Judges 16

⁴⁷Ashdod, with its towns and villages; Gaza, with its towns and villages, as far as the Brook of Egypt and the coastline of the Great Sea.

¹⁶Not realizing that she was his daughter-in-law, he went over to her and said, “Come now, let me sleep with you.” “What will you give me for sleeping with you?” she inquired.

¹⁷“I will send you a young goat from my flock,” Judah answered. But she replied, “Only if you leave me something as a pledge until you send it.”

¹After these things had been accomplished, the leaders approached me and said, “The people of Israel, including the priests and Levites, have not kept themselves separate from the surrounding peoples whose abominations are like those of the Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians, and Amorites.

²Indeed, the Israelites have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and their sons, so that the holy seed has been mixed with the people of the land. And the leaders and officials have taken the lead in this unfaithfulness!”

¹⁹and the borders of Canaan extended from Sidon toward Gerar as far as Gaza, and then toward Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, as far as Lasha.

¹⁰All the nations surrounded me, but in the name of the Lord I cut them off.

¹¹They surrounded me on every side, but in the name of the Lord I cut them off.

²⁶Saul was proceeding along one side of the mountain, and David and his men along the other side. Even though David was hurrying to get away, Saul and his men were closing in on David and his men to capture them.

²⁴but Saul learned of their plot. Day and night they watched the city gates in order to kill him.

¹¹Then Saul sent messengers to David’s house to watch him and kill him in the morning. But David’s wife Michal warned him, “If you do not run for your life tonight, tomorrow you will be dead!”

¹⁸And being very thirsty, Samson cried out to the Lord, “You have accomplished this great deliverance through Your servant. Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?”

¹⁵Now then, you and the Sanhedrin petition the commander to bring him down to you on the pretext of examining his case more carefully. We are ready to kill him on the way.”

²⁴But God raised Him from the dead, releasing Him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep Him in its grip.

¹⁶For He has broken down the gates of bronze and cut through the bars of iron.

¹Who is this coming from Edom, from Bozrah with crimson-stained garments? Who is this robed in splendor, marching in the greatness of His strength? “It is I, proclaiming vindication, mighty to save.”

²Why are Your clothes red, and Your garments like one who treads the winepress?

¹³One who breaks open the way will go up before them; they will break through the gate, and go out by it. Their King will pass through before them, the Lord as their leader.

¹⁴The mouth of an adulteress is a deep pit; he who is under the wrath of the Lord will fall into it.

²⁷For a prostitute is a deep pit, and an adulteress is a narrow well.

⁶These things took place as examples to keep us from craving evil things as they did.

²²Though you grind a fool like grain with mortar and a pestle, yet his folly will not depart from him.

¹¹As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his folly.

¹King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh—women of Moab, Ammon, Edom, and Sidon, as well as Hittite women.

³from the Shihor east of Egypt to the territory of Ekron on the north (considered to be Canaanite territory)—that of the five Philistine rulers of Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron, as well as that of the Avvites;

¹⁵So on the fourth day they said to Samson’s wife, “Entice your husband to explain the riddle to us, or we will burn you and your father’s household to death. Did you invite us here to rob us?”

⁹Those who want to be rich, however, fall into temptation and become ensnared by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction.

¹⁰For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. By craving it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.

¹⁵Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never!

¹⁶Or don’t you know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.”

³Though the lips of the forbidden woman drip honey and her speech is smoother than oil,

⁴in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a double-edged sword.

²¹With her great persuasion she entices him; with her flattering lips she lures him.

²²He follows her on impulse, like an ox going to the slaughter, like a deer bounding into a trap,

²They lie to one another; they speak with flattering lips and a double heart.

²The godly man has perished from the earth; there is no one upright among men. They all lie in wait for blood; they hunt one another with a net.

⁵Do not rely on a friend; do not trust in a companion. Seal the doors of your mouth from her who lies in your arms.

²⁸A lying tongue hates those it crushes, and a flattering mouth causes ruin.

²⁶For the levy of the prostitute is poverty, and the adulteress preys upon your very life.

¹⁴The mouth of an adulteress is a deep pit; he who is under the wrath of the Lord will fall into it.

