Study Desk

Then the Spirit of the Lord entered Samson and gave him great power. Samson went down to the city of Ashkelon and killed thirty of its men and took all that they had and gave the clothes to the men who had answered his riddle. Then he went to his father's house very angry.

And Samson's wife was given to his best man.

At the time of the wheat harvest, Samson went to visit his wife, taking a young goat with him. He said, "I'm going to my wife's room," but her father would not let him go in.

The Philistines asked, "Who did this?" Someone told them, "Samson, the son-in-law of the man from Timnah, did because his father-in-law gave his wife to his best man." So the Philistines burned Samson's wife and her father to death.

When Samson came to the place named Lehi, the Philistines came to meet him, shouting for joy. Then the Spirit of the Lord entered Samson and gave him great power. The ropes on him weakened like burned strings and fell off his hands!

But Samson only stayed with the prostitute until midnight. Then he got up and took hold of the doors and the two posts of the city gate and tore them loose, along with the bar. He put them on his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill that faces the city of Hebron.

Then Delilah said to Samson, "Again you have made a fool of me. You lied to me. Tell me how someone can tie you up." He said, "Using the loom, weave the seven braids of my hair into the cloth, and tighten it with a pin. Then I will be as weak as any other man." While Samson slept, Delilah wove the seven braids of his hair into the cloth.

She kept bothering Samson about his secret day after day until he felt he was going to die!

Delilah got Samson to sleep, lying in her lap. Then she called in a man to shave off the seven braids of Samson's hair. In this way she began to make him weak, and his strength left him.

Then the Philistines captured Samson and tore out his eyes. They took him down to Gaza, where they put bronze chains on him and made him grind grain in the prison.

But his hair began to grow again.

Samson said to the servant holding his hand, "Let me feel the pillars that hold up the temple so I can lean against them."

Then Samson turned to the two center pillars that supported the whole temple. He braced himself between the two pillars, with his right hand on one and his left hand on the other.

Samson's brothers and his whole family went down to get his body. They brought him back and buried him in the tomb of Manoah, his father, between the cities of Zorah and Eshtaol. Samson was a judge for the people of Israel for twenty years.

He said to his mother, "I heard you speak a curse about the twenty-eight pounds of silver that were taken from you. I have the silver with me; I took it." His mother said, "The Lord bless you, my son!"

Micah gave the twenty-eight pounds of silver to his mother. Then she said, "I will give this silver to the Lord . I will have my son make an idol and a statue. So I will give the silver back to you."

When he gave the silver back to his mother, she took about five pounds and gave it to a silversmith. With it he made an idol and a statue, which stood in Micah's house.

Micah had a special holy place, and he made a holy vest and some household idols. Then Micah chose one of his sons to be his priest.

He left Bethlehem to look for another place to live, and on his way he came to Micah's house in the mountains of Ephraim.

He told them what Micah had done for him, saying, "He hired me. I am his priest."