And the agent of LORD said to Manoah, Though thou detain me, I will not eat of thy bread, and if thou will make ready a burnt-offering, thou must offer it to LORD. For Manoah did not know that he was the agent of LORD.

And Manoah said to the agent of LORD, What is thy name, that, when thy words come to pass, we may do thee honor?

And the agent of LORD said to him, Why do thou ask after my name, seeing it is wonderful?

So Manoah took the kid with the meal-offering, and offered it upon the rock to LORD. And [the heavenly agent] did wondrously, and Manoah and his wife looked on,

for it came to pass, when the flame went up toward heaven from off the altar, that the agent of LORD ascended in the flame of the altar. And Manoah and his wife looked on, and they fell on their faces to the ground.

But the agent of LORD appeared no more to Manoah or to his wife. Then Manoah knew that he was the agent of LORD.

And Manoah said to his wife, We shall surely die, because we have seen God.

But his wife said to him, If LORD were pleased to kill us, he would not have received a burnt-offering and a meal-offering at our hand, neither would he have shown us all these things, nor would at this time have told such things a

And the Spirit of LORD began to move him in Mahaneh-dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.

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

And he came up, and told his father and his mother, and said, I have seen a woman in Timnah of the daughters of the Philistines. Now therefore get her for me to wife.

Then his father and his mother said to him, Is there never a woman among the daughters of thy brothers, or among all my people, that thou go to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines? And Samson said to his father, Get her fo

Then Samson went down, and his father and his mother, to Timnah, and came to the vineyards of Timnah. And, behold, a young lion roared against him.

And after a while 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.

And he took it into his hands, and went on, eating as he went. And he came to his father and mother, and gave to them, and they ate, but he did not tell them that he had taken the honey out of the body of the lion.

And his father went down to the woman, and Samson made a feast there, for so the young men used to do.

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

And Samson said to them, Let me now put forth a riddle to you. If ye can declare it to me within the seven days of the feast, and find it out, then I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty changes of raiment,

but if ye cannot declare it to me, then ye shall give me thirty linen garments and thirty changes of raiment. And they said to him, Put forth thy riddle, that we may hear it.

And he said to them, Out of the eater came forth food, and out of the strong came forth sweetness. And they could not in three days declare the riddle.

And it came to pass on the seventh day, that they said to Samson's wife, Entice thy husband, that he may declare to us the riddle, lest we burn thee and thy father's house with fire. Have ye called us to impoverish us? Is it not [s

And Samson's wife wept before him, and said, Thou do but hate me, and not love me. Thou have put forth a riddle to the sons of my people, and have not told it to me. And he said to her, Behold, I have not told it to my father nor m

And she wept before him the seven days, while their feast lasted. And it came to pass on the seventh day, that he told her because she pressed him greatly. And she told the riddle to the sons of her people.

And the men of the city said to him on the seventh day before the sun went down, What is sweeter than honey? and what is stronger than a lion? And he said to them, If ye had not plowed with my heifer, ye would not have found out my

And the Spirit of LORD came mightily upon him, and he went down to Ashkelon, and smote thirty men of them, and took their spoil, and gave the changes [of raiment] to those who declared the riddle. And his anger was kindled, and he

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

But it came to pass after a while, in the time of wheat harvest, that Samson visited his wife with a kid. And he said, I will go in to my wife into the chamber, but her father would not allow him to go in.

And her father said, I truly thought that thou had utterly hated her, therefore I gave her to thy companion. Is not her younger sister fairer than she? Take her, I pray thee, instead of her.

And Samson said to them, This time I shall be blameless in regard of the Philistines when I do them a mischief.

And Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took firebrands, and turned tail to tail, and put a firebrand in the midst between every two tails.

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, and given her to his companion. And the Philistines came up, and burnt her and her father with fire.

And Samson said to them, If ye do after this manner, surely I will be avenged of you, and after that I will cease.

And the men of Judah said, Why have ye come up against us? And they said, We come up to bind Samson, to do to him as he has done to us.

Then three thousand men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam, and said to Samson, Know thou not that the Philistines are rulers over us? What then is this that thou have done to us? And he said to them, As they did t

And they said to him, We have come down to bind thee, that we may deliver thee into the hand of the Philistines. And Samson said to them, Swear to me, that ye will not fall upon me yourselves.

And they spoke to him, saying, No, but we will bind thee fast, and deliver thee into their hand, but truly we will not kill thee. And they bound him with two new ropes, and brought him up from the rock.

When he came to Lehi, the Philistines shouted as they met him. And the Spirit of LORD came mightily upon him, and the ropes that were upon his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire, and his bands dropped from off his hands.

And it came to pass, when he had made an end of speaking, that he cast away the jawbone out of his hand. And that place was called Ramath-lehi.

And he was very thirsty, and called on LORD, and said, Thou have given this great deliverance by the hand of thy servant, and now shall I die for thirst, and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised.

But God split the hollow place that is in Lehi, and water came out there. And when he had drunk his spirit came again, and he revived. Therefore the name of it was called En-hakkore, which is in Lehi to this day.

And Samson went to Gaza, and saw a harlot there, and went in to her.

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 it came to pass afterward, that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah.

