WELS Through my Bible in Three Years

1 Peter 1:13 – 2:3 (EHV)

13 Therefore, after preparing your minds for action by exercising self-control, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed. 14 As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. 15 Rather, just as the one who called you is holy, so also be holy in everything you do. 16 For it is written, “Be holy, because I am holy.” [1]

17 If you call on the Father who judges impartially, according to the work of each person, conduct yourselves during the time of your pilgrimage in reverence, 18 because you know that you were redeemed from your empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, not with things that pass away, such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like a lamb without blemish or spot. 20 He was chosen before the foundation of the world but revealed in these last times for your sake. 21 Through him you are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

22 Since you have purified your souls by obeying the truth, [2] resulting in sincere brotherly love, love one another constantly from a pure heart. 23 For you have been born again, not from perishable seed but from imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. 24 For:

All flesh is like grass,

And this is the word that was preached to you.

1 Therefore rid yourselves of all evil, all deceit, hypocrisy, jealousy, and all slander. 2 Like newborn babies, crave the pure milk of the word [4] so that by it you may grow up with the result being salvation. 3 Certainly [5] you have tasted that the Lord is good!

The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.

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1 Peter 1:1-12 (EHV)

1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,

To the elect, temporary residents in the world, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, 2 who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient and to be sprinkled with the blood of Jesus Christ:

Grace and peace be multiplied to you.

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he gave us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 into an inheritance that is undying, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. 5 Through faith you are being protected by God’s power for the salvation that is ready to be revealed at the end of time.

6 Because of this you rejoice very much, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various kinds of trials 7 so that the proven character of your faith—which is more valuable than gold, which passes away even though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not see him now, yet by believing in him, you are filled with a joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9 because you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

10 The prophets, who prophesied about the grace that has come to you, searched and studied carefully concerning this salvation, 11 trying to find out what person and what time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. 12 It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you, when they wrote about these things. These are the things that have now been announced to you by those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even the angels long to look carefully into these things.

The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Judges 21 (EHV)

1 Previously the men of Israel had taken an oath at Mizpah: “Not a man from among us will give his daughter to a Benjaminite as his wife.”

2 The people came to Bethel and remained there before God until evening. They lifted up their voices and wept bitterly. 3 They said, “Why, Lord God of Israel, has this happened in Israel, that today one tribe has been removed from Israel?”

4 The next day, when the people rose early, they built an altar there and offered burnt offerings and fellowship offerings.

5 Then the Israelites said, “From all the tribes of Israel, was there anyone who did not come up to the assembly of Israel before the Lord?” For they had taken this solemn oath against anyone who did not come up to the Lord at Mizpah: “He will certainly be put to death.”

6 Then the people of Israel felt compassion toward Benjamin, their brother, and they said, “One tribe of Israel is cut off today. 7 What can be done to provide wives for those who remain? We have sworn by the Lord not to give any of our daughters to them as wives.”

8 So then they asked, “Was there anyone from the tribes of Israel who did not go up to the Lord at Mizpah?” They found that no one from Jabesh Gilead had come to the assembly at the camp. 9 In fact, when the roll call had been taken, not a man was there from the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead.

10 So the assembly sent twelve thousand powerful warriors and commanded them, “Go and strike down the people who live at Jabesh Gilead with the edge of the sword, including the women and children. 11 This is what you are to do: Every male and every woman who has known the bed of a male, you shall devote to destruction.”

12 They found among the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead four hundred young women who were virgins, who had never known a man by lying down with a male. They brought the four hundred women to the camp at Shiloh in the land of Canaan.

13 Then the entire assembly sent a message to the Benjaminites who were at the Rock of Rimmon. They extended an offer of peace to them. 14 The Benjaminites then returned, and the Israelites gave them the women that they had kept alive from Jabesh Gilead.

But they did not find enough wives for all of them. 15 Once more the people had compassion on Benjamin because the Lord had left an empty spot among the tribes of the Lord. 16 So the elders of the assembly asked, “What shall we do to get wives for those who were spared, since the women from Benjamin have been wiped out?” 17 They said, “There must be a way to provide an inheritance for the surviving remnant of Benjamin, so that a tribe will not be blotted out from Israel! 18 But we cannot give them wives from our daughters, because the people of Israel have sworn, ‘Cursed is anyone who gives a woman to Benjamin.’”

19 But then someone said, “Look! There is an annual festival of the Lord in Shiloh, which is north of Bethel, east of the highway that goes from Bethel toward Shechem, and south of Lebonah.”

20 So they commanded the Benjaminites, “Go and lie in wait in the vineyards 21 and watch. Then when the daughters of Shiloh come out to join in the dances, come out from the vineyards, and each man should seize a wife for himself from the daughters of Shiloh. Then return to the land of Benjamin. 22 If it happens that their fathers or brothers come to us to complain, we will say to them, ‘Be gracious to them, because we failed to capture a woman for each man during the battle, and you did not break your oath that you would not give your daughters, so you will not incur guilt.’”

23 So that is what the Benjaminites did. They grabbed and carried off as many women as they needed from among the dancers. Then they went and returned to their family property, rebuilt their cities, and lived in them.

