So then, be careful and do not drink wine or strong drink, and do not eat anything unclean,

For see, thou shalt conceive and bear a son. And there may no razor or shearers come on his head: for the lad shall be an abstainer unto God, even from the time of his birth. And he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hands of the Philistines."

So the woman came in, and told her husband, saying, A man of God, came unto me, and, his, appearance, was as the appearance of the messenger of God, reverend exceedingly, - and I asked him not whence he was, and, his name, he told me not.

but he said to me, 'Behold, you shall conceive and bear a son; so then drink no wine or strong drink, and eat nothing unclean, for the boy shall be a Nazirite to God from birth to the day of his death.'"

So Manoah prayed to the LORD, "Please, Lord, have the man of God whom you sent before come again so he can instruct us what to do on behalf of the child who is to be born."

God listened to Manoah's request, and the angel of God came again to the woman as she was sitting out in the pasture. But her husband Manoah wasn't with her,

So the woman, running quickly, gave her husband the news, saying, I have seen the man who came to me the other day.

So Manoah got up and went after his wife, and he came to the man and said to him, "[Are] you the man that spoke to the woman?" And he said, "I [am]."

And Mano'ah said, "Now when your words come true, what is to be the boy's manner of life, and what is he to do?"

The Lord's messenger told Manoah, "Your wife should pay attention to everything I told her.

Manoah said to the Lord's messenger, "Please stay here awhile, so we can prepare a young goat for you to eat."

And the angel of the Lord said to Manoah, Though you keep me I will not take of your food; but if you will make a burned offering, let it be offered to the Lord. For it had not come into Manoah's mind that he was the angel of the Lord.

And Mano'ah said to the angel of the LORD, "What is your name, so that, when your words come true, we may honor you?"

The angel of the LORD answered him, "Why are you asking this about my name? It's "Wonderful.'"

So Manoah took a kid with a meat offering, and offered it upon a rock unto the LORD: and the angel did wondrously; and Manoah and his wife looked on.

When the flame went up from the altar to the sky, the Angel of the Lord went up in its flame. When Manoah and his wife saw this, they fell facedown on the ground.

The Lord's messenger did not appear again to Manoah and his wife. After all this happened Manoah realized that the visitor had been the Lord's messenger.

So Manoah said to his wife, “We will surely die, for we have seen God.”

And his wife will say to him, If Jehovah were inclined to put us to death, he took not from our hand a burnt-offering and gift, and he shewed us not all these, and as now caused us not to hear such as this.

So the woman gave birth to a son and named him Samson. The boy grew, and the Lord blessed him.

The Lord's spirit began to control him in Mahaneh Dan between Zorah and Eshtaol.

And Samson went down to Timnath, and saw a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines.

Then he came up, and told his father and mother, "I saw one of the daughters of the Philistines at Timnah; now get her for me as my wife."

And his father will say to him, and his mother, Is there not among the daughters of thy brethren, and among all my people, a woman, that thou goest to take a woman from uncircumcised Philisteim? And Samson will say to his father, Take her to me, for she is straight in mine eyes.

Now his father and mother did not realize this was the Lord's doing, because he was looking for an opportunity to stir up trouble with the Philistines (for at that time the Philistines were ruling Israel).

And Samson goeth down -- also his father and his mother, to Timnath, and they come unto the vineyards of Timnath, and lo, a lion's whelp roareth at meeting him,

The Lord's spirit empowered him and he tore the lion in two with his bare hands as easily as one would tear a young goat. But he did not tell his father or mother what he had done.

So he went down and had talk with the woman; and she was pleasing to Samson.

And after a time he returned to take her, and he turned aside to see the carcase of the lion: and, behold, there was a swarm of bees and honey in the carcase of the lion.

He scooped some honey into his hands and ate it as he went along. When he returned to his father and mother, he gave some to them and they ate it. But he did not tell them that he had scooped the honey from the lion’s carcass.

So his father went down unto the woman: and Samson made there a feast; for so used the young men to do.

And it came to pass, when they saw him, that they brought thirty companions to be with him.

And Samson will say to them, I will propose to you an enigma: if announcing, ye shall announce it to me in seven days of the drinking, and ye find out, and I will give to you thirty wide garments and thirty exchanges of garments:

and if ye are not able to declare it to me, then ye have given to me thirty linen shirts, and thirty changes of garments.' And they say to him, 'Put forth thy riddle, and we hear it!'

So he said to them:

Out of the eater came something to eat,
and out of the strong came something sweet.

After three days, they were unable to explain the riddle.

And it came to pass on the seventh day, that they said unto Samson's wife, Entice thy husband, that he may declare unto us the riddle, lest we burn thee and thy father's house with fire: have ye called us to take that we have? is it not so?

