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JUDGES XVI-SAMSON AND DELILAH

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withs that were never dried, then shall I be weak, and be as another

man.

8 Then the lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven green withs which had not been dried, and she bound him with them.

9 Now there were men lying in wait, abiding with her in the chamber. And she said unto him, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And he brake the withs, as a thread of tow is broken when it toucheth the fire. So his strength was not known.

10 And Delilah said unto Samson, Behold, thou hast mocked me, and told me lies: now tell me, I pray thee, wherewith thou mightest be bound.

11 And he said unto her, If they bind me fast with new ropes that never were occupied, then shall I be weak, and be as another man. 12 Delilah therefore took new ropes, and bound him therewith, and said unto him, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And there were liers in wait abiding in the chamber. And he brake them from off his arms like a thread.

13 And Delilah said unto Samson, Hitherto thou hast mocked me, and told me lies: tell me wherewith thou mightest be bound. And he said unto her, If thou weavest the seven locks of my head with the web. 14 And she fastened it with the pin, and said unto him, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And he awaked out of his sleep, and went away with the pin of the beam, and with the web.1

15¶ And she said unto him, How canst thou say, I love thee, when thine heart is not with me? thou hast mocked me these three times, and hast not told me wherein thy great strength lieth.

16 And it came to pass, when she pressed him daily with her words, and urged him, so that his soul was vexed unto death;

17 That he told her all his heart, and said unto her, There hath not come a razor upon mine head; for I have been a Nazarite unto God from my mother's womb: if I be shaven, then my strength will go from me, and I shall become weak, and be like any other man.

18 And 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 hath shewed me all his heart. Then the lords of the Philistines came up unto her, and brought money in their hand.

19 And she made him sleep upon her knees; and she called for a man, and she caused him to shave off the seven locks of his head; and she began to afflict him, and his strength went from him.

20 And she said, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And he awoke out of his sleep, and said, I will go out as at other times before, and shake myself. And he wist not that the LORD was departed from him.

'The idea of this passage is that she had woven the locks of his hair in with the threads of a web of cloth upon her loom. As Samson rises his strength breaks the heavy loom, and he carries off part of it still tangled in his hair.

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JUDGES XVI—SAMSON'S DEATH

21 But the Philistines took him, and put out his eyes; and brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with fetters of brass; and he did grind in the prison house.

22 Howbeit the hair of his head began to grow again after he was shaven.

23 Then the lords of the Philistines gathered them together for to offer a great sacrifice unto Dagon their god, and to rejoice: for they said, Our god hath delivered Samson our enemy into our hand.

24 And when the people saw him, they praised their god: for they said, Our god hath delivered into our hands our enemy, and the destroyer of our country, which slew many of us.

25 And it came to pass, when their hearts were merry, that they said, Call for Samson, that he may make us sport. And they called for Samson out of the prison house; and he made them sport: and they set him between the pillars.

26 And Samson said unto the lad that held him by the hand, Suffer me that I may feel the pillars whereupon the house standeth, that I may lean upon them.

27 Now the house was full of men and women; and all the lords of the Philistines were there, and there were upon the roof about three thousand men and women, that beheld while Samson made sport.

28 And Samson called unto the LORD, and said, O Lord GOD, remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once, O God, that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes.

29 And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars upon which the house stood, and on which it was borne up, of the one with his right hand, and of the other with his left.

30 And Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines. And he bowed himself with all his might; and the house fell upon the lords, and upon all the people that were therein. So the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life.

31 Then his brethren and all the house of his father came down, and took him, and brought him up, and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the buryingplace of Manoah his father. And he judged Israel twenty years.

Chapter 17

1 Of the money that Micah first stole, then restored, his mother maketh images, 5 and he ornaments for them. 7 He hireth a Levite to be his priest.

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ND there was a man of mount Ephraim, whose name was
Micah.1

2 And he said unto his mother, The eleven hundred shekels of silver that were taken from thee, about which thou cursedst, and The stories of the following chapters are not chronologically placed; for they appear to have occurred soon after the days of Joshua.

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“And he said unto the men of Succoth, Give, I pray you, loaves of bread unto the people that follow me.”—Jud., 8, 5. IDEON was resolved that the Midianites should

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be so punished that never again would they venture to invade Israel. Therefore he pursued them rigorously with his chosen three hundred, always slaying, slaying. He sent word to the tribe of Ephraim to guard the fords of the Jordan; and they did so and made a great slaughter of the Midianites there. Of one hundred and thirty thousand invaders only fifteen thousand escaped across the Jordan. Gideon followed them.

Yet the new leader had many difficulties to encounter, even from his own people. The men of Ephraim came near to attacking him because he had not left the leadership with them, the wardens of the sanctuary, Israel's chief tribe. When he had crossed Jordan with his wearied band, he could get no food for them. He appealed to one city after another there, cities of the tribe of Gad, begging not for men but only for bread. Such was the people's fear of the Midianites that they refused him. They jeered at the thought of his exhausted three hundred attacking the still numerous thousands of the foe. Only Gideon's courage and high faith in God carried him and his devoted band onward in their pursuit.

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