24 At the same time the Israelites returned from there. Each man returned to the territory of his tribe and clan, each man to his own family property.

25 In those days there was no king in Israel, and every man did whatever was right in his own eyes.

The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Judges 20 (EHV)

1 Then all the people of Israel came out, and the whole community from Dan to Beersheba, including the Israelites in Gilead, assembled as one man before the Lord at Mizpah. 2 The pillars [1] of the people from all the tribes of Israel took their places in the assembly of the people of God—four hundred thousand foot soldiers, armed with swords. 3 (The people of Benjamin heard that the people of Israel had gone up to Mizpah.) The people of Israel said, “Speak up! How did this evil happen?”

4 Then the Levite, the husband of the woman who had been murdered, answered, “I, along with my concubine, came to Gibeah in Benjamin to spend the night. 5 But the citizens of Gibeah rose up against me and surrounded the house during the night. They intended to kill me. They abused my concubine, and she died. 6 So I took hold of my concubine, cut her into pieces, and I sent her to every region of the inheritance of Israel, because the men of Gibeah did this outrageous, foolish deed in Israel. 7 Look! All of you are descendants of Israel! Consider the matter and give your judgment.”

8 All the people then rose up as one man. They said, “Not one of us will go to his tent, nor will any of us return to their homes. 9 Now this is what we will do to Gibeah: We will determine who goes against it by choosing lots. 10 We will choose ten men out of every hundred from all the tribes of Israel—and a hundred out of a thousand, and a thousand out of ten thousand—to gather provisions for the troops. When the men of Israel arrive at Gibeah [2] in Benjamin, Israel can do to the men of Gibeah what they deserve for all the disgraceful things they did in Israel.” 11 So all the men of Israel were gathered against the city. The various groups were united as if they were one man.

12 The tribes of Israel sent men through the whole tribe [3] of Benjamin, saying, “What is this evil thing that has been done among you? 13 Now, hand over the men, these worthless, wicked men from Gibeah! We will put them to death and root out this evil from Israel.”

But the people of Benjamin were not willing to listen to the voice of their brothers, the people of Israel. 14 Instead, the people from all the cities of Benjamin gathered at Gibeah to go out for war against the people of Israel. 15 On that day the people of Benjamin mustered from their cities twenty-six thousand men armed with swords, not counting those who lived in Gibeah, from which they mustered an additional seven hundred elite men. 16 From all these troops, there were seven hundred elite soldiers who were left-handed, each of whom could sling a stone at a single hair and not miss.

17 Meanwhile, the men of Israel, apart from Benjamin, mustered four hundred thousand men armed with swords, each of them a trained soldier.

18 They arose and went up to Bethel, and the people of Israel inquired of God, “Who will go up to lead us into the battle against the Benjaminites?”

The Lord said, “Judah will take the lead in the battle.”

19 The Israelites got up in the morning and set up camp against Gibeah. 20 The men of Israel went out for war against Benjamin and lined up for battle at Gibeah. 21 But the Benjaminites came out from Gibeah, and that day they struck down to the ground twenty-two thousand men of Israel!

22 The men of Israel renewed their courage and again lined up for battle in the same spot where they had lined up on the first day. 23 The people of Israel went up and wept before the Lord until evening. They inquired of the Lord, “Shall we go out again to engage in battle with the people of Benjamin, our brothers?”

Again the Lord said, “Go up against them.”

24 The Israelites approached the Benjaminites on the second day. 25 Benjamin came out from Gibeah to confront them on the second day and took down an additional eighteen thousand men from among the Israelites—right down to the ground!—all of them men armed with swords.

26 After that, all the Israelites, the entire army, went up to Bethel. There they wept and sat before the Lord and fasted all that day until evening. They offered burnt offerings and fellowship offerings before the Lord. 27 The people of Israel inquired of the Lord. (The Ark of the Covenant of God was there in those days.) 28 Phinehas son of Eleazar, son of Aaron, was ministering in front of the ark in those days. He asked, “Shall I again go out to battle against our brothers the Benjaminites, or shall I stop?”

The Lord said, “Go up, because tomorrow I will give them into your hand.”

29 Then Israel positioned men in ambushes all around Gibeah. 30 The men of Israel went up against the men of Benjamin on the third day, and they lined up against Gibeah as they had done before. 31 Again the Benjaminites went out to confront the people of Israel. The Benjaminites were drawn away from the city, and they began to strike down some of the people, killing them in the open country as they had done before, along the highway that goes up to Bethel and the one to Gibeah. [4] They killed about thirty men of Israel.

32 The Benjaminites thought, “They are being struck down before us, just as they were before.”

But the Israelites had said, “We will retreat and draw them out of the city to the highways.”

33 So all the men of Israel fell back from their positions and drew up a battle line at Baal Tamar. Then the Israelites who were hiding in ambush came bursting out from their positions west of Geba. [5] 34 Ten thousand specially chosen men from all Israel came out against Gibeah. The battle was fierce, and the Benjaminites did not realize that calamity was about to fall upon them. 35 The Lord struck down Benjamin before Israel, and the Israelites brought Benjamin to ruin on that day. Twenty-five thousand one hundred men, who were armed with swords, fell. 36 Then the Benjaminites saw that they were beaten.

