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J U D G ES 1 6
and killed many of them. Then he went to live
in a cave in the rock of Etam.
9 The Philistines retaliated by setting up camp
in Judah and spreading out near the town of
Lehi. 10 The men of Judah asked the Philistines,
“Why are you attacking us?”
The Philistines replied, “We’ve come to capture Samson. We’ve come to pay him back for
what he did to us.”
11 So 3,000 men of Judah went down to get
Samson at the cave in the rock of Etam. They
said to Samson, “Don’t you realize the Philistines rule over us? What are you doing to us?”
But Samson replied, “I only did to them what
they did to me.”
12 But the men of Judah told him, “We have
come to tie you up and hand you over to the
Philistines.”
“All right,” Samson said. “But promise that
you won’t kill me yourselves.”
13 “We will only tie you up and hand you over
to the Philistines,” they replied. “We won’t kill
you.” So they tied him up with two new ropes
and brought him up from the rock.
14 As Samson arrived at Lehi, the Philistines
came shouting in triumph. But the Spirit of
the Lord came powerfully upon Samson, and
he snapped the ropes on his arms as if they
were burnt strands of flax, and they fell from
his wrists. 15 Then he found the jawbone of a recently killed donkey. He picked it up and killed
1,000 Philistines with it. 16 Then Samson said,
“With the jawbone of a donkey,
I’ve piled them in heaps!
With the jawbone of a donkey,
I’ve killed a thousand men!”
17 When he finished his boasting, he threw away
the jawbone; and the place was named Jawbone
Hill.*
18 Samson was now very thirsty, and he cried
• Compromise
JU D G E S 1 6 :1 5 -1 7
Temptation always strikes at our weak
spots, not our strengths. The crafty
Philistines knew they couldn’t match
Samson’s brute strength, so they
aimed at his weakness—his lack of
self-control with women. “How can you
tell me, ‘I love you’?” Delilah whined,
and Samson gave in. Our weak spots
are those areas we refuse to give over
to God. They are the areas in which
we compromise our convictions for a
few moments of pleasure. And that’s
where the enemy zeroes in.
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out to the Lord, “You have accomplished this
great victory by the strength of your servant.
Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands
of these pagans?” 19 So God caused water to
gush out of a hollow in the ground at Lehi,
and Samson was revived as he drank. Then he
named that place “The Spring of the One Who
Cried Out,”* and it is still in Lehi to this day.
20 Samson judged Israel for twenty years during the period when the Philistines dominated
the land.
Samson Carries Away Gaza’s Gates
One day Samson went to the Philistine
town of Gaza and spent the night with
a prostitute. 2 Word soon spread* that Samson
was there, so the men of Gaza gathered together
and waited all night at the town gates. They
kept quiet during the night, saying to themselves, “When the light of morning comes, we
will kill him.”
3 But Samson stayed in bed only until midnight. Then he got up, took hold of the doors
of the town gate, including the two posts, and
lifted them up, bar and all. He put them on his
shoulders and carried them all the way to the
top of the hill across from Hebron.
16
Samson and Delilah
4 Some time later Samson fell in love with a
woman named Delilah, who lived in the valley
of Sorek. 5 The rulers of the Philistines went to
her and said, “Entice Samson to tell you what
makes him so strong and how he can be overpowered and tied up securely. Then each of us
will give you 1,100 pieces* of silver.”
6 So Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me
what makes you so strong and what it would
take to tie you up securely.”
7 Samson replied, “If I were tied up with seven
new bowstrings that have not yet been dried,
I would become as weak as anyone else.”
8 So the Philistine rulers brought Delilah
seven new bowstrings, and she tied Samson up
with them. 9 She had hidden some men in one of
the inner rooms of her house, and she cried out,
“Samson! The Philistines have come to capture
you!” But Samson snapped the bowstrings as a
piece of string snaps when it is burned by a fire.
So the secret of his strength was not discovered.
10 Afterward Delilah said to him, “You’ve
been making fun of me and telling me lies! Now
please tell me how you can be tied up securely.”
11 Samson replied, “If I were tied up with
brand-new ropes that had never been used,
I would become as weak as anyone else.”
12 So Delilah took new ropes and tied him up
with them. The men were hiding in the inner
15:17 Hebrew Ramath-lehi. 15:19 Hebrew En-hakkore.
16:2 As in Greek and Syriac versions and Latin Vulgate; Hebrew
lacks Word soon spread. 16:5 Hebrew 1,100 [shekels], about
28 pounds or 12.5 kilograms in weight.