Septuagint (Greek Old Testament)

And it came to pass at the end of the two months that she returned to her father; and he performed upon her his vow which he vowed; and she knew no man:

and it was an ordinance in Israel, [That] the daughters of Israel went from year to year to bewail the daughter of Jephthae the Galaadite for four days in a year.

And the men of Ephraim assembled [themselves], and passed on to the north, and said to Jephthae, Wherefore didst thou go over to fight with the children of Ammon, and didst not call us to go with thee? we will burn thy house over thee with fire.

And Jephthae said to them, I and my people and the children of Ammon were very much engaged in war; and I called for you, and ye did not save me out of their hand.

And I saw that thou wert no helper, and I put my life in my hand, and passed on to the sons of Ammon; and the Lord delivered them into my hand: and wherefore are ye come up against me this day to fight with me?

And Jephthae gathered all the men of Galaad, and fought with Ephraim; and the men of Galaad smote Ephraim, because they that were escaped of Ephraim said, Ye [are] of Galaad in the midst of Ephraim and in the midst of Manasse.

And Galaad took the fords of Jordan before Ephraim; and they that escaped of Ephraim said to them, Let us go over: and the men of Galaad said, Art thou an Ephrathite? and he said, No.

Then they said to him, Say now Stachys; and he did not rightly pronounce it so: and they took him, and slew him at the fords of Jordan; and there fell at that time of Ephraim two and forty thousand.

And Jephthae judged Israel six years; and Jephthae the Galaadite died, and was buried in his city Galaad.

And after him Abaissan of Bethleem judged Israel.

And he had thirty sons, and thirty daughters, whom he sent forth; and he brought in thirty daughters for his sons from without; and he judged Israel seven years.

And Abaissan died, and was buried in Bethleem.

And after him Ælom of Zabulon judged Israel ten years.

And Ælom of Zabulon died, and was buried in Ælom in the land of Zabulon.

And after him Abdon the son of Ellel, the Pharathonite, judged Israel.

And he had forty sons, and thirty grandsons, that rode upon seventy colts: and he judged Israel eight years.

And Abdon the son of Ellel, the Pharathonite, died, and was buried in Pharathon in the land of Ephraim in the mount of Amalec.

And the children of Israel yet again committed iniquity before the Lord; and the Lord delivered them into the hand of the Phylistines forty years.

And there was a man of Saraa, of the family of the kindred of Dan, and his name was Manoë, and his wife was barren, and bore not.

And an angel of the Lord appeared to the woman, and said to her, Behold, thou art barren and hast not born; yet thou shalt conceive a son.

And now be very cautious, and drink no wine nor strong drink, and eat no unclean thing;

for behold, thou art with child, and shalt bring forth a son; and there shall come no razor upon his head, for the child shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb; and he shall begin to save Israel from the hand of the Phylistines.

And the woman went in, and spoke to her husband, saying, A man of God came to me, and his appearance [was as] of an angel of God, very dreadful; and I did not ask him whence he was, and he did not tell me his name.

And he said to me, Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bring forth a son; and now drink no wine nor strong drink, and eat no unclean thing; for the child shall be holy to God from the womb until the day of his death.

And Manoë prayed to the Lord and said, I pray thee, O Lord my Lord, [concerning] the man of God whom thou sentest; let him now come to us once more, and teach us what we shall do to the child about to be born.

And the Lord heard the voice of Manoë, and the angel of God came yet again to the woman; and she sat in the field, and Manoë her husband was not with her.

And the woman hasted, and ran, and brought word to her husband, and said to him, Behold the man who came in [the other] day to me has appeared to me.

And Manoë arose and followed his wife, and came to the man, and said to him, Art thou the man that spoke to the woman? and the angel said, I [am].

And Manoë said, Now shall [thy] word come to pass: what shall be the ordering of the child, and our dealings with him?

And the angel of the Lord said to Manoë, Of all things concerning which I spoke to the woman, she shall beware.

She shall eat of nothing that comes of the vine yielding wine, and let her not drink wine or strong liquor, and let her not eat anything unclean: all things that I have charged her she shall observe.

And Manoë said to the angel of the Lord, Let us detain thee here, and prepare before thee a kid of the goats.

And the angel of the Lord said to Manoë, If thou shouldest detain me, I will not eat of thy bread; and if thou wouldest offer a whole-burnt-offering, to the Lord thou shalt offer it: for Manoë knew not that he [was] an angel of the Lord.

And Manoë said to the angel of the Lord, What [is] thy name, that [when] thy word shall come to pass, we may glorify thee?

And the angel of the Lord said to him, Why dost thou thus ask after my name; whereas it is wonderful?

And Manoë took a kid of the goats and its meat-offering, and offered it on the rock to the Lord; and [the angel] wrought a distinct work, and Manoë and his wife were looking on.