The men of Israel had given ground to Benjamin because they were relying on the men in the ambushes that they had set up near Gibeah. 37 The hidden attackers struck quickly. They dashed into Gibeah, spread out, and struck the entire city with the edge of the sword. 38 This was the signal for the men of Israel and for those in the ambush: When they saw a great cloud of smoke coming up from the city, 39 the men of Israel were to turn back to join the battle.

Benjamin had begun to strike some of the men of Israel dead, about thirty men. So they said, “Look, they are being struck down before us, as they were in the first battle.” 40 But as a column of smoke began to rise above the city, the Benjaminites turned to look behind them, and suddenly they saw that the city was going up toward heaven like a burnt offering. 41 Then the Israelites turned back, and the Benjaminites were horrified because they realized that disaster was falling upon them. 42 They fled from the men of Israel to escape toward the wilderness, but the battle kept up with them, as Israelites from the cities all around them were striking them down. 43 The Israelites encircled Benjamin, pursued them, and overran their positions all the way to Nohah, a spot east of Gibeah. 44 From Benjamin, eighteen thousand fell, all of them strong warriors. 45 The surviving Benjaminites turned and fled toward the wilderness, to the Rock of Rimmon, but five thousand of these men were picked off along the highways. The Israelites caught up with them at Gidom and struck down two thousand more of their men.

46 So the total number of Benjaminites that fell that day was twenty-five thousand men armed with swords, all of them powerful warriors. 47 But the surviving six hundred men turned and fled toward the wilderness to the Rock of Rimmon, and they stayed at the Rock of Rimmon for four months.

48 The men of Israel had turned back against the Benjaminites and struck them with the edge of the sword. They struck the entire city, including the animals and whatever else could be found. They burned down all the rest of the cities.

The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Judges 19 (EHV)

1 In those days there was no king in Israel.

There was a certain Levite living in a remote part of the hill country of Ephraim, who took a woman from Bethlehem of Judah as a concubine. 2 But his concubine committed adultery or prostitution against him [1] and left him in order to return to her father’s house in Bethlehem of Judah. She remained there four months.

3 Then her husband got up and went after her to appeal to her heart in order to win her back. He brought with him a young man, who was his servant, and a pair of donkeys.

His concubine let him into her father’s house, and when the woman’s father saw him, he was happy to see him. 4 The Levite’s father-in-law, the father of the young woman, prevailed upon the man to stay with him for three days, eating, drinking, and spending the night there.

5 On the fourth day they got up early in the morning, and the man got ready to leave, but the young woman’s father said to his son-in-law, “Build up your strength with a little food. After that you may go.” 6 So the two of them sat around eating and drinking together. Then the young woman’s father said to the man, “Please, I beg you, stay one more night and enjoy yourself.” 7 The Levite got up to go, but his father-in-law pressured him, so he stayed and spent another night there.

8 He got up early on the morning of the fifth day in order to go, but the woman’s father said, “Please build up your strength first.” They delayed until the sun began to go down [2] while the two of them were eating. 9 When the man got up to leave with his concubine and his servant, his father-in-law, the woman’s father, again said to him, “Please! The day is already turning into evening. Please stay the night. Look! The day is slipping away! Spend the night here, and enjoy yourself! You can get up early tomorrow to be on your way and return to your home.” 10 But the Levite did not want to stay another night. Instead, he got up and went on his way, and he came to Jebus (that is, Jerusalem). He had with him the pair of saddled donkeys, as well as his concubine.

11 When they were getting close to Jebus and the day was almost gone, the young man said to his master, “Let us turn aside to this city of the Jebusites and spend the night there.”

12 But his master said to him, “We will not turn aside into a foreign city that does not belong to the people of Israel. We will go on to Gibeah.” 13 He said to his young man, “Come on, we will continue on to one of these other places. We can spend the night in Gibeah or Ramah.”

14 So they continued on, and as the sun was going down on them, they came close to Gibeah, which belonged to Benjamin. 15 There they turned aside to spend the night in Gibeah. But when the man went and sat in the city square, there was no one who took them into his house to spend the night.

16 Just then, an old man was coming from his work in the field because it was evening. The man was from the hill country of Ephraim, but he was living in Gibeah, though the men of that place were Benjaminites. 17 The old man looked up and saw the traveler in the city square, and the old man said, “Where are you going, and where did you come from?”

18 The Levite said to him, “We are traveling from Bethlehem of Judah to a remote part of the hill country of Ephraim. I am from there. I traveled as far as Bethlehem of Judah, and now I am going to the House of the Lord, but there is no one who will take me into his house. 19 We even have straw and fodder for our donkeys, and we also have enough bread and wine for me, for your servant my wife, and for the young man. We, your servants, are lacking nothing.”

20 At this the old man said, “Peace be with you. Anything you lack will be my responsibility—only do not spend the night in the city square.” 21 So the old man brought the Levite to his house and fed the donkeys. He washed their feet, and they ate and drank together.

