And her father said, I truly thought that you utterly hated her, and I gave her to your companion. Is not her younger sister fairer than she is? Please, let her be for you instead of her.

Then Samson said to them, This time I will give payment in full to the Philistines, for I am going to do them great evil.

And Philisteim will say, Who did this? and they will say, Samson, son in-law of the Timnite, for he took his wife and he will give her to his companion. And Philisteim will go up and will 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."

He struck them down and defeated them. Then he went down and lived for a time in the cave in the cliff of Etam.

The Philistines went up and invaded Judah. They arrayed themselves for battle in Lehi.

So the men of Judah said, “Why have you attacked us?”

They replied, “We have come to arrest Samson and pay him back for what he did to us.”

And he was sore athirst, and called on the LORD, and said, Thou hast given this great deliverance into the hand of thy servant: and now shall I die for thirst, and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised?

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.

Samson governed Israel for twenty years during the Philistine domination.

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 the princes of the Philistines come up unto her, and say to her, 'Entice him, and see wherein his great power is, and wherein we are able for him -- and we have bound him to afflict him, and we -- we give to thee, each one, eleven hundred silverlings.'

The ambush [was] sitting [in wait] for her in an inner room. And she said to him, "[The] Philistines [are] upon you Samson!" And he snapped the bowstrings just as flax fiber snaps when it comes close to fire. And [the secret of] his strength remained unknown.

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.

Then she said unto him, "How canst thou say that thou lovest me, when thine heart is not with me? For thou hast mocked me this three times, and hast not told wherein thy great strength lieth."

So day after day she gave him no peace, for ever questioning him till his soul was troubled to 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.

And she made him sleep upon her knees; and she called for a man, and she caused him to shave off the seven locks of his head; and she began to afflict him, and his strength went from him.

She said, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” And he awoke from his sleep and said, “I will go out as I have time after time and shake myself free.” For Samson did not know that the Lord had departed from him.

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

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 it came to pass, when their hearts were merry, that they said, Call for Samson, that he may make us sport. And they called for Samson out of the prison house; and he made them sport: and they set him between the pillars.

And Samson called unto the LORD, and said, O Lord GOD, 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.

Afterwards, his brothers and his father's household servants came down, took him, brought him back, and buried him in his father Manoah's tomb between Zorah and Eshtaol. He had governed Israel for 20 years.

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.

And when he had restored the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother, his mother said, I had wholly dedicated the silver unto the LORD from my hand for my son, to make a graven image and a molten image: now therefore I will restore it unto thee.

The man Micah had for himself {a shrine}, and he made an ephod and teraphim, and {he appointed one of his sons} who became a priest for him.

For in those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did what thought him best.

The man had left his city Bethlehem in Judah to live wherever he could. As he traveled along, he eventually arrived at Micah's house in the mountainous region of Ephraim, looking for work.

Micah said to him, "Where did you come from?" He said to him, "I am a Levite of Bethlehem Judah, and I am looking for a place to live."

And Micah saith to him, 'Dwell with me, and be to me for a father and for a priest, and I give to thee ten silverlings for the days, and a suit of garments, and thy sustenance;' and the Levite goeth in.

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

As for Micah, he kept saying, "Now I know the LORD will make me rich, because I have a descendant of Levi for a priest!"

In those days there was no king in Israel: and in those days the tribe of the Danites sought them an inheritance to dwell in; for unto that day all their inheritance had not fallen unto them among the tribes of Israel.

So the children of Dan sent five men from among their number, strong men, from Zorah and from Eshtaol, to take a look at the land and make a search through it; and they said to them, Go and make a search through the land; and they came to the hill-country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, where they made a stop for the night.

And he said to them, "Micah did such and such for me and hired me, and I became his priest."

They said to him, "Seek a divine oracle for us, so we can know if we will be successful on our mission."

And the priest will say to them, Go for peace: before Jehovah, your way which ye shall go in it.

Then the five men departed, and came to Laish, and saw the people who were there, and how they lived in security, after the manner of the Sidonians, quiet and secure; for there was no one in the land possessing authority that might trouble them in anyway, and they were far from the Sidonians, and had no dealings with anyone.