¹⁹Truthful lips endure forever, but a lying tongue lasts only a moment.

⁹Do not lie to one another, since you have taken off the old self with its practices,

⁷Do not be deceived: God is not to be mocked. Whatever a man sows, he will reap in return.

⁸Why not say, as some slanderously claim that we say, “Let us do evil that good may result”? Their condemnation is deserved!

²“The king has given me a mission,” David replied. “He told me no one is to know about the mission on which I am sending you. And I have directed my young men to meet me at a certain place.

³Now then, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever can be found.”

¹⁰Then Delilah said to Samson, “You have mocked me and lied to me! Now please tell me how you can be tied up.”

²⁶And I find more bitter than death the woman who is a snare, whose heart is a net, and whose hands are chains. The man who pleases God escapes her, but the sinner is ensnared.

⁹Before your pots can feel the burning thorns—whether green or dry—He will sweep them away.

⁴⁸But Jesus asked him, “Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?”

²⁸Do not testify against your neighbor without cause, and do not deceive with your lips.

³¹So My people come to you as usual, sit before you, and hear your words; but they do not put them into practice. Although they express love with their mouths, their hearts pursue dishonest gain.

¹³Then Delilah said to Samson, “You have mocked me and lied to me all along! Tell me how you can be tied up.” He told her, “If you weave the seven braids of my head into the web of a loom and tighten it with a pin, I will become as weak as any other man.”

⁷for he is keeping track, inwardly counting the cost. “Eat and drink,” he says to you, but his heart is not with you.

⁸You will vomit up what little you have eaten and waste your pleasant words.

⁷Samson told her, “If they tie me up with seven fresh bowstrings that have not been dried, I will become as weak as any other man.”

²⁵The fear of man is a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is set securely on high.

³He who guards his mouth protects his life, but the one who opens his lips invites his own ruin.

²⁵Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one another.

¹³“No,” they answered, “we will not kill you, but we will tie you up securely and hand you over to them.” So they bound him with two new ropes and led him up from the rock.

⁵The righteous hate falsehood, but the wicked bring shame and disgrace.

¹³After all that has come upon us because of our evil deeds and our great guilt (though You, our God, have punished us less than our iniquities deserve and have given us such a remnant as this),

¹⁴shall we again break Your commandments and intermarry with the peoples who commit these abominations? Would You not become so angry with us as to wipe us out, leaving no remnant or survivor?

⁴³Many times He rescued them, but they were bent on rebellion and sank down in their iniquity.

¹⁶Then Samson’s wife came to him, weeping, and said, “You hate me! You do not really love me! You have posed to my people a riddle, but have not explained it to me.” “Look,” he said, “I have not even explained it to my father or mother, so why should I explain it to you?”

²⁶My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes delight in my ways.

¹⁵Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

¹⁶For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not from the Father but from the world.

¹⁰If you keep My commandments, you will remain in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and remain in His love.

¹⁵If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.

³Though the lips of the forbidden woman drip honey and her speech is smoother than oil,

⁴in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a double-edged sword.

²¹With her great persuasion she entices him; with her flattering lips she lures him.

²²He follows her on impulse, like an ox going to the slaughter, like a deer bounding into a trap,

⁵yet because this widow keeps pestering me, I will give her justice. Otherwise, she will wear me out with her perpetual requests.’”

⁹Then God asked Jonah, “Have you any right to be angry about the plant?” “I do,” he replied. “I am angry enough to die!”

⁸I tell you, even though he will not get up to provide for him because of his friendship, yet because of the man’s persistence, he will get up and give him as much as he needs.

²⁴He said to them, “This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.

⁴Is my complaint against a man? Then why should I not be impatient?

⁵Do not rely on a friend; do not trust in a companion. Seal the doors of your mouth from her who lies in your arms.

⁵For behold, you will conceive and give birth to a son. And no razor shall touch his head, because the boy will be a Nazirite to God from the womb, and he will begin the deliverance of Israel from the hand of the Philistines.”

²³A shrewd man keeps his knowledge to himself, but a foolish heart proclaims its folly.

