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Old Testament:  Judges 13-15

Judges 13

The Birth of Samson
 1  Again the Israelites did evil in the LORD's sight, so the LORD handed them over to the Philistines, who oppressed them for forty years.
   2  In those days a man named Manoah from the tribe of Dan lived in the town of Zorah. His wife was unable to become pregnant, and they had no children.  3  The angel of the LORD appeared to Manoah's wife and said, "Even though you have been unable to have children, you will soon become pregnant and give birth to a son.  4  So be careful; you must not drink wine or any other alcoholic drink nor eat any forbidden food. [4]   5  You will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and his hair must never be cut. For he will be dedicated to God as a Nazirite from birth. He will begin to rescue Israel from the Philistines.    6  The woman ran and told her husband, "A man of God appeared to me! He looked like one of God's angels, terrifying to see. I didn't ask where he was from, and he didn't tell me his name.  7  But he told me, `You will become pregnant and give birth to a son. You must not drink wine or any other alcoholic drink nor eat any forbidden food. For your son will be dedicated to God as a Nazirite from the moment of his birth until the day of his death.'"
   8  Then Manoah prayed to the LORD, saying, "Lord, please let the man of God come back to us again and give us more instructions about this son who is to be born."
   9  God answered Manoah's prayer, and the angel of God appeared once again to his wife as she was sitting in the field. But her husband, Manoah, was not with her.  10  So she quickly ran and told her husband, "The man who appeared to me the other day is here again!"
   11  Manoah ran back with his wife and asked, "Are you the man who spoke to my wife the other day?"
  "Yes," he replied, "I am."
   12  So Manoah asked him, "When your words come true, what kind of rules should govern the boy's life and work?"
   13  The angel of the LORD replied, "Be sure your wife follows the instructions I gave her.  14  She must not eat grapes or raisins, drink wine or any other alcoholic drink, or eat any forbidden food."
   15  Then Manoah said to the angel of the LORD, "Please stay here until we can prepare a young goat for you to eat."
   16  "I will stay," the angel of the LORD replied, "but I will not eat anything. However, you may prepare a burnt offering as a sacrifice to the LORD." (Manoah didn't realize it was the angel of the LORD.)
   17  Then Manoah asked the angel of the LORD, "What is your name? For when all this comes true, we want to honor you."
   18  "Why do you ask my name?" the angel of the LORD replied. "It is too wonderful for you to understand."    19  Then Manoah took a young goat and a grain offering and offered it on a rock as a sacrifice to the LORD. And as Manoah and his wife watched, the LORD did an amazing thing.  20  As the flames from the altar shot up toward the sky, the angel of the LORD ascended in the fire. When Manoah and his wife saw this, they fell with their faces to the ground.
   21  The angel did not appear again to Manoah and his wife. Manoah finally realized it was the angel of the LORD,  22  and he said to his wife, "We will certainly die, for we have seen God!"
   23  But his wife said, "If the LORD were going to kill us, he wouldn't have accepted our burnt offering and grain offering. He wouldn't have appeared to us and told us this wonderful thing and done these miracles."
   24  When her son was born, she named him Samson. And the LORD blessed him as he grew up.  25  And the Spirit of the LORD began to stir him while he lived in Mahaneh-dan, which is located between the towns of Zorah and Eshtaol.

