Ethan: Welcome to Immerse: the daily bible reading experience.
Day 100 and 78
Again, the Israelites did evil in the Lord's sight, so the Lord
handed them over to the Philistines who oppressed them for 40 years.
In those days, a man named Manoa from the tribe of Dan lived in the town of Zora.
His wife was unable to become pregnant, and they had no children.
The angel of the Lord appeared to Manoa's wife and said, Even though you have been
unable to have children, you will soon become pregnant and give birth to a son.
So be careful.
You must not drink wine or any other alcoholic drink,
nor eat any forbidden food.
You will become pregnant and give birth to a son and his
hair must never be caught for.
He will be dedicated to God as a nazarite from birth.
He will begin to rescue Israel from the Philistines.
The woman ran and told her husband, A man of God appeared to me.
He looked like one of God's angels terrifying to see.
I didn't ask where he was from and he didn't tell me his name,
but he told me, you'll become pregnant and give birth to his son.
You must not drink wine or any other alcoholic drink, nor eat any
forbidden food for your son will be dedicated to God as a nazarite
from the moment of his birth.
Until the day of his death.
Then Manoa prayed to the Lord, saying, Lord, please let the man of God come back
to us again and give us more instructions about this son who is to be born.
God answered Manoa's prayer and the angel of God appeared once again to
his wife as she was sitting in the field, but her husband Manoa was not
with her, so she quickly ran and told her husband, the man who appeared
to me the other day is here again.
Manoa ran back with his wife and asked, are you the man who
spoke to my wife the other day?
Yes, he replied, I am.
So Manoa asked him when your words come true, what kind of rules should
govern the boy's life and work?
The angel of the Lord replied, be sure your wife follows
the instructions I gave her.
She must not eat grapes or raisins, drink wine or any other alcoholic
drink or eat any forbidden food.
Then Manoa said to the angel of the Lord, please stay here until we can
prepare a young goat for you to eat.
I will stay.
The angel of the Lord replied, but I will not eat anything.
However, you may prepare a burnt offering that's a sacrifice to the Lord.
Manoa didn't realize it was the angel of the Lord.
I.
Then Manoa asked the angel of the Lord, what is your name
for when all this comes true?
We want to honor you.
Why do you ask my name?
The angel of the Lord replied, it is too wonderful for you to understand.
Then Manoa took a young goat and a grain offering and offered it on
a rock as a sacrifice to the Lord, and as Manoa and his wife watched,
the Lord did an amazing thing.
As the flames from the altar shot up toward the sky, the angel of
the Lord ascended in the fire.
When Manoa and his wife saw this, they fell with their faces to the ground.
The angel did not appear again to Manoa and his wife Manoa finally
realized it was the angel of the Lord.
And he said to his wife, we will certainly die for we have seen God, but
his wife said, If the Lord were going to kill us, he wouldn't have accepted
our burnt offering and grain offering.
He wouldn't have appeared to us and told us this wonderful
thing and done these miracles.
When her son was born, she named him Samson and the Lord blessed him as
he grew up and the spirit of the Lord began to stir him while he lived in
Mayhan aan, which is located between the towns of Zora and Ashdale.
One day when Samson was in Timnah, one of the Philistine women caught his eye.
When he returned home, he told his father and mother, a young Philistine
woman in Timnah caught my eye.
I want to marry her, get her for me.
His father and mother objected.
Isn't there even one woman in our tribe, or among all the
Israelites you could marry?
They asked, why must you go to the pagan Philistines to find a wife?
Samson told his father, get her for me.
She looks good to me.
His father and mother didn't realize the Lord was at work in this.
Creating an opportunity to work against the Philistines who ruled over
Israel at that time ass Samson and his parents were going down to Timnah.
A young lion suddenly attacked Samson near the vineyards of Timnah.
At that moment, the spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him and he ripped
the lion's jaws apart with his bare hands.
He did it as easily as if it were a young goat, but he didn't tell
his father or mother about it.
When Samson arrived in Timnah, he talked with the woman and
was very pleased with her.
Later when he returned Tona for the wedding, he turned off the path to
look at the carcass of the lion.
And he found that a swarm of bees had made some honey in the carcass.
He scooped some of the honey into his hands and ate it along the way.
He also gave some to his father and mother, and they ate
it, but he didn't tell them.
He had taken the honey from the carcass of the lion as his father was making
final arrangements for the marriage.
Samson threw a party at Timnah as was the custom for elite young men.