⁵For the entire period of his vow of separation, no razor shall touch his head. He must be holy until the time of his separation to the Lord is complete; he must let the hair of his head grow long.

¹⁸Paul remained in Corinth for quite some time before saying goodbye to the brothers. He had his head shaved in Cenchrea to keep a vow he had made, and then he sailed for Syria, accompanied by Priscilla and Aquila.

²“Speak to the Israelites and tell them that if a man or woman makes a special vow, the vow of a Nazirite, to separate himself to the Lord,

¹⁵and asked, “What are you willing to give me if I hand Him over to you?” And they set out for him thirty pieces of silver.

¹⁰For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. By craving it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.

⁵The lords of the Philistines went to her and said, “Entice him and find out the source of his great strength and how we can overpower him to tie him up and subdue him. Then each one of us will give you eleven hundred shekels of silver.”

⁴“Let everyone guard against his neighbor; do not trust any brother, for every brother deals craftily, and every friend spreads slander.

⁵Each one betrays his friend; no one tells the truth. They have taught their tongues to lie; they wear themselves out committing iniquity.

⁵For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure, or greedy person (that is, an idolater) has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.

⁷The elders of Moab and Midian departed with the fees for divination in hand. They came to Balaam and relayed to him the words of Balak.

²⁶For she has brought many down to death; her slain are many in number.

²⁷Her house is the road to Sheol, descending to the chambers of death.

²¹With her great persuasion she entices him; with her flattering lips she lures him.

²²He follows her on impulse, like an ox going to the slaughter, like a deer bounding into a trap,

²⁶And I find more bitter than death the woman who is a snare, whose heart is a net, and whose hands are chains. The man who pleases God escapes her, but the sinner is ensnared.

³³Your eyes will see strange things, and your mind will utter perversities.

³⁴You will be like one sleeping on the high seas or lying on the top of a mast:

⁴²Do not go up, lest you be struck down by your enemies, because the Lord is not among you.

⁴³For there the Amalekites and Canaanites will face you, and you will fall by the sword. Because you have turned away from the Lord, He will not be with you.”

¹⁴Now the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and a spirit of distress from the Lord began to torment him.

¹²So Saul was afraid of David, because the Lord was with David but had departed from Saul.

¹²This is why the Israelites cannot stand against their enemies. They will turn their backs and run from their enemies, because they themselves have been set apart for destruction. I will no longer be with you unless you remove from among you whatever is devoted to destruction.

²So he went out to meet Asa and said to him, “Listen to me, Asa and all Judah and Benjamin. The Lord is with you when you are with Him. If you seek Him, He will be found by you, but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you.

¹Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor His ear too dull to hear.

²But your iniquities have built barriers between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He does not hear.

¹⁹None who go to her return or negotiate the paths of life.

¹⁴The backslider in heart receives the fill of his own ways, but a good man is rewarded for his ways.

⁵and every firstborn son in the land of Egypt will die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, to the firstborn of the servant girl behind the hand mill, as well as the firstborn of all the cattle.

²Take millstones and grind flour; remove your veil; strip off your skirt, bare your thigh, and wade through the streams.

⁴¹Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left.

²²The iniquities of a wicked man entrap him; the cords of his sin entangle him.

⁴⁴Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject or despise them so as to destroy them and break My covenant with them; for I am the Lord their God.

¹³Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and He saved them from their distress.

¹⁴He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death and broke away their chains.

⁴⁴Nevertheless He heard their cry; He took note of their distress.

⁴⁵And He remembered His covenant with them, and relented by the abundance of His loving devotion.

³⁶For the Lord will vindicate His people and have compassion on His servants when He sees that their strength is gone and no one remains, slave or free.

¹⁷Do not gloat when your enemy falls, and do not let your heart rejoice when he stumbles,

²carried it into the temple of Dagon, and set it beside his statue.

³When the people of Ashdod got up early the next morning, there was Dagon, fallen on his face before the ark of the Lord. So they took Dagon and returned him to his place.

⁴So about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world, and that there is no God but one.

⁵For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as there are many so-called gods and lords),

⁵Though all the nations may walk in the name of their gods, yet we will walk in the name of the Lord our God forever and ever.

