The MacArthur Study Bible, NKJV

by John MacArthur

  13“But if you cannot explain it to me, then you shall give me thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothing.” And they said to him, m“Pose your riddle, that we may hear it.”

  14So he said to them:

  “Out of the eater came something to eat,

  And out of the strong came something sweet.”

  Now for three days they could not explain the riddle.

  15But it came to pass on the 2seventh day that they said to Samson’s wife, n“Entice your husband, that he may explain the riddle to us, oor else we will burn you and your father’s house with fire. Have you invited us in order to take what is ours? Is that not so?”

  16Then Samson’s wife wept on him, and said, p“You only hate me! You do not love me! You have posed a riddle to the sons of my people, but you have not explained it to me.” And he said to her, “Look, I have not explained it to my father or my mother; so should I explain it to you?”

  17Now she had wept on him the seven days while their feast lasted. And it happened on the seventh day that he told her, because she pressed him so much. Then she explained the riddle to the sons of her people.

  18So the men of the city said to him on the seventh day before the sun went down:

  “What is sweeter than honey?

  And what is stronger than a lion?”

  And he said to them:

  “If you had not plowed with my heifer,

  You would not have solved my riddle!”

  19Then qthe Spirit of the LORD came upon him mightily, and he went down to Ashkelon and killed thirty of their men, took their apparel, and gave the changes of clothing to those who had explained the riddle. So his anger was aroused, and he went back up to his father’s house.

  20And Samson’s wife rwas given to his companion, who had been shis best man.

  Judges 15

  Samson Defeats the Philistines

  1After a while, in the time of wheat harvest, it happened that Samson visited his wife with a ayoung goat. And he said, “Let me go in to my wife, into her room.” But her father would not permit him to go in.

  2Her father said, “I really thought that you thoroughly bhated her; therefore I gave her to your companion. Is not her younger sister better than she? Please, take her instead.”

  3And Samson said to them, “This time I shall be blameless regarding the Philistines if I harm them!”

  4Then Samson went and caught three hundred foxes; and he took torches, turned the foxes tail to tail, and put a torch between each pair of tails.

  5When he had set the torches on fire, he let the foxes go into the standing grain of the Philistines, and burned up both the shocks and the standing grain, as well as the vineyards and olive groves.

  6Then the Philistines said, “Who has done this?” And they answered, “Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he has taken his wife and given her to his companion.” cSo the Philistines came up and burned her and her father with fire.

  7Samson said to them, “Since you would do a thing like this, I will surely take revenge on you, and after that I will cease.”

  8So he attacked them hip and thigh with a great slaughter; then he went down and dwelt in the cleft of the rock of dEtam.

  9Now the Philistines went up, encamped in Judah, and deployed themselves eagainst Lehi.

  10And the men of Judah said, “Why have you come up against us?” So they answered, “We have come up to 1arrest Samson, to do to him as he has done to us.”

  11Then three thousand men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam, and said to Samson, “Do you not know that the Philistines frule over us? What is this you have done to us?” And he said to them, “As they did to me, so I have done to them.”

  12But they said to him, “We have come down to arrest you, that we may deliver you into the hand of the Philistines.” Then Samson said to them, “Swear to me that you will not kill me yourselves.”

  13So they spoke to him, saying, “No, but we will tie you securely and deliver you into their hand; but we will surely not kill you.” And they bound him with two gnew ropes and brought him up from the rock.

  14When he came to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting against him. Then hthe Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him; and the ropes that were on his arms became like flax that is burned with fire, and his bonds 2broke loose from his hands.

  15He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, reached out his hand and took it, and ikilled a thousand men with it.

  16Then Samson said:

  “With the jawbone of a donkey,

  Heaps upon heaps,

  With the jawbone of a donkey

  I have slain a thousand men!”

  17And so it was, when he had finished speaking, that he threw the jawbone from his hand, and called that place 3Ramath Lehi.

  18Then he became very thirsty; so he cried out to the LORD and said, j“You have given this great deliverance by the hand of Your servant; and now shall I die of thirst and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised?”

  19So God split the hollow place that is in 4Lehi, and water came out, and he drank; and khis spirit returned, and he revived. Therefore he called its name 5En Hakkore, which is in Lehi to this day.

  20And lhe judged Israel mtwenty years nin the days of the Philistines.

  Judges 16

  Samson and Delilah

  1Now Samson went to aGaza and saw a harlot there, and went in to her.

  2When the Gazites were told, “Samson has come here!” they bsurrounded the place and lay in wait for him all night at the gate of the city. They were quiet all night, saying, “In the morning, when it is daylight, we will kill him.”

