Study Desk

'Do you not possess what Chemosh your god gives you to possess? So whatever the LORD our God has dispossessed before us, we will possess it.

'So I have not sinned against you, but you are doing me wrong by making war against me. May the LORD, the Judge, judge today between the sons of Israel and the sons of Ammon.'"

So Jephthah crossed over to the sons of Ammon to fight against them; and the LORD handed them over to him.

He inflicted a very great defeat on them from Aroer to the entrance of Minnith, twenty cities, and as far as Abel-keramim. So the sons of Ammon were subdued before the sons of Israel.

So when he saw her, he tore his clothes and said, "Oh, my daughter! You have brought me disaster, and you are among those who trouble me; for I have given my word to the LORD, and I cannot take it back."

So she said to him, "My father, you have given your word to the LORD; do to me just as you have said, since the LORD has brought you vengeance on your enemies, the sons of Ammon."

And she said to her father, "Let this thing be done for me; allow me two months, so that I may go to the mountains and weep because of my virginity, I and my friends."

Then he said, "Go." So he let her go for two months; and she left with her friends, and wept on the mountains because of her virginity.

So Jephthah said to them, "I and my people were in a major dispute with the sons of Ammon; and I did call you, but you did not save me from their hand.

then they would say to him, "Just say, 'Shibboleth.'" But he said, "Sibboleth," for he was not prepared to pronounce it correctly. Then they seized him and slaughtered him at the crossing places of the Jordan. So at that time forty-two thousand from Ephraim fell.

Then the woman came and told her husband, saying, "A man of God came to me, and his appearance was like the appearance of the angel of God, very awesome. So I did not ask him where he came from, nor did he tell me his name.

Then Manoah pleaded with the LORD and said, "Lord, please let the man of God whom You have sent come to us again so that he may teach us what we are to do for the boy who is to be born."

So the woman hurried and ran, and told her husband, "Behold, the man who came the other day has appeared to me!"

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

Then Manoah said to the angel of the LORD, "Please let us detain you so that we may prepare a young goat for you."

And Manoah said to the angel of the LORD, "What is your name, so that when your words are fulfilled, we may honor you?"

So Manoah took the young goat along with the grain offering and offered it on the rock to the LORD; and He performed wonders while Manoah and his wife looked on.

So Manoah said to his wife, "We will certainly die, for we have seen God."

So the woman gave birth to a son, and named him Samson; and the child grew up and the LORD blessed him.

So he came back and told his father and mother, "I saw a woman in Timnah, one of the daughters of the Philistines; so now, get her for me as a wife."