The leaders of Gilead said to Jephthah, &#8220;That may be true,<n id="1" /> but now we pledge to you our loyalty.<n id="2" /> Come with us and fight with the Ammonites. Then you will become the leader<n id="3" /> of all who live in Gilead.&#8221;<n id="4" />

Jephthah said to the leaders of Gilead, &#8220;All right!<n id="1" /> If you take me back to fight with the Ammonites and the <sc>Lordsc> gives them to me,<n id="2" /> I will be your leader.&#8221;<n id="3" />

So Jephthah went with the leaders of Gilead. The people made him their leader and commander. Jephthah repeated the terms of the agreement<n id="1" /> before the <sc>Lordsc> in Mizpah.p>

Look, you will conceive and have a son.<n id="1" /> You must never cut his hair,<n id="2" /> for the child will be dedicated to God<n id="3" /> from birth. He will begin to deliver Israel from the power<n id="4" /> of the Philistines.&#8221;p>

Samson spent half the night with the prostitute; then he got up in the middle of the night and left.<n id="1" /> He grabbed the doors of the city gate, as well as the two posts, and pulled them right off, bar and all.<n id="2" /> He put them on his shoulders and carried them up to the top of a hill east of Hebron.<n id="3" />p>

<p class="bodytext">Delilah said to Samson, &#8220;Up to now you have deceived me and told me lies. Tell me how you can be subdued.&#8221; He said to her, &#8220;If you weave the seven braids of my hair<n id="1" /> into the fabric on the loom<n id="2" /> and secure it with the pin, I will become weak and be like any other man.&#8221;

Finally he told her his secret.<n id="1" /> He said to her, &#8220;My hair has never been cut,<n id="2" /> for I have been dedicated to God<n id="3" /> from the time I was conceived.<n id="4" /> If my head<n id="5" /> were shaved, my strength would leave me; I would become weak, and be just like all other men.&#8221;

She made a vow saying, &#8220;O <sc>Lordsc> of hosts, if you will look with compassion<n id="1" /> on the suffering of your female servant,<n id="2" /> remembering me and not forgetting your servant, and give a male child<n id="3" /> to your servant, then I will dedicate him to the <sc>Lordsc> all the days of his life. His hair will never be cut.&#8221;<n id="4" />p>

But when they got up early the following day, Dagon was again lying on the ground before the ark of the <sc>Lordsc>. The head of Dagon and his two hands were sheared off and were lying at the threshold. Only Dagon&#8217;s body was left intact.<n id="1" />

<p class="bodytext">The next day Saul placed the people in three groups. They went to the Ammonite camp during the morning watch and struck them<n id="1" /> down until the hottest part of the day. The survivors scattered; no two of them remained together.p>

This very day the <sc>Lordsc> will deliver you into my hand! I will strike you down and cut off your head. This day I will give the corpses of the Philistine army to the birds of the sky and the wild animals of the land. Then all the land will realize that Israel has a God

David ran and stood over the Philistine. He grabbed Goliath&#8217;s<n id="1" /> sword, drew it from its sheath,<n id="2" /> killed him, and cut off his head with it. When the Philistines saw their champion was dead, they ran away.p>

David replied to Achish, &#8220;That being the case, you will come to know what your servant can do!&#8221; Achish said to David, &#8220;Then I will make you my bodyguard<n id="1" /> from now on.&#8221;<n id="2" />p>

On the third day a man arrived from the camp of Saul with his clothes torn and dirt on his head.<n id="1" /> When he approached David, the man<n id="2" /> threw himself to the ground.<n id="3" />p>

So I stood over him and put him to death, since I knew that he couldn&#8217;t live in such a condition.<n id="1" /> Then I took the crown which was on his head and the<n id="2" /> bracelet which was on his arm. I have brought them here to my lord.&#8221;<n id="3" />p>

May his blood whirl over<n id="1" /> the head of Joab and the entire house of his father!<n id="2" /> May the males of Joab&#8217;s house<n id="3" /> never cease to have<n id="4" /> someone with a running sore or a skin disease or one who works at the spindle<n id="5" /> or one who falls by the sword or one who lacks food!&#8221;p>

<p class="bodytext">So David issued orders to the soldiers and they put them to death. Then they cut off their hands and feet and hung them<n id="1" /> near the pool in Hebron. But they took the head of Ish-bosheth<n id="2" /> and buried it in the tomb of Abner<n id="3" /> in Hebron.<n id="4" />p>

<t /><p class="bodytext">When David had gone a short way beyond the summit, Ziba the servant of Mephibosheth was there to meet him. He had a couple of donkeys that were saddled, and on them were two hundred loaves of bread, a hundred raisin cakes, a hundred baskets of summer fruit,<n id="1" /> and a container of wine.p>

<p class="bodytext">Then Abishai son of Zeruiah said to the king, &#8220;Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Let me go over and cut off his head!&#8221;

<p class="bodytext">Then Absalom happened to come across David&#8217;s men. Now as Absalom was riding on his<n id="1" /> mule, it<n id="2" /> went under the branches of a large oak tree. His head got caught in the oak and he was suspended in midair,<n id="3" /> while the mule he had been riding kept going.p>