Judges 18 

Judges 18:1 In those days, there was no king in Israel, and the Danite tribe was looking for territory to occupy. Up to that time no territory had been captured by them among the tribes of Israel.

Judges 18:2 So the Danites sent out five capable men from all their clans, from Zorah and Eshtaol, to scout the land and explore it. They told them, “Go and explore the land.” They came to the hill country of Ephraim as far as Micah’s home and spent the night there.

Judges 18:3 While they were near Micah’s home, they recognized the accent of the young Levite. So they went over to him and asked, “Who brought you here? What are you doing in this place? What is your business here?”

Judges 18:4 He told them, “This is what Micah has done for me: He has hired me, and I became his priest.”

Judges 18:5 Then they said to him, “Please inquire of God for us to determine if we will have a successful journey.”

Judges 18:6 The priest told them, “Go in peace. Yahveh is watching over the journey you are going on.”

Judges 18:7 The five men left and came to Laish. They saw that the people there were living securely, just like the Sidonians, quiet and unsuspecting. Nothing was lacking in the land, and no oppressive ruler existed. They were far from the Sidonians, having no alliance with anyone.

Judges 18:8 When the men went back to their relatives at Zorah and Eshtaol, their relatives asked them, “What did you find out?”

Judges 18:9 They answered, “Get up, let’s attack them, because we have seen the land, and it is very good. Why wait? Don’t hesitate to invade and take possession of the land!”

Judges 18:10 When you get there, you will come to an unsuspecting people and spacious land because God has handed it over to you. It is a place where nothing on land is lacking.”

Judges 18:11 Six hundred Danites departed from Zorah and Eshtaol armed with weapons of war.

Judges 18:12 They went up and camped at Kiriath-jearim in Judah. This is why the place is still called the Camp of Dan today; notice it is west of Kiriath-jearim.

Judges 18:13 From there, they traveled to the hill country of Ephraim and arrived at Micah’s house.

Judges 18:14 The five men who had gone to scout out the land of Laish told their brothers, “Did you know that there are an ephod, household gods, and a carved image and a silver idol in these houses? Now think about what you should do.”

Judges 18:15 So they detoured there and went to the young Levite’s house at Micah’s house and greeted him.

Judges 18:16 The six hundred Danite men were standing by the entrance of the city gate, armed with their weapons of war.

Judges 18:17 Then the five men who had gone to scout out the land went in and took the carved image, the ephod, the household idols, and the silver idol, while the priest was standing by the entrance of the city gate with the six hundred men armed with weapons of war.

Judges 18:18 When they entered Micah’s house and took the carved image, the ephod, the household idols, and the silver idol, the priest said to them, “What are you doing?”

Judges 18:19 They told him, “Shut up. Keep your mouth quiet. Come with us and be a father and a priest to us. Is it better for you to be a priest for the house of one person or for you to be a priest for a tribe and family in Israel?”

Judges 18:20 So the priest was pleased and took his ephod, household idols, and carved image, and went with the people.

Judges 18:21 They prepared to leave, putting their dependents, livestock, and possessions in front of them.

Judges 18:22 After they were some distance from Micah’s house, the men who were in the houses near it were called together and caught up with the Danites.

Judges 18:23 They called to the Danites, who turned to face them and said to Micah, “What’s the matter with you that you called together the men?”

Judges 18:24 He said, “You took the gods I had made and the priest, and went away. What do I have left? How can you say to me, ‘What’s the matter with you? ‘”

Judges 18:25 The Danites said to him, “Don’t raise your voice against us, or angry men will attack your throat, and you will take away your throat and each throat from your house.”

Judges 18:26 The Danites went on their way, and Micah turned to go back home because he saw that they were stronger than he was.

Judges 18:27 After they had taken the gods Micah had made and the priest that belonged to him, they went to Laish, to a quiet and unsuspecting people. They struck them down with their swords and burned the city.

Judges 18:28 There was no one to rescue them because it was far from Sidon and they had no alliance with anyone. It was in a valley that belonged to Beth-rehob. They rebuilt the city and lived in it.

Judges 18:29 They named the city Dan after their ancestor Dan, who was born in Israel. The town was previously named Laish.

Judges 18:30 The Danites set up the carved image for themselves. Jonathan, son of Gershom, son of Moses, and his sons were priests for the Danite tribe until their exile from the land.

Judges 18:31 So they set up for themselves Micah’s carved image that he had made, and it was there as long as the house of God was in Shiloh.

