King James Version · The judges
Judges 16
Touch any underlined name to see who or where it is. Tap a verse number to see where it is taken up elsewhere.
Then went to , and saw there an , and went in unto her. And it was told the Gazites, saying, is come hither. And they compassed him in, and laid wait for him all night in the , and were quiet all the night, saying, In the morning, when it is day, we shall kill him. And lay till midnight, and arose at midnight, and took the doors of the , and the two posts, and went away with them, bar and all, and put them upon his shoulders, and carried them up to the top of an hill that is before . And it came to pass afterward, that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. And the lords of the came up unto her, and said unto her, Entice him, and see wherein his great strength lieth, and by what means we may prevail against him, that we may bind him to afflict him: and we will give thee every one of us eleven hundred pieces of silver. And Delilah said to , Tell me, I thee, wherein thy great strength lieth, and wherewith thou mightest be bound to afflict thee. And said unto her, If they bind me with seven green withs that were never dried, then shall I be weak, and be as another man. Then the lords of the brought up to her seven green withs which had not been dried, and she bound him with them. Now there were men lying in wait, abiding with her in the chamber. And she said unto him, The be upon thee, . And he brake the withs, as a thread of tow is broken when it toucheth the . So his strength was not known. And Delilah said unto , Behold, thou hast mocked me, and told me lies: now tell me, I thee, wherewith thou mightest be bound. And he said unto her, If they bind me with new ropes that never were occupied, then shall I be weak, and be as another man. 12Delilah therefore took new ropes, and bound him therewith, and said unto him, The be upon thee, . And there were liers in wait abiding in the chamber. And he brake them from off his arms like a thread. 13And Delilah said unto , Hitherto thou hast mocked me, and told me lies: tell me wherewith thou mightest be bound. And he said unto her, If thou weavest the seven locks of my head with the web. And she fastened it with the pin, and said unto him, The be upon thee, . And he awaked out of his sleep, and went away with the pin of the beam, and with the web. And she said unto him, How canst thou say, I love thee, when thine is not with me? thou hast mocked me these three times, and hast not told me wherein thy great strength lieth. And it came to pass, when she pressed him daily with her words, and urged him, so that his was vexed unto ; That he told her all , and said unto her, There hath not come a razor upon mine head; for I have been a unto from my mother’s : if I be shaven, then my strength will go from me, and I shall become weak, and be like any other man. And 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 hath shewed me all . Then the lords of the came up unto her, and brought money in their hand. And she made him sleep upon her knees; and she called for a man, and she caused him to shave off the seven locks of his head; and she began to afflict him, and his strength went from him. And she said, The be upon thee, . And he awoke out of his sleep, and said, I will go out as at other times before, and shake myself. And he wist not that was departed from him. But the took him, and put out his eyes, and brought him down to , and bound him with fetters of brass; and he did grind in the prison house. Howbeit the hair of his head began to grow again after he was shaven. Then the lords of the gathered them together for to offer a great unto their , and to rejoice: for they said, Our hath our enemy into our hand. And when the people saw him, they praised their : for they said, Our hath into our hands our enemy, and of our country, which slew many of us. And it came to pass, when their were merry, that they said, Call for , that he may make us sport. And they called for out of the prison house; and he made them sport: and they set him between the pillars. 26And said unto the lad that held him by the hand, Suffer me that I may feel the pillars whereupon the house standeth, that I may lean upon them. Now the house was full of men and women; and all the lords of the were there; and there were upon the roof about three thousand men and women, that beheld while made sport. And called unto , and said, O , remember me, I thee, and strengthen me, I thee, only this once, O , that I may be at once of the for my two eyes. 29And took hold of the two middle pillars upon which the house stood, and on which it was borne up, of the one with his , and of the other with his left. And said, Let me with the . And he bowed himself with all his might; and the house fell upon the lords, and upon all the people that were therein. So which he slew at his were more than they which he slew in his life. Then his brethren and all the house of his came down, and took him, and brought him up, and between and in the buryingplace of his . And he judged Israel twenty years.
The 1611 translation, public domain. Its original printing included the Apocrypha, which is why the deuterocanonical books can be read here. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
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.