¹¹Has a nation ever changed its gods? (Yet they are not gods at all.) But My people have exchanged their Glory for useless idols.

²³and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images of mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

²⁴Therefore God gave them over in the desires of their hearts to impurity for the dishonoring of their bodies with one another.

⁴As they drank the wine, they praised their gods of gold and silver, bronze and iron, wood and stone.

⁹They cut off Saul’s head, stripped off his armor, and sent messengers throughout the land of the Philistines to proclaim the news in the temples of their idols and among their people.

¹⁰And those who dwell on the earth will gloat over them and celebrate and send one another gifts, because these two prophets had tormented them.

²³Instead, you have exalted yourself against the Lord of heaven. The vessels from His house were brought to you, and as you drank wine from them with your nobles, wives, and concubines, you praised your gods of silver and gold, bronze and iron, wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or understand. But you have failed to glorify the God who holds in His hand your very breath and all your ways.

¹⁶Then Samson said: “With the jawbone of a donkey I have piled them into heaps. With the jawbone of a donkey I have slain a thousand men.”

²⁰And now, O Lord our God, save us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, O Lord, are God.”

¹⁵But when I stumbled, they assembled in glee; they gathered together against me. Assailants I did not know slandered me without ceasing.

¹⁶Like godless jesters at a feast, they gnashed their teeth at me.

³⁶Still others endured mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment.

²⁸Now Absalom had ordered his young men, “Watch Amnon until his heart is merry with wine, and when I order you to strike Amnon down, you are to kill him. Do not be afraid. Have I not commanded you? Be courageous and valiant!”

²⁷And after they had gone out into the fields, gathered grapes from their vineyards, and trodden them, they held a festival and went into the house of their god; and as they ate and drank, they cursed Abimelech.

⁶So they sat down and the two of them ate and drank together. Then the girl’s father said to the man, “Please agree to stay overnight and let your heart be merry.”

²Under the influence of the wine, Belshazzar gave orders to bring in the gold and silver vessels that Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken from the temple in Jerusalem, so that the king could drink from them, along with his nobles, his wives, and his concubines.

³Thus they brought in the gold vessels that had been taken from the temple, the house of God in Jerusalem, and the king drank from them, along with his nobles, his wives, and his concubines.

⁸If you build a new house, you are to construct a railing around your roof, so that you do not bring bloodguilt on your house if someone falls from it.

⁸Before the spies lay down for the night, Rahab went up on the roof

²One evening David got up from his bed and strolled around on the roof of the palace. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing—a very beautiful woman.

⁵¹But there was a strong tower inside the city, and all the men, women, and leaders of the city fled there. They locked themselves in and went up to the roof of the tower.

¹⁵You understand, O Lord; remember me and attend to me. Avenge me against my persecutors. In Your patience, do not take me away. Know that I endure reproach for Your honor.

³¹For the Lord will not cast us off forever.

³²Even if He causes grief, He will show compassion according to His abundant loving devotion.

¹⁵When he calls out to Me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver him and honor him.

¹²And in Your loving devotion, cut off my enemies. Destroy all who afflict me, for I am Your servant.

¹⁰And they cried out in a loud voice, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge those who dwell upon the earth and avenge our blood?”

¹⁵Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor Me.”

⁸And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross.

²⁵For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.

²For you are fully aware that the Day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.

¹⁷But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you.

³⁸For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark.

³⁹And they were oblivious until the flood came and swept them all away. So will it be at the coming of the Son of Man.

¹³Then Paul answered, “Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.”

²⁰And Samson judged Israel for twenty years in the days of the Philistines.

³⁹Nicodemus, who had previously come to Jesus at night, also brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds.

⁴⁰So they took the body of Jesus and wrapped it in linen cloths with the spices, according to the Jewish burial custom.

²⁵And the Spirit of the Lord began to stir him at Mahaneh-dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.

²Now there was a man from Zorah named Manoah, from the clan of the Danites, whose wife was barren and had no children.

⁴¹The territory of their inheritance included Zorah, Eshtaol, Ir-shemesh,