010:010 The children of Israel cried to Yahweh, saying, We have
sinned against you, even because we have forsaken our God,
and have served the Baals.
010:011 Yahweh said to the children of Israel, Didn't I save you from
the Egyptians, and from the Amorites, from the children of Ammon,
and from the Philistines?
010:012 The Sidonians also, and the Amalekites, and the Maonites,
did oppress you; and you cried to me, and I saved you out
of their hand.
010:013 Yet you have forsaken me, and served other gods:
therefore I will save you no more.
010:014 Go and cry to the gods which you have chosen; let them save
you in the time of your distress.
010:015 The children of Israel said to Yahweh, We have sinned:
do you to us whatever seems good to you; only deliver us,
we pray you, this day.
010:016 They put away the foreign gods from among them, and served Yahweh;
and his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel.
010:017 Then the children of Ammon were gathered together, and encamped
in Gilead. The children of Israel assembled themselves together,
and encamped in Mizpah.
010:018 The people, the princes of Gilead, said one to another,
What man is he who will begin to fight against the children
of Ammon? he shall be head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.
011:001 Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valor,
and he was the son of a prostitute: and Gilead became
the father of Jephthah.
011:002 Gilead's wife bore him sons; and when his wife's sons grew up,
they drove out Jephthah, and said to him, You shall not inherit
in our father's house; for you are the son of another woman.
011:003 Then Jephthah fled from his brothers, and lived in the land of Tob:
and there were gathered vain fellows to Jephthah, and they
went out with him.
011:004 It happened after a while, that the children of Ammon made
war against Israel.
011:005 It was so, that when the children of Ammon made war against Israel,
the elders of Gilead went to get Jephthah out of the land of Tob;
011:006 and they said to Jephthah, Come and be our chief, that we
may fight with the children of Ammon.
011:007 Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, Didn't you hate me,
and drive me out of my father's house? and why are you come
to me now when you are in distress?
011:008 The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, Therefore are we
turned again to you now, that you may go with us, and fight
with the children of Ammon; and you shall be our head over
all the inhabitants of Gilead.
011:009 Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, If you bring me home
again to fight with the children of Ammon, and Yahweh deliver
them before me, shall I be your head?
011:010 The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, Yahweh shall be witness
between us; surely according to your word so will we do.
011:011 Then Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people
made him head and chief over them: and Jephthah spoke all
his words before Yahweh in Mizpah.
011:012 Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the children of Ammon,
saying, What have you to do with me, that you are come to me
to fight against my land?
011:013 The king of the children of Ammon answered to the messengers
of Jephthah, Because Israel took away my land, when he came up out
of Egypt, from the Arnon even to the Jabbok, and to the Jordan:
now therefore restore those [lands] again peaceably.
011:014 Jephthah sent messengers again to the king of the children of Ammon;
011:015 and he said to him, Thus says Jephthah: Israel didn't take
away the land of Moab, nor the land of the children of Ammon,
011:016 but when they came up from Egypt, and Israel went
through the wilderness to the Red Sea{or, Sea of Reeds},
and came to Kadesh;
011:017 then Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, Please let
me pass through your land; but the king of Edom didn't listen.
In the same way, he sent to the king of Moab; but he would not:
and Israel abode in Kadesh.
011:018 Then they went through the wilderness, and went around the land
of Edom, and the land of Moab, and came by the east side
of the land of Moab, and they encamped on the other side
of the Arnon; but they didn't come within the border of Moab,
for the Arnon was the border of Moab.
011:019 Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites,
the king of Heshbon; and Israel said to him, Let us pass,
we pray you, through your land to my place.
011:020 But Sihon didn't trust Israel to pass through his border;
but Sihon gathered all his people together, and encamped in Jahaz,
and fought against Israel.
011:021 Yahweh, the God of Israel, delivered Sihon and all his
people into the hand of Israel, and they struck them:
so Israel possessed all the land of the Amorites, the inhabitants
of that country.
011:022 They possessed all the border of the Amorites, from the Arnon
even to the Jabbok, and from the wilderness even to the Jordan.
011:023 So now Yahweh, the God of Israel, has dispossessed the Amorites
from before his people Israel, and should you possess them?
011:024 Won't you possess that which Chemosh your god gives you to possess?
So whoever Yahweh our God has dispossessed from before us,
them will we possess.