  3And Samson lay low till midnight; then he arose at midnight, took hold of the doors of the gate of the city and the two gateposts, pulled them up, bar and all, put them on his shoulders, and carried them to the top of the hill that faces Hebron.

  4Afterward it happened that he loved a woman in the Valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah.

  5And the clords of the Philistines came up to her and said to her, d“Entice him, and find out where his great strength lies, and by what means we may overpower him, that we may bind him to afflict him; and every one of us will give you eleven hundred pieces of silver.”

  6So Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me where your great strength lies, and with what you may be bound to afflict you.”

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

  8So the lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven fresh bowstrings, not yet dried, and she bound him with them.

  9Now men were lying in wait, staying with her in the room. And she said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” But he broke the bowstrings as a strand of yarn breaks when it touches fire. So the secret of his strength was not known.

  10Then Delilah said to Samson, “Look, you have mocked me and told me lies. Now, please tell me what you may be bound with.”

  11So he said to her, “If they bind me securely with enew ropes 1that have never been used, then I shall become weak, and be like any other man.”

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

  13Delilah said to Samson, “Until now you have mocked me and told me lies. Tell me what you may be bound with.” And he said to her, “If you weave the seven locks of my head into the web of the loom”—

  14So she wove it tightly with the batten of the loom, and said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” But he awoke from his sleep, and pulled out the batten and the web from the loom.

  15Then she said to him, f“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.”

  16And it came to pass, when she peste
red him daily with her words and pressed him, so that his soul was 2vexed to death,

  17that he gtold her all his heart, and said to her, h“No razor has ever come upon my head, for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If I am shaven, then my strength will leave me, and I shall become weak, and be like any other man.”

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

  19iThen she lulled him to sleep on her knees, and called for a man and had him shave off the seven locks of his head. Then 3she began to torment him, and his strength left him.

  20And she said, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” So he awoke from his sleep, and said, “I will go out as before, at other times, and shake myself free!” But he did not know that the LORD jhad departed from him.

  21Then the Philistines took him and 4put out his keyes, and brought him down to Gaza. They bound him with bronze fetters, and he became a grinder in the prison.

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

  Samson Dies with the Philistines

  23Now the lords of the Philistines gathered together to offer a great sacrifice to lDagon their god, and to rejoice. And they said:

  “Our god has delivered into our hands

  Samson our enemy!”

  24When the people saw him, they mpraised their god; for they said:

  “Our god has delivered into our hands our enemy,

  The destroyer of our land,

  And the one who multiplied our dead.”

  25So it happened, when their hearts were nmerry, that they said, “Call for Samson, that he may perform for us.” So they called for Samson from the prison, and he performed for them. And they stationed him between the pillars.

  26Then Samson said to the lad who held him by the hand, “Let me feel the pillars which support the temple, so that I can lean on them.”

  27Now the temple was full of men and women. All the lords of the Philistines were there—about three thousand men and women on the oroof watching while Samson performed.

  28Then Samson called to the LORD, saying, “O Lord GOD, premember me, I pray! Strengthen me, I pray, just this once, O God, that I may with one blow take vengeance on the Philistines for my two eyes!”

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

  30Then Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines!” And he pushed with all his might, and the temple fell on the lords and all the people who were in it. So 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 qburied him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of his father Manoah. He had judged Israel rtwenty years.

  Judges 17

  Micah’s Idolatry

  1Now there was a man from the mountains of Ephraim, whose name was aMicah.

  2And he said to his mother, “The eleven hundred shekels of silver that were taken from you, and on which you bput a curse, even saying it in my ears—here is the silver with me; I took it.” And his mother said, c“May you be blessed by the LORD, my son!”

  3So when he had returned the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother, his mother said, “I had wholly dedicated the silver from my hand to the LORD for my son, to dmake a carved image and a molded image; now therefore, I will return it to you.”

  4Thus he returned the silver to his mother. Then his mother etook two hundred shekels of silver and gave them to the silversmith, and he made it into a carved image and a molded image; and they were in the house of Micah.

  5The man Micah had a fshrine, and made an gephod and hhousehold1 idols; and he consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest.

  6iIn those days there was no king in Israel; jeveryone did what was right in his own eyes.

  7Now there was a young man from kBethlehem in Judah, of the family of Judah; he was a Levite, and lwas staying there.

  8The man departed from the city of Bethlehem in Judah to stay wherever he could find a place. Then he came to the mountains of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, as he journeyed.

