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J U D G ES 1 3
Abdon Becomes Israel’s Judge
13 After Elon died, Abdon son of Hillel, from Pirathon, judged Israel. 14 He had forty sons and
thirty grandsons, who rode on seventy donkeys.
He judged Israel for eight years. 15 When he died,
he was buried at Pirathon in Ephraim, in the hill
country of the Amalekites.
The Birth of Samson
Again the Israelites did evil in the Lord’s
sight, so the Lord handed them over to
the Philistines, who oppressed them for forty
years.
2 In those days a man named Manoah from the
tribe of Dan lived in the town of Zorah. His wife
was unable to become pregnant, and they had
no children. 3 The angel of the Lord appeared to
Manoah’s wife and said, “Even though you have
been unable to have children, you will soon become pregnant and give birth to a son. 4 So be
careful; you must not drink wine or any other
alcoholic drink nor eat any forbidden food.*
5 You will become pregnant and give birth to a
son, and his hair must never be cut. For he will
be dedicated to God as a Nazirite from birth. He
will begin to rescue Israel from the Philistines.”
6 The woman ran and told her husband,
“A man of God appeared to me! He looked like
one of God’s angels, terrifying to see. I didn’t
ask where he was from, and he didn’t tell me
his name. 7 But he told me, ‘You will become
pregnant and give birth to a son. You must not
drink wine or any other alcoholic drink nor eat
any forbidden food. For your son will be dedicated to God as a Nazirite from the moment of
his birth until the day of his death.’”
8 Then Manoah prayed to the Lord, saying,
“Lord, please let the man of God come back to
us again and give us more instructions about
this son who is to be born.”
9 God answered Manoah’s prayer, and the
angel of God appeared once again to his wife
as she was sitting in the field. But her husband,
Manoah, was not with her. 10 So she quickly ran
and told her husband, “The man who appeared
to me the other day is here again!”
11 Manoah ran back with his wife and asked,
“Are you the man who spoke to my wife the
other day?”
“Yes,” he replied, “I am.”
12 So Manoah asked him, “When your words
come true, what kind of rules should govern the
boy’s life and work?”
13 The angel of the Lord replied, “Be sure
your wife follows the instructions I gave her.
14 She must not eat grapes or raisins, drink wine
or any other alcoholic drink, or eat any forbidden food.”
15 Then Manoah said to the angel of the Lord,
“Please stay here until we can prepare a young
goat for you to eat.”
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16 “I will stay,” the angel of the Lord replied,
“but I will not eat anything. However, you may
prepare a burnt offering as a sacrifice to the
Lord.” (Manoah didn’t realize it was the angel
of the Lord.)
17 Then Manoah asked the angel of the Lord,
“What is your name? For when all this comes
true, we want to honor you.”
18 “Why do you ask my name?” the angel of
the Lord replied. “It is too wonderful for you
to understand.”
19 Then Manoah took a young goat and a grain
offering and offered it on a rock as a sacrifice to
the Lord. And as Manoah and his wife watched,
the Lord did an amazing thing. 20 As the flames
from the altar shot up toward the sky, the angel
of the Lord ascended in the fire. When Manoah
and his wife saw this, they fell with their faces
to the ground.
21 The angel did not appear again to Manoah
and his wife. Manoah finally realized it was the
angel of the Lord, 22 and he said to his wife, “We
will certainly die, for we have seen God!”
23 But his wife said, “If the Lord were going
to kill us, he wouldn’t have accepted our burnt
offering and grain offering. He wouldn’t have
appeared to us and told us this wonderful thing
and done these miracles.”
24 When her son was born, she named him
Samson. And the Lord blessed him as he grew
up. 25 And the Spirit of the Lord began to stir
him while he lived in Mahaneh-dan, which is located between the towns of Zorah and Eshtaol.
Samson’s Riddle
One day when Samson was in Timnah,
one of the Philistine women caught his
eye. 2 When he returned home, he told his father and mother, “A young Philistine woman in
Timnah caught my eye. I want to marry her. Get
her for me.”
3 His father and mother objected. “Isn’t there
even one woman in our tribe or among all the
Israelites you could marry?” they asked. “Why
must you go to the pagan Philistines to find a
wife?”
But Samson told his father, “Get her for me!
She looks good to me.” 4 His father and mother
didn’t realize the Lord was at work in this, creating an opportunity to work against the Philistines, who ruled over Israel at that time.
5 As Samson and his parents were going down
to Timnah, a young lion suddenly attacked
Samson near the vineyards of Timnah. 6 At that
moment the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully
upon him, and he ripped the lion’s jaws apart
with his bare hands. He did it as easily as if it
were a young goat. But he didn’t tell his father
or mother about it. 7 When Samson arrived in
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13:4 Hebrew any unclean thing; also in 13:7, 14.