Study Desk

Then three thousand men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam and said to Samson, "Do you not know that the Philistines are rulers over us? What then is this that you have done to us?" And he said to them, "Just as they did to me, so I have done to them."

Then they said to him, "We have come down to bind you so that we may hand you over to the Philistines." And Samson said to them, "Swear to me that you will not kill me."

So Delilah said to Samson, "Please tell me where your great strength lies, and how you can be bound to humble you."

And Samson said to her, "If they bind me with seven fresh animal tendons that have not been dried, then I will become weak and be like any other man."

Then Delilah said to Samson, "Behold, you have toyed with me and told me lies; now please tell me how you may be bound."

Then he said to her, "If they bind me tightly with new ropes which have not been used, then I will become weak and be like any other man."

Then Delilah said to Samson, "Up to now you have toyed with me and told me lies; tell me how you may be bound." And he said to her, "If you weave the seven locks of my hair with the web [and fasten it with the pin, then I will be weak like any other man."

Then she said to him, "How can you say, 'I love you,' when your heart is not with me? You have toyed with me these three times and have not told me where your great strength is."

So he told her all that was in his heart and said to her, "A razor has never come on my head, for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother's womb. If I am shaved, then my strength will leave me and I will become weak and be like any other man."

When Delilah saw that he had told her all that was in his heart, she sent word and called the governors of the Philistines, saying, "Come up once more, for he has told me all that is in his heart." Then the governors of the Philistines came up to her and brought up the money in their hands.

Then Samson said to the boy who was holding his hand, "Let me feel the pillars on which the house rests, so that I may lean against them."

Then Samson called to the LORD and said, "Lord GOD, please remember me and please strengthen me just this time, O God, that I may at once take vengeance on the Philistines for my two eyes."

And Samson said, "Let me die with the Philistines!" And he pushed outwards powerfully, so that the house fell on the governors and all the people who were in it. And the dead whom he killed at his death were more than those whom he killed during his lifetime.

And he said to his mother, "The 1,100 pieces of silver that were taken from you, about which you uttered a curse and also spoke it in my hearing, behold, the silver is with me; I took it." And his mother said, "Blessed be my son by the LORD."

Micah then said to him, "Stay with me and be a father and a priest to me, and I will give you ten pieces of silver a year, a supply of clothing, and your sustenance." So the Levite went in.

Then Micah said, "Now I know that the LORD will prosper me, because I have a Levite as a priest."

He said to them, "Micah has done this and that for me, and he has hired me and I have become his priest."

And he said, "You have taken my gods which I made, and the priest, and have gone away; what more do I have? So how can you say to me, 'What is the matter with you?'"

And he said to him, "We are passing from Bethlehem in Judah to the remote part of the hill country of Ephraim, for I am from there, and I went to Bethlehem in Judah. But I am now going to my house, and no one will take me into his house.

"Yet there is both straw and feed for our donkeys, and also bread and wine for me, and your female slave, and the young man who is with your servants; there is no lack of anything."