22 As they were making their hearts glad, all of a sudden the men of the city—worthless, good-for-nothing men—surrounded the house, pounding on the door. They said to the old man, the owner of the house, “Bring out the man who has come to your house. We want to get to know [3] him.”

23 But the owner of the household went out to them and said, “No, my brothers, do not do such an evil thing, I beg you. Since this man has come to my house, do not do this disgraceful, foolish thing. 24 Look! Here is my virgin daughter and his concubine. Now I will bring them out, and you may abuse them and do to them whatever you see fit. But do not do this disgraceful, foolish thing to this man.”

25 But the men were not willing to listen to him. So the Levite took hold of his concubine and forced her to go out to them. They were intimate with [4] her and mistreated her all night long until morning. Then they let her go at the break of dawn.

26 As morning was dawning, the woman came and collapsed at the entrance to the man’s house, where her husband had been staying until the light of day.

27 When her husband got up in the morning, he opened the doors of the house and went out in order to go on his way. There she was! His concubine had collapsed at the entrance of the house with her hands on the threshold. 28 He said to her, “Get up. Let’s go.” But there was no answer. So he put her on the donkey, got up, and returned to his place.

29 When he got home, he took a knife, grabbed his concubine, and cut her into pieces. Limb by limb he cut her into twelve pieces and sent her into all the territory of Israel. 30 Everyone who saw it said, “Nothing like this has ever been done or seen, from the day the people of Israel came up from the land of Egypt until this day.”

⎣The Levite commanded the men he sent to say the following to all the men of Israel: “Has anything like this happened since the day that the people of Israel came up out of the land of Egypt until this day?⎦ [5]Think this over, come up with a plan, and speak up!”

The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Judges 17 – 18 (EHV)

1 There was a man from the hill country of Ephraim whose name was Micah. 2 He said to his mother, “You know that eleven hundred shekels of silver [1] which were taken from you, about which you spoke a curse that I heard—Look! I have the silver. I took it.”

His mother said, “May my son be blessed by the Lord.”

3 Micah returned the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother.

Then his mother said, “The silver that I received from my son I solemnly dedicate to the Lord to make a cast and engraved idol [2] for my son’s benefit. [3] So now I will return it to you.” [4]

4 He returned the silver to his mother, and his mother gave two hundred shekels of silver to the silversmith, who made them into a cast and engraved idol, which was placed in the house of Micah.

5 This man Micah had a “house of God,” where he placed a special priestly vest and a household god and where he ordained [5] one of his sons as his own priest.

6 In those days there was no king in Israel, and every man did whatever was right in his own eyes.

7 Meanwhile, there was a young man from Bethlehem of Judah, a city which belonged to a clan of Judah. He was a Levite, but he resided in Bethlehem even though he was not a Judean. [6] 8 This man left the city—Bethlehem of Judah—to take up residence wherever he could find a place to stay. As he went on his way, he came to the house of Micah in the hill country of Ephraim.

9 Micah said to him, “Where did you come from?”

He answered, “I am a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah. I am going to take up residence wherever I can find a place to stay.”

10 Micah said to him, “Stay with me! Be a father and a priest to me. I will give you ten shekels of silver a year, an allowance for your clothing, and your food.”

So the Levite went with him. 11 The Levite was willing to stay with the man, and he became like one of his sons. 12 Micah ordained the Levite, so the young man became his priest and lived in Micah’s house.

13 Micah said, “Now I know that the Lord will treat me well, because I have this Levite as my priest.”

1 In those days there was no king in Israel.

Also in those days, some members of the tribe of Dan were seeking a territory of their own in which to live, because up to that day they had not taken possession of their inheritance in the midst of the tribes of Israel. 2 So the descendants of Dan sent out from Zorah and Eshtaol five men who were strong warriors. They were to represent their clans and to scout the land and explore it. They said to the five men, “Go explore the land.” So they went to the hill country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, and they spent the night there.

3 When they were near the house of Micah, they recognized the voice of the young Levite. They turned aside there and said to him, “Who brought you here? What are you doing in this place? What advantage is there for you here?”

4 He told them what Micah had done for him: “He hired me, and I became his priest.”

5 They said to him, “Please inquire from God, so that we will know whether the way we are going will lead to success.”

6 The priest said to them, “Go in peace. The way you are going is approved by the Lord.”

7 So the five men continued their journey until they arrived at Laish. They saw that the people there were living in the same way as the Sidonians, quiet and unsuspecting. There was no one to disturb them or oppress them. [7] They were far removed from the Sidonians and had no dealings with anyone else. [8]

8 Then the five spies returned to their fellow tribesmen [9] at Zorah and Eshtaol. Their brothers said to them, “What do you think?”

9 The five answered, “Get up! Let us go up against them, ⎣for we have entered the land and journeyed as far as Laish. We saw how the people lived in security in the same way as the Sidonians, but they were far from the Sidonians, and they had no dealings with Aram. Get up! Let us go up against them,⎦ [10] for we have seen the land. We assure you it is very good. Why are you still sitting here? Do not be slow. Get going to the land and take possession of it. 10 When you go, you will come to an unsuspecting people, whose land is spacious. Yes, God has given into your hands a place where there is no lack of anything on earth.”

