05 April - Judges 16-18

Jude Sat Dec 08, 2018 11:21 am

My soul doth magnify my YAH, and my spirit hath rejoiced in EL my Saviour; For HE that is mighty hath done to me great things; and Holy is HIS Name. Now unto HIM who is ever present in my helpless estate; who is able to keep me from falling and to present me faultless before the presence of His Glory with exceeding joy, unto the King Eternal, Immortal, Invisible, the only wise EL our Saviour be honour and glory and majesty, dominion and power both now and for ever Halleluyah!

JUDGES 16

1And Shimshon went to Azzah and saw a woman there, a whore, and went in to her –

2the Azzathites saying, “Shimshon has come here!” So they went round and lay in wait for him all night at the gate of the city, and kept silent all night, saying, “In the morning, when it is daylight, then we shall kill him.”

3Now Shimshon lay until midnight, and rose at midnight, and took hold of the doors of the gate of the city and the two gateposts, and pulled them up with the bar, put them on his shoulders, and took them to the top of the hill that faces Ḥeḇron.

4And it came to be afterward that he loved a woman in the wadi Sorĕq, whose name was Delilah.

5And the princes of the Philistines came up to her and said to her, “Entice him, and find out where his great strength lies, and see by what we might overpower him, then we shall bind him to humble him. And let us give you, each one of us, eleven hundred pieces of silver.”

6And Delilah said to Shimshon, “Please reveal to me where your great strength lies, and by what you might be bound, to humble you.”

7And Shimshon said to her, “If they bind me with seven fresh cords, not yet dried, then I shall be weak, and be like any other man.”

8The princes of the Philistines then brought her seven fresh cords, not yet dried, and she bound him with them,

9while those lying in wait stayed with her in the room. And she said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Shimshon!” But he broke the cords as a strand of yarn breaks when it touches fire. So the secret of his strength remained unknown.

10And Delilah said to Shimshon, “Look, you have mocked me and spoken lies to me. Now, please reveal to me by what you might be bound.”

11And he said to her, “If they bind me tightly with new ropes that have never been used, then I shall be weak, and be like any other man.”

12And Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them, and said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Shimshon!” And those lying in wait were sitting in the inner room. But he broke them off his arms like a thread.

13So Delilah said to Shimshon, “Until now you have mocked me and spoken lies to me, reveal to me how you might be bound.” And he said to her, “If you weave the seven locks of my head with the web.”

14Then she fastened it with a pin, and said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Shimshon!” But he awoke from his sleep, and pulled out the pin of the loom and the web.

15Then she said to him, “How do you say, ‘I love you,’ when your heart is not with me? You have mocked me these three times, and have not made known to me where your great strength lies.”

16And it came to be, when she pressed him daily with her words and urged him, so that his being was wearied to death,

17that he made known to her all his heart, and said to her, “No razor has ever come upon my head, for I have been a Nazirite to Elohim from my mother’s womb. If I were shaven, then my strength would leave me, and I would become as weak as any other man.”

18And Delilah saw that he had made known to her all his heart, and she sent and called for the princes of the Philistines, saying, “Come up once more, for he has made known to me all his heart.” So the princes of the Philistines came up to her and brought the money in their hand.

19And she made him sleep on her knees, and called for a man and shaved off the seven locks of his head. Thus she began to humble him, and his strength left him.

20And she said, “The Philistines are upon you, Shimshon!” And he awoke from his sleep, and said, “Let me go out as before, at other times, and shake myself loose!” But he did not know that יהוה had turned aside from him.

21So the Philistines took him and put out his eyes, and brought him down to Azzah, and bound him with bronze shackles. And he became a grinder in the prison.

22But the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaven.

23And the princes of the Philistines gathered to offer a great slaughtering to Dag̅on their mighty one, and to rejoice. And they said, “Our mighty one has given Shimshon our enemy into our hands!”