Judges 18 quotes:

“As modern ethicists, we can condemn the unjust war of conquest. Even the biblical narrator, who offers no overt condemnation and seems to accept that conquest is the way of the world, repeatedly mentions the Laishians’ way of life in the most idyllic terms. The “bitter-souled” Danites are merciless, cutthroat, and self-serving. God does not condemn them, however, nor does the voice of the theologian. On one level, the story as narrated seems to say that foundation comes in violence; new nations are built on the ruins of the old. Yet a tone of wistful regret emerges in the contrast drawn by the narrator between the people “quiet and trusting” and the language of the ban. The reference to the banlike war here is not infused with the tone of self-righteous justification found in the conquest accounts of Deuteronomy and Joshua.”

Niditch Susan. Judges: A Commentary. 1st ed. Westminster John Knox Press 2008. p. 183.

Judges 18 links:

organized apostasy
praying with the wrong motive

The JUDGES shelf in Jeff’s library

Judges 17 

Judges 17:1 There was a man from the hill country of Ephraim named Micah.

Judges 17:2 He said to his mother, “The 1,100 pieces of silver taken from you, and that I heard you place a curse on – notice the silver. I took it.” Then his mother said, “My son, may you be empowered by Yahveh!”

Judges 17:3 He returned the 1,100 pieces of silver to his mother, who said, “I personally consecrate the silver to Yahveh for my son’s benefit to make a carved image and a silver idol. I will give it back to you.”

Judges 17:4 So he returned the silver to his mother, and she took five pounds of silver and gave it to a silversmith. He made it into a carved image and a silver idol, and it was in Micah’s house.

Judges 17:5 This man, Micah, had a shrine, and he made an ephod and household idols and installed one of his sons as his priest.

Judges 17:6 In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did whatever looked right to him.

Judges 17:7 There was a young man, a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah, who was staying within the clan of Judah.

Judges 17:8 The man left the town of Bethlehem in Judah to stay wherever he could find a place. On his way he came to Micah’s home in the hill country of Ephraim.

Judges 17:9 “Where do you come from?” Micah asked him. He answered him, “I am a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah, and I’m going to stay wherever I can find a place.”

Judges 17:10 Micah replied, “Stay with me and be my father and priest, and I will give you four ounces of silver a year, along with your clothing and provisions.” So the Levites went in

Judges 17:11 and agreed to stay with the man, and the young man became like one of his sons.

Judges 17:12 Micah dedicated the Levite, and the young man became his priest and lived in Micah’s house.

Judges 17:13 Then Micah said, “Now I know that Yahveh will be good to me because a Levite has become my priest.”

Judges 17 quotes:

“The wandering Levite from Judah finds employment at Micah’s house shrine. Having a genuine Levite serve in the shrine is deemed to be preferable to the ad hoc arrangement with Micah’s own son. The passage beautifully portrays relationships in terms of kin. The priest, not having a set hereditary homestead of his own in the style of the Levites, becomes a member of Micah’s family, a retainer attached to a home shrine. Micah’s declaration at v. 13 suggests that Levites are wandering holy men who bring good luck with them. They are quintessential mediators between God and humans, have divinatory abilities, and are quite a catch for the repentant son, con man, and cult founder.”

Niditch Susan. Judges: A Commentary. 1st ed. Westminster John Knox Press 2008. p. 182.

Judges 17 links:

blessed by grace
good luck
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Tuesday, July 11, 2023
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Tuesday, July 9, 2019
no king in Israel

The JUDGES shelf in Jeff’s library

Judges 16 

Judges 16:1 Samson went to Gaza, where he saw a prostitute and went to have sex with her.

Judges 16:2 When the Gazites heard that Samson was there, they surrounded the place and waited to ambush him all that night at the city gate. They kept quiet all night, saying, “Let’s wait until dawn; then we will murder him.”

Judges 16:3 But Samson stayed in bed only until midnight. Then he got up, took hold of the doors of the city gate along with the two gateposts, and pulled them out, bar and all. He put them on his shoulders and carried them to the top of the mountain overlooking Hebron.

Judges 16:4 Sometime later, he fell in love with a woman named Delilah, who lived in the Sorek Valley.

Judges 16:5 The Philistine princes went to her and said, “Convince him to tell you where his great strength comes from, so we can overpower him, tie him up, and make him helpless. Then each of us will give you 1,100 pieces of silver.”

Judges 16:6 So Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me, where does your great strength come from? How could someone tie you up and make you helpless?”

Judges 16:7 Samson told her, “If they tie me up with seven fresh tent ropes that have not been dried, I will become weak and be like any other man.”

Judges 16:8 The Philistine leaders brought her seven fresh, undried tent ropes, and she tied him up with them.

