Judges 16 Cross References - BSB

¹ One day Samson went to Gaza, where he saw a prostitute and went in to spend the night with her. ² When the Gazites heard that Samson was there, they surrounded that place and lay in wait for him all night at the city gate. They were quiet throughout the night, saying, “Let us wait until dawn; then we will kill him.” ³ But Samson lay there only until midnight, when he got up, took hold of the doors of the city gate and both gateposts, and pulled them out, bar and all. Then he put them on his shoulders and took them to the top of the mountain overlooking Hebron. ⁴ Some time later, Samson fell in love with a woman in the Valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. ⁵ The lords of the Philistines went to her and said, “Entice him and find out the source of his great strength and how we can overpower him to tie him up and subdue him. Then each one of us will give you eleven hundred shekels of silver.” ⁶ So Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me the source of your great strength and how you can be tied up and subdued.” ⁷ Samson told her, “If they tie me up with seven fresh bowstrings that have not been dried, I will become as weak as any other man.” ⁸ So the lords of the Philistines brought her seven fresh bowstrings that had not been dried, and she tied him up with them. ⁹ While the men were hidden in her room, she called out, “Samson, the Philistines are here!” But he snapped the bowstrings like a strand of yarn seared by a flame. So the source of his strength remained unknown. ¹⁰ Then Delilah said to Samson, “You have mocked me and lied to me! Now please tell me how you can be tied up.” ¹¹ He replied, “If they tie me up with new ropes that have never been used, I will become as weak as any other man.” ¹² So Delilah took new ropes, tied him up with them, and called out, “Samson, the Philistines are here!” But while the men were hidden in her room, he snapped the ropes off his arms like they were threads. ¹³ Then Delilah said to Samson, “You have mocked me and lied to me all along! Tell me how you can be tied up.” He told her, “If you weave the seven braids of my head into the web of a loom and tighten it with a pin, I will become as weak as any other man.” ¹⁴ So while he slept, Delilah took the seven braids of his hair and wove them into the web. Then she tightened it with a pin and called to him, “Samson, the Philistines are here!” But he awoke from his sleep and pulled out the pin with the loom and the web. ¹⁵ “How can you say, ‘I love you,’” she asked, “when your heart is not with me? This is the third time you have mocked me and failed to reveal to me the source of your great strength!” ¹⁶ Finally, after she had pressed him daily with her words and pleaded until he was sick to death, ¹⁷ Samson told her all that was in his heart: “My hair has never been cut, because I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If I am shaved, my strength will leave me, and I will become as weak as any other man.” ¹⁸ When Delilah realized that he had revealed to her all that was in his heart, she sent this message to the lords of the Philistines: “Come up once more, for he has revealed to me all that is in his heart.” Then the lords of the Philistines came to her, bringing the money in their hands. ¹⁹ And having lulled him to sleep on her lap, she called a man to shave off the seven braids of his head. In this way she began to subdue him, and his strength left him. ²⁰ Then she called out, “Samson, the Philistines are here!” When Samson awoke from his sleep, he thought, “I will escape as I did before and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the LORD had departed from him. ²¹ Then the Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, where he was bound with bronze shackles and forced to grind grain in the prison. ²² However, the hair of his head began to grow back after it had been shaved. ²³ Now the lords of the Philistines gathered together to offer a great sacrifice to their god Dagon. They rejoiced and said, “Our god has delivered Samson our enemy into our hands.” ²⁴ And when the people saw him, they praised their god, saying: “Our god has delivered into our hands our enemy who destroyed our land and multiplied our dead.” ²⁵ And while their hearts were merry, they said, “Call for Samson to entertain us.” So they called Samson out of the prison to entertain them. And they stationed him between the pillars. ²⁶ Samson said to the servant who held his hand, “Lead me where I can feel the pillars supporting the temple, so I can lean against them.” ²⁷ Now the temple was full of men and women; all the lords of the Philistines were there, and about three thousand men and women were on the roof watching Samson entertain them. ²⁸ Then Samson called out to the LORD: “O Lord GOD, please remember me. Strengthen me, O God, just once more, so that with one vengeful blow I may pay back the Philistines for my two eyes.” ²⁹ And Samson reached out for the two central pillars supporting the temple. Bracing himself against them with his right hand on one pillar and his left hand on the other, ³⁰ Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines.” Then he pushed with all his might, and the temple fell on the lords and all the people in it. So in his death he killed more than he had killed in his life. ³¹ Then Samson’s brothers and his father’s family came down, carried him back, and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of his father Manoah. And he had judged Israel twenty years.

¹⁹ and the borders of Canaan extended from Sidon toward Gerar as far as Gaza, and then toward Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, as far as Lasha.