And Samson's wife wept before him, and said, Thou dost but hate me, and lovest me not: thou hast put forth a riddle unto the children of my people, and hast not told it me. And he said unto her, Behold, I have not told it my father nor my mother, and shall I tell it thee?

However Samson’s wife wept before him seven days while their [wedding] feast lasted, and on the seventh day he told her because she pressed him so hard. Then she told the [answer to the] riddle to her countrymen.

And the men of the city say to him on the seventh day, before the sun goeth in: -- 'What is sweeter than honey? And what stronger than a lion?' And he saith to them: 'Unless ye had ploughed with my heifer, Ye had not found out my riddle.'

And the Spirit of the LORD came upon him, and he went down to Ashkelon, and slew thirty men of them, and took their spoil, and gave change of garments unto them which expounded the riddle. And his anger was kindled, and he went up to his father's house.

But Samson's wife was given to his companion, whom he had used as his friend.

After a while, at the time of the wheat harvest, Samson visited his wife with a {young goat}. He said, "I want to go to my wife's private room." But her father would not allow him to enter.

And her father said, "I really thought that you utterly hated her; so I gave her to your companion. Is not her younger sister fairer than she? Pray take her instead."

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

So Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took torches; and he turned them tail to tail, and put a torch between each pair of tails.

And the Philistines say, 'Who hath done this?' And they say, 'Samson, son-in-law of the Timnite, because he hath taken away his wife, and giveth her to his companion;' and the Philistines go up, and burn her and her father with fire.

And Samson said unto them, "Should ye do so? For I will surely be avenged of you; and then I will cease."

So he smote them, leg on thigh, with a great smiting, - and went down and dwelt in a cleft of the crag Etam.

and the men of Judah say, 'Why have ye come up against us?' and they say, 'To bind Samson we have come up, to do to him as he hath done to us.'

Then three thousand men of Judah went to the top of the rock Etam, and said to Samson, Knowest thou not that the Philistines are rulers over us? what is this that thou hast done unto us? And he said unto them, As they did unto me, so have I done unto them.

And they say to him, 'To bind thee we have come down -- to give thee into the hand of the Philistines.' And Samson saith to them, 'Swear to me, lest ye fall upon me yourselves.'

They said to him, "No; we will only bind you and give you into their hands; we will not kill you." So they bound him with two new ropes, and brought him up from the rock.

He, was coming in as far as Lehi, and, the Philistines, came shouting to meet him, - when the Spirit of Yahweh came suddenly over him, and the ropes that were upon his arms became as threads of flax which have been ignited with fire, so that his bonds melted from off his hands.

And taking up the mouth-bone of an ass newly dead, which he saw by chance on the earth, he put to death a thousand men with it.

And Samson said, With a red ass's mouth-bone I have made them red with blood, with a red ass's mouth-bone I have sent destruction on a thousand men.

And having said these words, he let the mouth-bone go out of his hand; so that place was named Ramath-lehi.

And he was sore athirst, so he cried unto Yahweh, and said, Thou thyself, hast given, into the hand of thy servant, this great salvation, - and, now, must I die of thirst, and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised?

So God split the hollow place that [is] at Lehi, and water came out from it; and he drank, and his spirit returned, and he was revived. Thus he called its name {The Spring of Ha-Qore}, which [is] at Lehi to this day.

So he judged Israel twenty years in the days of the Philistines.

Then went Samson to Gaza, and saw there an harlot, and went in unto her.

The Gazites were told, “Samson has come here.” So they surrounded the place and waited all night at the gate of the city to ambush him. They kept quiet all night, saying, “In the morning, when it is light, we will kill him.”

But Samson lay [resting] until midnight, then at midnight he got up and took hold of the doors of the city gate and the two door-posts, and pulled them up, [security] bar and all, and he put them on his shoulders and carried them up to the top of the hill which is opposite Hebron.

And the lords of the Philistines came up unto her, and said unto her, Entice him, and see wherein his great strength lieth, and by what means we may prevail against him, that we may bind him to afflict him: and we will give thee every one of us eleven hundred pieces of silver.

So Delilah said to Samson, "Please tell me what makes your strength so great, and with what can you be tied up to subdue you?"

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.

So the rulers of [the] Philistines brought up to her seven fresh bowstrings that were not dried up, and she tied him up with them.

Now there were men lying in wait, abiding with her in the chamber. And she said unto him, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And he brake the withs, as a thread of tow is broken when it toucheth the fire. So his strength was not known.

Then Delilah said to Samson, See, you have been making sport of me with false words; now, say truly how may you be put in bands?

