World English Bible · The judges
Judges 16
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went to , and saw there a , and went in to her. The Gazites were told, " is here!" They surrounded him and laid wait for him all night in the , and were quiet all the night, saying, "Wait until morning ; then we will kill him." lay until midnight, then arose at midnight and took hold of the doors of the , with the two posts, and plucked them up, bar and all, and put them on his shoulders and carried them up to the top of the mountain that is before . It came to pass afterward that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. The lords of the came up to her and said to her, "Entice him, and see in which his great strength lies, and by what means we may prevail against him, that we may bind him to afflict him; and we will each give you eleven hundred pieces of silver." Delilah said to , "Please tell me where your great strength lies, and what you might be bound to afflict you." said to her, "If they bind me with seven green cords that were never dried, then shall I become weak, and be as another man." Then the lords of the brought up to her seven green cords which had not been dried, and she bound him with them. Now she had an ambush in the inner room. She said to him, "The are on you, !" He broke the cords as a flax thread is broken when it touches the . So his strength was not known. Delilah said to , "Behold, you have mocked me, and told me lies. Now please tell me how you might be bound." He said to her, "If they only bind me with new ropes with which no work has been done, then I will become weak, and be as another man." 12So Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them, then said to him, "The are on you, !" The ambush was in the inner room. He broke them off his arms like a thread. 13Delilah said to , "Until now, you have mocked me and told me lies. Tell me with what you might be bound." He said to her, "If you weave the seven locks of my head with the fabric on the loom." She fastened it with the pin, and said to him, "The are on you, !" He awakened out of his sleep, and plucked away the pin of the beam and the fabric. She said to him, "How can you say, 'I love you,' when is not with me? You have mocked me these three times, and have not told me where your great strength lies." When she pressed him daily with her words and urged him, his was troubled to . He told her all and said to her, "No razor has ever come on my head; for I have been a to from my mother's . If I am shaved, then my strength will go from me and I will become weak, and be like any other man." When Delilah saw that he had told her all , she sent and called for the lords of the , saying, "Come up this once, for he has told me all ." Then the lords of the came up to her and brought the money in their hand. She made him sleep on her knees; and she called for a man and shaved off the seven locks of his head; and she began to afflict him, and his strength went from him. She said, "The are upon you, !" He awoke out of his sleep, and said, "I will go out as at other times, and shake myself free." But he didn't know that had departed from him. The laid hold on him and put out his eyes; and they brought him down to and bound him with fetters of bronze; and he ground at the mill in the prison. However, the hair of his head began to grow again after he was shaved. The lords of the gathered together to offer a great to their , and to rejoice; for they said, "Our has our enemy into our hand." When the people saw him, they praised their ; for they said, "Our has our enemy and of our country, who has slain many of us, into our hand." When their were merry, they said, "Call for , that he may entertain us." They called for out of the prison; and he performed before them. They set him between the pillars; 26and said to the boy who held him by the hand, "Allow me to feel the pillars on which the house rests, that I may lean on them." Now the house was full of men and women; and all the lords of the were there; and there were on the roof about three thousand men and women, who saw while performed. called to , and said, " , remember me, please, and strengthen me, please, only this once, , that I may be at once of the for my two eyes." 29 took hold of the two middle pillars on which the house rested and leaned on them, the one with his and the other with his left. said, "Let me with the !" He bowed himself with all his might; and the house fell on the lords, and on all the people who were in it. So that he killed at his were more than those who he killed in his life. Then his brothers and all the house of his came down and took him, and brought him up and between and in the burial site of his . He judged Israel twenty years.
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The world at this moment · The judges, 1200 BC to 1050 BC ›
No central government and no standing army. The great empires are weak, which is precisely why Israel's troubles come from close neighbors: Moab, Ammon, Midian, and the newly arrived Philistines on the coast.
- Egypt
- Broken into competing power centres and no longer able to project force into Canaan. Its withdrawal is the single biggest reason this period has no imperial overlord.
- Mesopotamia
- Assyria exists but is dormant, hemmed in and looking east. The century that would have crushed a stateless Israel simply has not arrived yet.
- The coast
- The Philistines settle their five cities after arriving from the Aegean world, bringing Mycenaean-style pottery, a taste for pork, and an early advantage in ironworking. Further north the Phoenician ports of Tyre and Sidon start the trading expansion that will eventually give the alphabet to Greece.
- Further afield
- Greece has entered its dark age: the palaces are gone, Linear B is forgotten, and writing disappears from the Aegean for three centuries. In China the Zhou dynasty replaces the Shang in 1046 BC and issues the doctrine that heaven withdraws its mandate from unjust kings, an idea with an interesting resemblance to the book of Judges.