¹⁶ Not realizing that she was his daughter-in-law, he went over to her and said, “Come now, let me sleep with you.” “What will you give me for sleeping with you?” she inquired. ¹⁷ “I will send you a young goat from my flock,” Judah answered. But she replied, “Only if you leave me something as a pledge until you send it.” ¹⁸ “What pledge should I give you?” he asked. She answered, “Your seal and your cord, and the staff in your hand.” So he gave them to her and slept with her, and she became pregnant by him.

⁴⁷ Ashdod, with its towns and villages; Gaza, with its towns and villages, as far as the Brook of Egypt and the coastline of the Great Sea.

¹ After these things had been accomplished, the leaders approached me and said, “The people of Israel, including the priests and Levites, have not kept themselves separate from the surrounding peoples whose abominations are like those of the Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians, and Amorites. ² Indeed, the Israelites have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and their sons, so that the holy seed has been mixed with the people of the land. And the leaders and officials have taken the lead in this unfaithfulness!”

¹⁸ And being very thirsty, Samson cried out to the LORD, “You have accomplished this great deliverance through Your servant. Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?”

¹¹ Then Saul sent messengers to David’s house to watch him and kill him in the morning. But David’s wife Michal warned him, “If you do not run for your life tonight, tomorrow you will be dead!”

²⁶ Saul was proceeding along one side of the mountain, and David and his men along the other side. Even though David was hurrying to get away, Saul and his men were closing in on David and his men to capture them.

¹⁰ All the nations surrounded me, but in the name of the LORD I cut them off. ¹¹ They surrounded me on every side, but in the name of the LORD I cut them off. ¹² They swarmed around me like bees, but they were extinguished like burning thorns; in the name of the LORD I cut them off.

³⁸ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and take his inheritance.’

¹ When morning came, all the chief priests and elders of the people conspired against Jesus to put Him to death.

²⁴ but Saul learned of their plot. Day and night they watched the city gates in order to kill him.

¹⁵ Now then, you and the Sanhedrin petition the commander to bring him down to you on the pretext of examining his case more carefully. We are ready to kill him on the way.”

³² In Damascus, the governor under King Aretas secured the city of the Damascenes in order to arrest me. ³³ But I was lowered in a basket through a window in the wall and escaped his grasp.

¹⁶ For He has broken down the gates of bronze and cut through the bars of iron.

¹ Who is this coming from Edom, from Bozrah with crimson-stained garments? Who is this robed in splendor, marching in the greatness of His strength? “It is I, proclaiming vindication, mighty to save.” ² Why are Your clothes red, and Your garments like one who treads the winepress? ³ “I have trodden the winepress alone, and no one from the nations was with Me. I trampled them in My anger and trod them down in My fury; their blood spattered My garments, and all My clothes were stained. ⁴ For the day of vengeance was in My heart, and the year of My redemption had come. ⁵ I looked, but there was no one to help; I was appalled that no one assisted. So My arm brought Me salvation, and My own wrath upheld Me.

¹³ One who breaks open the way will go up before them; they will break through the gate, and go out by it. Their King will pass through before them, the LORD as their leader.

²⁴ But God raised Him from the dead, releasing Him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for Him to be held in its clutches.

¹ King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh—women of Moab, Ammon, Edom, and Sidon, as well as Hittite women.

²⁶ Did not King Solomon of Israel sin in matters like this? There was not a king like him among many nations, and he was loved by his God, who made him king over all Israel—yet foreign women drew him into sin.

¹⁴ The mouth of an adulteress is a deep pit; he who is under the wrath of the LORD will fall into it.

²⁷ For a prostitute is a deep pit, and an adulteress is a narrow well.

¹¹ As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his folly.

²² Though you grind a fool like grain with mortar and a pestle, yet his folly will not depart from him.

⁶ These things took place as examples to keep us from craving evil things as they did.

¹⁶ So that day Esau started on his way back to Seir,

¹⁷ for I will honor you richly and do whatever you say. So please come and put a curse on this people for me!’” ¹⁸ But Balaam replied to the servants of Balak, “If Balak were to give me his house full of silver and gold, I could not do anything small or great to go beyond the command of the LORD my God.

³ from the Shihor east of Egypt to the territory of Ekron on the north (considered to be Canaanite territory)—that of the five Philistine rulers of Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron, as well as that of the Avvites;

³ the five rulers of the Philistines, all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites who lived in the mountains of Lebanon from Mount Baal-hermon to Lebo-hamath.

¹⁵ So on the fourth day they said to Samson’s wife, “Entice your husband to explain the riddle to us, or we will burn you and your father’s household to death. Did you invite us here to rob us?”

² said to his mother, “The eleven hundred shekels of silver that were taken from you and about which I heard you utter a curse—I have the silver here with me; I took it.” Then his mother said, “Blessed be my son by the LORD!”

