the thongs like a piece of string that snaps when it is close to a flame. Thus, the secret of his strength was not known.

¹⁰ Delilah then said to Samson, “You have mocked me and lied to me. Please, tell me now how you could be tied up.” ¹¹ He answered, “If anyone were to bind me with new ropes that had never been used, then I would become as weak as everyone else.” ¹² So Delilah took new ropes and she bound him and cried out, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you,” as the men were hiding in the room. He broke them off of his arms as if they were made of thread.

¹³ Delilah then said to Samson, “Until now you have mocked me and lied to me. Tell me, now, how you could be tied up.” He answered, “If you were to weave the seven locks on my head into the loom, ¹⁴ and fastened it with a pin, then I should become weak, and be like any other man.” Again she cried out, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you.” He woke up from his sleep and pulled away from the pin, the loom, and the web.

¹⁵ She said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when you hold back your love from me. You have mocked me these three times; you have not told me where your strength lies.” ¹⁶ She wore him out by talking to him day after day, and nagging him, until he was tired to death, ¹⁷ so he told her everything. He said to her, “No razor has ever touched my head because I have been a Nazirite of God from my mother’s womb. If I were to be shaved, then my strength would disappear and I would become as weak as any other man.”

¹⁸ When Delilah saw that he had told her everything, she summoned the lords of the Philistines saying, “Come back one more time, for he has told me everything.” The lords of the Philistines came to her, the money in their hands. ¹⁹ She had him fall asleep upon her knees, and she summoned a man to shave off the seven locks on his head. Thus, she began to subdue him, and his strength left him. ²⁰ She cried out, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you.” He woke up from his sleep and said, “I will go out like the previous times and shake myself free.” He did not know that the Lord had left him.^[aw]

²¹ The Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes. They took him down to Gaza and bound him in bronze shackles, setting him to grind grain in prison.

²² Samson’s Revenge and Death. The hair on his head began to grow back after it had been shaved off. ²³ The lords of the Philistines gathered to offer a great sacrifice to their god Dagon.^[ax] They celebrated and said, “Our god has delivered us from the hands of Samson, our enemy.” ²⁴ When the people saw him, they praised their god saying, “Our god has delivered our enemy into our hands, the one who laid waste to our country and killed so many of us.” ²⁵ While they were in high spirits, they cried out, “Call out Samson so that he can entertain us.” They summoned Samson out of the prison, and he entertained them. They set him between the pillars. ²⁶ Samson said to the boy who was holding his hand, “Let me feel the pillars on which the temple is set so I can lean against them.” ²⁷ The temple was packed with men and women, and all of the lords of the Philistines were there as well. There were also about three thousand men and women upon the roof, watching while Samson was amusing them.

²⁸ Samson called out to the Lord and said, “O Lord, please remember me. I beg you, please strengthen me^[ay] this one more time so that I might take vengeance upon the Philistines for my two eyes.”

²⁹ Samson took hold of the two middle pillars upon which the temple was set. He braced himself against them, one with his right hand and one with his left hand. ³⁰ Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines.” He pushed with all his might, and the house came crashing down upon the lords and upon all of the people. Thus, he killed more people with his death than he had killed during his life. ³¹ His brothers and all of his father’s household went down to get him. They brought him back and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of Manoah his father. He was a judge over Israel for twenty years.