011:025 Now are you anything better than Balak the son of Zippor,
king of Moab? did he ever strive against Israel, or did
he ever fight against them?
011:026 While Israel lived in Heshbon and its towns, and in Aroer
and its towns, and in all the cities that are along by the side
of the Arnon, three hundred years; why didn't you recover
them within that time?
011:027 I therefore have not sinned against you, but you do me wrong
to war against me: Yahweh, the Judge, be judge this day
between the children of Israel and the children of Ammon.
011:028 However the king of the children of Ammon didn't listen
to the words of Jephthah which he sent him.
011:029 Then the Spirit of Yahweh came on Jephthah, and he passed
over Gilead and Manasseh, and passed over Mizpeh of Gilead,
and from Mizpeh of Gilead he passed over to the children of Ammon.
011:030 Jephthah vowed a vow to Yahweh, and said, If you will indeed
deliver the children of Ammon into my hand,
011:031 then it shall be, that whatever comes forth from the doors
of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children
of Ammon, it shall be Yahweh's, and I will offer it up
for a burnt offering.
011:032 So Jephthah passed over to the children of Ammon to fight
against them; and Yahweh delivered them into his hand.
011:033 He struck them from Aroer until you come to Minnith, even twenty
cities, and to Abelcheramim, with a very great slaughter.
So the children of Ammon were subdued before the children of Israel.
011:034 Jephthah came to Mizpah to his house; and behold, his daughter
came out to meet him with tambourines and with dances:
and she was his only child; besides her he had neither
son nor daughter.
011:035 It happened, when he saw her, that he tore his clothes,
and said, Alas, my daughter! you have brought me very low,
and you are one of those who trouble me; for I have opened
my mouth to Yahweh, and I can't go back.
011:036 She said to him, My father, you have opened your mouth to Yahweh;
do to me according to that which has proceeded out of your mouth,
because Yahweh has taken vengeance for you on your enemies,
even on the children of Ammon.
011:037 She said to her father, Let this thing be done for me:
let me alone two months, that I may depart and go down on
the mountains, and bewail my virginity, I and my companions.
011:038 He said, Go. He sent her away for two months:
and she departed, she and her companions, and mourned her
virginity on the mountains.
011:039 It happened at the end of two months, that she returned to her father,
who did with her according to his vow which he had vowed:
and she was a virgin. It was a custom in Israel,
011:040 that the daughters of Israel went yearly to celebrate the daughter
of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in a year.
012:001 The men of Ephraim were gathered together, and passed northward;
and they said to Jephthah, Why did you pass over to fight
against the children of Ammon, and didn't call us to go
with you? we will burn your house on you with fire.
012:002 Jephthah said to them, I and my people were at great strife
with the children of Ammon; and when I called you, you didn't
save me out of their hand.
012:003 When I saw that you didn't save me, I put my life in my hand,
and passed over against the children of Ammon, and Yahweh
delivered them into my hand: why then are you come up to me
this day, to fight against me?
012:004 Then Jephthah gathered together all the men of Gilead,
and fought with Ephraim; and the men of Gilead struck Ephraim,
because they said, You are fugitives of Ephraim, you Gileadites,
in the midst of Ephraim, [and] in the midst of Manasseh.
012:005 The Gileadites took the fords of the Jordan against the Ephraimites.
It was so, that when [any of] the fugitives of Ephraim said,
Let me go over, the men of Gilead said to him, Are you
an Ephraimite? If he said, No;
012:006 then said they to him, Say now Shibboleth; and he said Sibboleth;
for he couldn't manage to pronounce it right: then they laid
hold on him, and killed him at the fords of the Jordan.
There fell at that time of Ephraim forty-two thousand.
012:007 Jephthah judged Israel six years. Then died Jephthah the Gileadite,
and was buried in [one of] the cities of Gilead.
012:008 After him Ibzan of Bethlehem judged Israel.
012:009 He had thirty sons; and thirty daughters he sent abroad,
and thirty daughters he brought in from abroad for his sons.
He judged Israel seven years.
012:010 Ibzan died, and was buried at Bethlehem.
012:011 After him Elon the Zebulunite judged Israel; and he judged
Israel ten years.
012:012 Elon the Zebulunite died, and was buried in Aijalon in the
land of Zebulun.