⁶ So Achish summoned David and told him, “As surely as the LORD lives, you have been upright in my sight, and it seems right that you should march in and out with me in the army, because I have found no fault in you from the day you came to me until this day. But you have no favor in the sight of the leaders.

¹⁶ It will rescue you from the forbidden woman, from the stranger with seductive words ¹⁷ who abandons the partner of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God. ¹⁸ For her house sinks down to death, and her tracks to the departed spirits. ¹⁹ None who go to her return or negotiate the paths of life.

³ Though the lips of the forbidden woman drip honey and her speech is smoother than oil, ⁴ in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a double-edged sword. ⁵ Her feet go down to death; her steps lead straight to Sheol. ⁶ She does not consider the path of life; she does not know that her ways are unstable. ⁷ So now, my sons, listen to me, and do not turn aside from the words of my mouth. ⁸ Keep your path far from her; do not go near the door of her house, ⁹ lest you concede your vigor to others, and your years to one who is cruel; ¹⁰ lest strangers feast on your wealth, and your labors enrich the house of a foreigner. ¹¹ At the end of your life you will groan when your flesh and your body are spent,

²⁴ to keep you from the evil woman, from the smooth tongue of the adulteress. ²⁵ Do not lust in your heart for her beauty or let her captivate you with her eyes. ²⁶ For the levy of the prostitute is poverty, and the adulteress preys upon your very life.

²¹ With her great persuasion she entices him; with her flattering lips she lures him. ²² He follows her on impulse, like an ox going to the slaughter, like a deer bounding into a trap, ²³ until an arrow pierces his liver, like a bird darting into a snare—not knowing it will cost him his life. ²⁴ Now, my sons, listen to me, and attend to the words of my mouth. ²⁵ Do not let your heart turn aside to her ways; do not stray into her paths. ²⁶ For she has brought many down to death; her slain are many in number. ²⁷ Her house is the road to Sheol, descending to the chambers of death.

³ Both hands are skilled at evil; the prince and the judge demand a bribe. When the powerful utters his evil desire, they all conspire together.

¹⁵ and asked, “What are you willing to give me if I hand Him over to you?” And they set out for him thirty pieces of silver.

¹⁵ Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! ¹⁶ Or don’t you know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.” ¹⁷ But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with Him in spirit. ¹⁸ Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a man can commit is outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body.

⁹ Those who want to be rich, however, fall into temptation and become ensnared by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction. ¹⁰ For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. By craving it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.

² They lie to one another; they speak with flattering lips and a double heart.

²⁶ For the levy of the prostitute is poverty, and the adulteress preys upon your very life.

²¹ With her great persuasion she entices him; with her flattering lips she lures him.

²⁸ A lying tongue hates those it crushes, and a flattering mouth causes ruin.

² If only I had a traveler’s lodge in the wilderness, I would abandon my people and depart from them, for they are all adulterers, a crowd of faithless people. ³ “They bend their tongues like bows; lies prevail over truth in the land. For they proceed from evil to evil, and they do not take Me into account,” declares the LORD. ⁴ “Let everyone guard against his neighbor; do not trust any brother, for every brother deals craftily, and every friend spreads slander. ⁵ Each one betrays his friend; no one tells the truth. They have taught their tongues to lie; they wear themselves out committing iniquity.

² The godly man has perished from the earth; there is no one upright among men. They all lie in wait for blood; they hunt one another with a net.

⁵ Do not rely on a friend; do not trust in a companion. Seal the doors of your mouth from her who lies in your arms.

¹⁰ Then Delilah said to Samson, “You have mocked me and lied to me! Now please tell me how you can be tied up.”

¹⁷ And Saul said to Michal, “Why did you deceive me like this? You sent my enemy away and he has escaped!” Michal replied, “He said to me, ‘Help me get away, or I will kill you!’”

² “The king has given me a mission,” David replied. “He told me no one is to know about the mission or charge. And I have directed my young men to meet me at a certain place. ³ Now then, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever can be found.”

¹⁰ who would ask him, “What have you raided today?” And David would reply, “The Negev of Judah,” or “The Negev of Jerahmeel,” or “The Negev of the Kenites.”

¹⁹ Truthful lips endure forever, but a lying tongue lasts only a moment.

⁷ Eloquent words are unfit for a fool; how much worse are lying lips to a ruler!

⁸ Why not say, as some slanderously claim that we say, “Let us do evil that good may result”? Their condemnation is deserved!

⁷ Do not be deceived: God is not to be mocked. Whatever a man sows, he will reap in return.