And it came to pass when the flame went up above the altar toward heaven, that the angel of the Lord went up in the flame; and Manoë and his wife were looking, and they fell upon their face to the earth.

And the angel appeared no more to Manoë and to his wife: then Manoë knew that this [was] an angel of the Lord.

And Manoë said to his wife, We shall surely die, because we have seen God.

But his wife said to him, If the Lord were pleased to slay us, he would not have received of our hand a whole-burnt-offering and a meat-offering; and he would not have shewn us all these things, neither would he have caused us to hear all these things as at this time.

And the woman brought forth a son, and she called his name Sampson; and the child grew, and the Lord blessed him.

And the Spirit of the Lord began to go out with him in the camp of Dan, and between Saraa and Esthaol.

And Sampson went down to Thamnatha, and saw a woman in Thamnatha of the daughters of the Philistines.

And he went up and told his father and his mother, and said, I have seen a woman in Thamnatha of the daughters of the Phylistines; and now take her to me for a wife.

And his father and his mother said to him, Are there no daughters of thy brethren, and [is there not] a woman of all my people, that thou goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines? And Sampson said to his father, Take her for me, for she [is] right in my eyes.

And his father and his mother knew not that it was of the Lord, that he sought to be revenged on the Philistines: and at that time the Philistines lorded it over Israel.

And Sampson and his father and his mother went down to Thamnatha, and he came to the vineyard of Thamnatha; and behold, a young lion roared in meeting him.

And the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him, and he crushed him as he would have crushed a kid of the goats, and there was nothing in his hands: and he told not his father and his mother what he had done.

And they went down and spoke to the woman, and she was pleasing in the eyes of Sampson.

And after some time he returned to take her, and he turned aside to see the carcase of the lion; and behold, a swarm of bees, and honey [were] in the mouth of the lion.

And he took it into his hands, and went on eating, and he went to his father and his mother, and gave to them, and they did eat; but he told them not that he took the honey out of the mouth of the lion.

And his father went down to the woman, and Sampson made there a banquet for seven days, for so the young men are used to do.

And it came to pass when they saw him, that they took thirty guests, and they were with him.

And Sampson said to them, I propound you a riddle: if ye will indeed tell it me, and discover it within the seven days of the feast, I will give you thirty sheets and thirty changes of raiment.

And if ye cannot tell it me, ye shall give me thirty napkins and thirty changes of apparel: and they said to him, Propound thy riddle, and we will hear it.

And he said to them, Meat came forth of the eater, and sweetness out of the strong: and they could not tell the riddle for three days.

And it came to pass on the fourth day, that they said to the wife of Sampson, Deceive now thy husband, and let him tell thee the riddle, lest we burn thee and thy father's house with fire: did ye invite us to do us violence?

And Sampson's wife wept before him, and said, Thou dost but hate me, and lovest me not; for the riddle which thou hast propounded to the children of my people, thou hast not told me: and Sampson said to her, If I have not told it to my father and my mother, shall I tell it to thee?

And she wept before him the seven days, during which their banquet lasted: and it came to pass on the seventh day, that he told her, because she troubled him; and she told it to the children of her people.

And the men of the city said to him on the seventh day, before sunrise, What [is] sweeter than honey? and what [is] stronger than a lion? and Sampson said to them, If ye had not ploughed with my heifer, ye would not have known my riddle.

And the Spirit of the Lord came upon him powerfully, and he went down to Ascalon, and destroyed of the inhabitants thirty men, and took their garments, and gave the changes of raiment to them that told the riddle; and Sampson was very angry, and went up to the house of his father.

And the wife of Sampson was [given] to one of his friends, with whom he was on terms of friendship.

And it came to pass after a time, in the days of wheat harvest, that Sampson visited his wife with a kid, and said, I will go in to my wife even into the chamber: but her father did not suffer him to go in.

And her father spoke, saying, I said that thou didst surely hate her, and I gave her to one of thy friends: [is] not her younger sister better than she? let her be to thee instead of her.

And Sampson said to them, Even for once am I guiltless with regard to the Philistines, in that I do mischief among them.

And Sampson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took torches, and turned tail to tail, and put a torch between two tails, and fastened it.

And he set fire to the torches, and sent [the foxes] into the corn of the Philistines; and every thing was burnt from the threshing floor to the standing corn, and even to the vineyard and olives.

And the Philistines said, Who [has done] these things? and they said, Sampson the son-in-law of the Thamnite, because he has taken his wife, and given her to one of his friends; and the Philistines went up, and burnt her and her father's house with fire.

And Sampson said to them, Though ye may have dealt thus with her, verily I will be avenged of you, and afterwards I will cease.

And he smote them leg on thigh [with] a great overthrow; and went down and dwelt in a cave of the rock Etam.

