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The people in ‘Azah were told that Shimshon had come, so they surrounded the place where he was and also set an ambush for him all night at the city gate. Their plan was to do nothing at night, but to wait until morning and then kill him.

Now she had people lying in wait in the inside room. So she said to him, "Shimshon! The P'lishtim have come for you!" But he snapped the bowstrings as easily as a piece of straw breaks when it touches fire, and the source of his strength remained unknown.

So D'lilah took new ropes, tied him up, and said to him, "Shimshon! The P'lishtim have come for you!" (The people lying in wait were in the inside room.) But he broke the ropes from off his arms like a thread.

So she fastened her cloth work in the loom with a pin and wove his hair in, then said to him, "Shimshon! The P'lishtim have come for you!" He awoke from his sleep and pulled away the loom pin and the interwoven cloth.

She had him go to sleep in her lap and called for a man to shave off his seven locks of hair. Then she began tormenting him, but his strength had gone away.

She said, "Shimshon! The P'lishtim have come for you!" He awoke from his sleep and said, "I'll get out this time, just as I shook myself loose before." But he didn't know that Adonai had left him.

Shimshon called to Adonai , "Adonai Elohim , just this once, please, think of me, and please, give me strength, so that I can take revenge on the P'lishtim for at least one of my two eyes."

as he restored the 1,100 pieces of silver to his mother. Then his mother said, "I solemnly dedicate this money of mine to Adonai , in order for my son to make a carved image overlaid with silver. So now I'm giving it back to you."

Mikhah asked him, "Where are you coming from?" He answered, "I am a Levi from Beit-Lechem in Y'hudah, and I'm looking for a place to live."

Mikhah replied, "Stay with me, and be a father and cohen for me; I will give you ten pieces of silver a year, in addition to your clothing and food." So the Levi went in

Mikhah said, "Now I know that Adonai will treat me well, because I have a Levi for a cohen.

At that time there was no king in Isra'el, and it was also at that time that the tribe of Dan was looking for a place to claim ownership of and settle in, since they had not yet been given any land of their own among the tribes of Isra'el.

While they were at Mikhah's house they recognized the accent of the young man, the Levi, so they approached him and said, "Who brought you here? What are you doing in this place? What is there for you here?"

So from the tribe of Dan 600 men equipped for war set out from there, from Tzor‘ah and Eshta'ol.

They replied, "Be quiet, keep your mouth shut, and come with us. Be a father and a cohen for us. Which is better? To be a cohen in the house of one man or to be cohen to a whole tribe and family in Isra'el?"

Then the people from Dan went their way; and when Mikhah saw that they were too strong for him, he turned and went back to his house.

The people of Dan set up the image for themselves. Y'honatan the son of Gershom, the son of M'nasheh, and his sons were cohanim for the tribe of the people of Dan until the day of the exile from the land.

Thus they erected for themselves Mikhah's idol which he had made, and it remained there as long as the house of God was in Shiloh.

But his concubine was unfaithful to him and left him to go to her father's house at Beit-Lechem in Y'hudah, where she stayed for some time, four months.

There they turned off the road to go and stay in Giv‘ah. He went in and sat down in the city's open space, since no one had offered his home for them to spend the night.