“I was sure you hated her,” her father said, “so I gave her to one of the men who accompanied you. Isn’t her younger sister more beautiful than she is? Why not take her instead?”

And Samson will say to them, This time I was more blameless than Philisteim if I shall do evil with them.

Then the Philistines asked, “Who did this?”

They were told, “It was Samson, the Timnite’s son-in-law, because he has taken Samson’s wife and given her to another man.” So the Philistines went to her and her father and burned them to death.

And Samson will say to them, If ye will do according to this, if I was avenged by you, and afterward I will desist.

And when he came unto Lehi, the Philistines shouted against him: and the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him, and the cords that were upon his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire, and his bands loosed from off his hands.

When he finished speaking, he threw the jawbone from his hand; and he named that place Ramath-lehi (hill of the jawbone).

He was very thirsty, so he cried out to the Lord and said, "You have given your servant this great victory. But now must I die of thirst and fall into hands of the Philistines?"

So God split open the basin at Lehi and water flowed out from it. When he took a drink, his strength was restored and he revived. For this reason he named the spring En Hakkore. It remains in Lehi to this very day.

And he was judge of Israel in the days of the Philistines for twenty years.

And it was told the Gazites, saying, Samson is come hither. And they compassed him in, and laid wait for him all night in the gate of the city, and were quiet all the night, saying, In the morning, when it is day, we shall kill him.

And Samson was there till the middle of the night; then he got up, and took a grip on the doors of the town, pulling them up, together with their two supports and their locks, and put them on his back and took them up to the top of the hill in front of Hebron.

After this he fell in love with a [Philistine] woman [living] in the Valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah.

And Samson will say to her, If they shall bind me with seven moist cords that were not dried, and I was weak and shall be as another man.

They hid in the bedroom and then she said to him, "The Philistines are here, Samson!" He snapped the bowstrings as easily as a thread of yarn snaps when it is put close to fire. The secret of his strength was not discovered.

And he will say to her, If binding, they shall bind me with new cords which work was not done with them, and I was weak and was as another man.

And Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them, and said to him, The Philistines are upon you, Samson! And the ambush was sitting for her in the inner room. And he broke them from off his arms like a thread.

So while he was sleeping she got the seven twists of his hair worked into her cloth and fixed with the pin, and said to him, The Philistines are on you, Samson. Then awaking from his sleep, he got up quickly, pulling up cloth and machine together.

She nagged him every day and pressured him until he was sick to death of it.

Finally he told her his secret. He said to her, "My hair has never been cut, for I have been dedicated to God from the time I was conceived. If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me; I would become weak, and be just like all other men."

When Delilah saw that he had told her all that was in his heart, she sent and called the lords of the Philistines, saying, “Come up once more, for he has told me all that is in his heart.” Then the lords of the Philistines came up to her and brought the money in their hands.

And she made him go to sleep on her knees; and she sent for a man and had his seven twists of hair cut off; and while it was being done he became feeble and his strength went from him.

And she said, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And he awoke out of his sleep, and said, I will go out as at other times before, and shake myself. And he wist not that the LORD was departed from him.

The Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes. They brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze shackles, and he was forced to grind grain in the prison.

Howbeit the hair of his head began to grow again after he was shaven.

And when the people saw him, they gave praise to their god; for they said, Our god has given into our hands the one who was fighting against us, who made our country waste, and who put great numbers of us to death.

And it came to pass, when their heart was merry, that they said, Call for Samson, that he may make sport for us. So they called for Samson out of the prison, and he made sport before them, and they stationed him between the pillars.

Samson said to the young man who was leading him by the hand, “Lead me where I can feel the pillars supporting the temple, so I can lean against them.”

Now the temple was filled with men and women, and all the rulers of the Philistines were there. There were three thousand men and women on the roof watching Samson entertain.

Samson took hold of the two middle [support] pillars on which the house rested, and braced himself against them, one with his right hand and the other with his left.

There was a man named Micah from the Ephraimite hill country.

And he will say to his mother, The thousand and one hundred of silver which was taken for thee, and thou cursedst me, and saidst also in mine ears, behold, the silver with me; I took it And his mother will say, Blessed my son to Jehovah.

So he returned the silver to his mother, and she took five pounds of silver and gave it to a silversmith. He made it into a carved image overlaid with silver, and it was in Micah’s house.

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

There was a young man from Bethlehem in Judah. He was a Levite who had been temporarily residing among the tribe of Judah.

So the Levite agreed to stay with the man; the young man was like a son to Micah.

And Micah consecrated the Levite; and the young man became his priest, and was in the house of Micah.

In those days Israel had no king. And in those days the Danite tribe was looking for a place to settle, because at that time they did not yet have a place to call their own among the tribes of Israel.

When they were near the house of Micah, hearing a voice which was not strange to them, that of the young Levite, they went out of their road to his place, and said to him, How did you come here? and what are you doing in this place? and why are you here?

So the five men journeyed on and arrived in Laish. They noticed that the people there were living securely, like the Sidonians do, undisturbed and unsuspecting. No conqueror was troubling them in any way. They lived far from the Sidonians and had no dealings with anyone.

They stopped there, went inside the young Levite's house (which belonged to Micah), and asked him how he was doing.

The five men who had gone to spy out the land broke in and stole the carved image, the ephod, the personal idols, and the metal image, while the priest was standing at the entrance to the gate with the six hundred fully armed men.

The priest was happy. He took the ephod, the personal idols, and the carved image and joined the group.

And the sons of Dan will say to him, Thy voice shall not be heard with us lest men bitter of soul shall strike upon you, and thy soul was taken away, and the soul of thy house.

The Danites went on their way, and Micah turned to go back home, because he saw that they were stronger than he was.

