Samson's Fall and Leadership's Character

1. Samson went to Gaza, and saw there a prostitute, and went in to her. 2. The Gazites were told, “Samson is here!” They surrounded him, and laid wait for him all night in the gate of the city, and were quiet all the night, saying, “Wait until morning light, then we will kill him.” 3. 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. 4. It came to pass afterward, that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. 5. 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 eleven hundred pieces of silver.” 6. Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me where your great strength lies, and what you might be bound to afflict you.” 7. 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.” 8. Then the lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven green cords which had not been dried, and she bound him with them. 9. Now she had an ambush waiting in the inner room. 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. 10. Delilah said to Samson, “Behold, you have mocked me, and told me lies: now please tell me with which you might be bound.” 11. 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.” 12. 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 room. He broke them off his arms like a thread. 13. Delilah said to Samson, “Until now, you have mocked me and told me lies. Tell me with what you might be bound.” He said to her, “If you weave the seven locks of my head with the web.” 14. 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. 15. 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 where your great strength lies.” 16. When she pressed him daily with her words, and urged him, his soul was troubled to death. 17. 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.” 18. 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. 19. 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. 20. She said, “The Philistines are upon 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. 21. 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. 22. However the hair of his head began to grow again after he was shaved. 23. The lords of the Philistines gathered them together to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god, and to rejoice; for they said, “Our god has delivered Samson our enemy into our hand.” 24. When the people saw him, they praised their god; for they said, “Our god has delivered our enemy and the destroyer of our country, who has slain many of us, into our hand.” 25. When their hearts were merry, they said, “Call for Samson, that he may entertain us.” They called for Samson out of the prison; and he performed before them. They set him between the pillars; 26. and Samson said to the boy who held him by the hand, “Allow me to feel the pillars whereupon the house rests, that I may lean on them.” 27. Now the house was full of men and women; and all the lords of the Philistines were there; and there were on the roof about three thousand men and women, who saw while Samson performed. 28. Samson called to Yahweh, and said, “Lord Yahweh, remember me, please, and strengthen me, please, only this once, God, that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes.” 29. Samson took hold of the two middle pillars on which the house rested, and leaned on them, the one with his right hand, and the other with his left. 30. Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines!” He bowed himself with all his might; and the house fell on the lords, and on all the people who were therein. So the dead that he killed at his death were more than those who he killed in his life. 31. Then his brothers 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 burial site of Manoah his father. He judged Israel twenty years. 1. There was a man of the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Micah. 2. He said to his mother, “The eleven hundred pieces of silver that were taken from you, about which you uttered a curse, and also spoke it in my ears, behold, the silver is with me. I took it.” His mother said, “May Yahweh bless my son!” 3. He restored the eleven hundred pieces of silver to his mother, then his mother said, “I most certainly dedicate the silver to Yahweh from my hand for my son, to make a carved image and a molten image. Now therefore I will restore it to you.” 4. When he restored the money to his mother, his mother took two hundred pieces of silver, and gave them to a silversmith, who made a carved image and a molten image out of it. It was in the house of Micah. 5. The man Micah had a house of gods, and he made an ephod, and teraphim, and consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest. 6. In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did that which was right in his own eyes. 7. There was a young man out of Bethlehem Judah, of the family of Judah, who was a Levite; and he lived there. 8. The man departed out of the city, out of Bethlehem Judah, to live where he could find a place, and he came to the hill country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, as he traveled. 9. Micah said to him, “Where did you come from?” He said to him, “I am a Levite of Bethlehem Judah, and I am looking for a place to live.” 10. Micah said to him, “Dwell with me, and be to me a father and a priest, and I will give you ten pieces of silver per year, a suit of clothing, and your food.” So the Levite went in. 11. The Levite was content to dwell with the man; and the young man was to him as one of his sons. 12. Micah consecrated the Levite, and the young man became his priest, and was in the house of Micah. 