Study Desk

So the whole army cut down each one branch for himself and followed Abimelech, and they put them against the vault and set the vault ablaze with fire on those inside, so that all the men of the tower of Shechem died, about a thousand men and women.

They crushed and oppressed the Israelites in that year; for eighteen years they crushed all the Israelites who were beyond the Jordan, in the land of the Amorites, which is in Gilead.

Gilead's wife also bore for him sons; and the sons of his wife grew up and drove Jephthah away, and they said to him, "You will not inherit the house of our father because you are the son of another woman."

And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, "That being so, we have now returned to you, that you may go with us to fight against the Ammonites and become for us as head of all the inhabitants of Gilead."

When Israel lived in Heshbon and its villages, and in Aroer and its villages, and in all the towns that are along the Arnon, for three hundred years, why did you not recover them at that time?

And she said to her father, "Let this thing be done for me: grant me two months so that I may go wander on the mountains and lament over my virginity, I and my companions.

And he said, "Go." He sent her away for two months, and she went with her friends, and she lamented over her virginity on the mountains.

for the daughters of Israel to go and lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite for forty days of the year.

He had thirty sons. He gave his thirty daughters away in marriage outside his clan and brought in from outside thirty young women for his sons. He judged Israel for seven years.

He had forty sons and thirty grandsons that rode on seventy male donkeys. He judged Israel for eight years.

And he said to me, ‘Look, you will conceive and bear a son, so then, do not drink wine or strong drink, and do not eat anything unclean, for the boy will be a Nazirite of God from birth until the day of his death.'"

And Manoah said to the angel of Yahweh, "Please stay, and let us prepare a young goat for you."

The angel of Yahweh said to Manoah, "If you keep me, I will not eat your food, but if you prepare a burnt offering for Yahweh, you can offer it (for Manoah did not know that he was an angel of Yahweh)."

He went up and told his father and mother, and he said, "I saw a woman in Timnah from the daughters of the Philistines; so then, take her for me as a wife."

But his father and mother said to him, "Is there not a wife among the daughters of your relatives, or among all our people, that you must take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?" But Samson said to his father, "Take her for me because she pleases me."

His father and mother did not know that this was from Yahweh; he was seeking for an occasion against the Philistines. Now at that time the Philistines were ruling in Israel.

He said to them, "From the eater came out food, From the strong came out sweet." But they were unable to explain the riddle for three days.

The Gazites were told, "Samson has come here," so they surrounded the place and lay in ambush for him all night at the city gate. They kept silent all night, saying, "We will wait until the morning light, and then we will kill him."

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.

So he confided everything to her, and he said to her, "A razor has never touched my head, for I am a Nazirite of God from birth. If I am shaved my strength will leave me, and I will become weak, like everyone else.