Judges 13

• 1. Again the Israelites did what was evil in the LORD's sight, so the LORD handed them over to the Philistines, who kept them in subjection for forty years.
• 2. In those days, a man named Manoah from the tribe of Dan lived in the town of Zorah. His wife was unable to become pregnant, and they had no children.
• 3. The angel of the LORD appeared to Manoah's wife and said, "Even though you have been unable to have children, you will soon become pregnant and give birth to a son.
• 4. You must not drink wine or any other alcoholic drink or eat any forbidden food.
• 5. You will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and his hair must never be cut. For he will be dedicated to God as a Nazirite from birth. He will rescue Israel from the Philistines."
• 6. The woman ran and told her husband, "A man of God appeared to me! He was like one of God's angels, terrifying to look at. I didn't ask where he was from, and he didn't tell me his name.
• 7. But he told me, `You will become pregnant and give birth to a son. You must not drink wine or any other alcoholic drink or eat any forbidden food. For your son will be dedicated to God as a Nazirite from the moment of his birth until the day of his death.'"
• 8. Then Manoah prayed to the LORD. He said, "Lord, please let the man of God come back to us again and give us more instructions about this son who is to be born."
• 9. God answered his prayer, and the angel of God appeared once again to his wife as she was sitting in the field. But her husband, Manoah, was not with her.
• 10. So she quickly ran and told her husband, "The man who appeared to me the other day is here again!"
• 11. Manoah ran back with his wife and asked, "Are you the man who talked to my wife the other day?Yes," he replied, "I am."
• 12. So Manoah asked him, "When your words come true, what kind of rules should govern the boy's life and work?"
• 13. The angel of the LORD replied, "Be sure your wife follows the instructions I gave her.
• 14. She must not eat grapes or raisins, drink wine or any other alcoholic drink, or eat any forbidden food."
• 15. Then Manoah said to the angel of the LORD, "Please stay here until we can prepare a young goat for you to eat."
• 16. "I will stay," the angel of the LORD replied, "but I will not eat anything. However, you may prepare a burnt offering as a sacrifice to the LORD." (Manoah didn't realize it was the angel of the LORD.)
• 17. Then Manoah asked the angel of the LORD, "What is your name? For when all this comes true, we want to honor you."
• 18. "Why do you ask my name?" the angel of the LORD replied. "You wouldn't understand if I told you."
• 19. Then Manoah took a young goat and a grain offering and offered it on a rock as a sacrifice to the LORD. And as Manoah and his wife watched, the LORD did an amazing thing.
• 20. As the flames from the altar shot up toward the sky, the angel of the LORD ascended in the fire. When Manoah and his wife saw this, they fell with their faces to the ground.
• 21. The angel did not appear again to Manoah and his wife. Manoah finally realized it was the angel of the LORD,
• 22. and he said to his wife, "We will die, for we have seen God!"
• 23. But his wife said, "If the LORD were going to kill us, he wouldn't have accepted our burnt offering and grain offering. He wouldn't have appeared to us and told us this wonderful thing and done these miracles."
• 24. When her son was born, they named him Samson. And the LORD blessed him as he grew up.
• 25. And in Mahaneh-dan, which is located between the towns of Zorah and Eshtaol, the Spirit of the LORD began to take hold of him.