  9And Micah said to him, “Where do you come from?” So he said to him, “I am a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah, and I am on my way to find a place to stay.”

  10Micah said to him, “Dwell with me, mand be a nfather and a priest to me, and I will give you ten shekels of silver per year, a suit of clothes, and your sustenance.” So the Levite went in.

  11Then the Levite was content to dwell with the man; and the young man became like one of his sons to him.

  12So Micah oconsecrated2 the Levite, and the young man pbecame his priest, and lived in the house of Micah.

  13Then Micah said, “Now I know that the LORD will be good to me, since I have a Levite as qpriest!”

  Judges 18

  The Danites Adopt Micah’s Idolatry

  1In athose days there was no king in Israel. And in those days bthe tribe of the Danites was seeking an inheritance for itself to dwell in; for until that day their inheritance among the tribes of Israel had not fallen to them.

  2So the children of Dan sent five men of their family from their territory, men of valor from cZorah and Eshtaol, dto spy out the land and search it. They said to them, “Go, search the land.” So they went to the mountains of Ephraim, to the ehouse of Micah, and lodged there.

  3While they were at the house of Micah, they recognized the voice of the young Levite. They turned aside and said to him, “Who brought you here? What are you doing in this place? What do you have here?”

  4He said to them, “Thus and so Micah did for me. He has fhired me, and I have become his priest.”

  5So they said to him, “Please ginquire hof God, that we may know whether the journey on which we go will be prosperous.”

  6And the priest said to them, i“Go in peace. 1The presence of the LORD be with you on your way.”

  7So the five men departed and went to jLaish. They saw the people who were there, khow they dwelt safely, in the manner of the Sidonians, quiet and secure. There were no rulers in the land who might put them to shame for anything. They were far from the lSidonians, and they had no ties 2with anyone.

  8Then the spies came back to their brethren at mZorah and Eshtaol, and their brethren said to them, “What is your report?”

  9So they said, n“Arise, let us go up against them. For we have seen the land, and indeed it is very good. Would you odo nothing? Do not hesitate to go, and enter to possess the land.

  10“When you go, you will come to a psecure people and a large land. For God has given it into your hands, qa place where there is no lack of anything that is on the earth.”

  11And six hundred men of the family of the Danites went from there, from Zorah and Eshtaol, armed with weapons of war.

  12Then they went up and encamped in rKirjath Jearim in Judah. (Therefore they call that place sMahaneh Dan3 to this day. There it is, west of Kirjath Jearim.)

  13And they passed from there to the mountains of Ephraim, and came to tthe house of Micah.

  14uThen the five men who had gone to spy out the country of Laish answered and said to their brethren, “Do you know that vthere are in these houses an ephod, household idols, a carved image, and a molded image? Now therefore, consider what you should do.”

  15So they turned aside there, and came to the house of the young Levite man—to the house of Micah—and greeted him.

  16The wsix hundred men armed with their weapons of war, who were of the children of Dan, stood by the entrance of the gate.

  17Then xthe five men who had gone to spy out the land went up. Entering there, they took ythe carved image, the ephod, the household idols, and the molded image. T
he priest stood at the entrance of the gate with the six hundred men who were armed with weapons of war.

  18When these went into Micah’s house and took the carved image, the ephod, the household idols, and the molded image, the priest said to them, “What are you doing?”

  19And they said to him, “Be quiet, zput your hand over your mouth, and come with us; abe 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 family in Israel?”

  20So the priest’s heart was glad; and he took the ephod, the household idols, and the carved image, and took his place among the people.

  21Then they turned and departed, and put the little ones, the livestock, and the goods in front of them.

  22When 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.

  23And they called out to the children of Dan. So they turned around and said to Micah, b“What ails you, that you have gathered such a company?”

  24So he said, “You have ctaken away my 4gods which I made, and the priest, and you have gone away. Now what more do I have? How can you say to me, ‘What ails you?’ ”

  25And the children of Dan said to him, “Do not let your voice be heard among us, lest 5angry men fall upon you, and you lose your life, with the lives of your household!”

  26Then 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.

  Danites Settle in Laish

  27So they took the things Micah had made, and the priest who had belonged to him, and went to Laish, to a people quiet and secure; dand they struck them with the edge of the sword and burned the city with fire.

  28There was no deliverer, because it was efar from Sidon, and they had no ties with anyone. It was in the valley that belongs fto Beth Rehob. So they rebuilt the city and dwelt there.

  29And gthey called the name of the city hDan, after the name of Dan their father, who was born to Israel. However, the name of the city formerly was Laish.