Jephthah’s Conflict with Ephraim

1 ^oThe men of Ephraim were called to arms, and they crossed to Zaphon and said to Jephthah, “Why did you cross over to fight against the Ammonites and did not call us to go with you? We will burn your house over you with fire.” 2 And Jephthah said to them, “I and my people had a great dispute with the Ammonites, and when I called you, you did not save me from their hand. 3 And when I saw that you would not save me, ^pI took my life in my hand and crossed over against the Ammonites, and the Lord gave them into my hand. Why then have you come up to me this day to fight against me?” 4 Then Jephthah gathered all the men of Gilead and fought with Ephraim. And the men of Gilead struck Ephraim, because they said, ^q“You are fugitives of Ephraim, you Gileadites, in the midst of Ephraim and Manasseh.” 5 And the Gileadites captured ^rthe fords of the Jordan against the Ephraimites. And when any of the fugitives of Ephraim said, “Let me go over,” the men of Gilead said to him, “Are you an Ephraimite?” When he said, “No,” 6 they said to him, “Then say Shibboleth,” and he said, “Sibboleth,” for he could not pronounce it right. Then they seized him and slaughtered him at ^rthe fords of the Jordan. At that time 42,000 of the Ephraimites fell.

7 Jephthah judged Israel six years. Then Jephthah the Gileadite died and was buried in his city in Gilead.¹

Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon

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

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

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

The Birth of Samson

1 And the people of Israel again ^udid what was evil in the sight of the Lord, so the Lord gave them ^vinto the hand of the Philistines for forty years.

2 There was a certain man of ^wZorah, of the tribe of the Danites, whose name was Manoah. ^xAnd his wife was barren and had no children. 3 ^yAnd the angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, “Behold, you are barren and have not borne children, but you shall conceive and bear a son. 4 Therefore be careful ^zand drink no wine or strong drink, and eat nothing unclean, 5 for behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. ^aNo razor shall come upon his head, for the child shall be ^za Nazirite to God from the womb, and he shall ^bbegin to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines.” 6 Then the woman came and told her husband, ^c“A man of God came to me, and his appearance was like the appearance of the angel of God, very awesome. ^dI did not ask him where he was from, and he did not tell me his name, 7 but he said to me, ^e‘Behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. So then drink no wine or strong drink, and eat nothing unclean, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb to the day of his death.’”

8 Then Manoah prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, please let the man of God whom you sent come again to us and teach us what we are to do with the child who will be born.” 9 And God listened to the voice of Manoah, and the angel of God came again to the woman as she sat in the field. But Manoah her husband was not with her. 10 So the woman ran quickly and told her husband, “Behold, the man who came to me the other day has appeared to me.” 11 And Manoah arose and went after his wife and came to the man and said to him, “Are you the man who spoke to this woman?” And he said, “I am.” 12 And Manoah said, “Now when your words come true, ^fwhat is to be the child’s manner of life, and what is his mission?” 13 And the angel of the Lord said to Manoah, “Of all that I said to the woman let her be careful. 14 She may not eat of anything that comes from the vine, ^gneither let her drink wine or strong drink, or eat any unclean thing. All that I commanded her let her observe.”

15 Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, “Please let us detain you and ^hprepare a young goat for you.” 16 And the angel of the Lord said to Manoah, “If you detain me, I will not eat of your food. But if you prepare a burnt offering, then offer it to the Lord.” (For Manoah did not know that he was the angel of the Lord.) 17 And Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, ⁱ“What is your name, so that, when your words come true, we may honor you?” 18 And the angel of the Lord said to him, ^j“Why do you ask my name, seeing ^kit is wonderful?” 19 So ^lManoah took the young goat with the grain offering, and offered it on the rock to the Lord, to the one who works² wonders, and Manoah and his wife were watching. 20 And when the flame went up toward heaven from the altar, the angel of the Lord went up in the flame of the altar. Now Manoah and his wife were watching, ^mand they fell on their faces to the ground.

21 The angel of the Lord appeared no more to Manoah and to his wife. ⁿThen Manoah knew that he was the angel of the Lord. 22 And Manoah said to his wife, ⁿ“We shall surely die, for we have seen God.” 23 But his wife said to him, “If the Lord had meant to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering at our hands, or shown us all these things, or now announced to us such things as these.” 24 And the woman bore a son and called his name Samson. ^oAnd the young man grew, and the Lord blessed him. 25 ^pAnd the Spirit of the Lord began to stir him in Mahaneh-dan, between ^qZorah and Eshtaol.

Samson’s Marriage

1 ^rSamson went down to ^sTimnah, and at Timnah he saw one of the daughters of the Philistines. 2 Then he came up and told his father and mother, “I saw one of the daughters of the Philistines at Timnah. ^tNow get her for me as my wife.” 3 But his father and mother said to him, “Is there not a woman among the daughters ^uof your relatives, or among all our people, that you must go to take a wife from the ^vuncircumcised Philistines?” But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, for she is right in my eyes.”

