Study Desk

So then, are you any better than Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever quarrel with Israel, or did he ever make war against them?

And she said to her father, "Let this thing be done for me: grant me two months so that I may go wander on the mountains and lament over my virginity, I and my companions.

So then, be careful and do not drink wine or strong drink, and do not eat anything unclean,

And he said to me, ‘Look, you will conceive and bear a son, so then, do not drink wine or strong drink, and do not eat anything unclean, for the boy will be a Nazirite of God from birth until the day of his death.'"

So Manoah got up and went after his wife, and he came to the man and said to him, "Are you the man that spoke to the woman?" And he said, "I am."

And Manoah said to the angel of Yahweh, "What is your name so that when your words come true we may honor you?"

He went up and told his father and mother, and he said, "I saw a woman in Timnah from the daughters of the Philistines; so then, take her for me as a wife."

But if you are unable to explain it to me, you must give me thirty linen garments and thirty festal garments." So they said to him, "Tell your riddle; let us hear it."

Her father said, "I really thought that you hated her, so I gave her to your companion. Is not her younger sister more beautiful than she? Please, take her instead."

Then three thousand men from Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam, and they said to Samson, "Do you not know that the Philistines are ruling over us? What 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."

They said to him, "No, we will only bind you and give you into their hand; we will certainly not kill you." So they bound him with two new ropes, and they brought him up from the rock.

So God split the hollow place that is at Lehi, and water came out from it; and he drank, and his spirit returned, and he was revived. Thus he called its name The Spring of Ha-Qore, which is at Lehi to this day.

The Gazites were told, "Samson has come here," so they surrounded the place and lay in ambush for him all night at the city gate. They kept silent all night, saying, "We will wait until the morning light, and then we will kill him."

And the rulers of the Philistines came up to her and said, "Entice him and find out what makes his strength so great, and how we can overpower him, so that we may bind him up in order to subdue him; each of us will give you eleven hundred pieces of silver.

So Delilah said to Samson, "Please tell me what makes your strength so great, and with what can you be tied up to subdue you?"

So the rulers of the Philistines brought up to her seven fresh bowstrings that were not dried up, and she tied him up with them.

So Delilah took new ropes and tied him up with them, and she said to him, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson!" (The ambush was sitting in an inner room.) But he snapped them from his arms like thread.

And she said to him, "How can you say, ‘I love you,' when your heart is not with me? You have mocked me these three times, and you have not told me how your strength is so great."

So he confided everything to her, and he said to her, "A razor has never touched my head, for I am a Nazirite of God from birth. If I am shaved my strength will leave me, and I will become weak, like everyone else.

Delilah realized that he had confided in her, so she sent and called the rulers of the Philistines, saying, "Come up one more time, for he has confided in me." And the rulers of the Philistines came up, and they brought the money with them.