13. Then Micah said, “Now know I that Yahweh will do good to me, since I have a Levite as my priest.” 1. In those days there was no king in Israel. In those days the tribe of the Danites sought an inheritance to dwell in; for to that day, their inheritance had not fallen to them among the tribes of Israel. 2. The children of Dan sent five men of their family from their whole number, men of valor, from Zorah, and from Eshtaol, to spy out the land, and to search it. They said to them, “Go, explore the land!” They came to the hill country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, and lodged there. 3. When they were by the house of Micah, they knew the voice of the young man the Levite; so they went over there, and said to him, “Who brought you here? What do you do in this place? What do you have here?” 4. He said to them, “Thus and thus has Micah dealt with me, and he has hired me, and I am become his priest.” 5. They said to him, “Please ask counsel of God, that we may know whether our way which we go shall be prosperous.” 6. The priest said to them, “Go in peace. Your way in which you go is before Yahweh.” 7. Then the five men departed, and came to Laish, and saw the people who were there, how they lived in safety, in the way of the Sidonians, quiet and secure; for there was no one in the land, possessing authority, that might put them to shame in anything, and they were far from the Sidonians, and had no dealings with anyone else. 8. They came to their brothers at Zorah and Eshtaol; and their brothers asked them, “What do you say?” 9. They said, “Arise, and let us go up against them; for we have seen the land, and behold, it is very good. Do you stand still? Don’t be slothful to go and to enter in to possess the land. 10. When you go, you will come to an unsuspecting people, and the land is large; for God has given it into your hand, a place where there is no lack of anything that is in the earth.” 11. The family of the Danites set out from Zorah and Eshtaol, with six hundred men armed with weapons of war. 12. They went up and encamped in Kiriath Jearim, in Judah. Therefore they called that place Mahaneh Dan, to this day. Behold, it is behind Kiriath Jearim. 13. They passed from there to the hill country of Ephraim, and came to the house of Micah. 14. Then the five men who went to spy out the country of Laish answered, and said to their brothers, “Do you know that there is in these houses an ephod, and teraphim, and a carved image, and a molten image? Now therefore consider what you have to do.” 15. They went over there, and came to the house of the young Levite man, even to the house of Micah, and asked him how he was doing. 16. The six hundred men armed with their weapons of war, who were of the children of Dan, stood by the entrance of the gate. 17. The five men who went to spy out the land went up, and came in there, and took the engraved image, the ephod, the teraphim, and the molten image; and the priest stood by the entrance of the gate with the six hundred men armed with weapons of war. 18. When these went into Micah’s house, and took the engraved image, the ephod, the teraphim, and the molten image, the priest said to them, “What are you doing?” 19. They said to him, “Hold your peace, put your hand on your mouth, and go with us, and be to us a father and a priest. Is it better for you to be priest to the house of one man, or to be priest to a tribe and a family in Israel?” 20. The priest’s heart was glad, and he took the ephod, the teraphim, and the engraved image, and went with the people. 21. So they turned and departed, and put the little ones, the livestock, and the goods before them. 22. When they were a good way from the house of Micah, the men who were in the houses near Micah’s house gathered together and overtook the children of Dan. 23. As they cried to the children of Dan, they turned their faces, and said to Micah, “What ails you, that you come with such a company?” 24. He said, “You have taken away my gods which I made, and the priest, and have gone away! What more do I have? How can you ask me, ‘What ails you?’” 25. The children of Dan said to him, “Don’t let your voice be heard among us, lest angry fellows fall on you, and you lose your life, with the lives of your household.” 26. The children of Dan went their way; and when Micah saw that they were too strong for him, he turned and went back to his house. 27. They took that which Micah had made, and the priest whom he had, and came to Laish, to a people quiet and unsuspecting, and struck them with the edge of the sword; then they burned the city with fire. 28. There was no deliverer, because it was far from Sidon, and they had no dealings with anyone else; and it was in the valley that lies by Beth Rehob. They built the city, and lived in it. 29. They called the name of the city Dan, after the name of Dan their father, who was born to Israel; however the name of the city used to be Laish. 30. The children of Dan set up for themselves the engraved image; and Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Moses, and his sons were priests to the tribe of the Danites until the day of the captivity of the land. 31. So they set up for themselves Micah’s engraved image which he made, and it remained all the time that God’s house was in Shiloh.

1. Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God’s chosen ones, and the knowledge of the truth which is according to godliness, 2. in hope of eternal life, which God, who can’t lie, promised before time began; 3. but in his own time revealed his word in the message with which I was entrusted according to the commandment of God our Savior; 4. to Titus, my true child according to a common faith: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior. 5. I left you in Crete for this reason, that you would set in order the things that were lacking, and appoint elders in every city, as I directed you; 6. if anyone is blameless, the husband of one wife, having children who believe, who are not accused of loose or unruly behavior. 7. For the overseer must be blameless, as God’s steward; not self-pleasing, not easily angered, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for dishonest gain; 8. but given to hospitality, a lover of good, sober minded, fair, holy, self-controlled; 9. holding to the faithful word which is according to the teaching, that he may be able to exhort in the sound doctrine, and to convict those who contradict him. 10. For there are also many unruly men, vain talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, 11. whose mouths must be stopped; men who overthrow whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for dishonest gain’s sake. 12. One of them, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, and idle gluttons.” 13. This testimony is true. For this cause, reprove them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, 14. not paying attention to Jewish fables and commandments of men who turn away from the truth. 15. To the pure, all things are pure; but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their mind and their conscience are defiled. 16. They profess that they know God, but by their deeds they deny him, being abominable, disobedient, and unfit for any good work. 1. But say the things which fit sound doctrine, 2. that older men should be temperate, sensible, sober minded, sound in faith, in love, and in perseverance: 3. and that older women likewise be reverent in behavior, not slanderers nor enslaved to much wine, teachers of that which is good; 4. that they may train the young wives to love their husbands, to love their children, 5. to be sober minded, chaste, workers at home, kind, being in subjection to their own husbands, that God’s word may not be blasphemed. 6. Likewise, exhort the younger men to be sober minded; 7. in all things showing yourself an example of good works; in your teaching showing integrity, seriousness, incorruptibility, 8. and soundness of speech that can’t be condemned; that he who opposes you may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say about us. 9. Exhort servants to be in subjection to their own masters, and to be well-pleasing in all things; not contradicting; 10. not stealing, but showing all good fidelity; that they may adorn the doctrine of God, our Savior, in all things. 11. For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, 12. instructing us to the intent that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we would live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present age; 13. looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ; 14. who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good works. 15. Say these things and exhort and reprove with all authority. Let no man despise you. 1. Remind them to be in subjection to rulers and to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, 2. to speak evil of no one, not to be contentious, to be gentle, showing all humility toward all men. 3. For we were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another. 4. But when the kindness of God our Savior and his love toward mankind appeared, 5. not by works of righteousness which we did ourselves, but according to his mercy, he saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, 6. whom he poured out on us richly, through Jesus Christ our Savior; 7. that being justified by his grace, we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. 8. This saying is faithful, and concerning these things I desire that you affirm confidently, so that those who have believed God may be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable to men; 9. but shun foolish questionings, genealogies, strife, and disputes about the law; for they are unprofitable and vain. 10. Avoid a factious man after a first and second warning, 11. knowing that such a one is perverted and sins, being self-condemned. 12. When I send Artemas to you, or Tychicus, be diligent to come to me to Nicopolis, for I have determined to winter there. 13. Send Zenas, the lawyer, and Apollos on their journey speedily, that nothing may be lacking for them. 14. Let our people also learn to maintain good works for necessary uses, that they may not be unfruitful. 15. All who are with me greet you. Greet those who love us in faith. Grace be with you all. Amen.

1. Hurry, God, to deliver me. Come quickly to help me, Yahweh. 2. Let them be disappointed and confounded who seek my soul. Let those who desire my ruin be turned back in disgrace. 3. Let them be turned because of their shame Who say, “Aha! Aha!” 4. Let all those who seek you rejoice and be glad in you. Let those who love your salvation continually say, “Let God be exalted!” 5. But I am poor and needy. Come to me quickly, God. You are my help and my deliverer. Yahweh, don’t delay.