4 His father and mother did not know that it was ^wfrom the Lord, for he was seeking an opportunity against the Philistines. ^xAt that time the Philistines ruled over Israel.

5 Then Samson went down with his father and mother to Timnah, and they came to the vineyards of Timnah. And behold, a young lion came toward him roaring. 6 ^yThen the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him, and although he had nothing in his hand, he tore the lion in pieces as one tears a young goat. But he did not tell his father or his mother what he had done. 7 Then he went down and talked with the woman, and she was right in Samson’s eyes.

8 After some days he returned to take her. And he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion, and behold, there was a swarm of bees in the body of the lion, and honey. 9 He scraped it out into his hands and went on, eating as he went. And he came to his father and mother and gave some to them, and they ate. But he did not tell them that he had scraped the honey from the carcass of the lion.

10 His father went down to the woman, and Samson prepared a feast there, for so the young men used to do. 11 As soon as the people saw him, they brought thirty companions to be with him. 12 And Samson said to them, ^z“Let me now put a riddle to you. If you can tell me what it is, within ^athe seven days of the feast, and find it out, then I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty ^bchanges of clothes, 13 but if you cannot tell me what it is, then you shall give me thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothes.” And they said to him, “Put your riddle, that we may hear it.” 14 And he said to them,

And in three days they could not solve the riddle.

15 On the fourth³ day they said to Samson’s wife, ^c“Entice your husband to tell us what the riddle is, ^dlest we burn you and your father’s house with fire. Have you invited us here to impoverish us?” 16 And Samson’s wife wept over him and said, ^e“You only hate me; you do not love me. You have put a riddle to my people, and you have not told me what it is.” And he said to her, “Behold, I have not told my father nor my mother, and shall I tell you?” 17 She wept before him the seven days that their feast lasted, and on the seventh day he told her, because ^fshe pressed him hard. Then she told the riddle to her people. 18 And the men of the city said to him on the seventh day before the sun went down,

And he said to them,

19 ^gAnd the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him, and he went down to ^hAshkelon and struck down thirty men of the town and took their spoil and gave the garments to those who had told the riddle. In hot anger he went back to his father’s house. 20 And Samson’s wife was given to ⁱhis companion, ^jwho had been his best man.

The Righteous Will Never Be Moved

Proclaiming Christ Crucified

1 And I, when I came to you, brothers,^{1 x}did not come proclaiming to you ^ythe testimony² of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except ^zJesus Christ and him crucified. 3 And ^aI was with you ^bin weakness and in fear and much trembling, 4 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of ^cthe Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men³ but ^din the power of God.

Wisdom from the Spirit

6 Yet among ^ethe mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not ^fa wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, ^gwho are doomed to pass away. 7 But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, ^hwhich God decreed before the ages for our glory. 8 None of ⁱthe rulers of this age understood this, for ^jif they had, they would not have crucified ^kthe Lord of glory. 9 But, as it is written,

10 these things ^oGod has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even ^pthe depths of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts ^qexcept the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now ^rwe have received not ^sthe spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. 13 And we impart this ^tin words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, ^uinterpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.⁴

14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are ^vfolly to him, and ^whe is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. 15 The ^xspiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. 16 ^y“For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But ^zwe have the mind of Christ.

Divisions in the Church

1 But I, brothers,⁵ could not address you as ^aspiritual people, but as ^bpeople of the flesh, as ^cinfants in Christ. 2 ^dI fed you with milk, not solid food, for ^eyou were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, 3 for you are still of the flesh. For while there is ^fjealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? 4 For ^gwhen one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” ^hare you not being merely human?

5 What then is Apollos? What is Paul? ⁱServants through whom you believed, ^jas the Lord assigned to each. 6 ^kI planted, ^lApollos watered, ^mbut God gave the growth. 7 So ⁿneither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. 8 He who plants and he who waters are one, and each ^owill receive his wages according to his labor. 9 For we are ^pGod’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, ^qGod’s building.

10 ^rAccording to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled⁶ master builder I laid a ^sfoundation, and ^tsomeone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. 11 For no one can lay a ^ufoundation other ^vthan that which is laid, ^wwhich is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— 13 ^xeach one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed ^yby fire, and ^zthe fire will test what sort of work each one has done. 14 If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, ^ahe will receive a reward. 15 If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, ^bbut only as through fire.

16 ^cDo you not know that you⁷ are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? 17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For ^dGod’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.

18 ^eLet no one deceive himself. ^fIf anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. 19 For ^gthe wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, ^h“He catches the wise in their craftiness,” 20 and again, ⁱ“The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.” 21 So ^jlet no one boast in men. For ^kall things are yours, 22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, 23 and ^lyou are Christ’s, and ^mChrist is God’s.