⁹ Do not lie to one another, since you have taken off the old self with its practices,

²⁶ And I find more bitter than death the woman who is a snare, whose heart is a net, and whose hands are chains. The man who pleases God escapes her, but the sinner is ensnared.

⁹ Before your pots can feel the burning thorns—whether green or dry—He will sweep them away.

⁷ Samson told her, “If they tie me up with seven fresh bowstrings that have not been dried, I will become as weak as any other man.”

¹³ Then Delilah said to Samson, “You have mocked me and lied to me all along! Tell me how you can be tied up.” He told her, “If you weave the seven braids of my head into the web of a loom and tighten it with a pin, I will become as weak as any other man.”

¹⁵ “How can you say, ‘I love you,’” she asked, “when your heart is not with me? This is the third time you have mocked me and failed to reveal to me the source of your great strength!” ¹⁶ Finally, after she had pressed him daily with her words and pleaded until he was sick to death, ¹⁷ Samson told her all that was in his heart: “My hair has never been cut, because I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If I am shaved, my strength will leave me, and I will become as weak as any other man.”

⁷ for he is keeping track, inwardly counting the cost. “Eat and drink,” he says to you, but his heart is not with you. ⁸ You will vomit up what little you have eaten and waste your pleasant words.

²⁸ Do not testify against your neighbor without cause, and do not deceive with your lips.

³¹ So My people come to you as usual, sit before you, and hear your words; but they do not put them into practice. Although they express love with their mouths, their hearts pursue dishonest gain.

⁴⁸ But Jesus asked him, “Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?”

¹³ “No,” they answered, “we will not kill you, but we will tie you up securely and hand you over to them.” So they bound him with two new ropes and led him up from the rock.

³ He who guards his mouth protects his life, but the one who opens his lips invites his own ruin.

⁵ The righteous hate falsehood, but the wicked bring shame and disgrace.

²⁵ The fear of man is a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is set securely on high.

²⁵ Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one another.

¹³ After all that has come upon us because of our evil deeds and our great guilt (though You, our God, have punished us less than our iniquities deserve and have given us such a remnant as this), ¹⁴ shall we again break Your commandments and intermarry with the peoples who commit these abominations? Would You not become so angry with us as to wipe us out, leaving no remnant or survivor?

⁴³ Many times He rescued them, but they were bent on rebellion and sank down in their iniquity.

²⁰ So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, yet it seemed but a few days because of his love for her.

⁵ And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

¹⁶ Then Samson’s wife came to him, weeping, and said, “You hate me! You do not really love me! You have posed to my people a riddle, but have not explained it to me.” “Look,” he said, “I have not even explained it to my father or mother, so why should I explain it to you?”

¹³ When Samuel reached him, Saul said to him, “May the LORD bless you. I have carried out the LORD’s instructions.” ¹⁴ But Samuel replied, “Then what is this bleating of sheep and lowing of cattle that I hear?”

¹⁷ “Is this the loyalty you show your friend?” Absalom replied. “Why did you not go with your friend?”

¹⁶ It will rescue you from the forbidden woman, from the stranger with seductive words

³ Though the lips of the forbidden woman drip honey and her speech is smoother than oil, ⁴ in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a double-edged sword. ⁵ Her feet go down to death; her steps lead straight to Sheol. ⁶ She does not consider the path of life; she does not know that her ways are unstable. ⁷ So now, my sons, listen to me, and do not turn aside from the words of my mouth. ⁸ Keep your path far from her; do not go near the door of her house, ⁹ lest you concede your vigor to others, and your years to one who is cruel; ¹⁰ lest strangers feast on your wealth, and your labors enrich the house of a foreigner. ¹¹ At the end of your life you will groan when your flesh and your body are spent, ¹² and you will say, “How I hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof! ¹³ I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my mentors. ¹⁴ I am on the brink of utter ruin in the midst of the whole assembly.”

²⁶ My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes delight in my ways.

⁶ Set me as a seal over your heart, as a seal upon your arm. For love is as strong as death, its jealousy as unrelenting as Sheol. Its sparks are fiery flames, the fiercest blaze of all. ⁷ Mighty waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot sweep it away. If a man were to give all the wealth of his house for love, his offer would be utterly scorned.

¹⁵ If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.

²¹ Whoever has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me. The one who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and reveal Myself to him.” ²² Judas (not Iscariot) asked Him, “Lord, why are You going to reveal Yourself to us and not to the world?” ²³ Jesus replied, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word. My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. ²⁴ Whoever does not love Me does not keep My words. The word that you hear is not My own, but it is from the Father who sent Me.

¹⁰ If you keep My commandments, you will remain in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and remain in His love.

¹⁴ For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that One died for all, therefore all died. ¹⁵ And He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died for them and was raised again.

¹⁵ Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. ¹⁶ For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not from the Father but from the world.