24And the people saw him, and praised their mighty one, for they said, “Our mighty one has given into our hands our enemy, the destroyer of our land, who slew many of us.”

25And it came to be, when their hearts were glad, that they said, “Call for Shimshon, and let him entertain us.” So they called for Shimshon from the prison, and he entertained them. And they made him stand between the columns.

26And Shimshon said to the young man who held him by the hand, “Let me alone and let me feel the columns which support the house, so that I lean on them.”

27And the house was filled with men and women. And all the princes of the Philistines were there. And about three thousand men and women were on the roof who watched Shimshon entertaining.

28And Shimshon called to יהוה, saying, “O Master יהוה, remember me, I pray! Strengthen me, I pray, only this time, O Elohim, and let me avenge myself on the Philistines with vengeance for my two eyes!”

29And Shimshon took hold of the two middle columns which supported the house, and he braced himself against them, one on his right and the other on his left.

30And Shimshon said, “Let me die with the Philistines!” And he bowed himself mightily, and the house fell on the princes and all the people in it. And the dead that he killed at his death were more than he had killed in his life.

31And his brothers and all his father’s household came down and took him, and brought him up and buried him between Tsor‛ah and Eshta’ol in the tomb of his father Manowaḥ. And he had ruled Yisra’ĕl twenty years.

JUDGES 17

1And there was a man from the hill country of Ephrayim, whose name was Miḵahu.

2And he said to his mother, “The eleven hundred pieces of silver that were taken from you, and on which you put a curse, even saying it in my ears. Look, the silver is with me, I took it.” And his mother said, “Blessed of יהוה be my son!”

3And he gave back the eleven hundred pieces of silver to his mother, and his mother said, “I had truly set apart the silver from my hand to יהוה for my son, to make a carved image and a moulded image, and now, I give it back to you.”

4And he gave the silver back to his mother, and his mother took two hundred pieces of silver and gave them to the silversmith, and he made it into a carved image and a moulded image. And they were in the house of Miḵahu.

5Now the man Miḵah had a house of mighty ones, and made a shoulder garment and house idols. And he ordained one of his sons, who became his priest.

6In those days there was no sovereign in Yisra’ĕl – everyone did what was right in his own eyesa.

7And there was a young man from Bĕyth Leḥem in Yehuḏah, of the clan of Yehuḏah. And he was a Lĕwite, and he was sojourning there.

8And the man went out of the city of Bĕyth Leḥem in Yehuḏah to sojourn wherever he could find a place. And he came to the mountains of Ephrayim, to the house of Miḵah, as he journeyed.

9And Miḵah said to him, “Where do you come from?” And he said to him, “I am a Lĕwite from Bĕyth Leḥem in Yehuḏah, and I am on my way to find a place to sojourn.”

10And Miḵah said to him, “Dwell with me, and be a father and a priest to me, and I give you ten pieces of silver per year, and a suit of garments, and your food.” And the Lĕwite went in.

11So the Lĕwite agreed to dwell with the man. And the young man became like one of his sons to him.

12Then Miḵah ordained the Lĕwite, and the young man became his priest, and he was in the house of Miḵah.

13And Miḵah said, “Now I know that יהוה does good to me, since I have a Lĕwite as priest!”

JUDGES 18

1In those days there was no sovereign in Yisra’ĕl. And in those days the tribe of the Danites was seeking an inheritance for itself to dwell in, for until that day all their inheritance among the tribes of Yisra’ĕl had not yet fallen to them.

2And the children of Dan sent five men of their clan, brave men from Tsor‛ah and Eshta’ol, to spy out the land and search it. And they said to them, “Go, search the land,” so they went to the mountains of Ephrayim, to the house of Miḵah, and spent the night there.

3When they were near the house of Miḵah, they recognised the voice of the young Lĕwite, and turned aside and said to him, “Who brought you here? What are you doing in this place, and what do you have here?”

4And he said to them, “Miḵah did such and such for me. And he hired me, and I have become his priest.”

