Judg 14-15, 16:22-30, 18:22-31, 1Ch 12:35 | ESV | STEP | Samson went down to Timnah , and at Timnah he saw one of the daughters of the Philistines .

1 ^aSamson went down to ^bTimnah, and at Timnah he saw one of the daughters of the Philistines. 2 Then he came up and told his father and mother, “I saw one of the daughters of the Philistines at Timnah. ^cNow get her for me as my wife.” 3 But his father and mother said to him, “Is there not a woman among the daughters ^dof your relatives, or among all our people, that you must go to take a wife from the ^euncircumcised Philistines?” But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, for she is right in my eyes.”

4 His father and mother did not know that it was ^ffrom the Lord, for he was seeking an opportunity against the Philistines. ^gAt that time the Philistines ruled over Israel.

5 Then Samson went down with his father and mother to Timnah, and they came to the vineyards of Timnah. And behold, a young lion came toward him roaring. 6 ^hThen the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him, and although he had nothing in his hand, he tore the lion in pieces as one tears a young goat. But he did not tell his father or his mother what he had done. 7 Then he went down and talked with the woman, and she was right in Samson’s eyes.

8 After some days he returned to take her. And he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion, and behold, there was a swarm of bees in the body of the lion, and honey. 9 He scraped it out into his hands and went on, eating as he went. And he came to his father and mother and gave some to them, and they ate. But he did not tell them that he had scraped the honey from the carcass of the lion.

10 His father went down to the woman, and Samson prepared a feast there, for so the young men used to do. 11 As soon as the people saw him, they brought thirty companions to be with him. 12 And Samson said to them, ⁱ“Let me now put a riddle to you. If you can tell me what it is, within ^jthe seven days of the feast, and find it out, then I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty ^kchanges of clothes, 13 but if you cannot tell me what it is, then you shall give me thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothes.” And they said to him, “Put your riddle, that we may hear it.” 14 And he said to them,

“Out of the eater came something to eat.
Out of the strong came something sweet.”
And in three days they could not solve the riddle.

15 On the fourth ^{▼▼Septuagint, Syriac; Hebrew seventh} day they said to Samson’s wife, ^m“Entice your husband to tell us what the riddle is, ⁿlest we burn you and your father’s house with fire. Have you invited us here to impoverish us?” 16 And Samson’s wife wept over him and said, ^o“You only hate me; you do not love me. You have put a riddle to my people, and you have not told me what it is.” And he said to her, “Behold, I have not told my father nor my mother, and shall I tell you?” 17 She wept before him the seven days that their feast lasted, and on the seventh day he told her, because ^pshe pressed him hard. Then she told the riddle to her people. 18 And the men of the city said to him on the seventh day before the sun went down,

“What is sweeter than honey?
What is stronger than a lion?”
And he said to them,

“If you had not plowed with my heifer,
you would not have found out my riddle.”
19 ^qAnd the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him, and he went down to ^rAshkelon and struck down thirty men of the town and took their spoil and gave the garments to those who had told the riddle. In hot anger he went back to his father’s house. 20 And Samson’s wife was given to ^shis companion, ^twho had been his best man.

Judges 15

Samson Defeats the Philistines

1 After some days, at the time of wheat harvest, Samson went to visit his wife with ^ua young goat. And he said, “I will go in to my wife in the chamber.” But her father would not allow him to go in. 2 And her father said, “I really thought that you utterly hated her, ^vso I gave her to your companion. Is not her younger sister more beautiful than she? Please take her instead.” 3 And Samson said to them, “This time I shall be innocent in regard to the Philistines, when I do them harm.” 4 So Samson went and caught 300 foxes and took torches. And he turned them tail to tail and put a torch between each pair of tails. 5 And when he had set fire to the torches, he let the foxes go into the standing grain of the Philistines and set fire to the stacked grain and the standing grain, as well as the olive orchards. 6 Then the Philistines said, “Who has done this?” And they said, “Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he has taken his wife ^wand given her to his companion.” And the Philistines came up and ^xburned her and her father with fire. 7 And Samson said to them, “If this is what you do, I swear I will be avenged on you, and after that I will quit.” 8 And he struck them hip and thigh with a great blow, and he went down and stayed in the ^ycleft of the rock of Etam.

