Discovery BoxJudges 1:1
Context1:1 After Joshua died, the Israelites asked 1 the Lord, “Who should lead the invasion against the Canaanites and launch the attack?” 2
Judges 16:1--17:13
Context16:1 Samson went to Gaza. There he saw a prostitute and went in to have sex with her. 3 16:2 The Gazites were told, 4 “Samson has come here!” So they surrounded the town 5 and hid all night at the city gate, waiting for him to leave. 6 They relaxed 7 all night, thinking, 8 “He will not leave 9 until morning comes; 10 then we will kill him!” 16:3 Samson spent half the night with the prostitute; then he got up in the middle of the night and left. 11 He grabbed the doors of the city gate, as well as the two posts, and pulled them right off, bar and all. 12 He put them on his shoulders and carried them up to the top of a hill east of Hebron. 13
16:4 After this Samson fell in love with a woman named Delilah, who lived in the Sorek Valley. 16:5 The rulers of the Philistines went up to visit her and said to her, “Trick him! Find out what makes him so strong and how we can subdue him and humiliate 14 him. Each one of us will give you eleven hundred silver pieces.”
16:6 So Delilah said to Samson, “Tell me what makes you so strong and how you can be subdued and humiliated.” 15 16:7 Samson said to her, “If they tie me up with seven fresh 16 bowstrings 17 that have not been dried, I will become weak and be just like any other man.” 16:8 So the rulers of the Philistines brought her seven fresh bowstrings which had not been dried and they tied him up with them. 16:9 They hid 18 in the bedroom and then she said to him, “The Philistines are here, 19 Samson!” He snapped the bowstrings as easily as a thread of yarn snaps when it is put close to fire. 20 The secret of his strength was not discovered. 21
16:10 Delilah said to Samson, “Look, you deceived 22 me and told me lies! Now tell me how you can be subdued.” 16:11 He said to her, “If they tie me tightly with brand new ropes that have never been used, 23 I will become weak and be just like any other man.” 16:12 So Delilah took new ropes and tied him with them and said to him, “The Philistines are here, 24 Samson!” (The Philistines were hiding in the bedroom.) 25 But he tore the ropes 26 from his arms as if they were a piece of thread.
16:13 Delilah said to Samson, “Up to now you have deceived me and told me lies. Tell me how you can be subdued.” He said to her, “If you weave the seven braids of my hair 27 into the fabric on the loom 28 and secure it with the pin, I will become weak and be like any other man.” 16:14 So she made him go to sleep, wove the seven braids of his hair into the fabric on the loom, fastened it with the pin, and said to him, “The Philistines are here, 29 Samson!” 30 He woke up 31 and tore away the pin of the loom and the fabric.
16:15 She said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when you will not share your secret with me? 32 Three times you have deceived me and have not told me what makes you so strong.” 16:16 She nagged him 33 every day and pressured him until he was sick to death of it. 34 16:17 Finally he told her his secret. 35 He said to her, “My hair has never been cut, 36 for I have been dedicated to God 37 from the time I was conceived. 38 If my head 39 were shaved, my strength would leave me; I would become weak, and be just like all other men.” 16:18 When Delilah saw that he had told her his secret, 40 she sent for 41 the rulers of the Philistines, saying, “Come up here again, for he has told me 42 his secret.” 43 So the rulers of the Philistines went up to visit her, bringing the silver in their hands. 16:19 She made him go to sleep on her lap 44 and then called a man in to shave off 45 the seven braids of his hair. 46 She made him vulnerable 47 and his strength left him. 16:20 She said, “The Philistines are here, 48 Samson!” He woke up 49 and thought, 50 “I will do as I did before 51 and shake myself free.” But he did not realize that the Lord had left him. 16:21 The Philistines captured him and gouged out his eyes. They brought him down to Gaza and bound him in bronze chains. He became a grinder in the prison. 16:22 His hair 52 began to grow back after it had been shaved off.