11 So the clan of Danites set out from Zorah and Eshtaol. There were six hundred men, equipped for war. 12 They went up and camped near Kiriath Jearim in Judah. (That is why the place has been called Mahaneh Dan [11] to this present day. It is west of Kiriath Jearim.) 13 Then they traveled on from there to the hill country of Ephraim and came to the house of Micah.

14 The five men who had gone out to spy on the land of Laish said to their brothers, “Do you know that in one of these houses there is a priestly vest and a household god, an engraved and a cast idol? So now, you know what to do.”

15 They turned in and entered the house of the young Levite at the homestead of Micah, and they asked him how he was doing. 16 Meanwhile, the six hundred descendants of Dan, equipped for war, were standing at the entrance of the gate. 17 The five men who had gone to spy on the land came and took the engraved idol, the priestly vest, the household god, and the cast idol while the priest was standing at the entrance of the gate with the six hundred men equipped for war.

18 When these five men came into the house of Micah and took the engraved idol, the priestly vest, the household god, and the cast idol, the priest asked them, “What are you doing?”

19 They told him, “Be quiet. Put your hand over your mouth. Come with us and be our father and priest! Is it better for you to be priest for the household of one man or to be priest for an entire tribe and clan in Israel?”

20 Then the priest’s heart was glad, and he took the vest, the household god, and the engraved idol, and he went along with the people. 21 So they set out on their way and sent their children and their cattle and possessions ahead of them.

22 After the Danites had gone some distance from the house of Micah, the men who lived in the houses around the house of Micah were called out to pursue them, and they caught up with the Danites. 23 They called to the Danites, who turned toward them and said to Micah, “What is wrong with you? Why are you shouting like this?”

24 Micah replied, “You have taken my gods that I made and my priest, and you have gone off. What is left to me? How can you ask me, ‘What is wrong with you?’”

25 The Danites said to him, “Do not let us hear your voice. If you do, those men with a bad attitude will attack you, and you will lose your life, not to mention the lives of your household.” 26 The Danites then continued on their way, and when Micah saw that they were stronger than he was, he turned around and went back to his house.

27 So the Danites took what Micah had made and also his priest, and they went up against Laish, against a quiet and unsuspecting people, and they struck them down by the edge [12] of the sword and burned down the city.

28 The people of Laish had no one to rescue them, because they were far away from Sidon, and they did not have any alliance with anyone else. The city was located in the valley near Beth Rehob.

The Danites rebuilt the city and lived there. 29 They named the city Dan, after their forefather Dan, who was born to Israel, but Laish had been the original name of the city.

30 So the Danites set up the engraved idol for themselves, and Jonathan son of Gershom, the son of Moses, [13] and his sons became priests for the tribe of Dan, up to the day of the captivity of the land. 31 They maintained for themselves the engraved idol that Micah had made, throughout all the days that the house of God was in Shiloh.

The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Judges 16 (EHV)

1 One time Samson went to Gaza. There he saw a prostitute and went to her. 2 The people of Gaza were told, “Samson has come here.” So they surrounded the town and lay in wait for him all night at the city gate, but they relaxed during the night, saying, “Let’s wait for the light of morning. Then we will kill him.”

3 But Samson slept only until midnight. He got up in the middle of the night, grabbed the doors of the city gate along with the two gateposts, pulled them up crossbar and all, set them on his shoulders, and took them up to the top of the hill opposite Hebron.

4 Sometime after that, Samson fell in love with a woman from the Valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. 5 The serens [1] of the Philistines approached her and said, “Persuade him to reveal where his great strength comes from and how we may overpower him, tie him up, and humiliate him. Each of us will give you eleven hundred shekels of silver.” [2]

6 So Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me what the source of your great strength is, and how you can be tied up in order to humiliate you.”

7 Samson answered her, “If anyone ties me up with seven new bowstrings that have not yet been dried, [3] I will become weak and be like any other man.”

8 So the serens of the Philistines brought her seven new bowstrings that had not yet been dried, and she tied him up with them. 9 She had men hiding in the room waiting to ambush Samson, and she said to him, “Philistines are upon you, Samson!” But he snapped the bowstrings as easily as a flax thread that was scorched when brought near fire. So the source of his strength was not revealed.

10 Then Delilah said to Samson, “Look! You made a fool of me and told me lies. Now please tell me how you can be tied up.”

11 Samson answered her, “Actually, if anyone ties me up with new ropes that have never been used for work, I will become weak and be like any other man.”

12 So Delilah took new ropes and tied him up with them. Then she said to him, “Philistines are upon you, Samson!” There were men hiding in the room waiting to ambush Samson, but he tore the ropes off his arms as if they were thread.

13 Delilah said to Samson, “So far you have made a fool of me and told me lies. Tell me how you may be tied up!”

So he said to her, “If you weave the seven locks of my hair into the fabric of a loom ⎣and fasten them with a pin, I will be as weak as any other man.”

After she had waited for him to fall asleep, Delilah took the seven locks of his hair and wove them in the fabric of a loom.⎦ [4] 14 She fastened them with the pin and said to him, “Philistines are upon you, Samson!” But Samson woke up from his sleep and pulled out the pin from the loom along with the fabric.