When the bride's parents saw him, they selected 30 young men from
the town to be his companions.
S Samson said to them, let me tell you a riddle.
If you solve my riddle during these seven days of the celebration, I
will give you 30 fine linen robes and 30 sets of festive clothing.
But if you can't solve it, then you must give me 30 fine linen robes
and 30 sets of festive clothing.
All right.
They agreed.
Let's hear your riddle.
So he said outta the one who eats came something to eat outta
the strong came something sweet.
Three days later, they were still trying to figure it out.
On the fourth day, they said to Samson's wife, entice your husband to explain
the riddle for us, or We will burn down your father's house with you in it.
Did you invite us to this party just to make us poor?
So Samson's wife came to him in tears and said, you don't love me.
You hate me.
You have given my people a riddle, but you haven't told me the answer.
I haven't even given the answer to my father or mother.
He replied, why should I tell you?
So she cried whenever she was with him and kept it up for
the rest of the celebration.
At last, on the seventh day, he told her the answer because she was tormenting him.
With her nagging.
Then she explained the riddle to the young men.
So before sunset of the seventh day, the men of the town came
to Samson with their answer.
What is sweeter than honey?
What is stronger than a lion?
Samson replied, if you hadn't plowed with my heifer, you
wouldn't have solved my riddle.
Then the spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him.
He went down to the town of Ashkelon, killed 30 men, took their belongings
and gave their clothing to the men who had solved his riddle.
But Samson was furious about what had happened, and he went back home
to live with his father and mother.
So his wife was given a marriage to the man who had been Samson's
best man at the wedding.
Later on during the wheat harvest, Samson took a young
goat as a present to his wife.
He said, I'm going into my wife's room to sleep with her, but
her father wouldn't let him in.
I truly thought, you must hate her.
Her father explained, so I gave her in marriage to your best man.
But look, her younger sister is even more beautiful than she is.
Marry her instead, Samson said.
This time I cannot be blamed for everything I'm going
to do to EU Philistines.
Then he went out and caught 300 foxes.
He tied their tails together in pairs, and he fastened a torch to each pair of tails.
Then he let the torches and let the foxes run through the
grain fields of the Philistines.
He burned all their grain to the ground, including the sheaves and the uncut grain.
He also destroyed their vineyards and olive groves.
Who did this?
The Philistines demanded Samson was the reply because his father-in-law
from Timnah gave Samson's wife to be married to his best man.
So the Philistines went and got the woman and her father and burned them to death.
Because you did this, Samson vowed, I won't rest until I take my revenge on you.
So he attacked the Philistines with great fury and killed many of them.
Then he went to live in a cave in the Rock of Eden, the Philistines retaliated
by setting up camp in Judah and spreading out near the town of Lehigh.
The man of Judah asked the Philistines, why are you attacking us?
The Philistines replied, we've come to capture Sampson.
We've come to pay him back for what he did to us.
3000 men of Judah went down to get Samson at the cave in the Rock of Eden.
They said to Samson, don't you realize the Philistines rule over us?
What are you doing to us?
But Samson replied, I only did to them what they did to me, but the man of
Judah told him, we have come to tie you up and hand you over to the Philistines.
Alright, s Samson said, but promise that you won't kill me yourselves.
We will only tie you up and hand you over to the Philistines.
They replied, we won't kill you.
So they tied him up with two new ropes and brought him up from the rock.
As Samson arrived at Lehigh, the Philistines came shouting and triumph,
but the spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon Samson and he snapped the ropes on
his arms as if they were burnt strands of flax, and they fell from his wrists.
Then he found the jawbone of a recently killed donkey.
He picked it up and killed 1000 Philistines with it.
Then s Samson said with the jawbone of a donkey, I've piled them in
heaps with the jawbone of a donkey.
I've killed a thousand men.
When he finished his boasting, he threw away the jawbone and
the place was named Jawbone Hill.
Sampson was now very thirsty and he cried out to the Lord.
You have accomplished this great victory by the strength of your
servant, must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of these pagans.
So God caused water to gush out of a hollow in the ground at Lehigh
and Samson was revived as he drank.
Then he named that place the spring of the one who cried out, and it
is still in Lehigh to this day.
Samson judged Israel for 20 years during the period when the
Philistines dominated the land.
One day, s Samson went to the Philistine town of Gaza and spent
the night with a prostitute.
Word soon spread that Samson was there.
So the men of Gaza gathered together and waited all night at the town gates.