5And they said to him, “Please inquire of Elohim, and we shall know whether the journey on which we are going is prosperous.”

6And the priest said to them, “Go in peace. Your journey on which you go is before יהוה.”

7Then the five men left and came to Layish, and saw the people who were in their midst, how they dwelt safely, according to the ruling of the Tsiḏonians, at rest and unsuspecting. And no one possessing authority in the land was reproaching for any matter. And they were far from the Tsiḏonians, and they had no word with anyone.

8And the spies came back to their brothers at Tsor‛ah and Eshta’ol, and their brothers said to them, “What do you say?”

9And they said, “Arise, and let us go up against them. For we have seen the land, and look, it is very good. And you sit still! Do not hesitate to go to enter in to possess the land.

10“When you go, you are to come to an unsuspecting people, and the land is spacious. For Elohim has given it into your hands, a place in which there is no lack of any matter which is on the earth.”

11And six hundred men of the clan of the Danites went from there, from Tsor‛ah and Eshta’ol, armed for battle.

12And they went up and encamped in Qiryath Ye‛arim in Yehuḏah. Therefore they call that place Maḥanĕh Ḏan to this day. See, it is west of Qiryath Ye‛arim.

13And they passed over from there to the mountains of Ephrayim, and came to the house of Miḵah.

14And the five men who had gone to spy out the land of Layish answered and said to their brothers, “Do you know that there are in these houses a shoulder garment, and house idols, and a carved image, and a moulded image? And now, you know what to do.”

15And they turned aside there, and came to the house of the young Lĕwite man, the house of Miḵah, and greeted him.

16And the six hundred men, armed for battle, who were of the children of Dan, stood by the entrance of the gate.

17And the five men who had gone to spy out the land went up, and entering there, they took the carved image, and the shoulder garment, and the house idols, and the moulded image, while the priest stood at the entrance of the gate with the six hundred men who were armed for battle.

18And these went into Miḵah’s house and took the idol, and the shoulder garment, and the house idols, and the moulded image. Then the priest said to them, “What are you doing?”

19And they said to him, “Be silent, put your hand over your mouth, and come with us, and be a father and a priest to us. Is it better for you to be a priest to the household of one man, or that you be a priest to a tribe and a clan in Yisra’ĕl?”

20And the heart of the priest was glad. And he took the shoulder garment, and the house idols, and the carved image, and took his place among the people.

21And they turned and went, and put the little ones, and the livestock, and the valuables in front of them.

22They had gone some distance from the house of Miḵah, when the men who were in the houses near Miḵah’s house gathered together and overtook the children of Dan,

23and called out to the children of Dan. So they turned around and said to Miḵah, “What is the matter, that you have gathered such a company?”

24And he said, “You have taken away my mighty ones which I made, and the priest, and you are leaving. Now what more do I have? What is this you say to me, ‘What is the matter?’ ”

25And the children of Dan said to him, “Do not let your voice be heard among us, lest men, bitter of being, fall upon you, and you lose your life, with the lives of your household!”

26And the children of Dan went their way. And when Miḵah saw that they were too strong for him, he turned and went back to his house.

27Then they took what Miḵah had made, and the priest who had belonged to him, and went to Layish, to a people who were at rest and unsuspecting, and smote them with the edge of the sword and burned the city with fire.

28And there was no deliverer, because it was far from Tsiḏon, and they had no word with anyone. And it was in the valley that belongs to Bĕyth Reḥoḇ. And they rebuilt the city and dwelt there.

29And they called the name of the city Dan, after the name of Dan their father, who was born to Yisra’ĕl. But previously the name of the city was Layish.

30And the children of Dan set up for themselves the carved image. And Yehonathan son of Gĕreshom, son of Menashsheh, and his sons were priests to the tribe of Dan until the day the land was taken into exile.

31And they set up for themselves the carved image of Miḵah, which he had made, all the days that the house of Elohim was in Shiloh.