Study Desk

But Samson said to him, "Now I have a good reason to hurt you Philistines. No one will blame me now."

But Samson only stayed with the prostitute until midnight. Then he got up and grabbed the doors of the city gate and pulled them loose from the wall. He pulled down the doors, the two posts, and the bars that lock the doors shut. He put them on his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill near the city of Hebron.

Some men were hiding in the next room. Delilah said to Samson, "Samson, the Philistine men are going to capture you!" But Samson easily broke the bowstrings. They snapped like a string when it comes too close to a flame. So the Philistines did not find out the secret of Samson's strength.

So Delilah took some new ropes and tied up Samson. Some men were hiding in the next room. Then Delilah called out to him, "Samson, the Philistine men are going to capture you!" But he broke the ropes easily as if they were threads.

Then Delilah called out to him, "Samson, the Philistine men are going to capture you!" He woke up and thought, "I will escape as I did before and free myself." But Samson did not know that the Lord had left him.

But his hair began to grow again.

When the Philistines saw Samson, they praised their god. They said, "This man destroyed our people! He killed many of our people! But our god helped us take our enemy!"

But Micah gave the silver back to his mother. So she took about 5 pounds of the silver and gave them to a silversmith. He used the silver to make a statue covered with silver. The statue was put in Micah's house.

At that time the Israelites did not have a king. And the tribe of Dan was still looking for a place to live. They did not have their own land yet. The other tribes of Israel already had their land, but the tribe of Dan had not taken their land yet.

The men from the tribe of Dan went a long way from that place. But the people living near Micah met together. Then they began chasing the men of Dan and caught up with them.

The people of Dan gave the city a new name. That city had been called Laish, but they changed the name to Dan. They named the city after their ancestor Dan, one of the sons of Israel.

But his slave woman had an argument with him. She left him and went back to her father's house in Bethlehem in Judah. She stayed there for four months.

On the fourth day, they got up early in the morning. The Levite was getting ready to leave. But the young woman's father said to his son-in-law, "Eat something first. After you eat, you can go."

The Levite got up to leave, but his father-in-law persuaded him to stay the night again.

Then, on the fifth day, the Levite got up early in the morning. He was ready to leave. But the woman's father said to his son-in-law, "Eat something first. Relax and stay until this afternoon." So they both ate together again.

Then the Levite, his slave woman, and his servant got up to leave. But the young woman's father said, "It is almost dark. The day is almost gone. So stay the night here and enjoy yourself. Tomorrow morning you can get up early and go on your way."

But the Levite did not want to stay another night. He took his two donkeys and his slave woman. He traveled as far as the city of Jebus (that is, Jerusalem).

But his master, the Levite man, said, "No, we will not go inside a strange city. Those people are not Israelites. We will go to the city of Gibeah."

They planned to stop there and stay the night. They came to the city square and sat down, but no one invited them home to stay the night.

That evening an old man came into the city from the fields. His home was in the hill country of Ephraim, but now he was living in the city of Gibeah. (The men of Gibeah were from the tribe of Benjamin.)