And they took what Micah made, and the priest which was to him, and they will go to Laish, upon a people quiet and confiding: and they will strike them with the mouth of the sword, and they will burn the city with fire.

No one came to the rescue because the city was far from Sidon and they had no dealings with anyone. The city was in a valley near Beth Rehob. The Danites rebuilt the city and occupied it.

They named it Dan after their ancestor, who was one of Israel's sons. But the city's name used to be Laish.

(And the children of Dan put up the pictured image for themselves; and Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Moses, and his sons were priests for the tribe of the Danites till the day when the ark was taken prisoner.)

They worshiped Micah's carved image the whole time God's authorized shrine was in Shiloh.

In those days Israel had no king. There was a Levite living temporarily in the remote region of the Ephraimite hill country. He acquired a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah.

And his concubine played the whore against him, and went away from him unto her father's house to Bethlehemjudah, and was there four whole months.

Then her husband arose and went after her to speak tenderly to her in order to bring her back, taking with him his servant and a pair of donkeys. So she brought him into her father’s house, and when the girl’s father saw him, he was glad to meet him.

But the man would not tarry that night, but he rose up and departed, and came over against Jebus, which is Jerusalem; and there were with him two asses saddled, his concubine also was with him.

When they got near Jebus, it was getting quite late and the servant said to his master, "Come on, let's stop at this Jebusite city and spend the night in it."

And they turned aside thither, to go in and to lodge in Gibeah: and when he went in, he sat him down in a street of the city: for there was no man that took them into his house to lodging.

But then an old man passed by, returning at the end of the day from his work in the field. The man was from the Ephraimite hill country; he was living temporarily in Gibeah. (The residents of the town were Benjaminites.)

And he will bring him to his house, and will bring for the asses: and they will wash their feet, and eat and drink

While they were enjoying themselves, all of a sudden, perverted men of the city surrounded the house and beat on the door. They said to the old man who was the owner of the house, “Bring out the man who came to your house so we can have sex with him!”

But the men were unwilling to listen to him. So the descendant of Levi grabbed his mistress, took her out to them, and they raped and tortured her all night until morning. Then they released her as the first daylight was beginning to appear.

The woman arrived back at daybreak and was sprawled out on the doorstep of the house where her master was staying until it became light.

When her master got up in the morning, opened the doors of the house, and went outside to start on his journey, there was the woman, his concubine, sprawled out on the doorstep of the house with her hands on the threshold.

He said to her, "Get up, let's leave!" But there was no response. He put her on the donkey and went home.

And when he was come into his house, he took a knife, and laid hold on his concubine, and divided her, together with her bones, into twelve pieces, and sent her into all the coasts of Israel.

And it was so, that all that saw it said, There was no such deed done nor seen from the day that the children of Israel came up out of the land of Egypt unto this day: consider of it, take advice, and speak your minds.

Then all the children of Israel went out, and the congregation was gathered together as one man, from Dan even to Beersheba, with the land of Gilead, unto the LORD in Mizpeh.

(Now the children of Benjamin heard that the children of Israel were gone up to Mizpeh.) Then said the children of Israel, Tell us, how was this wickedness?

And the Levite, the husband of the woman that was slain, answered and said, I came into Gibeah that belongeth to Benjamin, I and my concubine, to lodge.

The leaders of Gibeah attacked me and at night surrounded the house where I was staying. They wanted to kill me; instead they abused my concubine so badly that she died.

And we will take ten men to the hundred to all the tribes of Israel, and a hundred to a thousand, and a thousand to ten thousand, to take provision for the people, to do for those going to Gibeah of Benjamin; according to all the folly which was done in Israel.

And every man of Israel was gathered against the city, all together as one man.

And the tribes of Israel will send men into all the tribes of Benjamin, saying, What this evil which was among you?

The Israelites asked the Lord (for the ark of God's covenant was there in those days;

Phinehas son of Eleazar, son of Aaron, was serving the Lord in those days), "Should we once more march out to fight the Benjaminites our brothers, or should we quit?" The Lord said, "Attack, for tomorrow I will hand them over to you."

Ten thousand men, well-trained soldiers from all Israel, then made a frontal assault against Gibeah -- the battle was fierce. But the Benjaminites did not realize that disaster was at their doorstep.

Now there was an appointed sign between the men of Israel and the liers in wait, that they should make a great flame with smoke rise up out of the city.

And the men of Israel will turn about in the battle, and Benjamin began to strike the wounded among the men of Israel, about thirty men: for they said, Surely, smiting, he was smitten as the first battle.

But when the column of smoke began to go up from the city, Benjamin looked behind them, and the whole city was going up in smoke.

When the Israelites turned around, the Benjaminites panicked because they could see that disaster was on their doorstep.

Thus, the men of Israel, turned against the sons of Benjamin, and smote them with the edge of the sword, beginning with the city, each and every one down to the beast, even to every one that was met with, - moreover, all the cities they came to, they set on fire.

And they will say, Wherefore, Jehovah, God of Israel, was this in Israel to miss one tribe this day from Israel?

And the sons of Israel will say, Who from all the tribes of Israel that went not up in the gathering to Jehovah? For there was a great oath against him who went not up to Jehovah to Mizpeh, saying, Dying, he shall die.

And the sons of Israel will lament for Benjamin their brother, and they will say, There was cut off this day one tribe from Israel.

And they said, Which one of the tribes of Israel did not come up to Mizpah to the Lord? And it was seen that no one had come from Jabesh-gilead to the meeting.

For when the people were assembled, behold, there was not one of the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead there.

And it was when their fathers or brothers shall come to contend against us, and we said to them, Be merciful to us with them, because we took not a man his wife in the battle; for ye gave not to them according to the time, ye shall transgress.

In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.