O God, Do Not Keep Silence

A Song. A Psalm of ^(A)Asaph.

The Continuing Conquest of Canaan

1 After the death of Joshua, the people of Israel ^(A)inquired of the Lord, ^(B)“Who shall go up first for us against the Canaanites, to fight against them?” ² The Lord said, “Judah shall go up; behold, I have given the land into his hand.” ³ And Judah said to Simeon his brother, “Come up with me into the territory allotted to me, that we may fight against the Canaanites. ^(C)And I likewise will go with you into the territory allotted to you.” So Simeon went with him. ⁴ Then Judah went up and the Lord gave the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hand, and they defeated 10,000 of them at Bezek. ⁵ They found Adoni-bezek at Bezek and fought against him and defeated the Canaanites and the Perizzites. ⁶ Adoni-bezek fled, but they pursued him and caught him and cut off his thumbs and his big toes. ⁷ And Adoni-bezek said, “Seventy kings with their thumbs and their big toes cut off ^(D)used to pick up scraps under my table. ^(E)As I have done, so God has repaid me.” And they brought him to Jerusalem, and he died there.

^8 (F)And the men of Judah fought against Jerusalem and captured it and struck it with the edge of the sword and set the city on fire. ⁹ And afterward the men of Judah went down to fight against the Canaanites who lived in ^(G)the hill country, in the Negeb, and in ^(H)the lowland. ^10 (I)And Judah went against the Canaanites who lived in Hebron ^(J)(now the name of Hebron was formerly Kiriath-arba), and they defeated ^(K)Sheshai and Ahiman and Talmai.

¹¹ From there they went against the inhabitants of Debir. The name of Debir was formerly Kiriath-sepher. ¹² And Caleb said, “He who attacks Kiriath-sepher and captures it, I will give him Achsah my daughter for a wife.” ¹³ And Othniel the son of Kenaz, ^(L)Caleb's younger brother, captured it. And he gave him Achsah his daughter for a wife. ¹⁴ When she came to him, she urged him to ask her father for a field. And she dismounted from her donkey, and Caleb said to her, “What do you want?” ¹⁵ She said to him, “Give me a blessing. Since you have set me in the land of the Negeb, give me also springs of water.” And Caleb gave her the upper springs and the lower springs.

¹⁶ And the descendants of the ^(M)Kenite, Moses' father-in-law, went up with the people of Judah ^(N)from the city of palms into the wilderness of Judah, which lies in the Negeb near ^(O)Arad, ^(P)and they went and settled with the people. ^17 (Q)And Judah went with Simeon his brother, and they defeated the Canaanites who inhabited Zephath and devoted it to destruction. So the name of the city was called ^(R)Hormah.^{[a] 18} Judah also ^(S)captured Gaza with its territory, and Ashkelon with its territory, and Ekron with its territory. ^19 (T)And the Lord was with Judah, and he took possession of the ^(U)hill country, but he could not drive out the inhabitants of the plain because they had ^(V)chariots of iron. ^20 (W)And Hebron was given to Caleb, as Moses had said. And he drove out from it ^(X)the three sons of Anak. ²¹ But the people of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites who lived in Jerusalem, ^(Y)so the Jebusites have lived with the people of Benjamin in Jerusalem to this day.

²² The house of Joseph also went up against Bethel, ^(Z)and the Lord was with them. ²³ And the house of Joseph scouted out Bethel. (^(AA)Now the name of the city was formerly Luz.) ²⁴ And the spies saw a man coming out of the city, and they said to him, “Please show us the way into the city, ^(AB)and we will deal kindly with you.” ²⁵ And he showed them the way into the city. And they struck the city with the edge of the sword, but they let the man and all his family go. ²⁶ And the man went to ^(AC)the land of the Hittites and built a city and called its name Luz. That is its name to this day.

Failure to Complete the Conquest

^27 (AD)Manasseh did not drive out the inhabitants of Beth-shean and its villages, or Taanach and its villages, or the inhabitants of Dor and its villages, or the inhabitants of Ibleam and its villages, or the inhabitants of Megiddo and its villages, for the Canaanites persisted in dwelling in that land. ²⁸ When Israel grew strong, they put the Canaanites to forced labor, but did not drive them out completely.

^29 (AE)And Ephraim did not drive out the Canaanites who lived in Gezer, so the Canaanites lived in Gezer among them.

³⁰ Zebulun did not drive out the inhabitants of Kitron, or the inhabitants of ^(AF)Nahalol, so the Canaanites lived among them, but became subject to forced labor.

^31 (AG)Asher did not drive out the inhabitants of Acco, or the inhabitants of Sidon or of Ahlab or of Achzib or of Helbah or of Aphik or of Rehob, ³² so the Asherites lived among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land, for they did not drive them out.

³³ Naphtali did not drive out the inhabitants of ^(AH)Beth-shemesh, or the inhabitants of Beth-anath, so they lived among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land. Nevertheless, the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh and of Beth-anath became subject to forced labor for them.

