<p class="bodytext">On the fourth<n id="1" /> day they said to Samson&#8217;s bride, &#8220;Trick your husband into giving the solution to the riddle.<n id="2" /> If you refuse,<n id="3" /> we will burn up<n id="4" /> you and your father&#8217;s family.<n id="5" /> Did you invite us here<n id="6" /> to make us poor?&#8221;<n id="7" />

On the seventh day, before the sun set, the men of the city said to him,p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;What is sweeter than honey?p> <p class="poetry">What is stronger than a lion?&#8221;p> <p class="bodyblock">He said to them,p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;If you had not plowed with my heifer,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">you would not have solved my riddle!&#8221;p>

<t /><p class="bodytext">Sometime later, during the wheat harvest,<n id="1" /> Samson took a young goat as a gift and went to visit his bride.<n id="2" /> He said to her father,<n id="3" /> &#8220;I want to have sex with my bride in her bedroom!&#8221;<n id="4" /> But her father would not let him enter.

Three thousand men of Judah went down to the cave in the cliff of Etam and said to Samson, &#8220;Do you not know that the Philistines rule over us? Why have you done this to us?&#8221; He said to them, &#8220;I have only done to them what they have done to me.&#8221;

They hid<n id="1" /> in the bedroom and then she said to him, &#8220;The Philistines are here,<n id="2" /> Samson!&#8221; He snapped the bowstrings as easily as a thread of yarn snaps when it is put close to fire.<n id="3" /> The secret of his strength was not discovered.<n id="4" />p>

<p class="bodytext">She said to him, &#8220;How can you say, &#8216;I love you,&#8217; when you will not share your secret with me?<n id="1" /> Three times you have deceived me and have not told me what makes you so strong.&#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;

<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" />

Here are my virgin daughter and my guest&#8217;s<n id="1" /> concubine. I will send them out and you can abuse them and do to them whatever you like.<n id="2" /> But don&#8217;t do such a disgraceful thing to this man!&#8221;

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

Now, hand over the good-for-nothings<n id="1" /> in Gibeah so we can execute them and purge Israel of wickedness.&#8221;<n id="2" /> But the Benjaminites refused to listen to their Israelite brothers.

They found among the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead four hundred young girls who were virgins &#8211; they had never had sexual relations with a male.<n id="1" /> They brought them back to the camp at Shiloh in the land of Canaan.p>

<p class="bodytext">The men of Manasseh did not conquer Beth Shan, Taanach, or their surrounding towns. Nor did they conquer the people living in Dor, Ibleam, Megiddo<n id="1" /> or their surrounding towns.<n id="2" /> The Canaanites managed<n id="3" /> to remain in those areas.<n id="4" />

<t /><p class="bodytext">The Israelites again did evil in the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s sight.<n id="1" /> They worshiped<n id="2" /> the Baals and the Ashtars,<n id="3" /> as well as the gods of Syria, Sidon,<n id="4" /> Moab, the Ammonites, and the Philistines.<n id="5" /> They abandoned the <sc>Lordsc> and did not worship<n id="6" /> him.