The <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s messenger said to Manoah, &#8220;If I stay,<n id="1" /> I will not eat your food. But if you want to make a burnt sacrifice to the <sc>Lordsc>, you should offer it.&#8221; (He said this because Manoah did not know that he was the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s messenger.)<n id="2" />

But his father and mother said to him, &#8220;Certainly you can find a wife among your relatives or among all our<n id="1" /> people! You should not have to go and get a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines.&#8221;<n id="2" /> But Samson said to his father, &#8220;Get her for me,<n id="3" /> because she is the right one for me.&#8221;<n id="4" />

When he arrived in Lehi, the Philistines shouted as they approached him. But the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s spirit empowered<n id="1" /> him. The ropes around his arms were like flax dissolving in<n id="2" /> fire, and they<n id="3" /> melted away from his hands.

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

<t /><p class="bodytext">In those days Israel had no king. And in those days the Danite tribe was looking for a place<n id="1" /> to settle, because at that time they did not yet have a place to call their own among the tribes of Israel.<n id="2" />

They went up and camped in Kiriath Jearim in Judah. (To this day that place is called Camp of Dan.<n id="1" /> It is west<n id="2" /> of Kiriath Jearim.)

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

When the man got ready to leave<n id="1" /> with his concubine and his servant,<n id="2" /> his father-in-law, the girl&#8217;s father, said to him, &#8220;Look! The day is almost over!<n id="3" /> Stay another night! Since the day is over,<n id="4" /> stay another night here and have a good time. You can get up early tomorrow and start your trip home.&#8221;<n id="5" />

<p class="bodytext">But then an old man passed by, returning at the end of the day from his work in the field.<n id="1" /> The man was from the Ephraimite hill country; he was living temporarily in Gibeah. (The residents of the town were Benjaminites.)<n id="2" />

That day the Benjaminites mustered from their cities twenty-six thousand sword-wielding soldiers, besides seven hundred well-trained soldiers from Gibeah.<n id="1" />

<p class="bodytext">So all the Israelites, the whole army,<n id="1" /> went up to<n id="2" /> Bethel.<n id="3" /> They wept and sat there before the <sc>Lordsc>; they did not eat anything<n id="4" /> that day until evening. They offered up burnt sacrifices and tokens of peace<n id="5" /> to the <sc>Lordsc>.

The <sc>Lordsc> annihilated Benjamin before Israel; the Israelites struck down that day 25,100 sword-wielding Benjaminites.<n id="1" />

the Israelites counterattacked.<n id="1" /> Benjamin had begun to strike down the Israelites;<n id="2" /> they struck down<n id="3" /> about thirty men. They said, &#8220;There&#8217;s no doubt about it! They are totally defeated as in the earlier battle.&#8221;

He and all his men<n id="1" /> went up on Mount Zalmon. He<n id="2" /> took an ax<n id="3" /> in his hand and cut off a tree branch. He put it<n id="4" /> on his shoulder and said to his men, &#8220;Quickly, do what you have just seen me do!&#8221;<n id="5" />