And they said, Arise, that we may go up against them: for we have seen the land, and, behold, it is very good: and are ye still? be not slothful to go, and to enter to possess the land.

When ye go, ye shall come unto a people secure, and to a large land: for God hath given it into your hands; a place where there is no want of any thing that is in the earth.

So 600 descendants of Dan from Zorah and Eshtaol set out for battle, armed with military weapons.

And they will go up and encamp in the City of Forests, in Judah: for this they called that place the camp of Dan, even to this day: behold, it behind the City of Forests.

And they will turn aside there and come to the house of the youth the Levite, of the house of Micah, and they will ask him for peace.

And they said unto him, Hold thy peace, lay thine hand upon thy mouth, and go with us, and be to us a father and a priest: is it better for thee to be a priest unto the house of one man, or that thou be a priest unto a tribe and a family in Israel?

He said, "You took away my gods that I had made, and the priest, and then you go [away]. What [is] now left for me? How can you say to me, 'What is the matter?'"

And the children of Dan went their way: and when Micah saw that they were too strong for him, he turned and went back unto his house.

But the descendants of Dan took what Micah had made, along with the priest who had worked for him, and went to Laish, to a quiet and carefree people, and killed them with swords. Then they set fire to the city.

and there is no deliverer, for it is far off from Zidon, and they have no word with any man, and it is in the valley which is by Beth-Rehob; and they build the city, and dwell in it,

And the descendants of Dan set up for themselves the carved divine image, and Jonathan son of Gershom, son of Manasseh, he and his sons were priests for the tribe of the Danites until the time of the captivity of the land.

So they set up for themselves the carved divine image that Micah had made, all the days that the house of God [was] in Shiloh.

In those days there was no king in Israel; there was a man, a Levite, who dwelled as a foreigner in the remote areas of the hill country of Ephraim. And he took for himself a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah.

But she was unfaithful to him and left him for her father’s house in Bethlehem in Judah. She was there for a period of four months.

His father-in-law, the girl’s father, detained him, and he stayed with him for three days. They ate, drank, and spent the nights there.

On the fourth day they woke up early and the Levite got ready to leave. But the girl's father said to his son-in-law, "Have a bite to eat for some energy, then you can go."

And they sat down, and did eat and drink both of them together: for the damsel's father had said unto the man, Be content, I pray thee, and tarry all night, and let thine heart be merry.

And the man got up to go away, but his father-in-law would not let him go, so he took his rest there again for the night.

And the man got up to go--he, his concubine, and his servant--but his father-in-law, the father of the young woman, said to him, "Please, the day has worn on to evening; please, spend the night, the day has drawn to a close. Spend the night here and {enjoy yourself}. You can rise early tomorrow for your journey and {go to your home}."

But the man would not be kept there that night, and he got up and went away and came opposite to Jebus (which is Jerusalem); and he had with him the two asses, ready for travelling, and his woman.

And he said to his servant, Come, let us go on to one of these places, stopping for the night in Gibeah or Ramah.

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.

After they entered the city, they had to sit down in the public square because no one would take them into their home for the night. Just then, an old man was coming out of the fields that evening from work. The man was from the mountainous region of Ephraim and had been staying in Gibeah, even though the men of that place were descendants of Benjamin.

He said to him, “We are passing from Bethlehem in Judah to the remote part of the hill country of Ephraim, for I am from there, and I went to Bethlehem in Judah. But I am now going to my house, and no man will take me into his house.

Yet there is both straw and provender for our asses; and there is bread and wine also for me, and for thy handmaid, and for the young man which is with thy servants: there is no want of any thing.

And the old man said, "Peace be to you; I will care for all your wants; only, do not spend the night in the square."

And he brought him into his house and mixed fodder for the asses. And they washed their feet, and ate and drank.

They were having a good time, when suddenly some men of the city, some good-for-nothings, surrounded the house and kept beating on the door. They said to the old man who owned the house, "Send out the man who came to visit you so we can have sex with him."

