Shofetim, starting at chapter 16
{16:1} Shimshon went to `Aza, and saw there a prostitute, and went
in to her. {16:2} [It was told] the `Azati, saying, Shimshon is come
here. They compassed him in, and laid wait for him all night in the
gate of the city, and were quiet all the night, saying, [Let be] until
morning light, then we will kill him. {16:3} Shimshon 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 Hevron. {16:4} It came to pass afterward, that
he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah.
{16:5} The lords of the Pelishtim 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 of us eleven hundred [pieces] of silver.
{16:6} Delilah said to Shimshon, Tell me, Please, in which your great
strength lies, and with which you might be bound to afflict you.
{16:7} Shimshon 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. {16:8} Then the lords of the Pelishtim brought up to her seven
green cords which had not been dried, and she bound him with them.
{16:9} Now she had liers-in-wait abiding in the inner chamber. She
said to him, The Pelishtim are on you, Shimshon. He broke the cords,
as a string of tow is broken when it touches the fire. So his strength
was not known. {16:10} Delilah said to Shimshon, Behold, you have
mocked me, and told me lies: now tell me, Please, with which you might
be bound. {16:11} 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. {16:12} So Delilah took new ropes, and bound him
therewith, and said to him, The Pelishtim are on you, Shimshon. The
liers-in-wait were abiding in the inner chamber. He broke them off his
arms like a thread. {16:13} Delilah said to Shimshon, Hitherto you
have mocked me, and told me lies: tell me with which you might be
bound. He said to her, If you weave the seven locks of my head with
the web. {16:14} She fastened it with the pin, and said to him, The
Pelishtim are on you, Shimshon. He awakened out of his sleep, and
plucked away the pin of the beam, and the web. {16:15} 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 in which your
great strength lies. {16:16} It happened, when she pressed him daily
with her words, and urged him, that his soul was vexed to death.
{16:17} He told her all his heart, and said to her, "No razor has ever
come on my head; for I have been a Nazir 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." {16:18} When Delilah saw that he had
told her all his heart, she sent and called for the lords of the
Pelishtim, saying, Come up this once, for he has told me all his
heart. Then the lords of the Pelishtim came up to her, and brought the
money in their hand. {16:19} 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. {16:20} She
said, The Pelishtim are on you, Shimshon. 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 the LORD had departed from him. {16:21} The
Pelishtim laid hold on him, and put out his eyes; and they brought him
down to `Aza, and bound him with fetters of brass; and he did grind in
the prison-house. {16:22} However the hair of his head began to grow
again after he was shaved. {16:23} The lords of the Pelishtim gathered
them together to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god, and to
rejoice; for they said, Our god has delivered Shimshon our enemy into
our hand. {16:24} When the people saw him, they praised their god; for
they said, Our god has delivered into our hand our enemy, and the
destroyer of our country, who has slain many of us. {16:25} It
happened, when their hearts were merry, that they said, Call for
Shimshon, that he may make us sport. They called for Shimshon out of
the prison-house; and he made sport before them. They set him between
the pillars: {16:26} and Shimshon said to the boy who held him by the
hand, Allow me that I may feel the pillars whereupon the house rests,
that I may lean on them. {16:27} Now the house was full of men and
women; and all the lords of the Pelishtim were there; and there were
on the roof about three thousand men and women, who saw while Shimshon
made sport. {16:28} Shimshon called to the LORD, and said, Lord GOD,
remember me, Please, and strengthen me, Please, only this once, God,
that I may be at once avenged of the Pelishtim for my two eyes.
{16:29} Shimshon 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. {16:30} Shimshon said, Let me die with the
Pelishtim. 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.
{16:31} Then his brothers and all the house of his father came down,
and took him, and brought him up, and buried him between Tzor`ah and
Eshta'ol in the burying-place of Manoach his father. He judged
Yisra'el twenty years.
{17:1} There was a man of the hill-country of Efrayim, whose name
was Mikhah. {17:2} He said to his mother, The eleven hundred [pieces]
of silver that were taken from you, about which you did utter a curse,
and did also speak it in my ears, behold, the silver is with me; I
took it. His mother said, Blessed be my son of the LORD. {17:3} He
restored the eleven hundred [pieces] of silver to his mother; and his
mother said, I most assuredly dedicate the silver to the LORD from my
hand for my son, to make an engraved image and a molten image: now
therefore I will restore it to you. {17:4} When he restored the money
to his mother, his mother took two hundred [pieces] of silver, and
gave them to the founder, who made of it an engraved image and a
molten image: and it was in the house of Mikhah. {17:5} The man Mikhah
had a house of gods, and he made an efod, and terafim, and consecrated
one of his sons, who became his [1>]Kohen[<1]. {17:6} In those days
there was no king in Yisra'el: every man did that which was right in
his own eyes. {17:7} There was a young man out of Beit-Lechem-Yehudah,
of the family of Yehudah, who was a Levite; and he sojourned there.
{17:8} The man departed out of the city, out of Beit-Lechem-Yehudah,
to sojourn where he could find [a place], and he came to the
hill-country of Efrayim to the house of Mikhah, as he traveled. {17:9}
Mikhah said to him, Whence come you? He said to him, I am a Levite of
Beit-Lechem-Yehudah, and I go to sojourn where I may find [a place].
{17:10} Mikhah said to him, Dwell with me, and be to me a father and a
[2>]Kohen[<2], and I will give you ten [pieces] of silver by the year,
and a suit of clothing, and your food. So the Levite went in. {17:11}
The Levite was content to dwell with the man; and the young man was to
him as one of his sons. {17:12} Mikhah consecrated the Levite, and the
young man became his [3>]Kohen[<3], and was in the house of Mikhah.