16:23 The rulers of the Philistines gathered to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god and to celebrate. They said, “Our god has handed Samson, our enemy, over to us.” 16:24 When the people saw him, 53 they praised their god, saying, “Our god has handed our enemy over to us, the one who ruined our land and killed so many of us!” 54
16:25 When they really started celebrating, 55 they said, “Call for Samson so he can entertain us!” So they summoned Samson from the prison and he entertained them. 56 They made him stand between two pillars. 16:26 Samson said to the young man who held his hand, “Position me so I can touch the pillars that support the temple. 57 Then I can lean on them.” 16:27 Now the temple 58 was filled with men and women, and all the rulers of the Philistines were there. There were three thousand men and women on the roof watching Samson entertain. 16:28 Samson called to the Lord, “O Master, Lord, 59 remember me! Strengthen me just one more time, O God, so I can get swift revenge 60 against the Philistines for my two eyes!” 16:29 Samson took hold of the two middle pillars that supported the temple 61 and he leaned against them, with his right hand on one and his left hand on the other. 16:30 Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines!” He pushed hard 62 and the temple collapsed on the rulers and all the people in it. He killed many more people in his death than he had killed during his life. 63 16:31 His brothers and all his family 64 went down and brought him back. 65 They buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of Manoah his father. He had led 66 Israel for twenty years.
17:1 There was a man named Micah from the Ephraimite hill country. 17:2 He said to his mother, “You know 67 the eleven hundred pieces of silver which were stolen 68 from you, about which I heard you pronounce a curse? Look here, I have the silver. I stole 69 it, but now I am giving it back to you.” 70 His mother said, “May the Lord reward 71 you, my son!” 17:3 When he gave back to his mother the eleven hundred pieces of silver, his mother said, “I solemnly dedicate 72 this silver to the Lord. It will be for my son’s benefit. We will use it to make a carved image and a metal image.” 73 17:4 When he gave the silver back to his mother, she 74 took two hundred pieces of silver 75 to a silversmith, who made them into a carved image and a metal image. She then put them in Micah’s house. 76 17:5 Now this man Micah owned a shrine. 77 He made an ephod 78 and some personal idols and hired one of his sons to serve as a priest. 79 17:6 In those days Israel had no king. Each man did what he considered to be right. 80
17:7 There was a young man from Bethlehem 81 in Judah. He was a Levite who had been temporarily residing among the tribe of Judah. 82 17:8 This man left the town of Bethlehem in Judah to find another place to live. He came to the Ephraimite hill country and made his way to Micah’s house. 83 17:9 Micah said to him, “Where do you come from?” He replied, “I am a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah. I am looking for a new place to live.” 84 17:10 Micah said to him, “Stay with me. Become my adviser 85 and priest. I will give you ten pieces of silver per year, plus clothes and food.” 86 17:11 So the Levite agreed to stay with the man; the young man was like a son to Micah. 87 17:12 Micah paid 88 the Levite; the young man became his priest and lived in Micah’s house. 17:13 Micah said, “Now I know God will make me rich, 89 because I have this Levite as my priest.”
[1:1] 1 tn The Hebrew verb translated “asked” (שָׁאַל, sha’al) refers here to consulting the
[1:1] 2 tn Heb “Who should first go up for us against the Canaanites to attack them?”
[16:1] 3 tn Heb “and he went in to her.” The idiom בּוֹא אֶל (bo’ ’el, “to go to”) often has sexual connotations.
[16:2] 5 tc Heb “To the Gazites, saying.” A verb is missing from the MT; some ancient Greek witnesses add “it was reported.”
[16:2] 6 tn Heb “And they surrounded.” The rest of the verse suggests that “the town” is the object, not “the house.” Though the Gazites knew Samson was in the town, apparently they did not know exactly where he had gone. Otherwise, they would could have just gone into or surrounded the house and would not have needed to post guards at the city gate.
[16:2] 7 tn Heb “and they lay in wait for him all night in the city gate.”
[16:2] 8 tn Heb “were silent.”
[16:2] 10 tn The words “He will not leave” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
[16:2] 11 tn Heb “until the light of the morning.”
[16:3] 7 tn Heb “And Samson lay until the middle of the night and arose in the middle of the night.”
[16:3] 8 tn Heb “with the bar.”
[16:3] 9 tn Heb “which is upon the face of Hebron.”
[16:5] 9 tn Heb “subdue him in order to humiliate him.”
[16:6] 11 tn Heb “how you can be subdued in order to be humiliated.”
[16:7] 14 tn The word refers to a bowstring, probably made from animal tendons. See Ps 11:2; Job 30:11.
