Study Desk

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

But God split the hollow place that is in Lehi so that water came out of it. When he drank, his strength returned and he revived. Therefore he named it En-hakkore, which is in Lehi to this day.

Now she had men prepared for an ambush in an inner room. And she said to him, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson!" But he tore the tendons to pieces just like a thread of flax is torn apart when it comes too close to fire. So his strength was not discovered.

So Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them and said to him, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson!" For the men in the ambush were waiting in the inner room. But he tore the ropes from his arms like thread.

So while he slept, Delilah wove the seven locks of his hair with the web]. And she fastened it with the pin and said to him, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson!" But he awoke from his sleep and pulled out the pin of the loom and the web.

She said, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson!" And he awoke from his sleep and said, "I will go out as at other times and shake myself free." But he did not know that the LORD had departed from him.

But his concubine found him repugnant, and she left him and went to her father's house in Bethlehem in Judah, and remained there for a period of four months.

Now on the fourth day they got up early in the morning, and he prepared to go; but the girl's father said to his son-in-law, "Strengthen yourself with a piece of bread, and afterward you may go."

However, the man got up to go; but his father-in-law urged him, and he spent the night there again.

Now on the fifth day he got up to go early in the morning, but the girl's father said, "Please strengthen yourself, and wait until late afternoon"; so both of them ate.

But the man was unwilling to spend the night, so he got up and left, and came to a place opposite Jebus (that is, Jerusalem). And with him was a pair of saddled donkeys; his concubine also was with him.

Then behold, an old man was coming out of the field from his work at evening. Now the man was from the hill country of Ephraim, and he was staying in Gibeah, but the men of the place were Benjaminites.

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.

"Here is my virgin daughter and the man's concubine. Please let me bring them out, then rape them and do to them whatever you wish. But do not commit this act of vile sin against this man."

But the men would not listen to him. So the man seized his concubine and brought her outside to them; and they raped her and abused her all night until morning, then let her go at the approach of dawn.

And he said to her, "Get up and let's go," but there was no answer. Then he put her on the donkey; and the man set out and went to his home.

"But the citizens of Gibeah rose up against me and surrounded the house at night, threatening me. They intended to kill me; instead, they raped my concubine so that she died.

"But now this is the thing which we will do to Gibeah; we will go up against it by lot.

"Now then, turn over the men, the worthless men who are in Gibeah, so that we may put them to death and remove this wickedness from Israel." But the sons of Benjamin would not listen to the voice of their brothers, the sons of Israel.

But the people, the men of Israel, showed themselves courageous and lined up for battle again in the place where they had lined themselves up on the first day.