{17:13} Then said Mikhah, Now know I that the LORD will do me good,
seeing I have a Levite to my [4>]Kohen[<4].
{18:1} In those days there was no king in Yisra'el: and in those
days the tribe of the Dani sought them an inheritance to dwell in; for
to that day [their] inheritance had not fallen to them among the
tribes of Yisra'el. {18:2} The children of Dan sent of their family
five men from their whole number, men of valor, from Tzor`ah, and from
Eshta'ol, to spy out the land, and to search it; and they said to
them, Go, search the land. They came to the hill-country of Efrayim,
to the house of Mikhah, and lodged there. {18:3} When they were by the
house of Mikhah, they knew the voice of the young man the Levite; and
they turned aside there, and said to him, Who brought you here? and
what do you in this place? and what have you here? {18:4} He said to
them, Thus and thus has Mikhah dealt with me, and he has hired me, and
I am become his [1>]Kohen[<1]. {18:5} They said to him, Ask counsel,
we pray you, of God, that we may know whether our way which we go
shall be prosperous. {18:6} The [2>]Kohen[<2] said to them, Go in
shalom: before the LORD is your way wherein you go. {18:7} Then the
five men departed, and came to Layish, and saw the people who were
therein, how they lived in security, after the manner of the Tzidonim,
quiet and secure; for there was none in the land, possessing
authority, that might put [them] to shame in anything, and they were
far from the Tzidonim, and had no dealings with any man. {18:8} They
came to their brothers to Tzor`ah and Eshta'ol: and their brothers
said to them, What [say] you? {18:9} They said, Arise, and let us go
up against them; for we have seen the land, and, behold, it is very
good: and are you still? don't be slothful to go and to enter in to
possess the land. {18:10} When you go, you shall come to a people
secure, and the land is large; for God has given it into your hand, a
place where there is no want of anything that is in the [3>]eretz[<3].
{18:11} There set forth from there of the family of the Dani, out of
Tzor`ah and out of Eshta'ol, six hundred men girt with weapons of war.
{18:12} They went up, and encamped in Kiryat-Ye`arim, in Yehudah:
therefore they called that place Machane-Dan, to this day; behold, it
is behind Kiryat-Ye`arim. {18:13} They passed there to the
hill-country of Efrayim, and came to the house of Mikhah. {18:14} Then
the five men who went to spy out the country of Layish answered, and
said to their brothers, Do you know that there is in these houses an
efod, and terafim, and an engraved image, and a molten image? now
therefore consider what you have to do. {18:15} They turned aside
there, and came to the house of the young man the Levite, even to the
house of Mikhah, and asked him of his welfare. {18:16} The six hundred
men girt with their weapons of war, who were of the children of Dan,
stood by the entrance of the gate. {18:17} The five men who went to
spy out the land went up, and came in there, and took the engraved
image, and the efod, and the terafim, and the molten image: and the
[4>]Kohen[<4] stood by the entrance of the gate with the six hundred
men girt with weapons of war. {18:18} When these went into Mikhah's
house, and fetched the engraved image, the efod, and the terafim, and
the molten image, the [5>]Kohen[<5] said to them, What do you? {18:19}
They said to him, Hold your shalom, lay your hand on your mouth, and
go with us, and be to us a father and a [6>]Kohen[<6]: is it better
for you to be [7>]Kohen[<7] to the house of one man, or to be
[8>]Kohen[<8] to a tribe and a family in Yisra'el? {18:20} The
[9>]Kohen[<9]'s heart was glad, and he took the efod, and the terafim,
and the engraved image, and went in the midst of the people. {18:21}
So they turned and departed, and put the little ones and the cattle
and the goods before them. {18:22} When they were a good way from the
house of Mikhah, the men who were in the houses near to Mikhah's house
were gathered together, and overtook the children of Dan. {18:23} They
cried to the children of Dan. They turned their faces, and said to
Mikhah, What ails you, that you come with such a company? {18:24} He
said, you have taken away my gods which I made, and the
[10>]Kohen[<10], and are gone away, and what have I more? and how then
say you to me, What ails you? {18:25} 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."
{18:26} The children of Dan went their way: and when Mikhah saw that
they were too strong for him, he turned and went back to his house.
{18:27} They took that which Mikhah had made, and the [11>]Kohen[<11]
whom he had, and came to Layish, to a people quiet and secure, and
struck them with the edge of the sword; and they burnt the city with
fire. {18:28} There was no deliverer, because it was far from Tzidon,
and they had no dealings with any man; and it was in the valley that
lies by Beit-Rechov. They built the city, and lived therein. {18:29}
They called the name of the city Dan, after the name of Dan their
father, who was born to Yisra'el: however the name of the city was
Layish at the first. {18:30} The children of Dan set up for themselves
the engraved image: and Yonatan, the son of Gershom, the son of Moshe,
he and his sons were [12>]Kohanim[<12] to the tribe of the Dani until
the day of the captivity of the land. {18:31} So they set them up
Mikhah's engraved image which he made, all the time that the house of
God was in Shiloh.
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Footnotes:
[1] {17:5} priest
[2] {17:10} priest
[3] {17:12} priest
[4] {17:13} priest
[1] {18:4} priest
[2] {18:6} priest
[3] {18:10} earth
[4] {18:17} priest
[5] {18:18} priest
[6] {18:19} priest
[7] {18:19} priest
[8] {18:19} priest
[9] {18:20} priest
[10] {18:24} priest
[11] {18:27} priest
[12] {18:30} priests
________________________________________________________________________
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