Judges 14

Samson's Riddle
 1  One day when Samson was in Timnah, one of the Philistine women caught his eye.  2  When he returned home, he told his father and mother, "A young Philistine woman in Timnah caught my eye. I want to marry her. Get her for me."
   3  His father and mother objected. "Isn't there even one woman in our tribe or among all the Israelites you could marry?" they asked. "Why must you go to the pagan Philistines to find a wife?"
  But Samson told his father, "Get her for me! She looks good to me."  4  His father and mother didn't realize the LORD was at work in this, creating an opportunity to work against the Philistines, who ruled over Israel at that time.
   5  As Samson and his parents were going down to Timnah, a young lion suddenly attacked Samson near the vineyards of Timnah.  6  At that moment the Spirit of the LORD came powerfully upon him, and he ripped the lion's jaws apart with his bare hands. He did it as easily as if it were a young goat. But he didn't tell his father or mother about it.  7  When Samson arrived in Timnah, he talked with the woman and was very pleased with her.
   8  Later, when he returned to Timnah for the wedding, he turned off the path to look at the carcass of the lion. And he found that a swarm of bees had made some honey in the carcass.  9  He scooped some of the honey into his hands and ate it along the way. He also gave some to his father and mother, and they ate it. But he didn't tell them he had taken the honey from the carcass of the lion.
   10  As his father was making final arrangements for the marriage, Samson threw a party at Timnah, as was the custom for elite young men.  11  When the bride's parents [11]  saw him, they selected thirty young men from the town to be his companions.
   12  Samson said to them, "Let me tell you a riddle. If you solve my riddle during these seven days of the celebration, I will give you thirty fine linen robes and thirty sets of festive clothing.  13  But if you can't solve it, then you must give me thirty fine linen robes and thirty sets of festive clothing."
  "All right," they agreed, "let's hear your riddle."
   14  So he said:

"Out of the one who eats came something to eat;
  out of the strong came something sweet."

  Three days later they were still trying to figure it out.  15  On the fourth [15]  day they said to Samson's wife, "Entice your husband to explain the riddle for us, or we will burn down your father's house with you in it. Did you invite us to this party just to make us poor?"
   16  So Samson's wife came to him in tears and said, "You don't love me; you hate me! You have given my people a riddle, but you haven't told me the answer."
  "I haven't even given the answer to my father or mother," he replied. "Why should I tell you?"  17  So she cried whenever she was with him and kept it up for the rest of the celebration. At last, on the seventh day he told her the answer because she was tormenting him with her nagging. Then she explained the riddle to the young men.
   18  So before sunset of the seventh day, the men of the town came to Samson with their answer:

"What is sweeter than honey?
  What is stronger than a lion?"

  Samson replied, "If you hadn't plowed with my heifer, you wouldn't have solved my riddle!"
   19  Then the Spirit of the LORD came powerfully upon him. He went down to the town of Ashkelon, killed thirty men, took their belongings, and gave their clothing to the men who had solved his riddle. But Samson was furious about what had happened, and he went back home to live with his father and mother.  20  So his wife was given in marriage to the man who had been Samson's best man at the wedding.

Judges 15

Samson's Vengeance on the Philistines
 1  Later on, during the wheat harvest, Samson took a young goat as a present to his wife. He said, "I'm going into my wife's room to sleep with her," but her father wouldn't let him in.
   2  "I truly thought you must hate her," her father explained, "so I gave her in marriage to your best man. But look, her younger sister is even more beautiful than she is. Marry her instead."
   3  Samson said, "This time I cannot be blamed for everything I am going to do to you Philistines."  4  Then he went out and caught 300 foxes. He tied their tails together in pairs, and he fastened a torch to each pair of tails.  5  Then he lit the torches and let the foxes run through the grain fields of the Philistines. He burned all their grain to the ground, including the sheaves and the uncut grain. He also destroyed their vineyards and olive groves.
   6  "Who did this?" the Philistines demanded.
  "Samson," was the reply, "because his father-in-law from Timnah gave Samson's wife to be married to his best man." So the Philistines went and got the woman and her father and burned them to death.
   7  "Because you did this," Samson vowed, "I won't rest until I take my revenge on you!"  8  So he attacked the Philistines with great fury and killed many of them. Then he went to live in a cave in the rock of Etam.
   9  The Philistines retaliated by setting up camp in Judah and spreading out near the town of Lehi.  10  The men of Judah asked the Philistines, "Why are you attacking us?"
  The Philistines replied, "We've come to capture Samson. We've come to pay him back for what he did to us."
   11  So 3,000 men of Judah went down to get Samson at the cave in the rock of Etam. They said to Samson, "Don't you realize the Philistines rule over us? What are you doing to us?"
  But Samson replied, "I only did to them what they did to me."
   12  But the men of Judah told him, "We have come to tie you up and hand you over to the Philistines."
  "All right," Samson said. "But promise that you won't kill me yourselves."
   13  "We will only tie you up and hand you over to the Philistines," they replied. "We won't kill you." So they tied him up with two new ropes and brought him up from the rock.
   14  As Samson arrived at Lehi, the Philistines came shouting in triumph. But the Spirit of the LORD came powerfully upon Samson, and he snapped the ropes on his arms as if they were burnt strands of flax, and they fell from his wrists.  15  Then he found the jawbone of a recently killed donkey. He picked it up and killed 1,000 Philistines with it.  16  Then Samson said,