^34 (AI)The Amorites pressed the people of Dan back into the hill country, for they did not allow them to come down to the plain. ³⁵ The Amorites persisted in dwelling in Mount Heres, ^(AJ)in Aijalon, and in Shaalbim, but the hand of the house of Joseph rested heavily on them, and they became subject to forced labor. ³⁶ And the border of the Amorites ran from ^(AK)the ascent of Akrabbim, from Sela and upward.

The Birth of Samson

13 And the people of Israel again ^(A)did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, so the Lord gave them ^(B)into the hand of the Philistines for forty years.

² There was a certain man of ^(C)Zorah, of the tribe of the Danites, whose name was Manoah. ^(D)And his wife was barren and had no children. ^3 (E)And the angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, “Behold, you are barren and have not borne children, but you shall conceive and bear a son. ⁴ Therefore be careful ^(F)and drink no wine or strong drink, and eat nothing unclean, ⁵ for behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. ^(G)No razor shall come upon his head, for the child shall be ^(H)a Nazirite to God from the womb, and he shall ^(I)begin to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines.” ⁶ Then the woman came and told her husband, ^(J)“A man of God came to me, and his appearance was like the appearance of the angel of God, very awesome. ^(K)I did not ask him where he was from, and he did not tell me his name, ⁷ but he said to me, ^(L)‘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 Nazirite to God from the womb to the day of his death.’”

⁸ Then Manoah 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 who will be born.” ⁹ And God listened to the voice of Manoah, and the angel of God came again to the woman as she sat in the field. But Manoah her husband was not with her. ¹⁰ So the woman ran quickly and told her husband, “Behold, the man who came to me the other day has appeared to me.” ¹¹ And Manoah 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.” ¹² And Manoah said, “Now when your words come true, ^(M)what is to be the child's manner of life, and what is his mission?” ¹³ And the angel of the Lord said to Manoah, “Of all that I said to the woman let her be careful. ¹⁴ She may not eat of anything that comes from the vine, ^(N)neither let her drink wine or strong drink, or eat any unclean thing. All that I commanded her let her observe.”

¹⁵ Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, “Please let us detain you and ^(O)prepare a young goat for you.” ¹⁶ And the angel of the Lord said to Manoah, “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 Manoah did not know that he was the angel of the Lord.) ¹⁷ And Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, ^(P)“What is your name, so that, when your words come true, we may honor you?” ¹⁸ And the angel of the Lord said to him, ^(Q)“Why do you ask my name, seeing ^(R)it is wonderful?” ¹⁹ So ^(S)Manoah took the young goat with the grain offering, and offered it on the rock to the Lord, to the one who works^[a] wonders, and Manoah and his wife were watching. ²⁰ 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 Manoah and his wife were watching, ^(T)and they fell on their faces to the ground.

²¹ The angel of the Lord appeared no more to Manoah and to his wife. ^(U)Then Manoah knew that he was the angel of the Lord. ²² And Manoah said to his wife, ^(V)“We shall surely die, for we have seen God.” ²³ 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 at our hands, or shown us all these things, or now announced to us such things as these.” ²⁴ And the woman bore a son and called his name Samson. ^(W)And the young man grew, and the Lord blessed him. ^25 (X)And the Spirit of the Lord began to stir him in Mahaneh-dan, between ^(Y)Zorah and Eshtaol.

The Day of the Lord

5 Now concerning ^(A)the times and the seasons, brothers,^{[a] (B)}you have no need to have anything written to you. ² For you yourselves are fully aware that ^(C)the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. ³ While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then ^(D)sudden destruction will come upon them ^(E)as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. ⁴ But you ^(F)are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. ⁵ For you are all ^(G)children^[b] of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness. ⁶ So then ^(H)let us not sleep, as others do, but let us ^(I)keep awake and ^(J)be sober. ⁷ For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, ^(K)are drunk at night. ⁸ But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, ^(L)having put on the breastplate of ^(M)faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. ⁹ For God has not destined us for ^(N)wrath, but ^(O)to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, ^10 (P)who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. ¹¹ Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.

Final Instructions and Benediction

¹² We ask you, brothers, ^(Q)to respect those who labor among you and ^(R)are over you in the Lord and admonish you, ¹³ and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. ^(S)Be at peace among yourselves. ¹⁴ And we urge you, brothers, admonish ^(T)the idle,^{[c] (U)}encourage the fainthearted, ^(V)help the weak, ^(W)be patient with them all. ¹⁵ See that ^(X)no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always ^(Y)seek to do good to one another and to everyone. ^16 (Z)Rejoice always, ^17 (AA)pray without ceasing, ^18 (AB)give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. ^19 (AC)Do not quench the Spirit. ²⁰ Do not despise ^(AD)prophecies, ²¹ but ^(AE)test everything; hold fast what is good. ²² Abstain from every form of evil.

²³ Now may ^(AF)the God of peace himself ^(AG)sanctify you completely, and may your ^(AH)whole ^(AI)spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at ^(AJ)the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. ^24 (AK)He who calls you is faithful; ^(AL)he will surely do it.

^25 (AM)Brothers, pray for us.

^26 (AN)Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss.

²⁷ I put you under oath before the Lord to have ^(AO)this letter read to all the brothers.

^28 (AP)The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.