[And it was told] the Gazites, saying, Samson has come here. And they encompassed him in, and laid wait for him all night in the gate of the city, and were quiet all the night, saying, [Not] till morning light, then we will kill hi

And Samson lay till midnight, and arose at midnight, and laid hold of the doors of the gate of the city, and the two posts, and plucked them up, bar and all, and put them upon his shoulders, and carried them up to the top of the mo

And he told her all his heart, and said to her, There has not come a razor upon my head, for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother's womb. If I be shaven, then my strength will go from me, and I shall become weak, and be lik

And the lords of the Philistines gathered together to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god, and to rejoice, for they said, Our god has delivered Samson our enemy into our hand.

And when the people saw him, they praised their god, for they said, Our god has delivered into our hand our enemy, and the destroyer of our country who has slain many of us.

And Samson called to LORD, and said, O lord LORD, remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once, O God, that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes.

Then Micah said, Now I know that LORD will do me good, seeing I have a Levite for my priest.

And they said to him, Ask counsel, we pray thee, of God, that we may know whether our way which we go shall be prosperous.

Then the five men departed, and came to Laish, and saw the people that were in it, how they dwelt in security, according to the manner of the Sidonians, quiet and secure, for there was none in the land possessing authority, that mi

And they said, Arise, and let us go up against them, for we have seen the land, and, behold, it is very good, and are ye idle? Be not slothful to go and to enter in to possess the land.

When ye go, ye shall come to a people secure. And the land is large, for God has given it into your hand, a place where there is no want of anything that is on the earth.

And the six hundred men girded with their weapons of war, who were of the sons of Dan, stood by the entrance of the gate.

And the five men who went to spy out the land went up, and came in there, and took the graven image, and the ephod, and the teraphim, and the molten image. And the priest stood by the entrance of the gate with the six hundred men g

When they were a good way from the house of Micah, the men who were in the houses near to Micah's house were gathered together, and overtook the sons of Dan.

And they took that which Micah had made, and the priest whom he had, and came to Laish, to a people quiet and secure, and smote them with the edge of the sword, and they burnt the city with fire.

So they set up for them Micah's graven image which he made, all the time that the house of God was in Shiloh.

Behold, here is my daughter a virgin, and his concubine. I will bring them out now, and humble ye them, and do with them what seems good to you, but to this man do not any such folly.

And he said to her, Up, and let us be going, but there was no answering. Then he took her up upon the donkey, and the man rose up, and got to his place.

And the chiefs of all the people, even of all the tribes of Israel, presented themselves in the assembly of the people of God, four hundred thousand footmen who drew a sword.

And I took my concubine, and cut her in pieces, and sent her throughout all the country of the inheritance of Israel, for they have committed lewdness and folly in Israel.

And the sons of Israel arose, and went up to Bethel, and asked counsel of God. And they said, Who shall go up for us first to battle against the sons of Benjamin? And LORD said, Judah first.

And the sons of Israel asked of LORD (for the ark of the covenant of God was there in those days,

And the people came to Bethel, and sat there till evening before God, and lifted up their voices, and wept bitterly.

And they said, O LORD, the God of Israel, why has this come to pass in Israel, that there should be today one tribe lacking in Israel?

And the sons of Israel regretted for Benjamin their brother, and said, There is one tribe cut off from Israel this day.

And she said, Behold, thy sister-in-law has gone back to her people, and to her god. Return thou after thy sister-in-law.

And Ruth said, Entreat me not to leave thee, and to return from following after thee, for where thou go, I will go, and where thou lodge, I will lodge. Thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.

LORD recompense thy work, and a full reward be given thee of LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings thou have come to take refuge.

And Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, It is good, my daughter, that thou go out with his maidens, and that they not meet thee in any other field.

Wash thyself therefore, and anoint thee, and put thy raiment upon thee, and get thee down to the threshing-floor. But do not make thyself known to the man until he shall have done eating and drinking.

Now Boaz went up to the gate, and sat down there. And, behold, the near kinsman of whom Boaz spoke came by, to whom he said, Such man, stay, turn aside. Sit down here. And he turned aside, and sat down.

Moreover Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of Mahlon, I have purchased to be my wife, to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance, that the name of the dead not be cut off from among his brothers, and from the gate of his plac

And all the people who were in the gate, and the elders, said, We are witnesses. LORD make the woman that has come into thy house like Rachel and like Leah, which two built the house of Israel, and do thou worthily in Ephrathah, an

Then Eli answered and said, Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant thy petition that thou have asked of him.

