<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>

<p class="bodytext">The <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s spirit empowered him. He went down to Ashkelon and murdered thirty men. He took their clothes<n id="1" /> and gave them<n id="2" /> to the men who had solved the riddle. He was furious as he went back home.<n id="3" />

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;

The rulers of the Philistines went up to visit her and said to her, &#8220;Trick him! Find out what makes him so strong and how we can subdue him and humiliate<n id="1" /> him. Each one of us will give you eleven hundred silver pieces.&#8221;p>

<p class="bodytext">So the five men journeyed on<n id="1" /> and arrived in Laish. They noticed that the people there<n id="2" /> were living securely, like the Sidonians do,<n id="3" /> undisturbed and unsuspecting. No conqueror was troubling them in any way.<n id="4" /> They lived far from the Sidonians and had no dealings with anyone.<n id="5" />

They said to him, &#8220;Shut up! Put your hand over your mouth and come with us! You can be our adviser<n id="1" /> and priest. Wouldn&#8217;t it be better to be a priest for a whole Israelite tribe than for just one man&#8217;s family?&#8221;<n id="2" />

<t /><p class="bodytext">In those days Israel had no king. There was a Levite<n id="1" /> living temporarily in the remote region of the Ephraimite hill country. He acquired a concubine<n id="2" /> from Bethlehem<n id="3" /> in Judah.

her husband came<n id="1" /> after her, hoping he could convince her to return.<n id="2" /> He brought with him his servant<n id="3" /> and a pair of donkeys. When she brought him into her father&#8217;s house and the girl&#8217;s father saw him, he greeted him warmly.<n id="4" />

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" />

The Levite<n id="1" /> said to him, &#8220;We are traveling from Bethlehem<n id="2" /> in Judah to the remote region of the Ephraimite hill country. That&#8217;s where I&#8217;m from. I had business in Bethlehem in Judah, but now I&#8217;m heading home.<n id="3" /> But no one has invited me into their home.

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.

We will take ten of every group of a hundred men from all the tribes of Israel (and a hundred of every group of a thousand, and a thousand of every group of ten thousand) to get supplies for the army.<n id="1" /> When they arrive in Gibeah of Benjamin they will punish them for the atrocity which they committed in Israel.&#8221;<n id="2" />

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.

The Benjaminites again attacked them from Gibeah and struck down eighteen thousand sword-wielding Israelite soldiers.<n id="1" />p>

The Benjaminites attacked<n id="1" /> the army, leaving the city unguarded.<n id="2" /> They began to strike down their enemy<n id="3" /> just as they had done before. On the main roads (one leads to Bethel,<n id="4" /> the other to Gibeah) and in the field, they struck down<n id="5" /> about thirty Israelites.

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

The Israelites returned to the Benjaminite towns<n id="1" /> and put the sword to them. They wiped out the cities,<n id="2" /> the animals, and everything they could find. They set fire to every city in their path.<n id="3" />p>

So they asked, &#8220;Who from all the Israelite tribes did not assemble before the <sc>Lordsc> at Mizpah?&#8221; Now it just so happened no one from Jabesh Gilead had come to the gathering.<n id="1" />