Study Desk

Then she lulled him to sleep on her knees, and called for a man and had him shave off the seven locks of his head. Then she began to torment him, [fn] and his strength left him.

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

Then the Philistines took him and put out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza. They bound him with bronze fetters, and he became a grinder in the prison.

However, the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaven.

And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars which supported the temple, and he braced himself against them, one on his right and the other on his left.

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

And his brothers and all his father's household came down and took him, and brought him up and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of his father Manoah. He had judged Israel twenty years.

And he said to his mother, "The eleven hundred shekels of silver that were taken from you, and on which you put a curse, even saying it in my ears--here is the silver with me; I took it." And his mother said, "May you be blessed by the LORD, my son!"

So when he had returned the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother, his mother said, "I had wholly dedicated the silver from my hand to the LORD for my son, to make a carved image and a molded image; now therefore, I will return it to you."

Thus he returned the silver to his mother. Then his mother took two hundred shekels of silver and gave them to the silversmith, and he made it into a carved image and a molded image; and they were in the house of Micah.

The man Micah had a shrine, and made an ephod and household idols; [fn] and he consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest.

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

Then the Levite was content to dwell with the man; and the young man became like one of his sons to him.

So Micah consecrated the Levite, and the young man became his priest, and lived in the house of Micah.

He said to them, "Thus and so Micah did for me. He has hired me, and I have become his priest."

So the priest's heart was glad; and he took the ephod, the household idols, and the carved image, and took his place among the people.

Then the children of Dan went their way. And when Micah saw that they were too strong for him, he turned and went back to his house.

Then the children of Dan set up for themselves the carved image; and Jonathan the son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh, [fn] and his sons were priests to the tribe of Dan until the day of the captivity of the land.

But his concubine played the harlot against him, and went away from him to her father's house at Bethlehem in Judah, and was there four whole months.

Then her husband arose and went after her, to speak kindly to her and bring her back, having his servant and a couple of donkeys with him. So she brought him into her father's house; and when the father of the young woman saw him, he was glad to meet him.