012:013 After him Abdon the son of Hillel the Pirathonite judged Israel.
012:014 He had forty sons and thirty sons' sons, who rode on seventy
donkey colts: and he judged Israel eight years.
012:015 Abdon the son of Hillel the Pirathonite died, and was buried
in Pirathon in the land of Ephraim, in the hill country
of the Amalekites.
013:001 The children of Israel again did that which was evil in
the sight of Yahweh; and Yahweh delivered them into the hand
of the Philistines forty years.
013:002 There was a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites,
whose name was Manoah; and his wife was barren, and didn't bear.
013:003 The angel of Yahweh appeared to the woman, and said to her,
See now, you are barren, and don't bear; but you shall conceive,
and bear a son.
013:004 Now therefore please beware and drink no wine nor strong drink,
and don't eat any unclean thing:
013:005 for, behold, you shall conceive, and bear a son; and no razor
shall come on his head; for the child shall be a Nazirite
to God from the womb: and he shall begin to save Israel
out of the hand of the Philistines.
013:006 Then the woman came and told her husband, saying, A man of God
came to me, and his face was like the face of the angel
of God, very awesome; and I didn't ask him whence he was,
neither did he tell me his name:
013:007 but he said to me, Behold, you shall conceive, and bear a son;
and now drink no wine nor strong drink, and eat not any
unclean thing; for the child shall be a Nazirite to God
from the womb to the day of his death.
013:008 Then Manoah entreated Yahweh, and said, Oh, Lord, please let
the man of God whom you did send come again to us, and teach
us what we shall do to the child who shall be born.
013:009 God listened to the voice of Manoah; and the angel of God
came again to the woman as she sat in the field:
but Manoah, her husband, wasn't with her.
013:010 The woman made haste, and ran, and told her husband, and said
to him, Behold, the man has appeared to me, who came to me
the [other] day.
013:011 Manoah arose, and went after his wife, and came to the man,
and said to him, Are you the man who spoke to the woman?
He said, I am.
013:012 Manoah said, Now let your words happen: what shall be the ordering
of the child, and [how] shall we do to him?
013:013 The angel of Yahweh said to Manoah, Of all that I said
to the woman let her beware.
013:014 She may not eat of anything that comes of the vine, neither let
her drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing;
all that I commanded her let her observe.
013:015 Manoah said to the angel of Yahweh, I pray you, let us detain you,
that we may make ready a kid for you.
013:016 The angel of Yahweh said to Manoah, Though you detain me,
I won't eat of your bread; and if you will make ready
a burnt offering, you must offer it to Yahweh.
For Manoah didn't know that he was the angel of Yahweh.
013:017 Manoah said to the angel of Yahweh, What is your name,
that when your words happen, we may honor you?
013:018 The angel of Yahweh said to him, Why do you ask after my name,
seeing it is wonderful?
013:019 So Manoah took the kid with the meal offering, and offered
it on the rock to Yahweh: and [the angel] did wondrously,
and Manoah and his wife looked on.
013:020 For it happened, when the flame went up toward the sky
from off the altar, that the angel of Yahweh ascended in
the flame of the altar: and Manoah and his wife looked on;
and they fell on their faces to the ground.
013:021 But the angel of Yahweh did no more appear to Manoah or to his wife.
Then Manoah knew that he was the angel of Yahweh.
013:022 Manoah said to his wife, We shall surely die, because we
have seen God.
013:023 But his wife said to him, If Yahweh were pleased to kill us,
he wouldn't have received a burnt offering and a meal offering
at our hand, neither would he have shown us all these things,
nor would at this time have told such things as these.
013:024 The woman bore a son, and named him Samson: and the child grew,
and Yahweh blessed him.
013:025 The Spirit of Yahweh began to move him in Mahaneh Dan,
between Zorah and Eshtaol.
014:001 Samson went down to Timnah, and saw a woman in Timnah of
the daughters of the Philistines.
014:002 He came up, and told his father and his mother, and said,
I have seen a woman in Timnah of the daughters of the Philistines:
now therefore get her for me as wife.
014:003 Then his father and his mother said to him, Is there
never a woman among the daughters of your brothers,
or among all my people, that you go to take a wife of
the uncircumcised Philistines? Samson said to his father,
Get her for me; for she pleases me well.