And the lords of the Philistines came up to her, and said to her, Entice him, and see in what his great strength lays, and by what means we may prevail against him, that we may bind him to afflict him. And we will give thee every o

And Delilah said to Samson, Tell me, I pray thee, in what thy great strength lays, and with what thou might be bound to afflict thee.

And Samson said to her, If they bind me with seven green withes that were never dried, then I shall become weak, and be as another man.

Then the lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven green withes which had not been dried, and she bound him with them.

Now she had an ambush abiding in the inner chamber. And she said to him, The Philistines are upon thee, Samson. And he broke the withes, as a string of tow is broken when it touches the fire. So his strength was not known.

And Delilah said to Samson, Behold, thou have mocked me, and told me lies. Now tell me, I pray thee, with what thou might be bound.

And he said to her, If they only bind me with new ropes with which no work has been done, then I shall become weak, and be as another man.

So Delilah took new ropes, and bound him with it, and said to him, The Philistines are upon thee, Samson. And the ambushment was abiding in the inner chamber. And he broke them off his arms like a thread.

And Delilah said to Samson, Until now thou have mocked me, and told me lies. Tell me with what thou might be bound. And he said to her, If thou weave the seven locks of my head with the web.

And she fastened it with the pin, and said to him, The Philistines are upon thee, Samson. And he awoke out of his sleep, and plucked away the pin of the beam, and the web.

And she said to him, How can thou say, I love thee, when thy heart is not with me? Thou have mocked me these three times, and have not told me with what thy great strength lays.

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

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 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 has told me all his heart. Then the lords of the Philistines came up to her, and broug

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

And the Philistines laid hold on him, and put out his eyes. And they brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with fetters of brass, and he did grinding in the prison-house.

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

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

And Samson said to the lad who held him by the hand, Allow me that I may feel the pillars upon which the house rests, that I may lean upon them.

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.

And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars upon which the house rested, and leaned upon them, the one with his right hand, and the other with his left.

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 in it. So the dead that he killed at his death were more than those tha

And he said to his mother, The eleven hundred [pieces] of silver that were taken from thee, about which thou uttered a curse, and also spoke it in my ears, behold, the silver is with me. I took it. And his mother said, Blessed be m

And he restored the eleven hundred [pieces] of silver to his mother. And his mother said, I verily dedicate the silver to LORD from my hand for my son to make a graven image and a molten image. Now therefore I will restore it to th

And when he restored the money to his mother, his mother took two hundred [pieces] of silver, and gave them to the founder, who made of it a graven image and a molten image. And it was in the house of Micah.

And the man departed out of the city, out of Bethlehem-judah, to sojourn where he could find [a place]. And he came to the hill-country of Ephraim to the house of Micah, as he journeyed.

And Micah said to him, From where come thou? And he said to him, I am a Levite of Bethlehem-judah, and I go to sojourn where I may find [a place].

And Micah said to him, Dwell with me, and be to me a father and a priest, and I will give thee ten [pieces] of silver by the year, and a suit of apparel, and thy food. So the Levite went in.

And the Levite was content to dwell with the man, and the young man was to him as one of his sons.

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

In those days there was no king in Israel. And in those days the tribe of the Danites sought for them an inheritance to dwell in, for to that day [their] inheritance had not fallen to them among the tribes of Israel.

And the sons of Dan sent of their family five men from their whole number, men of valor, from Zorah, and from Eshtaol, to spy out the land, and to search it. And they said to them, Go, search the land. And they came to the hill-cou

When they were by the house of Micah, they recognized the voice of the young man the Levite. And they turned aside there, and said to him, Who brought thee here? And what are thou doing in this place? And what have thou here?

And he said to them, Thus and thus has Micah dealt with me, and he has hired me, and I have become his 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.

And the priest said to them, Go in peace. Your way is before LORD in which ye go.

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 came to their brothers to Zorah and Eshtaol. And their brothers said to them, What [say] ye?

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 they went up, and encamped in Kiriath-jearim, in Judah. Therefore they called that place Mahaneh-dan, to this day. Behold, it is behind Kiriath-jearim.

And they passed from there to the hill-country of Ephraim, and came to the house of Micah.

Then the five men who went to spy out the country of Laish, answered and said to their brothers, Do ye know that there is in these houses an ephod, and teraphim, and a graven image, and a molten image? Now therefore consider what y

And they turned aside there, and came to the house of the young man the Levite, even to the house of Micah, and asked him of his welfare.

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

And when these went into Micah's house, and fetched the graven image, the ephod, and the teraphim, and the molten image, the priest said to them, What do ye?

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

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 cried out to the sons of Dan. And they turned their faces, and said to Micah, What troubles thee that thou come with such a company?

And he said, ye have taken away my gods which I made, and the priest, and have gone away, and what have I more? And how do ye then say to me, What troubles thee?

And the sons of Dan said to him, Let not thy voice be heard among us, lest angry fellows fall upon you, and thou lose thy life, with the lives of thy household.

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

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.

And they called the name of the city Dan, after the name of Dan their father who was born to Israel. However the name of the city was Laish at first.

And the sons of Dan set up for themselves the graven image. And Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Moses, he and his sons were priests to the tribe of the Danites until the day of the captivity of the land.

And it came to pass in those days, when there was no king in Israel, that there was a certain Levite sojourning on the farther side of the hill-country of Ephraim, who took to him a concubine out of Bethlehem-judah.