[16:9] 15 tn Heb “And the ones lying in wait were sitting for her.” The grammatically singular form וְהָאֹרֵב (vÿha’orev) is collective here, referring to the rulers as a group (so also in v. 16).
[16:9] 16 tn Heb “are upon you.”
[16:9] 17 tn Heb “when it smells fire.”
[16:9] 18 tn Heb “His strength was not known.”
[16:10] 17 tn See Gen 31:7; Exod 8:29 [8:25 HT]; Job 13:9; Isa 44:20; Jer 9:4 for other uses of this Hebrew word (II תָּלַל, talal), which also occurs in v. 13.
[16:11] 19 tn Heb “with which no work has been done.”
[16:12] 21 tn Heb “are upon you.”
[16:12] 22 tn Heb “And the ones lying in wait were sitting in the bedroom.”
[16:12] 23 tn Heb “them”; the referent (the ropes) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[16:13] 23 tn Heb “head” (also in the following verse). By metonymy the head is mentioned in the Hebrew text in place of the hair on it.
[16:13] 24 tn Heb “with the web.” For a discussion of how Delilah did this, see C. F. Burney, Judges, 381, and G. F. Moore, Judges (ICC), 353-54.
[16:14] 25 tn Heb “are upon you.”
[16:14] 26 tc The MT of vv. 13b-14a reads simply, “He said to her, ‘If you weave the seven braids of my head with the web.’ And she fastened with the pin and said to him.” The additional words in the translation, “and secure it with the pin, I will become weak and be like any other man.’ 16:14 So she made him go to sleep, wove the seven braids of his hair into the fabric on the loom,” which without doubt represent the original text, are supplied from the ancient Greek version. (In both vv. 13b and 14a the Greek version has “to the wall” after “with the pin,” but this is an interpretive addition that reflects a misunderstanding of ancient weaving equipment. See G. F. Moore, Judges [ICC], 353-54.) The Hebrew textual tradition was accidentally shortened during the copying process. A scribe’s eye jumped from the first instance of “with the web” to the second, causing him to leave out inadvertently the intervening words.
[16:14] 27 tn The Hebrew adds, “from his sleep.” This has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.
[16:15] 27 tn Heb “when your heart is not with me.”
[16:16] 29 tn Heb “forced him with her words.”
[16:16] 30 tn Heb “and his spirit was short [i.e., impatient] to the point of death.”
[16:17] 31 tn Heb “all his heart.”
[16:17] 32 tn Heb “a razor has not come upon my head.”
[16:17] 33 tn Or “set apart to God.” Traditionally the Hebrew term נָזִיר (nazir) has been translated “Nazirite.” The word is derived from the verb נָזַר (nazar, “to dedicate; to consecrate; to set apart”).
[16:17] 34 tn Heb “from the womb of my mother.”
[16:17] 35 tn Heb “I.” The referent has been made more specific in the translation (“my head”).
[16:18] 33 tn Heb “all his heart.”
[16:18] 34 tn Heb “she sent and summoned.”
[16:18] 35 tc The translation follows the Qere, לִי (li, “to me”) rather than the Kethib, לָהּ (lah, “to her”).
[16:18] 36 tn Heb “all his heart.”
[16:19] 35 tn Heb “on her knees.” The expression is probably euphemistic for sexual intercourse. See HALOT 160-61 s.v. בֶּרֶךְ.
[16:19] 36 tn Heb “she called for a man and she shaved off.” The point seems to be that Delilah acted through the instrumentality of the man. See J. A. Soggin, Judges (OTL), 254.
[16:19] 37 tn Heb “head.” By metonymy the hair of his head is meant.
[16:19] 38 tn Heb “She began to humiliate him.” Rather than referring to some specific insulting action on Delilah’s part after Samson’s hair was shaved off, this statement probably means that she, through the devious actions just described, began the process of Samson’s humiliation which culminates in the following verses.
[16:20] 37 tn Heb “are upon you.”
[16:20] 38 tn The Hebrew adds, “from his sleep.” This has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.
[16:20] 40 tn Heb “I will go out as before.”
[16:22] 39 tn Heb “the hair of his head.”