9 Then the Philistines came up and encamped in Judah and ^zmade a raid on ^aaLehi. 10 And the men of Judah said, “Why have you come up against us?” They said, “We have come up to bind Samson, to do to him as he did to us.” 11 Then 3,000 men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam, and said to Samson, “Do you not know that ^abthe Philistines are rulers over us? What then is this that you have done to us?” And he said to them, “As they did to me, so have I done to them.” 12 And they said to him, “We have come down to bind you, that we may give you into the hands of the Philistines.” And Samson said to them, “Swear to me that you will not attack me yourselves.” 13 They said to him, “No; we will only bind you and give you into their hands. We will surely not kill you.” So they bound him with two ^acnew ropes and brought him up from the rock.

14 When he came to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting to meet him. ^adThen the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him, and the ropes that were on his arms became as flax that has caught fire, and his bonds melted off his hands. 15 And he found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, and put out his hand and took it, ^aeand with it he struck 1,000 men. 16 And Samson said,

“With the jawbone of a donkey,
heaps upon heaps,
with the jawbone of a donkey
have I struck down a thousand men.”
17 As soon as he had finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone out of his hand. And that place ^afwas called Ramath-lehi. ^{▼▼ Ramath-lehi means the hill of the jawbone}

18 And he was very thirsty, and he called upon the Lord and said, ^ah“You have granted this great salvation by the hand of your servant, and shall I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?” 19 And God split open the hollow place that is ^aiat Lehi, and water came out from it. And when he drank, ^ajhis spirit returned, and he revived. Therefore the name of it was called En-hakkore; ^{▼▼ En-hakkore means the spring of him who called} it is at Lehi to this day. 20 And he judged Israel ^alin the days of the Philistines twenty years.

Judges 16:22-30

22 But the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaved.

The Death of Samson

23 Now the lords of the Philistines gathered to offer a great sacrifice to ^amDagon their god and to rejoice, and they said, “Our god has given Samson our enemy into our hand.” 24 And when the people saw him, ^anthey praised their god. For they said, “Our god has given our enemy into our hand, the ravager of our country, who has killed many of us.” ^{▼▼Or who has multiplied our slain} 25 And ^apwhen their hearts were merry, they said, “Call Samson, that he may entertain us.” So they called Samson out of the prison, and he entertained them. They made him stand between the pillars. 26 And Samson said to the young man who held him by the hand, “Let me feel the pillars on which the house rests, that I may lean against them.” 27 Now the house was full of men and women. All the lords of the Philistines were there, and ^aqon the roof there were about 3,000 men and women, who looked on while Samson entertained.

28 Then Samson called to the Lord and said, “O Lord God, ^arplease remember me and please strengthen me only this once, O God, that I may be avenged on the Philistines for my two eyes.” 29 And Samson grasped the two middle pillars on which the house rested, and he leaned his weight against them, his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other. 30 And Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines.” Then he bowed with all his strength, and the house fell upon the lords and upon all the people who were in it. So the dead whom he killed at his death were more than those whom he had killed during his life.

Judges 18:22-31

22 When they had gone a distance from the home of Micah, the men who were in the houses near Micah’s house were called out, and they overtook the people of Dan. 23 And they shouted to the people of Dan, who turned around and said to Micah, “What is the matter with you, that you come with such a company?” 24 And he said, ^as“You take my gods that I made and the priest, and go away, and what have I left? How then do you ask me, ‘What is the matter with you?’” 25 And the people of Dan said to him, “Do not let your voice be heard among us, lest angry fellows fall upon you, and you lose your life with the lives of your household.” 26 Then the people of Dan went their way. And when Micah saw that they were too strong for him, he turned and went back to his home.

27 But the people of Dan took what Micah had made, and the priest who belonged to him, and they came to Laish, to a people ^atquiet and unsuspecting, and ^austruck them with the edge of the sword and burned the city with fire. 28 And there was no deliverer because it was ^avfar from Sidon, and they had no dealings with anyone. It was in the valley that belongs to ^awBeth-rehob. Then they rebuilt the city and lived in it. 29 And they named the city ^axDan, after the name of Dan their ancestor, who was born to Israel; but ^aythe name of the city was Laish at the first. 30 And the people of Dan set up the carved image for themselves, and Jonathan the son of Gershom, ^azson of Moses, ^{▼▼Or Manasseh} ^bband his sons were priests to the tribe of the Danites until the day ^bcof the captivity of the land. 31 So they set up Micah’s carved image that he made, ^bdas long as the house of God was at Shiloh.

1 Chronicles 12:35

35 Of the Danites 28,600 men equipped for battle.