15 She said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when your heart is not with me? This makes three times you have made a fool of me, and you have not told me where your great strength comes from.” 16 This was how she tormented him with her words day after day and nagged him until he was sick to death of it.

17 Finally he told her everything in his heart. He said to her, “A razor has never touched my head, because I have been a Nazirite dedicated to God from the womb of my mother. If I am ever shaved, my strength will desert me, and I will become weak and be like any other man.”

18 When Delilah saw that he told her everything in his heart, she sent for the serens of the Philistines, saying, “Come back one more time, for he has poured out his heart to me.”

The serens of the Philistines came up to her and brought the silver in their hands. 19 Delilah let Samson fall asleep on her lap. Then she called for a man and shaved off the seven locks of his head. She began his humiliation, because his strength had left him. 20 She said, “Philistines are upon you, Samson!” He awoke from his sleep and said, “I will go out as I have time after time, and I will shake myself free.” But he did not realize that the Lord had left him.

21 The Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes, brought him down to Gaza, and restrained him with bronze shackles. He had to grind grain in the prison.

22 But the hair on his head began to grow after it had been shaved.

23 Meanwhile, the serens of the Philistines gathered to make a great sacrifice to their god Dagon and to celebrate. They said, “Our god has given our enemy Samson into our hands.”

24 When the people saw him, they praised their god: “Our god has given our enemy into our hands, the devastator of our land, who has caused the death of many of us.”

25 When they were feeling good, they said, “Send for Samson, so that he can provide amusement for us.” They summoned Samson from the prison, and he served as their entertainment.

They made Samson stand between the pillars. 26 He said to the young man who led him by his hand, “Put me where I can touch the pillars that support the building, so I can lean upon them.” 27 The building was full of men and women, as well as all the serens of the Philistines. On the roof were about three thousand more men and women watching Samson as he was amusing them.

28 Samson called out to the Lord. He said, “Lord God, remember me, I pray. Give me strength, I pray, this one more time, O God. Let me get revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes in one act of vengeance.” 29 Samson then grasped the two central pillars supporting the building. He leaned against them, one with his right hand and one with his left. 30 Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines.” He pushed with all his strength, and the building fell upon the serens and upon all the people who were inside.

The Philistines he put to death when he died were more numerous than those he had put to death during his lifetime.

31 Then his brothers and his father’s entire household went down, carried him back, and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of Manoah his father. He had served as judge of Israel for twenty years.

The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Judges 14 – 15 (EHV)

1 Samson went down to Timnah. There he saw a young woman who was a Philistine. 2 He went back and told his father and his mother, “I saw a Philistine woman in Timnah. Now, get her for me as a wife.”

3 But his father and mother said to him, “Is there no suitable woman among the young women of your relatives and among all our people that you must go to take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?”

Samson insisted to his father, “No, get her for me—because, in my eyes, she is the right one.”

4 His father and mother did not know that this was from the Lord, who was seeking an opportunity to confront the Philistines, who were ruling Israel at this time.

5 So Samson and his father and mother went down to Timnah, and as they approached the vineyards at Timnah, suddenly a young lion came roaring to meet him. 6 At that moment the Spirit of the Lord powerfully rushed upon Samson, and he tore the young lion in two as if he were tearing apart a young goat. He did this with his bare hands. But he did not tell his father or his mother what he had done. 7 He went down and spoke to the woman. In the eyes of Samson, she was the right one.

8 After some days, when he returned to take her as his wife, he turned aside to look at the carcass of the lion, and to his surprise there was a swarm of bees and honey in the carcass of the lion! 9 So Samson scraped out some honey with his hands, and he ate it as he walked along. As he walked alongside his father and mother, he gave them some of the honey and they ate, but he did not tell them that he had scraped the honey out of the carcass of the lion.

10 His father met with the woman, and Samson held a wedding feast there, as young men were accustomed to do. 11 When the Philistines saw him, they selected thirty young men to serve as attendants.

12 Samson said to them, “Allow me to tell you a riddle. If you figure out the solution and tell me within the seven days of the feast, I will give to you thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothing. 13 But if you are not able to tell me, you will give me thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothing.”

So they said to him, “Tell your riddle. Let us hear it!”

14 Samson said to them,

Out of the eater comes something to eat.

Out of the strong comes something sweet.

But they were not able to solve the riddle for three days.

15 Then, on the fourth day, [1] they said to Samson’s wife, “Persuade your husband so that you can tell us the solution to the riddle, or we will set you on fire with the house of your father. You invited us in order to take our property, didn’t you?”

16 Samson’s wife cried on his shoulder and said, “You certainly hate me and do not love me. You told a riddle to my people, but you have not explained it to me!”

Samson said to her, “Look! I have not told even my father and my mother, and I should tell you?” 17 But she cried to him for the rest of the seven-day feast. [2] Finally on the seventh day he told her, because she kept nagging him. Then she explained the riddle to the Philistine young men.

18 So the men of the town said to Samson on the seventh day, just before the sun went down:

What is sweeter than honey,

and what is stronger than a lion?

But he said to them, “If you had not plowed with my heifer, you would not have solved my riddle.”