[16:24] 41 tn Most interpret this as a reference to Samson, but this seems premature, since v. 25 suggests he was not yet standing before them. Consequently some prefer to see this statement as displaced and move it to v. 25 (see C. F. Burney, Judges, 387). It seems more likely that the pronoun refers to an image of Dagon.
[16:24] 42 tn Heb “multiplied our dead.”
[16:25] 43 tn Heb “When their heart was good.”
[16:25] 44 tn Heb “before them.”
[16:26] 45 tn Heb “the pillars upon which the house is founded.”
[16:28] 49 tn The Hebrew has אֲדֹנָי יֱהֹוִה (’adonay yehovih, “Lord Yahweh”).
[16:28] 50 tn Heb “so I can get revenge with one act of vengeance.”
[16:29] 51 tn Heb “the pillars upon which the house was founded.”
[16:30] 53 tn Heb “he stretched out with strength.”
[16:30] 54 tn Heb “And the ones whom he killed in his death were many more than he killed in his life.”
[16:31] 55 tn Heb “and all the house of his father.”
[16:31] 56 tn Heb “and lifted him up and brought up.”
[16:31] 57 tn Traditionally, “judged.”
[17:2] 57 tn The words “You know” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
[17:2] 60 tn In the Hebrew text the statement, “but now I am giving it back to you,” appears at the end of v. 3 and is spoken by the mother. But v. 4 indicates that she did not give the money back to her son. Unless the statement is spoken by the woman to the LORD, it appears to be misplaced and fits much better in v. 2. It may have been accidentally omitted from a manuscript, written in the margin, and then later inserted in the wrong place in another manuscript.
[17:2] 61 tn Traditionally, “bless.”
[17:3] 59 tn Heb “dedicating, I dedicate.” In this case the emphatic infinitive absolute lends a mood of solemnity to the statement.
[17:3] 60 tn Heb “to the LORD from my hand for my son to make a carved image and cast metal image.” She cannot mean that she is now taking the money from her hand and giving it back to her son so he can make an image. Verses 4-6 indicate she took back the money and used a portion of it to hire a silversmith to make an idol for her son to use. The phrase “a carved image and cast metal image” is best taken as referring to two idols (see 18:17-18), even though the verb at the end of v. 4, וַיְהִי (vayÿhi, “and it was [in the house of Micah]”), is singular.
[17:4] 61 tn Heb “his mother.” The pronoun (“she”) has been substituted for the noun (“mother”) in the translation because of English style.
[17:4] 62 tn The Hebrew text has “and gave it.” The referent (the pieces of silver) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[17:4] 63 tn Heb “and it was in Micah’s house.”
[17:5] 63 tn Heb “house of God.”
[17:5] 64 sn Here an ephod probably refers to a priestly garment (cf. Exod 28:4-6).
[17:5] 65 tn Heb “and he filled the hand of one of his sons and he became his priest.”
[17:6] 65 tn Heb “Each was doing what was right in his [own] eyes.”
[17:7] 67 map For location see Map5 B1; Map7 E2; Map8 E2; Map10 B4.
[17:7] 68 tn Heb “There was a young man from Bethlehem of Judah, from the tribe of Judah, and he was a Levite, and he was temporarily residing there.”
[17:8] 69 tn Heb “He came to the Ephraimite hill country, to Micah’s house, making his way.”
[17:9] 71 tn Heb “And I am going to reside in a place I can find.”
[17:10] 73 tn Heb “father.” “Father” is here a title of honor that suggests the priest will give advice and protect the interests of the family, primarily by divining God’s will in matters, perhaps through the use of the ephod. (See R. G. Boling, Judges [AB], 257; also Gen 45:8, where Joseph, who was a diviner and interpreter of dreams, is called Pharaoh’s “father,” and 2 Kgs 6:21; 13:14, where a prophet is referred to as a “father.” Note also 2 Kgs 8:9, where a king identifies himself as a prophet’s “son.” One of a prophet’s main functions was to communicate divine oracles. Cf. 2 Kgs 8:9ff.; 13:14-19).
[17:10] 74 tn The Hebrew text expands with the phrase: “and the Levite went.” This only makes sense if taken with “to live” in the next verse. Apparently “the Levite went” and “the Levite agreed” are alternative readings which have been juxtaposed in the text.
[17:11] 75 tn Heb “the young man became like one of his sons.”