014:004 But his father and his mother didn't know that it was of Yahweh;
for he sought an occasion against the Philistines.
Now at that time the Philistines had rule over Israel.
014:005 Then went Samson down, and his father and his mother,
to Timnah, and came to the vineyards of Timnah: and behold,
a young lion roared against him.
014:006 The Spirit of Yahweh came mightily on him, and he tore him
as he would have torn a kid; and he had nothing in his hand:
but he didn't tell his father or his mother what he had done.
014:007 He went down, and talked with the woman, and she pleased Samson well.
014:008 After a while he returned to take her; and he turned aside
to see the carcass of the lion: and behold, there was a swarm
of bees in the body of the lion, and honey.
014:009 He took it into his hands, and went on, eating as he went;
and he came to his father and mother, and gave to them,
and they ate: but he didn't tell them that he had taken
the honey out of the body of the lion.
014:010 His father went down to the woman: and Samson made there a feast;
for so used the young men to do.
014:011 It happened, when they saw him, that they brought thirty
companions to be with him.
014:012 Samson said to them, Let me now put forth a riddle to you:
if you can declare it to me within the seven days of the feast,
and find it out, then I will give you thirty linen garments
and thirty changes of clothing;
014:013 but if you can't declare it to me, then shall you give me
thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothing.
They said to him, Put forth your riddle, that we may hear it.
014:014 He said to them, Out of the eater came forth food.
Out of the strong came forth sweetness. They couldn't
in three days declare the riddle.
014:015 It happened on the seventh day, that they said to Samson's wife,
Entice your husband, that he may declare to us the riddle,
lest we burn you and your father's house with fire:
have you called us to impoverish us? is it not [so]?
014:016 Samson's wife wept before him, and said, You do but hate me,
and don't love me: you have put forth a riddle
to the children of my people, and haven't told it me.
He said to her, Behold, I haven't told it my father nor my mother,
and shall I tell you?
014:017 She wept before him the seven days, while their feast lasted:
and it happened on the seventh day, that he told her,
because she pressed him sore; and she told the riddle
to the children of her people.
014:018 The men of the city said to him on the seventh day before the sun
went down, What is sweeter than honey? and what is stronger than
a lion? He said to them, If you hadn't plowed with my heifer,
you wouldn't have found out my riddle.
014:019 The Spirit of Yahweh came mightily on him, and he went down
to Ashkelon, and struck thirty men of them, and took their spoil,
and gave the changes [of clothing] to those who declared the riddle.
His anger was kindled, and he went up to his father's house.
014:020 But Samson's wife was [given] to his companion, whom he had
used as his friend.
015:001 But it happened after a while, in the time of wheat harvest,
that Samson visited his wife with a kid; and he said,
I will go in to my wife into the chamber. But her father
wouldn't allow him to go in.
015:002 Her father said, I most certainly thought that you had
utterly hated her; therefore I gave her to your companion:
isn't her younger sister more beautiful than she?
Please take her, instead.
015:003 Samson said to them, This time shall I be blameless in regard
of the Philistines, when I do them a mischief.
015:004 Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took firebrands,
and turned tail to tail, and put a firebrand in the midst
between every two tails.
015:005 When he had set the brands on fire, he let them go into
the standing grain of the Philistines, and burnt up both
the shocks and the standing grain, and also the olive groves.
015:006 Then the Philistines said, Who has done this? They said, Samson,
the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he has taken his wife,
and given her to his companion. The Philistines came up,
and burnt her and her father with fire.
015:007 Samson said to them, If you do after this manner, surely I
will be avenged of you, and after that I will cease.
015:008 He struck them hip and thigh with a great slaughter:
and he went down and lived in the cleft of the rock of Etam.
015:009 Then the Philistines went up, and encamped in Judah, and spread
themselves in Lehi.
015:010 The men of Judah said, Why are you come up against us?
They said, To bind Samson are we come up, to do to him
as he has done to us.
015:011 Then three thousand men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock
of Etam, and said to Samson, "Don't you know that the Philistines
are rulers over us? What then is this that you have done to us?"
He said to them, As they did to me, so have I done to them.
015:012 They said to him, We have come down to bind you, that we
may deliver you into the hand of the Philistines.
Samson said to them, Swear to me that you will not fall
on me yourselves.
015:013 They spoke to him, saying, No; but we will bind you fast,
and deliver you into their hand: but surely we will not kill you.