³ For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome,

⁴ Is my complaint against a man? Then why should I not be impatient?

²¹ With her great persuasion she entices him; with her flattering lips she lures him. ²² He follows her on impulse, like an ox going to the slaughter, like a deer bounding into a trap, ²³ until an arrow pierces his liver, like a bird darting into a snare—not knowing it will cost him his life.

⁹ Then God asked Jonah, “Have you any right to be angry about the plant?” “I do,” he replied. “I am angry enough to die!”

²⁴ He said to them, “This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.

⁸ I tell you, even though he will not get up to provide for him because of his friendship, yet because of the man’s persistence, he will get up and give him as much as he needs.

⁵ yet because this widow keeps pestering me, I will give her justice. Then she will stop wearing me out with her perpetual requests.’”

² “Speak to the Israelites and tell them that if a man or woman makes a special vow, the vow of a Nazirite, to separate himself to the LORD,

⁵ For the entire period of his vow of separation, no razor shall pass over his head. He must be holy until the time of his separation to the LORD is complete; he must let the hair of his head grow long.

⁵ For behold, you will conceive and give birth to a son. And no razor shall come over his head, because the boy will be a Nazirite to God from the womb, and he will begin the deliverance of Israel from the hand of the Philistines.”

²³ A shrewd man keeps his knowledge to himself, but a foolish heart proclaims its folly.

¹² If a ruler listens to lies, all his officials will be wicked.

¹⁸ Paul remained in Corinth for quite some time before saying goodbye to the brothers. He had his head shaved in Cenchrea to keep a vow he had made, and then he sailed for Syria, accompanied by Priscilla and Aquila.

⁷ The elders of Moab and Midian departed with the fees for divination in hand. They came to Balaam and relayed to him the words of Balak.

⁵ The lords of the Philistines went to her and said, “Entice him and find out the source of his great strength and how we can overpower him to tie him up and subdue him. Then each one of us will give you eleven hundred shekels of silver.”

²⁰ When Elijah arrived, Ahab said to him, “So you have found me out, my enemy.” He replied, “I have found you out because you have sold yourself to do evil in the sight of the LORD.

⁹ Lowborn men are but a vapor, the exalted but a lie. Weighed on the scale, they go up; together they are but a vapor.

⁸ The words of a gossip are like choice morsels that go down into the inmost being.

⁴ “Let everyone guard against his neighbor; do not trust any brother, for every brother deals craftily, and every friend spreads slander. ⁵ Each one betrays his friend; no one tells the truth. They have taught their tongues to lie; they wear themselves out committing iniquity. ⁶ You dwell in the midst of deception; in their deceit they refuse to know Me,” declares the LORD.

⁵ For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure, or greedy person (that is, an idolater), has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.

¹⁰ For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. By craving it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.

³³ Your eyes will see strange things, and your mind will utter perversities. ³⁴ You will be like one sleeping on the high seas or lying on the top of a mast:

⁹ Only do not rebel against the LORD, and do not be afraid of the people of the land, for they will be like bread for us. Their protection has been removed, and the LORD is with us. Do not be afraid of them!”

⁴² Do not go up, lest you be struck down by your enemies, because the LORD is not among you. ⁴³ For there the Amalekites and Canaanites will face you, and you will fall by the sword. Because you have turned away from the LORD, He will not be with you.”

³⁰ How could one man pursue a thousand, or two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, unless the LORD had given them up?

¹² This is why the Israelites cannot stand against their enemies. They will turn their backs and run from their enemies, because they themselves have been set apart for destruction. I will no longer be with you unless you remove from among you whatever is devoted to destruction.

³ But Samson lay there only until midnight, when he got up, took hold of the doors of the city gate and both gateposts, and pulled them out, bar and all. Then he put them on his shoulders and took them to the top of the mountain overlooking Hebron.

⁹ While the men were hidden in her room, she called out, “Samson, the Philistines are here!” But he snapped the bowstrings like a strand of yarn seared by a flame. So the source of his strength remained unknown.

¹⁴ So while he slept, Delilah took the seven braids of his hair and wove them into the web. Then she tightened it with a pin and called to him, “Samson, the Philistines are here!” But he awoke from his sleep and pulled out the pin with the loom and the web.

¹⁴ After the Spirit of the LORD had departed from Saul, a spirit of distress from the LORD began to torment him.

¹² So Saul was afraid of David, because the LORD was with David but had departed from Saul.

¹⁴ “What does he look like?” asked Saul. “An old man is coming up,” she replied. “And he is wearing a robe.” So Saul knew that it was Samuel, and he bowed facedown in reverence. ¹⁵ Then Samuel said to Saul, “Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?” “I am deeply distressed,” replied Saul. “The Philistines are fighting against me, and God has turned away from me. He no longer answers me, either by prophets or by dreams. So I have called on you to tell me what to do.” ¹⁶ “Why do you consult me,” asked Samuel, “since the LORD has turned away from you and become your enemy?

