So Delilah said to Samson, “Tell me what makes you so strong and how you can be subdued and humiliated.” ¹ 

He said to them, “Follow me, for the Lord is about to defeat your enemies, the Moabites!” ¹  They followed him, captured the fords of the Jordan River ²  opposite Moab, ³  and did not let anyone cross.

Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor with their armies. There were about fifteen thousand survivors from the army of the eastern peoples; a hundred and twenty thousand sword-wielding soldiers had been killed. ¹ 

But Joash said to all those who confronted him, ¹  “Must you fight Baal’s battles? ²  Must you rescue him? Whoever takes up his cause ³  will die by morning! ⁴  If he really is a god, let him fight his own battles! ⁵  After all, it was his altar that was pulled down.” ⁶ 

The total weight of the gold earrings he requested came to seventeen hundred gold shekels. ¹  This was in addition to the crescent-shaped ornaments, jewelry, ²  purple clothing worn by the Midianite kings, and the necklaces on the camels. ³ 

So each of his men also cut off a branch and followed Abimelech. They put the branches ¹  against the stronghold and set fire to it. ²  All the people ³  of the Tower of Shechem died – about a thousand men and women.

The Benjaminites did as instructed. ¹  They abducted two hundred of the dancing girls to be their wives. ²  They went home ³  to their own territory, ⁴  rebuilt their cities, and settled down. ⁵ 

When Othniel son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother, ¹  captured it, Caleb ²  gave him his daughter Acsah as a wife.

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 

The ¹  remnant of Benjamin must be preserved. An entire Israelite tribe should not be wiped out. ² 

He said to his mother, “You know ¹  the eleven hundred pieces of silver which were stolen ²  from you, about which I heard you pronounce a curse? Look here, I have the silver. I stole ³  it, but now I am giving it back to you.” ⁴  His mother said, “May the Lord reward ⁵  you, my son!”

God chose new leaders, ¹  then fighters appeared in the city gates; ²  but, I swear, not a shield or spear could be found, ³  among forty military units ⁴  in Israel.

He captured a young man from Succoth ¹  and interrogated him. The young man wrote down for him the names of Succoth’s officials and city leaders – seventy-seven men in all. 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 

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 

Manoah took a young goat and a grain offering and offered them on a rock to the Lord. The Lord’s messenger did an amazing thing as Manoah and his wife watched. ¹ 

Samson went and captured three hundred jackals ¹  and got some torches. He tied the jackals in pairs by their tails and then tied a torch to each pair. ² 

Samson said to her, “If they tie me up with seven fresh ¹  bowstrings ²  that have not been dried, I will become weak and be just like any other man.”

I grabbed hold of my concubine and carved her up and sent the pieces ¹  throughout the territory occupied by Israel, ²  because they committed such an unthinkable atrocity ³  in Israel.

The Israelite army ¹  took heart ²  and once more arranged their battle lines, in the same place where they had taken their positions the day before.