And Elkanah her husband said to her, Do what seems good to thee. Remain until thou have weaned him, only LORD establish his word. So the woman remained and gave her son suck, until she weaned him.

There is none holy as LORD, for there is none besides thee, neither is there any rock like our God.

Talk no more so very proudly. Let not arrogancy come out of your mouth, for LORD is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed.

No, my sons, for it is no good report that I hear. Ye make LORD's people to transgress.

If one man sins against another, God shall judge him, but if a man sins against LORD, who shall entreat for him? Notwithstanding, they did not hearken to the voice of their father, because LORD intended to kill them.

And there came a man of God to Eli, and said to him, Thus says LORD, Did I reveal myself to the house of thy father when they were in Egypt [in bondage] to Pharaoh's house?

Therefore LORD, the God of Israel, says, I said indeed that thy house, and the house of thy father, should walk before me forever, but now LORD says, Be it far from me, for those who honor me I will honor, and those who despise me

Behold, the days come, that I will cut off thine arm, and the arm of thy father's house, that there shall not be an old man in thy house.

And the man of thine, [whom] I shall not cut off from my altar, [shall be] to consume thine eyes, and to grieve thy heart. And all the increase of thy house shall die in the flower of their age.

and the lamp of God was not yet gone out, and Samuel was laid down in the temple of LORD where the ark of God was,

And he said, What is the thing that [LORD] has spoken to thee? I pray thee, hide it not from me. God do so to thee, and more also, if thou hide anything from me of all the things that he spoke to thee.

And Samuel told him every whit, and hid nothing from him. And he said, It is LORD. Let him do what seems him good.

So the people sent to Shiloh, and they brought from there the ark of the covenant of LORD of hosts, who sits [above] the cherubim. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God.

And the Philistines were afraid, for they said, God has come into the camp. And they said, Woe to us! For there has not been such a thing heretofore.

And the ark of God was taken, and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were killed.

And when he came, lo, Eli was sitting upon his seat by the wayside watching, for his heart trembled for the ark of God. And when the man came into the city, and told it, all the city cried out.

And he who brought the news answered and said, Israel has fled before the Philistines, and there has been also a great slaughter among the people. And thy two sons also, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead, and the ark of God is taken.

And it came to pass, when he made mention of the ark of God, that [Eli] fell from off his seat backward by the side of the gate. And his neck broke, and he died, for he was an old man, and heavy. And he had judged Israel forty year

And his daughter-in-law, Phinehas' wife, was with child, near to be delivered. And when she heard the news that the ark of God was taken, and that her father-in-law and her husband were dead, she bowed herself and brought forth, fo

And she named the child Ichabod, saying, The glory has departed from Israel, because the ark of God was taken, and because of her father-in-law and her husband.

And she said, The glory has departed from Israel, for the ark of God is taken.

Now the Philistines had taken the ark of God, and they brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod.

And the Philistines took the ark of God, and brought it into the house of Dagon, and set it by Dagon.

And when they arose early on the morning of the morrow, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the ground before the ark of LORD, and the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands [lay] cut off upon the threshold. Only [the

And when the men of Ashdod saw that it was so, they said, The ark of the God of Israel shall not abide with us, for his hand is hard upon us, and upon Dagon our god.

They sent therefore and gathered all the lords of the Philistines to them, and said, What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel? And they answered, Let the ark of the God of Israel be carried about to Gath. And they carried

So they sent the ark of God to Ekron. And it came to pass, as the ark of God came to Ekron, that the Ekronites cried out, saying, They have brought about the ark of the God of Israel to us, to kill us and our people.

They sent therefore and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines, and they said, Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it go again to its own place, that it not kill us and our people. For there was a deadly dis

And they said, If ye send away the ark of the God of Israel, do not send it empty, but by all means return for him a trespass-offering. Then ye shall be healed, and it shall be known to you why his hand is not removed from you.

Therefore ye shall make images of your tumors, and images of your mice that mar the land. And ye shall give glory to the God of Israel. Perhaps he will lighten his hand from off you, and from off your gods, and from off your land.

And the men of Beth-shemesh said, Who is able to stand before LORD, this holy God? And to whom shall he go up from us?

And the sons of Israel said to Samuel, Do not cease to cry to LORD our God for us, that he will save us out of the hand of the Philistines.

And he said to him, Behold now, there is in this city a man of God, and he is a man who is held in honor. All that he says comes surely to pass. Now let us go there, perhaps he can tell us concerning our journey on which we go.