See, here is my daughter, a virgin, and his servant-wife: I will send them out for you to take them and do with them whatever you will. But do no such thing of shame to this man.

But the men would not give ear to him: so the man took his woman and sent her out to them; and they took her by force, using her for their pleasure all night till the morning; and when dawn came they let her go.

“Get up,” he told her. “Let’s go.” But there was no response. So the man put her on his donkey and set out for home.

And it was, all seeing and saying, It was not, and it was not seen according to this from the day of the coming up of the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt till this day: consider for yourselves upon it; take counsel and speak.

Then the entire Israeli nation from Dan to Beer-sheba, including the territory of Gilead came out for war. The army assembled as one united force to God at Mizpah.

Then the Levite, the husband of the dead woman, said in answer, I came to Gibeah in the land of Benjamin, I and my servant-wife, for the purpose of stopping there for the night.

And the owners of Gibeah rose up against me, and beset the house, for my sake, by night, - me, they thought to slay, and, my concubine, they so humbled, that she died.

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.

lo, ye are all sons of Israel; give for you a word and counsel here.'

And we will take ten men of an hundred throughout all the tribes of Israel, and an hundred of a thousand, and a thousand out of ten thousand, to fetch victual for the people, that they may do, when they come to Gibeah of Benjamin, according to all the folly that they have wrought in Israel.

Now, hand over the good-for-nothings in Gibeah so we can execute them and purge Israel of wickedness." But the Benjaminites refused to listen to their Israelite brothers.

And the descendants of Benjamin were gathered from the cities to Gibeah to go out for battle against the {Israelites}.

Then the {Israelites} got up and went up [to] Bethel, and they inquired of God, saying, "Who will go up first for the battle against the descendants of Benjamin?" And Yahweh said, "Judah [will go] first."

Then the men of Israel marched out for the battle against Benjamin, and the men of Israel took up positions against them [for] battle at Gibeah.

But the army the men of Israel encouraged themselves and arrayed for battle again the next day in the same place where they had gathered the day before.

The sons of Israel went up and wept before the Lord until evening, and inquired of the Lord, saying, “Shall we again draw near for battle against the sons of my brother Benjamin?” And the Lord said, “Go up against him.”

So the Israelis attacked the descendants of Benjamin for a second day,

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

And Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, stood before it in those days,) saying, Shall I yet again go out to battle against the children of Benjamin my brother, or shall I cease? And the LORD said, Go up; for to morrow I will deliver them into thine hand.

For the children of Benjamin thought that the other had been beaten before them, as at the first time. But the children of Israel said, "Let us flee and pluck them away from the city, unto the highways."

So the children of Benjamin saw that they were smitten: for the men of Israel gave place to the Benjamites, because they trusted unto the liers in wait which they had set beside Gibeah.

Now the appointed time for the men of Israel with the ambush was that they sent up for them a great amount of smoke from the city.

And when the men of Israel retired in the battle, Benjamin began to smite and kill of the men of Israel about thirty persons: for they said, Surely they are smitten down before us, as in the first battle.

And when the men of Israel turned again, the men of Benjamin were amazed: for they saw that evil was come upon them.

And, when they turned before the men of Israel unto the way of the desert, the battle, over took them, - while, as for them that came out of the cities, they began to destroy them in their midst: -

But six hundred turned and fled toward the wilderness, to the rock of Rimmon, and they remained at the rock of Rimmon [for] four months.

And the men of Israel had sworn in Mizpeh, saying, Not one of us shall give his daughter to Benjamin for a wife.

And the children of Israel said, Who is there among all the tribes of Israel that came not up with the congregation unto the LORD? For they had made a great oath concerning him that came not up to the LORD to Mizpeh, saying, He shall surely be put to death.

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

How shall we do for wives for them that remain, seeing we have sworn by the LORD that we will not give them of our daughters to wives?

For the people were numbered, and, behold, there were none of the inhabitants of Jabeshgilead there.

Then the entire congregation sent for the surviving descendants of Benjamin who were living at the rock of Rimmon and assured them that their intentions toward them were peaceful.