Study Desk

and no longer served the Lord their God, who had saved them from all their enemies around them.

When Jotham heard about this, he went and stood on top of Mount Gerizim and shouted out to them, "Listen to me, you men of Shechem, and God may listen to you!

Then God made Abimelech and the men of Shechem hostile to each other, and they rebelled against Abimelech.

They all went out into their vineyards and picked the grapes, made wine from them, and held a festival. They went into the temple of their god, where they ate and drank and made fun of Abimelech.

And so it was that God paid Abimelech back for the crime that he committed against his father in killing his seventy brothers.

God also made the men of Shechem suffer for their wickedness, just as Jotham, Gideon's son, said they would when he cursed them.

Then the Israelites cried out to the Lord and said, "We have sinned against you, for we left you, our God, and worshiped the Baals."

But the Lord , the God of Israel, gave the Israelites victory over Sihon and his army. So the Israelites took possession of all the territory of the Amorites who lived in that country.

So it was the Lord , the God of Israel, who drove out the Amorites for his people, the Israelites.

Are you going to try to take it back? You can keep whatever your god Chemosh has given you. But we are going to keep everything that the Lord , our God, has taken for us.

and after your son is born, you must never cut his hair, because from the day of his birth he will be dedicated to God as a nazirite. He will begin the work of rescuing Israel from the Philistines."

Then the woman went and told her husband, "A man of God has come to me, and he looked as frightening as the angel of God. I didn't ask him where he came from, and he didn't tell me his name.

But he did tell me that I would become pregnant and have a son. He told me not to drink any wine or beer, or eat any forbidden food, because the boy is to be dedicated to God as a nazirite as long as he lives."

Then Manoah prayed to the Lord , "Please, Lord , let the man of God that you sent come back to us and tell us what we must do with the boy when he is born."

God did what Manoah asked, and his angel came back to the woman while she was sitting in the field. Her husband Manoah was not with her,

Manoah said to his wife, "We are sure to die, because we have seen God!"

Then God opened a hollow place in the ground there at Lehi, and water came out of it. Samson drank it and began to feel much better. So the spring was named Hakkore; it is still there at Lehi.

that he finally told her the truth. "My hair has never been cut," he said. "I have been dedicated to God as a nazirite from the time I was born. If my hair were cut, I would lose my strength and be as weak as anybody else."

The Philistine kings met together to celebrate and offer a great sacrifice to their god Dagon. They sang, "Our god has given us victory over our enemy Samson!"

They were enjoying themselves, and so they said, "Call Samson, and let's make him entertain us!" When they brought Samson out of the prison, they made him entertain them and made him stand between the columns. When the people saw him, they sang praise to their god: "Our god has given us victory over our enemy, who devastated our land and killed so many of us!"