Study Desk

Again the people started doing what the Lord said was wrong. So the Lord allowed the Philistines to rule over them for 40 years.

Then Manoah prayed to the Lord . He said, "Lord, I beg you to send the man of God to us again. We want him to teach us what we should do for the boy who will soon be born."

Then Manoah said to the angel of the Lord , "We would like for you to stay a while. We want to cook a young goat for you to eat."

The angel of the Lord said, "Why do you ask my name? It is too amazing for you to believe."

When he returned home, he said to his father and mother, "I saw a Philistine woman in Timnah. I want you to get her for me. I want to marry her."

His father and his mother answered, "But surely there is a woman from the Israelites you can marry. Do you have to marry a woman from the Philistines? Their men are not even circumcised." But Samson said, "Get that woman for me! She is the one I want!"

(Samson's parents did not know that the Lord wanted this to happen. He was looking for a way to do something against the Philistines. They were ruling over the Israelites at that time.)

Samson's father went down to see the Philistine woman. The custom was for the bridegroom to give a party. So Samson gave a party.

Then Samson said to the 30 men, "I want to tell you a story. This party will last for seven days. Try to find the answer during that time. If you can answer the riddle in that time, I will give you 30 linen shirts and 30 changes of clothes.

Samson told them this riddle: "Out of the eater came something to eat. Out of the strong came something sweet." The 30 men tried for three days to find the answer, but they couldn't.

On the fourth day, the men came to Samson's wife. They said, "Did you invite us here just to make us poor? You must trick your husband into telling us the answer to the riddle. If you don't get the answer for us, we will burn you and everyone in your father's house to death."

Samson's wife cried for the rest of the seven days of the party. So he finally gave her the answer to the riddle on the seventh day. He told her because she kept bothering him. Then she went to her people and told them the answer to the riddle.

The men of the tribe of Judah asked them, "Why have you Philistines come here to fight us?" They answered, "We have come to get Samson. We want to make him our prisoner. We want to punish him for what he has done to our people."

Then 3000 men from the tribe of Judah went to the cave near the Rock of Etam and said to Samson, "What have you done to us? Don't you know that the Philistines rule over us?" Samson answered, "I only punished them for what they did to me."

Samson was a judge for the Israelites for 20 years during the time of the Philistines.

Someone told the people of Gaza, "Samson has come here." They wanted to kill him, so they surrounded the city. They hid near the city gate and waited all night for him. They were very quiet all night long. They had said to each other, "When morning comes, we will kill Samson."

Then Samson said a prayer to the Lord , "Lord God , remember me. God, please give me strength one more time. Let me do this one thing to punish these Philistines for tearing out both of my eyes!"

Samson's brothers and all the people in his father's family went down to get his body. They brought him back and buried him in his father's tomb, which is between the cities of Zorah and Eshtaol. Samson was a judge for the Israelites for 20 years.

Micah had a temple for worshiping idols. He made an ephod and some house idols. Then Micah chose one of his sons to be his priest.

He left Bethlehem to look for another place to live. As he was traveling, he came to Micah's house in the hill country of the land of Ephraim.