They bound him with two new ropes, and brought him up
from the rock.
015:014 When he came to Lehi, the Philistines shouted as they met him:
and the Spirit of Yahweh came mightily on him, and the ropes
that were on his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire,
and his bands dropped from off his hands.
015:015 He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, and put forth his hand,
and took it, and struck a thousand men therewith.
015:016 Samson said, With the jawbone of a donkey, heaps on heaps,
With the jawbone of a donkey I have struck a thousand men.
015:017 It happened, when he had made an end of speaking, that he cast
away the jawbone out of his hand; and that place was
called Ramath Lehi.
015:018 He was very thirsty, and called on Yahweh, and said, You have
given this great deliverance by the hand of your servant;
and now shall I die for thirst, and fall into the hand
of the uncircumcised.
015:019 But God split the hollow place that is in Lehi, and water came out
of it. When he had drunk, his spirit came again, and he revived:
therefore the name of it was called En Hakkore, which is in Lehi,
to this day.
015:020 He judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.
016:001 Samson went to Gaza, and saw there a prostitute, and went
in to her.
016:002 [It was told] the Gazites, saying, Samson is come here.
They compassed him in, and laid wait for him all night in the gate
of the city, and were quiet all the night, saying, [Let be]
until morning light, then we will kill him.
016:003 Samson lay until midnight, and arose at midnight, and laid
hold of the doors of the gate of the city, and the two posts,
and plucked them up, bar and all, and put them on his shoulders,
and carried them up to the top of the mountain that
is before Hebron.
016:004 It came to pass afterward, that he loved a woman in the valley
of Sorek, whose name was Delilah.
016:005 The lords of the Philistines came up to her, and said to her,
Entice him, and see in which his great strength lies,
and by what means we may prevail against him, that we may bind
him to afflict him: and we will each give you of us eleven
hundred [pieces] of silver.
016:006 Delilah said to Samson, Tell me, Please, in which your great
strength lies, and with which you might be bound to afflict you.
016:007 Samson said to her, If they bind me with seven green cords
that were never dried, then shall I become weak, and be
as another man.
016:008 Then the lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven green
cords which had not been dried, and she bound him with them.
016:009 Now she had an ambush waiting in the inner chamber.
She said to him, "The Philistines are on you, Samson!" He broke
the cords, as a string of tow is broken when it touches the fire.
So his strength was not known.
016:010 Delilah said to Samson, Behold, you have mocked me, and told me lies:
now tell me, Please, with which you might be bound.
016:011 He said to her, If they only bind me with new ropes with
which no work has been done, then shall I become weak,
and be as another man.
016:012 So Delilah took new ropes, and bound him therewith,
and said to him, The Philistines are on you, Samson.
The ambush was waiting in the inner chamber. He broke them
off his arms like a thread.
016:013 Delilah said to Samson, Hitherto you have mocked me,
and told me lies: tell me with which you might be bound.
He said to her, If you weave the seven locks of my head
with the web.
016:014 She fastened it with the pin, and said to him, The Philistines
are on you, Samson. He awakened out of his sleep, and plucked
away the pin of the beam, and the web.
016:015 She said to him, How can you say, I love you, when your heart
is not with me? you have mocked me these three times,
and have not told me in which your great strength lies.
016:016 It happened, when she pressed him daily with her words,
and urged him, that his soul was vexed to death.
016:017 He told her all his heart, and said to her, "No razor has ever
come on my head; for I have been a Nazirite to God from my
mother's womb. If I am shaved, then my strength will go from me,
and I will become weak, and be like any other man."
016:018 When Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart,
she sent and called for the lords of the Philistines, saying,
Come up this once, for he has told me all his heart.
Then the lords of the Philistines came up to her, and brought
the money in their hand.
016:019 She made him sleep on her knees; and she called for a man,
and shaved off the seven locks of his head; and she began
to afflict him, and his strength went from him.
016:020 She said, The Philistines are on you, Samson. He awoke out
of his sleep, and said, I will go out as at other times,
and shake myself free. But he didn't know that Yahweh had
departed from him.
016:021 The Philistines laid hold on him, and put out his eyes; and they
brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with fetters of brass;
and he ground at the mill in the prison.
016:022 However the hair of his head began to grow again after