When I saw that you were not going to help, ¹  I risked my life ²  and advanced against ³  the Ammonites, and the Lord handed them over to me. Why have you come up ⁴  to fight with me today?”

“The trees were determined to go out ¹  and choose a king for themselves. ²  They said to the olive tree, ‘Be our king!’ ³ 

Samson went to Gaza. There he saw a prostitute and went in to have sex with her. ¹ 

It was some time after this when the Ammonites fought with Israel.

The men refused to listen to him, so the Levite ¹  grabbed his concubine and made her go outside. ²  They raped ³  her and abused her all night long until morning. They let her go at dawn.

Samson went down to Timnah, where a Philistine girl caught his eye. ¹ 

Then Samson’s father accompanied him to Timnah for the marriage. ¹  Samson hosted a party ²  there, for this was customary for bridegrooms ³  to do.

There was a young man from Bethlehem ¹  in Judah. He was a Levite who had been temporarily residing among the tribe of Judah. ² 

Sometime later, during the wheat harvest, ¹  Samson took a young goat as a gift and went to visit his bride. ²  He said to her father, ³  “I want to have sex with my bride in her bedroom!” ⁴  But her father would not let him enter.

The Gazites were told, ¹  “Samson has come here!” So they surrounded the town ²  and hid all night at the city gate, waiting for him to leave. ³  They relaxed ⁴  all night, thinking, ⁵  “He will not leave ⁶  until morning comes; ⁷  then we will kill him!”

The Lord did as he asked. ¹  When he got up the next morning, he squeezed the fleece, and enough dew dripped from it to fill a bowl. ² 

Now Abimelech son of Jerub-Baal went to Shechem to see his mother’s relatives. ¹  He said to them and to his mother’s entire extended family, ² 

There was a man named Manoah from Zorah, from the Danite tribe. His wife was infertile and childless. ¹ 

So Manoah got up and followed his wife. When he met ¹  the man, he said to him, “Are you the man who spoke to my wife?” ²  He said, “Yes.” ³ 

However, she ¹  got angry at him ²  and went home ³  to her father’s house in Bethlehem in Judah. When she had been there four months,

They said, “Why, O Lord God of Israel, has this happened in Israel?” An entire ¹  tribe has disappeared from Israel today!”

One time Acsah ¹  came and charmed her father ²  so she could ask him for some land. When she got down from her donkey, Caleb said to her, “What would you like?”

Some time later, when he went back to marry ¹  her, he turned aside to see the lion’s remains. He saw ²  a swarm of bees in the lion’s carcass, as well as some honey.

She summoned ¹  Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali. She said to him, “Is it not true that the Lord God of Israel is commanding you? Go, march to Mount Tabor! Take with you ten thousand men from Naphtali and Zebulun!

Finally he told her his secret. ¹  He said to her, “My hair has never been cut, ²  for I have been dedicated to God ³  from the time I was conceived. ⁴  If my head ⁵  were shaved, my strength would leave me; I would become weak, and be just like all other men.”