² So he went out to meet Asa and said to him, “Listen to me, Asa and all Judah and Benjamin. The LORD is with you when you are with Him. If you seek Him, He will be found by you, but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you.

²⁴ Who gave Jacob up for spoil, and Israel to the plunderers? Was it not the LORD, against whom we have sinned? They were unwilling to walk in His ways, and they would not obey His law.

¹ Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor His ear too dull to hear. ² But your iniquities have built barriers between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He does not hear.

²³ This is what the LORD says: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, nor the strong man in his strength, nor the wealthy man in his riches. ²⁴ But let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD, who exercises loving devotion, justice and righteousness on the earth—for I delight in these things,” declares the LORD.

⁹ Foreigners consume his strength, but he does not notice. Even his hair is streaked with gray, but he does not know.

¹⁶ I brought him to Your disciples, but they could not heal him.”

²⁰ “Because you have so little faith,” He answered. “For truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

⁵ Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim that anything comes from us, but our competence comes from God.

⁵ and every firstborn son in the land of Egypt will die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, to the firstborn of the servant girl behind the hand mill, as well as the firstborn of all the cattle.

⁷ And they slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes. Then they put out his eyes, bound him with bronze shackles, and took him to Babylon.

¹¹ So the LORD brought against them the military commanders of the king of Assyria, who captured Manasseh, put a hook in his nose, bound him with bronze shackles, and took him to Babylon.

¹⁰ Some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, prisoners in affliction and chains, ¹¹ because they rebelled against the words of God and despised the counsel of the Most High. ¹² He humbled their hearts with hard labor; they stumbled, and there was no one to help.

⁸ to bind their kings with chains and their nobles with shackles of iron,

¹⁹ None who go to her return or negotiate the paths of life.

²² The iniquities of a wicked man entrap him; the cords of his sin entangle him.

¹⁴ The backslider in heart receives the fill of his own ways, but a good man is rewarded for his ways.

² Take millstones and grind flour; remove your veil; strip off your skirt, bare your thigh, and wade through the streams.

⁴¹ Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left.

⁴⁴ Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject or despise them so as to destroy them and break My covenant with them; for I am the LORD their God.

³⁶ For the LORD will vindicate His people and have compassion on His servants when He sees that their strength is gone and no one remains, slave or free.

⁴⁴ Nevertheless He heard their cry; He took note of their distress. ⁴⁵ And He remembered His covenant with them, and relented by the abundance of His loving devotion.

¹³ Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and He saved them from their distress. ¹⁴ He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death and broke away their chains.

² carried it into the temple of Dagon, and set it beside his statue. ³ When the people of Ashdod got up early the next morning, there was Dagon, fallen on his face before the ark of the LORD. So they took Dagon and returned him to his place. ⁴ But when they got up early the next morning, there was Dagon, fallen on his face before the ark of the LORD, with his head and his hands broken off and lying on the threshold. Only the torso remained. ⁵ That is why, to this day, the priests of Dagon and all who enter the temple of Dagon in Ashdod do not step on the threshold.

¹⁰ They put his armor in the temple of their gods and hung his head in the temple of Dagon.

⁹ And now they mock me in song; I have become a byword among them. ¹⁰ They abhor me and keep far from me; they do not hesitate to spit in my face.

¹⁵ But when I stumbled, they assembled in glee; they gathered together against me. Assailants I did not know slandered me without ceasing. ¹⁶ Like godless jesters at a feast, they gnashed their teeth at me.

¹⁷ Do not gloat when your enemy falls, and do not let your heart rejoice when he stumbles,

¹¹ Has a nation ever changed its gods, though they are no gods at all? Yet My people have exchanged their Glory for useless idols.

⁵ Though each of the peoples may walk in the name of his god, yet we will walk in the name of the LORD our God forever and ever.

²³ and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images of mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. ²⁴ Therefore God gave them over in the desires of their hearts to impurity for the dishonoring of their bodies with one another. ²⁵ They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is forever worthy of praise! Amen.

⁴ So about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world, and that there is no God but one. ⁵ For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as there are many so-called gods and lords),

²⁰ No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God. And I do not want you to be participants with demons.

²⁷ if I had not dreaded the taunt of the enemy, lest their adversaries misunderstand and say: ‘Our own hand has prevailed; it was not the LORD who did all this.’”

⁸ And he struck them ruthlessly with a great slaughter, and then went down and stayed in the cave at the rock of Etam.