"With the jawbone of a donkey,
  I've piled them in heaps!
With the jawbone of a donkey,
  I've killed a thousand men!"

 17  When he finished his boasting, he threw away the jawbone; and the place was named Jawbone Hill. [17] 
   18  Samson was now very thirsty, and he cried out to the LORD, "You have accomplished this great victory by the strength of your servant. Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of these pagans?"  19  So God caused water to gush out of a hollow in the ground at Lehi, and Samson was revived as he drank. Then he named that place "The Spring of the One Who Cried Out," [19]  and it is still in Lehi to this day.
   20  Samson judged Israel for twenty years during the period when the Philistines dominated the land.
<<  13:4 Hebrew any unclean thing; also in 13:7, 14.
<<  14:11 Hebrew they.
<<  14:15 As in Greek version; Hebrew reads seventh.
<<  15:17 Hebrew Ramath-lehi.
<<  15:19 Hebrew En-hakkore.

New Testament:  Luke 6:27-49

Luke 6 : 27-49

Love for Enemies
 27  "But to you who are willing to listen, I say, love your enemies! Do good to those who hate you."  28  Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you.  29  If someone slaps you on one cheek, offer the other cheek also. If someone demands your coat, offer your shirt also.  30  Give to anyone who asks; and when things are taken away from you, don't try to get them back.  31  "Do to others as you would like them to do to you."    32  "If you love only those who love you, why should you get credit for that? Even sinners love those who love them!  33  And if you do good only to those who do good to you, why should you get credit? Even sinners do that much!  34  And if you lend money only to those who can repay you, why should you get credit? Even sinners will lend to other sinners for a full return.
   35  "Love your enemies! Do good to them. Lend to them without expecting to be repaid. Then your reward from heaven will be very great, and you will truly be acting as children of the Most High, for he is kind to those who are unthankful and wicked."  36  "You must be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate." Do Not Judge Others
 37  "Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn others, or it will all come back against you. Forgive others, and you will be forgiven.  38  "Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full - pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back."    39  Then Jesus gave the following illustration: "Can one blind person lead another? Won't they both fall into a ditch?  40  Students [40]  are not greater than their teacher. But the student who is fully trained will become like the teacher.
   41  "And why worry about a speck in your friend's eye [41]  when you have a log in your own?  42  How can you think of saying, `Friend, [42]  let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,' when you can't see past the log in your own eye? Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend's eye.

The Tree and Its Fruit
 43  "A good tree can't produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can't produce good fruit.  44  A tree is identified by its fruit. Figs are never gathered from thornbushes, and grapes are not picked from bramble bushes.  45  "A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart." Building on a Solid Foundation
 46  "So why do you keep calling me `Lord, Lord!' when you don't do what I say?"  47  I will show you what it's like when someone comes to me, listens to my teaching, and then follows it.  48  It is like a person building a house who digs deep and lays the foundation on solid rock. When the floodwaters rise and break against that house, it stands firm because it is well built.  49  But anyone who hears and doesn't obey is like a person who builds a house without a foundation. When the floods sweep down against that house, it will collapse into a heap of ruins."
<<  6:38 Or The measure you give will be the measure you get back.
<<  6:40 Or Disciples.
<<  6:41 Greek your brother's eye; also in 6:42.
<<  6:42 Greek Brother.

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