Study Desk

And it happened as the flame from off the altar was going up to the heavens, that the Angel of Jehovah went up in the flame of the altar. And Manoah and his wife were watching. And they fell on their faces to the ground.

And the Angel of Jehovah did not appear any more to Manoah, or to his wife. Then Manoah knew that He was the Angel of Jehovah.

And Manoah said to his wife, Dying we shall die, because we have seen God.

And his wife said to him, If Jehovah desired to put us to death, He would not have received a burnt offering and a food offering from our hands, nor made us see all these things ; nor would He now have caused us to hear things like these.

And the woman bore a son, and called his name Samson. And the youth grew, and Jehovah blessed him.

And he came up and told his father and mother, and said, I have seen a woman in Timnath, of the daughters of the Philistines. And now get her for me for a wife.

And his father and his mother said to him, Is there not a woman among the daughters of your brothers, and among all my people, that you must go to take a woman from the uncircumcised Philistines?And Samson said to his father, Get herfor me, for she pleases me very much.

And his father and his mother did not know that it was from Jehovah, that He was seeking an occasion against the Philistines. For at that time the Philistines were ruling over Israel.

And Samson and his father and his mother went down to Timnath. And they came to the vineyards of Timnath. And, behold, a young lion roaring to meet him.

And the Spirit of Jehovah came mightily on him. And he tore it as the cleaving of a kid. And there was nothing in his hand; and he did not tell his father and his mother what he had done.

And he took it out on his hands, and went on, eating and walking. And he went to his father and to his mother, and gave some to them. And they ate, but he did not tell them that he took the honey out of the body of the lion.

And his father went down to the woman, and Samson made a feast there, for so the young men usually did.

And the Spirit of Jehovah came upon him. And he went down to Ashkelon and struck thirty men of them, and took their plunder. And he gave the changes to those who told the riddle; and his angerglowed. And he went up to his father'shouse.

And Samson's wife became his companion's, who had been his friend.

And it happened afterward, in the days of wheat harvest, that Samson visited his wife with a kid of the goats. And he said, I will go in to my wife, to the inner room. And her father would not allow him to go in.

And the Philistines said, Who has done this? And they said, Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he took away his wife and gave her to his companion. And the Philistines went and burned her and her father with fire.

He came to Lehi, and the Philistines shouted to meet him, And the Spirit of Jehovah came upon him, and the thick cords which were on his arms were as flax which they burn with fire. And his bonds melted from his hands.

And he found a fresh jawbone of an ass, and put out his hand and took it. And he struck a thousand men with it.

And it happened when he finished speaking, he threw the jawbone out of his hand. And he called that place Jawbone Height.

And God broke open the hollow place which is in Lehi, and water came out of it. And he drank, and his spirit returned, and he revived. Therefore its name is called the Fountain of the Praying One, which is in Lehi to this day.