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.

So Delilah took new ropes, and bound him therewith, and said unto him, The Philistines are upon thee, Samson. And the liers-in-wait were abiding in the inner chamber. And he brake them off his arms like a thread.

Then Delilah said to Samson, Up to now you have made sport of me with false words; now say truly, how may you be put in bands? And he said to her, If you get the seven twists of my hair worked into the cloth you are making and fixed with the pin, I will become feeble and will be like any other man.

So while he slept, Deli'lah took the seven locks of his head and wove them into the web. And she made them tight with the pin, and said to him, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson!" But he awoke from his sleep, and pulled away the pin, the loom, and the web.

And she said unto him, How canst thou say, I love thee, when thine heart is not with me? thou hast mocked me these three times, and hast not told me wherein thy great strength lieth.

And it came to pass, when she pressed him daily with her words, and urged him, so that his soul was vexed unto death;

That he told her all his heart, and said unto her, There hath not come a rasor upon mine head; for I have been a Nazarite unto God from my mother's womb: if I be shaven, then my strength will go from me, and I shall become weak, and be like any other man.

And when Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called for the lords of the Philistines, saying, Come up this once, for he hath shewed me all his heart. Then the lords of the Philistines came up unto her, and brought money in their hand.

So she enticed him to fall asleep on her lap, called for a man to shave off his seven locks of hair from his head, and so began to humiliate him. Then his strength abandoned him.

And she will say, Philisteim upon thee, Samson. And he will awake from his sleep, and say, I will go forth as once upon once, and shake myself. And he knew not that Jehovah removed from him.

So the Philistines took him and put out his eyes; then they took him down to Gaza, and, chaining him with bands of brass, put him to work crushing grain in the prison-house.

and the princes of the Philistines have been gathered together to sacrifice a great sacrifice to Dagon their god, and to rejoice; and they say, 'Our god hath given into our hand Samson our enemy.'

And when the people saw him, they praised their god: for they said, Our god hath delivered into our hands our enemy, and the destroyer of our country, which slew many of us.

And when their hearts were merry, they said, "Call Samson, that he may make sport for us." So they called Samson out of the prison, and he made sport before them. They made him stand between the pillars;

Then Samson said to the servant who was holding him by his hand, "Position me so that I can touch the pillars on which the house rests, so I can lean on them."

Now the house was full of men and women; and all the lords of the Philistines were there; and there were on the roof about three thousand men and women, who saw while Samson performed.

And Samson called to Yahweh and said, "My Lord Yahweh, remember me! Please give me strength this one time, O God, so that I can repay [with] one act of revenge to [the] Philistines for my eyes."

And Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines. And he bowed himself with all his might; and the house fell upon the lords, and upon all the people that were therein. So the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life.

Then his brothers and his father’s family came down, carried him back, and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of his father Manoah. So he judged Israel 20 years.

He said to his mother, “The 1,100 pieces of silver taken from you, and that I heard you utter a curse about—here, I have the silver with me. I took it. So now I return it to you.”

Then his mother said, “My son, you are blessed by the Lord!”

He returned the 1,100 pieces of silver to his mother, and his mother said, “I personally consecrate the silver to the Lord for my son’s benefit to make a carved image overlaid with silver.”

So when he restored the money to his mother, his mother took two hundred pieces of silver, and gave it to the silversmith, who made it into a graven image and a molten image; and it was in the house of Micah.

Back in those days, Israel didn't yet have a king, so each person did whatever seemed right in his own opinion.

The man left the town of Bethlehem in Judah to settle wherever he could find a place. On his way he came to Micah’s home in the hill country of Ephraim.

And Micah will say to him, Whence shalt thou come? and the Levite will say to him, I am from the House of Bread, of Judah, and I go to sojourn where I shall find.

And Micah said unto him, Dwell with me, and be unto me a father and a priest, and I will give thee ten shekels of silver by the year, and a suit of apparel, and thy victuals. So the Levite went in.

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

So Micah {appointed the Levite}, and the young man became a priest for him; and he was in the house of Micah.

And Micah will say, Now I knew that Jehovah will be good to me, for there being to me the Levite for priest

So the Danites sent five able men from the whole number of their tribe, from Zorah and from Esh'ta-ol, to spy out the land and to explore it; and they said to them, "Go and explore the land." And they came to the hill country of E'phraim, to the house of Micah, and lodged there.

They are with the household of Micah, and they have discerned the voice of the young man, the Levite, and turn aside there, and say to him, 'Who hath brought thee hither? and what art thou doing in this place? and what to thee here?'

And he said unto them, Thus and so, hath Micah dealt with me, and hath hired me, and I am become his priest.