¹⁶ Then Samson said: “With the jawbone of a donkey I have piled them into heaps. With the jawbone of a donkey I have slain a thousand men.”

⁹ They cut off Saul’s head, stripped off his armor, and sent messengers throughout the land of the Philistines to proclaim the news in the temples of their idols and among their people.

⁹ They stripped Saul, cut off his head, took his armor, and sent messengers throughout the land of the Philistines to proclaim the news in the temple of their idols and among their people.

²⁰ And now, O LORD our God, save us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, O LORD, are God.”

¹⁴ But I acted for the sake of My name, so that it would not be profaned in the eyes of the nations in whose sight I had brought them out.

⁴ As they drank the wine, they praised their gods of gold and silver, bronze and iron, wood and stone.

²³ Instead, you have exalted yourself against the Lord of heaven. The vessels from His house were brought to you, and as you drank wine from them with your nobles, wives, and concubines, you praised your gods of silver and gold, bronze and iron, wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or understand. But you have failed to glorify the God who holds in His hand your very breath and all your ways.

¹⁶ Therefore he sacrifices to his dragnet and burns incense to his fishing net, for by these things his portion is sumptuous and his food is rich.

¹⁰ And those who dwell on the earth will gloat over them, and will celebrate and send one another gifts, because these two prophets had tormented them.

²⁷ And after they had gone out into the fields, gathered grapes from their vineyards, and trodden them, they held a festival and went into the house of their god; and as they ate and drank, they cursed Abimelech.

²⁰ So the priest was glad and took the ephod, the household idols, and the graven image, and went with the people.

⁶ So they sat down and the two of them ate and drank together. Then the girl’s father said to the man, “Please agree to stay overnight and let your heart be merry.”

⁹ When the man got up to depart with his concubine and his servant, his father-in-law, the girl’s father, said to him, “Look, the day is drawing to a close. Please spend the night. See, the day is almost over. Spend the night here, that your heart may be merry. Then you can get up early tomorrow for your journey home.”

²⁸ Now Absalom had ordered his young men, “Watch Amnon until his heart is merry with wine, and when I order you to strike Amnon down, you are to kill him. Do not be afraid. Have I not commanded you? Be courageous and valiant!”

¹² Ben-hadad received this message while he and the kings were drinking in their tents, and he said to his servants, “Take your positions.” So they stationed themselves against the city.

¹⁵ The couriers left, spurred on by the king’s command, and the edict was issued in the citadel of Susa. Then the king and Haman sat down to drink, but the city of Susa was in confusion.

¹² Those who sit at the gate mock me, and I am the song of drunkards.

²⁶ For they persecute the one You struck and recount the pain of those You wounded.

¹⁷ Do not gloat when your enemy falls, and do not let your heart rejoice when he stumbles, ¹⁸ or the LORD will see and disapprove, and turn His wrath away from him.

¹³ But look, there is joy and gladness, butchering of cattle and slaughtering of sheep, eating of meat and drinking of wine: “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!”

² Under the influence of the wine, Belshazzar gave orders to bring in the gold and silver vessels that Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken from the temple in Jerusalem, so that the king could drink from them, along with his nobles, his wives, and his concubines. ³ Thus they brought in the gold vessels that had been taken from the temple, the house of God in Jerusalem, and the king drank from them, along with his nobles, his wives, and his concubines.

⁸ Do not gloat over me, my enemy! Though I have fallen, I will arise; though I sit in darkness, the LORD will be my light. ⁹ Because I have sinned against Him, I must endure the rage of the LORD, until He argues my case and executes justice for me. He will bring me into the light; I will see His righteousness. ¹⁰ Then my enemy will see and will be covered with shame—she who said to me, “Where is the LORD your God?” My eyes will see her; at that time she will be trampled like mud in the streets.

⁶ On Herod’s birthday, however, the daughter of Herodias danced before them and pleased Herod ⁷ so much that he promised with an oath to give to her whatever she asked.

⁶⁷ Then they spit in His face and struck Him. Others slapped Him ⁶⁸ and said, “Prophesy to us, Christ! Who hit You?”

²⁹ And they twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on His head. They put a staff in His right hand and knelt down before Him to mock Him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!”

³⁹ And those who passed by heaped abuse on Him, shaking their heads ⁴⁰ and saying, “You who are going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save Yourself! If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross!” ⁴¹ In the same way, the chief priests, scribes, and elders mocked Him, saying, ⁴² “He saved others, but He cannot save Himself. He is the King of Israel! Let Him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in Him. ⁴³ He trusts in God. Let God deliver Him now if He wants Him. For He said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” ⁴⁴ In the same way, even the robbers who were crucified with Him berated Him.

³⁶ Still others endured mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment.

