The Lord’s messenger said to Manoah, “If I stay, ¹  I will not eat your food. But if you want to make a burnt sacrifice to the Lord, you should offer it.” (He said this because Manoah did not know that he was the Lord’s messenger.) ² 

But his father and mother said to him, “Certainly you can find a wife among your relatives or among all our ¹  people! You should not have to go and get a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines.” ²  But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, ³  because she is the right one for me.” ⁴ 

When he arrived in Lehi, the Philistines shouted as they approached him. But the Lord’s spirit empowered ¹  him. The ropes around his arms were like flax dissolving in ²  fire, and they ³  melted away from his hands.

His brothers and all his family ¹  went down and brought him back. ²  They buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of Manoah his father. He had led ³  Israel for twenty years.

In those days Israel had no king. And in those days the Danite tribe was looking for a place ¹  to settle, because at that time they did not yet have a place to call their own among the tribes of Israel. ² 

They went up and camped in Kiriath Jearim in Judah. (To this day that place is called Camp of Dan. ¹  It is west ²  of Kiriath Jearim.)

The Danites worshiped ¹  the carved image. Jonathan, descendant ²  of Gershom, son of Moses, ³  and his descendants ⁴  served as priests for the tribe of Dan until the time of the exile.

When the man got ready to leave ¹  with his concubine and his servant, ²  his father-in-law, the girl’s father, said to him, “Look! The day is almost over! ³  Stay another night! Since the day is over, ⁴  stay another night here and have a good time. You can get up early tomorrow and start your trip home.” ⁵ 

But then an old man passed by, returning at the end of the day from his work in the field. ¹  The man was from the Ephraimite hill country; he was living temporarily in Gibeah. (The residents of the town were Benjaminites.) ² 

That day the Benjaminites mustered from their cities twenty-six thousand sword-wielding soldiers, besides seven hundred well-trained soldiers from Gibeah. ¹ 

So all the Israelites, the whole army, ¹  went up to ²  Bethel. ³  They wept and sat there before the Lord; they did not eat anything ⁴  that day until evening. They offered up burnt sacrifices and tokens of peace ⁵  to the Lord.

The Lord annihilated Benjamin before Israel; the Israelites struck down that day 25,100 sword-wielding Benjaminites. ¹ 

the Israelites counterattacked. ¹  Benjamin had begun to strike down the Israelites; ²  they struck down ³  about thirty men. They said, “There’s no doubt about it! They are totally defeated as in the earlier battle.”

He and all his men ¹  went up on Mount Zalmon. He ²  took an ax ³  in his hand and cut off a tree branch. He put it ⁴  on his shoulder and said to his men, “Quickly, do what you have just seen me do!” ⁵