Then Saul said to his servant, But, behold, if we go, what shall we bring the man? For the bread is spent in our vessels, and there is not a present to bring to the man of God. What have we?

And the servant answered Saul again, and said, Behold, I have in my hand the fourth part of a shekel of silver. I will give that to the man of God, to tell us our way.

(Formerly in Israel, when a man went to inquire of God, thus he said, Come, and let us go to the seer, for he who is now called a Prophet was formerly called a Seer.)

Then Saul said to his servant, Well said. Come, let us go. So they went to the city where the man of God was.

Then Saul drew near to Samuel in the gate, and said, Tell me, I pray thee, where the seer's house is.

As they were going down at the end of the city, Samuel said to Saul, Bid the servant pass on before us (and he passed on), but stand thou still first, that I may cause thee to hear the word of God.

Then thou shall go on forward from there, and thou shall come to the oak of Tabor. And there shall meet thee there three men going up to God to Bethel, one carrying three kids, and another carrying three loaves of bread, and anothe

After that thou shall come to the hill of God where is the garrison of the Philistines. And it shall come to pass, when thou have come there to the city, that thou shall meet a band of prophets coming down from the high place with

And let it be, when these signs have come to thee, that thou do as occasion shall serve thee, for God is with thee.

And it was so, that, when he had turned his back to go from Samuel, God gave him another heart. And all those signs came to pass that day.

And when they came there to the hill, behold, a band of prophets met him. And the Spirit of God came mightily upon him, and he prophesied among them.

And he said to the sons of Israel, Thus says LORD, the God of Israel, I brought up Israel out of Egypt, and I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of all the kingdoms that oppressed you,

but ye have this day rejected your God who himself saves you out of all your calamities and your distresses, and ye have said to him, No, but set a king over us. Now therefore present yourselves before LORD by your tribes, and by y

And Saul also went to his house to Gibeah, and mighty men went with him, whose hearts God had touched.

And the Spirit of God came mightily upon Saul when he heard those words, and his anger was greatly kindled.

And he took a yoke of oxen, and cut them in pieces, and sent them throughout all the borders of Israel by the hand of messengers, saying, Whoever does not come forth behind Saul and behind Samuel, so shall it be done to his oxen. A

Therefore the men of Jabesh said, Tomorrow we will come out to you, and ye shall do with us all that seems good to you.

But they forgot LORD their God; and he sold them into the hand of Sisera, captain of the army of Hazor, and into the hand of the Philistines, and into the hand of the king of Moab, and they fought against them.

And when ye saw that Nahash the king of the sons of Ammon came against you, ye said to me, No, but a king shall reign over us, when LORD your God was your king.

If ye will fear LORD, and serve him, and hearken to his voice, and not rebel against the commandment of LORD, then both ye and also the king who reigns over you shall be followers of LORD your God.

And all the people said to Samuel, Pray for thy servants to LORD thy God that we not die, for we have added to all our sins [this] evil, to ask a king for us.

Moreover as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against LORD in ceasing to pray for you. But I will instruct you in the good and the right way.

Now some of the Hebrews had gone over the Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead, but as for Saul, he was yet in Gilgal, and all the people followed him trembling.

And Samuel said to Saul, Thou have done foolishly. Thou have not kept the commandment of LORD thy God, which he commanded thee. For now LORD would have established thy kingdom upon Israel forever,

And Samuel arose, and got up from Gilgal to Gibeah of Benjamin. And Saul numbered the people who were present with him, about six hundred men.

And Saul said to Ahijah, Bring here the ark of God. For the ark of God was [there] at that time with the sons of Israel.

And Saul said, Let us go down after the Philistines by night, and take spoil among them until the morning light, and let us not leave a man of them. And they said, Do whatever seems good to thee. Then the priest said, Let us draw n

And Saul asked counsel of God, Shall I go down after the Philistines? Will thou deliver them into the hand of Israel? But he did not answer him that day.

Then he said to all Israel, Be ye on one side, and I and Jonathan my son will be on the other side. And the people said to Saul, Do what seems good to thee.

Therefore Saul said to LORD, the God of Israel, Show the right. And Jonathan and Saul were taken [by lot], but the people escaped.

And Saul said, God do so and more also, for thou shall surely die, Jonathan.

And the people said to Saul, Shall Jonathan die, who has wrought this great salvation in Israel? Far from it. As LORD lives, there shall not one hair of his head fall to the ground, for he has wrought with God this day. So the peop

And Saul said to the Kenites, Go, depart, get you down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them, for ye showed kindness to all the sons of Israel when they came up out of Egypt. So the Kenites departed from among the