Study Desk

When the people saw Samson, they praised their god, for they said, "Our god has handed over our enemy to us, The ravager of our country, Who has killed many of us."

Now when they were in high spirits, they said, "Call for Samson, so that he may amuse us." So they called Samson out of the prison, and he entertained them. They made him stand between the pillars.

Then Samson called to the LORD and said, "O Lord GOD, please remember me and please strengthen me just this one time, O God, and let me take vengeance on the Philistines for my two eyes."

Then his brothers and his father's entire [tribal] household came down, took him, and brought him up; and they buried him in the tomb of Manoah his father, [which was] between Zorah and Eshtaol. So Samson had judged Israel for twenty years.

He returned the eleven hundred pieces of silver to his mother, and she said, "I had truly dedicated the silver from my hand to the LORD for my son (in his name) to make an image [carved from wood and plated with silver] and a cast image [of solid silver]; so now, I will return it to you."

In those days there was no king in Israel; and in those days the tribe of the Danites was seeking an inheritance [of land] for themselves to live in, for until then an inheritance had not been allotted to them as a possession among the tribes of Israel.

And he said to them, "Micah has done this and that for me, and he has hired me and I have become his priest."

They said, "Arise, let us go up against them; for we have seen the land, and behold, it is very good (fertile). Will you sit still and do nothing? Do not hesitate to go, to enter, to take possession of the land.

"When you enter, you will come to people [feeling] safe and secure with a spacious land [widely extended on all sides]; for God has given it into your hands—a place where there is no lack of anything that is on the earth."

They said to him, "Keep quiet, put your hand over your mouth and come with us, and be a father and a priest to us. Is it better for you to be a priest to the house of one man, or to be a priest to a tribe and family in Israel?"

They shouted to the Danites, who turned and said to Micah, "What is your reason for assembling [against us]?"

Then the Danites went on their way; and Micah saw that they were too strong for him, so he turned and went back to his house.

The [tribe of] the sons of Dan set up the image [of silver-plated wood] for themselves; and Jonathan the son of Gershom, the son of Moses, and his sons were priests to the tribe of the Danites until the day of the captivity and exile from the land.

So they set up for themselves Micah's [silver-plated wooden] image which he had made, and kept it throughout the time that the house (tabernacle) of God was at Shiloh.

Now it happened in those days, when there was no king in Israel, that a certain Levite living [as an alien] in the most remote part of the hill country of Ephraim, who took a concubine for himself from Bethlehem in Judah.

But his concubine was unfaithful to him, and left him and went to her father's house in Bethlehem of Judah, and stayed there for a period of four months.

So his father-in-law, the girl's father, detained him; and he stayed there with him for three days. So they ate and drank, and he lodged there.

When the man and his concubine and his servant got up to leave, his father-in-law, the girl's father, said to him, "Behold, now the day has drawn to a close; please spend the night. Look, now the day comes to an end; spend the night here and celebrate, enjoy yourself. Then tomorrow you may get up early for your journey and go home."

The Levite replied, "We are passing through from Bethlehem [in the territory] of Judah to the most remote part of the hill country of Ephraim; I am from there. I went to Bethlehem of Judah, but I am now going [home] to my house, and there is no man [in the city] who will take me into his house [for the night].

"Yet we have both straw and feed for our donkeys, and also bread and wine for me, and for your handmaid, and for the young man who is with your servant; there is no lack of anything."