19 Then the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him, and he went down to Ashkelon and struck down thirty men from there. Then he took the clothing that he stripped off them and gave the clothing to the men who had solved the riddle. He was burning with anger as he went back to his father’s house. 20 Meanwhile the Philistines gave Samson’s wife to one of the men who had attended him.

1 After a number of days, during the wheat harvest, Samson came to visit his wife and brought a kid goat with him. He said, “Let me go in to my wife’s room,” but her father did not let him go in.

2 Her father said, “I was so convinced that you hated her that I gave her to your companion. Isn’t her younger sister better than she is? Please take her for yourself instead of her older sister.”

3 Samson said to them, “I am not responsible for the harm I am about to do to the Philistines.” 4 Then Samson went and captured three hundred foxes, [3] took torches, tied the foxes tail to tail, and fastened a torch between each pair of tails. 5 He set fire to the torches and released the foxes into the standing grain of the Philistines. He burned up sheaves of grain, the standing grain, the vineyards, and the olive groves.

6 The Philistines asked, “Who did this?” They were told, “Samson, the son-in-law of the man from Timnah, did it, because the man took Samson’s wife and gave her to his companion.” So the Philistines went up and burned her and her father to death.

7 At that, Samson said to them, “Since you would do something like this, I will take revenge on you. Then I will stop.” 8 He ripped them to pieces [4] in a devastating attack. Then he went down and stayed in the cleft in the Rock of Etam.

9 Meanwhile the Philistines went up, set up camp in Judah, and occupied the territory around Lehi. 10 The men of Judah asked, “Why have you come up against us?”

They said, “We have come up to tie up Samson—to do to him as he did to us.”

11 So three thousand men from Judah went down to the cleft in the Rock of Etam. They said to Samson, “Don’t you know that the Philistines are now ruling over us? So what is this you have done to us?”

Samson answered them, “As they did to me, so I did to them.”

12 They said to him, “We have come down to tie you up and hand you over to the Philistines.”

Samson said to them, “Swear to me that you will not attack me yourselves.”

13 They said to him, “We will not. We will indeed tie you up and hand you over to them, but we will not kill you.” Then they tied him up with two new ropes and brought him up from the rock.

14 When Samson came to Lehi, the Philistines came to meet him, shouting a war cry. But then the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon Samson, and the ropes around his shoulders were like flax charred by fire, and the ropes melted off his wrists. 15 Samson found the fresh jawbone of a donkey, reached out his hand, and took it. With it he struck down a thousand men.

16 Samson said:

With the jawbone of a donkey, heaps upon heaps! [5]

With the jawbone of a donkey I have struck down a thousand men.

17 When he finished speaking, he threw the jawbone out of his hand, and he named the place Ramath Lehi. [6]

18 Then he became very thirsty, and he called to the Lord, “You placed this great victory into the hand of your servant. Shall I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?” 19 Then God split the hollow that is in Lehi, and water came out of it. Samson drank, his vitality was restored, and he was revived. For this reason he called the place En Hakkore, [7] which remains in Lehi to this day.

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

The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Judges 13 (EHV)

1 The people of Israel again committed evil in the eyes of the Lord, so the Lord gave them into the hands of the Philistines for forty years.

2 Now there was a certain man from Zorah, from the clan of the Danites, whose name was Manoah. His wife was barren. She had not given birth. 3 The Angel of the Lord [1] appeared to the woman and said to her, “Listen, you are barren and have not given birth, but you will become pregnant and give birth to a son. 4 Now, please be careful. Do not drink wine or beer, [2] and do not eat anything unclean. 5 Listen, you will become pregnant and give birth to a son. No razor is to touch his head, for the boy will be a Nazirite dedicated to God from his mother’s womb. He will begin to deliver Israel from the hand of the Philistines.”

6 The woman went and told her husband, “A man of God came to me, and he looked like an angel of God, very awesome. I did not ask where he was from, and he did not tell me his name. 7 But he did say to me, ‘Listen! You will be pregnant and give birth to a son. So now, do not drink wine or beer, and do not eat anything unclean, because the young man will be a Nazirite dedicated to God from his mother’s womb until the day of his death.’”

8 Then Manoah pleaded with the Lord, “Please, Lord, the man of God whom you sent—please let him come to us again, to teach us what we are to do for the young man who is to be born.”

9 God heard the voice of Manoah, and the Angel of God returned to the woman while she was sitting in the field. Once again her husband Manoah was not with her. 10 The woman ran quickly and told her husband. She said to him, “Come, see! The man who appeared to me came to me again today.”

11 Manoah then got up and followed his wife. He came to the man and said to him, “Are you the man who spoke to my wife?”

He answered, “I am.”

12 Manoah said, “Now, when your words come true, what will be the rule for the young man and his actions?”

13 The Angel of the Lord answered Manoah, “The woman must be careful concerning everything that I said to her. 14 She must not eat anything that comes from the grapevine. She must not drink wine or beer, and she must not eat any unclean thing. Everything that I commanded her she must observe.”

15 Manoah then said to the Angel of the Lord, “May we persuade you to stay, so that we may prepare a young goat for you?”