⁸ If you build a new house, you are to construct a railing around your roof, so that you do not bring bloodguilt on your house if someone falls from it.

⁸ Before the spies lay down for the night, Rahab went up on the roof

⁵¹ But there was a strong tower inside the city, and all the men, women, and leaders of the city fled there. They locked themselves in and went up to the roof of the tower.

² One evening David got up from his bed and strolled around on the roof of the palace. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing—a very beautiful woman.

³¹ So may all Your enemies perish, O LORD! But may those who love You shine like the sun at its brightest.” And the land had rest for forty years.

¹² Our God, will You not judge them? For we are powerless before this vast army that comes against us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon You.”

¹⁵ Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor Me.”

¹⁰ The righteous will rejoice when they see they are avenged; they will wash their feet in the blood of the wicked. ¹¹ Then men will say, “There is surely a reward for the righteous! There is surely a God who judges the earth!”

¹⁸ Remember how the enemy has mocked You, O LORD, how a foolish people has spurned Your name. ¹⁹ Do not deliver the soul of Your dove to beasts; do not forget the lives of Your afflicted forever. ²⁰ Consider Your covenant, for haunts of violence fill the dark places of the land. ²¹ Do not let the oppressed retreat in shame; may the poor and needy praise Your name. ²² Rise up, O God; defend Your cause! Remember how the fool mocks You all day long. ²³ Do not disregard the clamor of Your adversaries, the uproar of Your enemies that ascends continually.

¹⁵ When he calls out to Me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver him and honor him.

⁴ Then I called on the name of the LORD: “O LORD, deliver my soul!”

¹² And in Your loving devotion, cut off my enemies. Destroy all who afflict me, for I am Your servant.

¹⁵ You understand, O LORD; remember me and attend to me. Avenge me against my persecutors. In Your patience, do not take me away. Know that I endure reproach for Your honor.

³¹ For the Lord will not cast us off forever. ³² Even if He causes grief, He will show compassion according to His abundant loving devotion.

¹ From inside the fish, Jonah prayed to the LORD his God, ² saying: “In my distress I called to the LORD, and He answered me. From the belly of Sheol I called for help, and You heard my voice.

⁷ As my life was fading away, I remembered the LORD. My prayer went up to You, to Your holy temple.

¹⁴ Alexander the coppersmith did great harm to me. The Lord will repay him according to his deeds.

³² And what more shall I say? Time will not allow me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets,

¹⁰ And they cried out in a loud voice, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You avenge our blood and judge those who dwell upon the earth?”

¹⁵ And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”

¹⁹ Then the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him, and he went down to Ashkelon, killed thirty of their men, took their apparel, and gave their clothes to those who had solved the riddle. And burning with anger, Samson returned to his father’s house,

¹⁵ He found the fresh jawbone of a donkey, reached out his hand and took it, and struck down a thousand men.

⁵ the triumph of the wicked has been brief and the joy of the godless momentary?

³ Does not disaster come to the unjust and calamity to the workers of iniquity?

³ How long will you threaten a man? Will all of you throw him down like a leaning wall or a tottering fence?

¹² For surely no man knows his time: Like fish caught in a cruel net or birds trapped in a snare, so men are ensnared in an evil time that suddenly falls upon them.

²⁵ For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.

³⁸ For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark. ³⁹ And they were oblivious, until the flood came and swept them all away. So will it be at the coming of the Son of Man.

²⁴ But I consider my life of no value to me, if only I may finish my course and complete the ministry I have received from the Lord Jesus—the ministry of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.

¹³ Then Paul answered, “Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.”

⁸ And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross.

¹⁷ But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you.

³⁰ because he nearly died for the work of Christ, risking his life to make up for your deficit of service to me.

¹⁵ And having disarmed the powers and authorities, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

² For you are fully aware that the Day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.

¹⁴ Now since the children have flesh and blood, He too shared in their humanity, so that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death, that is, the devil, ¹⁵ and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.

¹ Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off every encumbrance and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with endurance the race set out for us. ² Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. ³ Consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. ⁴ In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.

⁴¹ The territory of their inheritance included Zorah, Eshtaol, Ir-shemesh,

² Now there was a man from Zorah named Manoah, from the clan of the Danites, whose wife was barren and had no children.

²⁵ And the Spirit of the LORD began to stir him at Mahaneh-dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.

²⁰ And Samson judged Israel for twenty years in the days of the Philistines.

³⁹ Nicodemus, who had previously come to Jesus at night, also brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds. ⁴⁰ So they took the body of Jesus and wrapped it in linen cloths with the spices, according to the Jewish burial custom. ⁴¹ Now there was a garden in the place where Jesus was crucified, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. ⁴² And because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and the tomb was nearby, they placed Jesus there.