Study Desk

Samson said to the servant who held his hand, "Lead me where I can feel the pillars supporting the temple, so I can lean against them."

And Samson reached out for the two central pillars supporting the temple. Bracing himself against them with his right hand on one pillar and his left hand on the other,

Samson said, "Let me die with the Philistines." Then he pushed with all his might, and the temple fell on the lords and all the people in it. So in his death he killed more than he had killed in his life.

Then Samson's brothers and his father's family came down, carried him back, and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of his father Manoah. And he had judged Israel twenty years.

said to his mother, "The eleven hundred shekels of silver that were taken from you and about which I heard you utter a curse-I have the silver here with me; I took it." Then his mother said, "Blessed be my son by the LORD!"

And when he had returned the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother, she said, "I wholly dedicate the silver to the LORD for my son's benefit to make a graven image and a molten idol. Therefore I will now return it to you."

So he returned the silver to his mother, and she took two hundred shekels of silver and gave them to a silversmith, who made them into a graven image and a molten idol. And they were placed in the house of Micah.

Now this man Micah had a shrine, and he made an ephod and some household idols, and installed one of his sons to be his priest.

In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

Micah ordained the Levite, and the young man became his priest and lived in his house.

"Micah had done this for me," he replied, "and he has hired me to be his priest."

After they had taken Micah's idols and his priest, they went to Laish, to a tranquil and unsuspecting people, and they struck them with their swords and burned down the city.

The Danites set up idols for themselves, and Jonathan son of Gershom, the son of Moses, and his sons were priests for the tribe of Dan until the day of the captivity of the land.

her husband got up and went after her to speak kindly to her and bring her back, taking with him his servant and a pair of donkeys. So the girl brought him into her father's house, and when her father saw him, he gladly welcomed him.

His father-in-law, the girl's father, persuaded him to stay, so he remained with him three days, eating, drinking, and lodging there.

On the fourth day, they got up early in the morning and prepared to go, but the girl's father said to his son-in-law, "Refresh your heart with a morsel of bread, and then you can go."

The man got up to go, but his father-in-law persuaded him, so he stayed there that night.

When the man got up to depart with his concubine and his servant, his father-in-law, the girl's father, said to him, "Look, the day is drawing late. Please spend the night. See, the day is almost over. Spend the night here, that your heart may be merry. Then you can get up early tomorrow for your journey and go home."

But the man was unwilling to spend the night. He got up and departed, and arrived opposite Jebus (that is, Jerusalem), with his two saddled donkeys and his concubine.

When they were near Jebus and the day was almost gone, the servant said to his master, "Please, let us stop at this Jebusite city and spend the night here."