They kept quiet during the night saying to themselves, when the light
of morning comes, we will kill him.
Sampson stayed in bed only until midnight.
Then he got up, took hold of the doors of the town gate, including the two
posts and lifted them up bar and all.
He put them on his shoulders and carried them all the way to the top of the hill.
Across from Hebron.
Sometime later, Sampson fell in love with a woman named Delilah,
who lived in the valley of Soak.
The rulers of the Philistines went to her and said, Entice s Samson to tell
you what makes him so strong and how he can be overpowered and tied up securely.
Then each of us will give you 1100 pieces of silver.
So Delilah said to Samson, please tell me what makes you so strong and what
it would take to tie you up securely.
S Samson replied, if I were tied up with seven new boast rings that
have not yet been dried, I would become as weak as anyone else.
The Philistine rulers brought Delilah seven new bow strings,
and she tied Samson up with them.
She had hidden some men in one of the inner rooms of
her house, and she cried out.
Samson, the Philistines have come to capture you, but Samson snapped the
bow strings as a piece of strings snaps when it has burned by a fire.
So the secret of his strength was not discovered.
Afterward, Delilah said to him, you've been making fun of me and telling me lies.
Now please tell me how you can be tied up securely.
S Samson replied, if I were tied up with brand new ropes that had never been used,
I would become as weak as anyone else.
So Delilah took new ropes and tied him up with him.
The men were hiding in the inner room as before, and again,
Delilah cried out Sampson.
The Philistines have come to capture you, but again, S Samson snapped the ropes
from his arms as if they were thread.
Then Delilah said, you've been making fun of me and telling me lies.
Now tell me how you can be tied up securely.
Sampson replied, if you were to weave the seven braids of my hair
into the fabric on your loom and tighten it with the loom shuttle, I
would become as weak as anyone else.
So while he slept, Delilah wove the seven braids of his hair into the fabric.
Then she tightened it with the loom shuttle again.
She cried out.
S Samson.
The Philistines have come to capture you.
But Samson woke up, pulled back the loom shuttle and yanked his hair
away from the loom and the fabric.
Then Delilah pouted.
How can you tell me I love you when you don't share your secrets with me.
You've made fun of me three times now, and you still haven't told me.
What makes you so strong?
She tormented him with her nagging day after day until
he was sick to death of it.
Finally, Samson shared his secret with her.
My hair has never been cut.
He confessed for, I was dedicated to God as a nazarite from birth.
If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me and I would
become as weak as anyone else.
Delilah realized he had finally told her the truth, so she
sent for the Philistine rulers.
Come back one more time.
She said for he has finally told me his secret.
So the Philistine rulers returned with the money in their hands.
Delilah lulled Sampson to sleep with his head and her lap, and then
she called in a Amanda to shave off the seven locks of his hair.
In this way, she began to bring him down and his strength left him.
Then she cried out s Samson, the Philistines have come to capture you.
When he woke up, he thought, I will do his before and shake myself free.
I.
He didn't realize the Lord had left him, so the Philistines captured
him and gouged out his eyes.
They took him to Gaza where he was bound with bronze chains and forced to
grind grain in the prison, but before long, his hair began to grow back.
The Philistine rulers held a great festival offering sacrifices
and praising their God Day gone.
They said, our God has given us victory over our enemy.
Samson, when the people saw him, they praised their God saying, our
God has delivered our enemy to us.
The one who killed so many of us is now in our power.
Half drunk by now, the people demanded bring out S Samson so he can amuse us.
So he was brought from the prison to amuse them, and they had him stand
between the pillars supporting the roof.
Samson said to the young servant who was leading him by the
hand place my hands against the pillars that hold up the temple.
I want to rest against them.
Now.
The temple was completely filled with people.
All the Philistine rulers were there.
And there were about 3000 men and women on the roof who were
watching as Samson amuse them.
Then Samson prayed to the Lord, sovereign Lord, remember me again.
Oh God, please strengthen me just one more time with one blow.
Let me pay back the Philistines for the loss of my two eyes.
Then Sampson put his hands on the two center pillars that held up the temple.
Pushing against them with both hands.
He prayed, let Me Die with the Philistines, and the temple crashed
down on the Philistine rulers and all the people, so he killed
more people when he died than he had during his entire lifetime.
Later, his brothers and other relatives went down to get his body.
They took him back home and buried him between Zora and Estel, where
his father Manoa was buried.
Sampson had judged Israel for 20 years.
This concludes today's immerse reading experience.
Thank you for joining us.