Judges 14

• 1. One day when Samson was in Timnah, he noticed a certain Philistine woman.
• 2. When he returned home, he told his father and mother, "I want to marry a young Philistine woman I saw in Timnah."
• 3. His father and mother objected strenuously, "Isn't there one woman in our tribe or among all the Israelites you could marry? Why must you go to the pagan Philistines to find a wife?" But Samson told his father, "Get her for me. She is the one I want."
• 4. His father and mother didn't realize the LORD was at work in this, creating an opportunity to disrupt the Philistines, who ruled over Israel at that time.
• 5. As Samson and his parents were going down to Timnah, a young lion attacked Samson near the vineyards of Timnah.
• 6. At that moment the Spirit of the LORD powerfully took control of him, and he ripped the lion's jaws apart with his bare hands. He did it as easily as if it were a young goat. But he didn't tell his father or mother about it.
• 7. When Samson arrived in Timnah, he talked with the woman and was very pleased with her.
• 8. Later, when he returned to Timnah for the wedding, he turned off the path to look at the carcass of the lion. And he found that a swarm of bees had made some honey in the carcass.
• 9. He scooped some of the honey into his hands and ate it along the way. He also gave some to his father and mother, and they ate it. But he didn't tell them he had taken the honey from the carcass of the lion.
• 10. As his father was making final arrangements for the marriage, Samson threw a party at Timnah, as was the custom of the day.
• 11. Thirty young men from the town were invited to be his companions.
• 12. Samson said to them, "Let me tell you a riddle. If you solve my riddle during these seven days of the celebration, I will give you thirty plain linen robes and thirty fancy robes.
• 13. But if you can't solve it, then you must give me thirty linen robes and thirty fancy robes.All right," they agreed, "let's hear your riddle."
• 14. So he said: "From the one who eats came something to eat; out of the strong came something sweet." Three days later they were still trying to figure it out.
• 15. On the fourth day they said to Samson's wife, "Get the answer to the riddle from your husband, or we will burn down your father's house with you in it. Did you invite us to this party just to make us poor?"
• 16. So Samson's wife came to him in tears and said, "You don't love me; you hate me! You have given my people a riddle, but you haven't told me the answer.I haven't even given the answer to my father or mother," he replied. "Why should I tell you?"
• 17. So she cried whenever she was with him and kept it up for the rest of the celebration. At last, on the seventh day, he told her the answer because of her persistent nagging. Then she gave the answer to the young men.
• 18. So before sunset of the seventh day, the men of the town came to Samson with their answer: "What is sweeter than honey? What is stronger than a lion?" Samson replied, "If you hadn't plowed with my heifer, you wouldn't have found the answer to my riddle!"
• 19. Then the Spirit of the LORD powerfully took control of him. He went down to the town of Ashkelon, killed thirty men, took their belongings, and gave their clothing to the men who had answered his riddle. But Samson was furious about what had happened, and he went back home to live with his father and mother.
• 20. So his wife was given in marriage to the man who had been Samson's best man at the wedding.

Judges 15

• 1. Later on, during the wheat harvest, Samson took a young goat as a present to his wife. He intended to sleep with her, but her father wouldn't let him in.
• 2. "I really thought you hated her," her father explained, "so I gave her in marriage to your best man. But look, her sister is more beautiful than she is. Marry her instead."
• 3. Samson said, "This time I cannot be blamed for everything I am going to do to you Philistines."
• 4. Then he went out and caught three hundred foxes. He tied their tails together in pairs, and he fastened a torch to each pair of tails.
• 5. Then he lit the torches and let the foxes run through the fields of the Philistines. He burned all their grain to the ground, including the grain still in piles and all that had been bundled. He also destroyed their grapevines and olive trees.
• 6. "Who did this?" the Philistines demanded. "Samson," was the reply, "because his father-in-law from Timnah gave Samson's wife to be married to his best man." So the Philistines went and got the woman and her father and burned them to death.
• 7. "Because you did this," Samson vowed, "I will take my revenge on you, and I won't stop until I'm satisfied!"
• 8. So he attacked the Philistines with great fury and killed many of them. Then he went to live in a cave in the rock of Etam.
• 9. The Philistines retaliated by setting up camp in Judah and raiding the town of Lehi.
• 10. The men of Judah asked the Philistines, "Why have you attacked us?" The Philistines replied, "We've come to capture Samson. We have come to pay him back for what he did to us."
• 11. So three thousand men of Judah went down to get Samson at the cave in the rock of Etam. They said to Samson, "Don't you realize the Philistines rule over us? What are you doing to us?" But Samson replied, "I only paid them back for what they did to me."
• 12. But the men of Judah told him, "We have come to tie you up and hand you over to the Philistines.All right," Samson said. "But promise that you won't kill me yourselves."
• 13. "We will tie you up and hand you over to the Philistines," they replied. "We won't kill you." So they tied him up with two new ropes and led him away from the rock.
• 14. As Samson arrived at Lehi, the Philistines came shouting in triumph. But the Spirit of the LORD powerfully took control of Samson, and he snapped the ropes on his arms as if they were burnt strands of flax, and they fell from his wrists.
• 15. Then he picked up a donkey's jawbone that was lying on the ground and killed a thousand Philistines with it.
• 16. And Samson said, "With the jawbone of a donkey, I've made heaps on heaps! With the jawbone of a donkey, I've killed a thousand men!"
• 17. When he finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone; and the place was named Jawbone Hill.
• 18. Now Samson was very thirsty, and he cried out to the LORD, "You have accomplished this great victory by the strength of your servant. Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of these pagan people?"
• 19. So God caused water to gush out of a hollow in the ground at Lehi, and Samson was revived as he drank. Then he named that place "The Spring of the One Who Cried Out," and it is still in Lehi to this day.
• 20. Samson was Israel's judge for twenty years, while the Philistines ruled the land.

New Living Translation: 77 of 324 days.