16 But the Angel of the Lord said to Manoah, “Even if you keep me here, I will not eat any of your food, but if you make a burnt offering, offer it up to the Lord.” (Manoah did not yet know that he was the Angel of the Lord.)

17 Then Manoah said to the Angel of the Lord, “What is your name, so that we can honor you when your words come true?”

18 The Angel of the Lord said to him, “Why do you ask about my name? It is wonderful.” [3]

19 Manoah took the young goat and the grain offering, and he offered them on the rock to the Lord, who did something wonderful as Manoah and his wife were watching. 20 As the flame rose from the altar toward the sky, the Angel of the Lord ascended upward from the altar in the flame. Manoah and his wife were watching, and they fell facedown to the ground. 21 The Angel of the Lord did not appear to Manoah and his wife again, but now Manoah knew that he was the Angel of the Lord.

22 Manoah said to his wife, “We will certainly die, because we have seen God.”

23 But his wife said to him, “If the Lord wanted to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering from our hands, and he would not have shown us all these things, nor would he have let us hear this message at this time.”

24 The woman gave birth to a son, and she named him Samson. The boy grew, and the Lord blessed him. 25 The Spirit of the Lord began to move him at Mahaneh Dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.

The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Judges 11:29 – 12:15 (EHV)

29 Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah. He passed through Gilead and Manasseh. Then he passed through Mizpah of Gilead, and from Mizpah of Gilead he went out against the Ammonites.

30 Jephthah had made a vow to the Lord. He said, “If you indeed give the Ammonites into my hand, 31 then whoever or whatever [1] comes out from the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the Ammonites will belong to the Lord, and I will offer it up as a whole burnt offering.”

32 So Jephthah crossed over to the Ammonites to wage war against them, and the Lord gave them into his hand. 33 Jephthah struck them down from Aroer all the way to the vicinity of Minnith, twenty cities, as far as Abel Keramim—a great slaughter. Thus the Ammonites were humbled before the people of Israel.

34 But when Jephthah came home to Mizpah, there was his daughter coming out to greet him with drums and dancing! She was his one and only child. Besides her, he had no son or daughter. 35 So, as soon as he saw her, he tore his clothing and cried out, “Oh no, my daughter! You have brought me to my knees! You have become a source of misery for me. I have opened my mouth to the Lord, and I cannot take it back!”

36 She said to him, “My father, since you have opened your mouth to the Lord, do to me exactly what came out of your mouth, since the Lord has carried out vengeance for you on your enemies, the Ammonites.” 37 She also said to her father, “Do this one thing for me: Give me two months reprieve, so that I may go out into the mountains and weep for my virginity—I and my friends.”

38 Her father said, “Go,” and he sent her away for two months. She and her friends went and wept over her virginity there on the mountains. 39 When the two months came to an end, she returned to her father, and he carried out the vow that he had made regarding her. She never was intimate with a man.

This became a custom in Israel: 40 From year to year the daughters of Israel go out to hold a memorial service for the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite, four days each year.

1 At that time the men of Ephraim were called to arms. They crossed over to Zaphon and said to Jephthah, “Why did you cross over to wage war against the Ammonites, but you did not invite us to go with you? We will burn your house down with you in it.”

2 Jephthah said to them, “I was a man involved in a bitter dispute—I and my people against the Ammonites. I called you out to arms, but you did not rescue me from their hand. 3 When I saw that you were not coming to rescue me, I took my life into my hands. I crossed over against the Ammonites, and the Lord gave them into my hand. So why have you come up against me this day to wage war against me?”

4 So Jephthah summoned all the men of Gilead and waged war against Ephraim. The men of Gilead struck down Ephraim, because the Ephraimites had said, “You Gileadites are nothing but renegades [2] from Ephraim and Manasseh.”

5 The men of Gilead captured the fords across the Jordan that led to Ephraim. Whenever an Ephraimite fleeing from the battle said, “Let me cross over,” the men of Gilead asked him, “Are you an Ephraimite?” If he said, “No,” 6 they said to him, “Please say, ‘Shibboleth.’” But if he instead said, “Sibboleth,” because he could not pronounce the word correctly, [3] they seized him and slaughtered him at the fords of the Jordan. At that time, forty-two thousand from Ephraim fell.

7 Jephthah judged Israel for six years. Then Jephthah the Gileadite died and was buried among the cities of Gilead.

8 After him Ibzan from Bethlehem judged Israel. 9 He had thirty sons and thirty daughters. He sent the thirty daughters outside his clan for marriage, and for his sons he brought in thirty wives from outside his clan. He judged Israel for seven years. 10 Then Ibzan died, and he was buried at Bethlehem.

11 After him Elon from Zebulun judged Israel. He judged Israel for ten years. 12 Then Elon the Zebulunite died and was buried at Aijalon in the land of Zebulun.

13 After him Abdon son of Hillel from Pirathon judged Israel. 14 He had forty sons and thirty grandsons, who rode on seventy donkeys. He judged Israel for eight years. 15 Then Abdon son of Hillel from Pirathon died, and he was buried at Pirathon in the land of Ephraim, in the hill country of the Amalekites.

The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.

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