And the Philistines went up, and encamped in Juda, and spread themselves abroad in Lechi.

And the men of Juda said, Why are ye come up against us? and the Philistines said, We are come up to bind Sampson, and to do to him as he has done to us.

And the three thousand men of Juda went down to the hole of the rock Etam, and they said to Sampson, Knowest thou not that the Philistines rule over us? and what [is] this [that] thou hast done to us? and Sampson said to them, As they did to me, so have I done to them.

And they said to him, We are come down to bind thee to deliver thee into the hand of the Philistines: and Sampson said to them, Swear to me that ye will not fall upon me yourselves.

And they spoke to him, saying, Nay, but we will only bind thee fast, and deliver thee into their hand, and will by no means slay thee: and they bound him with two new ropes, and brought him from that rock.

And they came to Lechi: and the Philistines shouted, and ran to meet him: and the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and the ropes that were upon his arms became as tow which is burnt with fire; and his bonds were consumed from off his hands.

And he found the jaw-bone of an ass that had been cast away, and he put forth his hand and took it, and smote with it a thousand men.

And Sampson said, With the jaw-bone of an ass I have utterly destroyed them, for with the jaw-bone of an ass I have smitten a thousand men.

And it came to pass when he ceased speaking, that he cast the jaw-bone out of his hand; and he called that place the Lifting of the jaw-bone.

And he was very thirsty, and wept before the Lord, and said, Thou hast been well pleased to grant this great deliverance by the hand of thy servant, and now shall I die for thirst, and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised?

And God broke open a hollow place in the jaw, and there came thence water, and he drank; and his spirit returned and he revived: therefore the name of the fountain was called ‘The well of the invoker,’ which is in Lechi, until this day.

And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.

And Sampson went to Gaza, and saw there a harlot, and went in to her.

And it was reported to the Gazites, saying, Sampson is come hither: and they compassed him and laid wait for him all night in the gate of the city, and they were quiet all the night, saying, Let us wait till the dawn appear, and we will slay him.

And Sampson slept till midnight, and rose up at midnight, and took hold of the doors of the gate of the city with the two posts, and lifted them up with the bar, and laid them on his shoulders, and he went up to the top of the mountain that is before Chebron, and laid them there.

And it came to pass after this that he loved a woman in Alsorech, and her name [was] Dalida.

And the princes of the Philistines came up to her, and said to her, Beguile him, and see wherein his great strength [is], and wherewith we shall prevail against him, and bind him to humble him; and we will give thee each eleven hundred [pieces] of silver.

And Dalida said to Sampson, Tell me, I pray thee, wherein [is] thy great strength, and wherewith thou shalt be bound that thou mayest be humbled.

And Sampson said to her, If they bind me with seven moist cords that have not been spoiled, then shall I be weak and be as one of ordinary men.

And the princes of the Philistines brought to her seven moist cords that had not been spoiled, and she bound him with them.

And the liers in wait remained with her in the chamber; and she said to him, The Philistines [are] upon thee, Sampson: and he broke the cords as if any one should break a thread of tow when it has touched the fire, and his strength was not known.

And Dalida said to Sampson, Behold, thou hast cheated me, and told me lies; now then tell me wherewith thou shalt be bound.

And he said to her, If they should bind me fast with new ropes with which work has not been done, then shall I be weak, and shall be as another man.

And Dalida took new ropes, and bound him with them, and the liers in wait came out of the chamber, and she said, The Philistines [are] upon thee, Sampson: and he broke them off his arms like a thread.

And Dalida said to Sampson, Behold, thou hast deceived me, and told me lies; tell me, I intreat thee, wherewith thou mayest be bound: and he said to her, If thou shouldest weave the seven locks of my head with the web, and shouldest fasten them with the pin into the wall, then shall I be weak as another man.

And it came to pass when he was asleep, that Dalida took the seven locks of his head, and wove them with the web, and fastened them with the pin into the wall, and she said, The Philistines [are] upon thee, Sampson: and he awoke out of his sleep, and carried away the pin of the web out of the wall.

And Dalida said to Sampson, How sayest thou, I love thee, when thy heart is not with me? this third time thou hast deceived me, and hast not told me wherein [is] thy great strength.

And it came to pass as she pressed him sore with her words continually, and straitened him, that his spirit failed almost to death.

Then he told her all his heart, and said to her, A razor has not come upon my head, because I have been a holy [one] of God from my mother's womb; if then I should be shaven, my strength will depart from me, and I shall be weak, and I shall be as all [other] men.

And Dalida saw that he told her all his heart, and she sent and called the princes of the Philistines, saying, Come up yet this once; for he has told me all his heart. And the chiefs of the Philistines went up to her, and brought the money in their hands.