Judges 16:9 While the men in the ambush were waiting in her room, she called out to him, “Samson, the Philistines are here!” But he snapped the tent ropes like a strand of yarn snaps when it touches fire. The secret of his strength stayed unknown.

Judges 16:10 Then Delilah said to Samson, “Notice, you have mocked me and told me lies! Won’t you please tell me how you can be tied up?”

Judges 16:11 He told her, “If they tie me up with new cords that have never been used, I will become weak and be like any other man.”

Judges 16:12 Delilah took new cords, tied him up with them, and shouted, “Samson, the Philistines are here!” But while the men in the ambush were waiting in her room, he snapped the cords off his arms like a thread.

Judges 16:13 Then Delilah said to Samson, “You have mocked me all along and told me lies! Tell me how you can be tied up.” He told her, “If you weave the seven braids on my head into the fabric on a loom– “

Judges 16:14 She fastened the braids with a pin and called to him, “Samson, the Philistines are here!” He woke up from his sleep and pulled out the pin with the loom and the web.

Judges 16:15 “How can you say, ‘I love you,'” she told him, “when your heart is not with me? This is the third time you have mocked me and not told me what makes your strength so great!”

Judges 16:16 Because she nagged him daily and pleaded with him until his throat was impatient enough to die,

Judges 16:17 he told her the whole truth and said to her, “My hair has never been cut because I am a Nazirite to God from birth. If I am shaved, my strength will leave me, and I will become weak and be like any other man.”

Judges 16:18 When Delilah realized that he had told her the whole truth, she sent this message to the Philistine leaders: “Come one more time, because he has told me the whole truth.” The Philistine leaders came to her and brought the silver with them.

Judges 16:19 Then she let him fall asleep on her lap and called a man to shave off the seven braids on his head. This is how she made him helpless, and his strength left him.

Judges 16:20 Then she cried, “Samson, the Philistines are here!” When he woke up from his sleep, he said, “I will escape like I did before and shake myself free.” But he did not know that Yahveh had left him.

Judges 16:21 The Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes. They brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze shackles, and he was forced to grind grain in the prison.

Judges 16:22 But his hair began to grow back after it had been shaved.

Judges 16:23 Now the Philistine leaders gathered together to offer a great sacrifice to their god Dagon. They rejoiced and said: Our god has handed over our enemy Samson to us.

Judges 16:24 When the people saw him, they praised their god and said: Our god has handed over to us our enemy who destroyed our land and who multiplied our dead.

Judges 16:25 When they were in a  happy mood, they said, “Bring Samson here to entertain us.” So they brought Samson from prison, and he entertained them. They had him stand between the pillars.

Judges 16:26 Samson said to the young man who was leading him by the hand, “Lead me where I can feel the pillars supporting the temple, so I can lean against them.”

Judges 16:27 The temple was full of men and women; all the leaders of the Philistines were there, and about three thousand men and women were on the roof watching Samson entertain them.

Judges 16:28 He called out to Yahveh: “Lord Yahveh, please remember me. Strengthen me, God, just once more. With one act of vengeance, let me pay back the Philistines for my two eyes.”

Judges 16:29 Samson took hold of the two middle pillars supporting the temple and leaned against them, one on his right hand and the other on his left.

Judges 16:30 Samson said, “Let my throat die with the Philistines.” He pushed with all his might, and the temple fell on the leaders and all the people in it. And those he killed at his death were more than those he had killed in his life.

Judges 16:31 Then his brothers and all his father’s family came down, carried him back, and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of his father Manoah. So he had judged Israel for twenty years.

Judges 16 quotes:

“The Gazites, like vultures, are pictured circling around in preparation for an ambush at dawn. Samson, however, surprises them, escaping in the night. His violent seizure of the city gates and the way in which he carries them off evoke comparisons with Paul Bunyan and other folk heroes who perform acts requiring prodigious and superhuman strength (cf. Thompson Motif F614.2). Samson moves the gates from a Philistine to an Israelite locus (see 1:10 on Hebron), connoting a removal of power and status.”

Niditch Susan. Judges : A Commentary. 1st ed. Westminster John Knox Press 2008. p. 168.

Judges 16 links:

ending it all
let my soul live
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Sunday, April 28, 2024
one last prayer

The JUDGES shelf in Jeff’s library

Judges 15

Judges 15:1 Days later, during the wheat harvest, Samson took a young goat as a gift and visited his wife. “I want to go to my wife in her room,” he said. But her father would not let him enter.

Judges 15:2 “I was sure you hated her,” her father said, “so I gave her to one of the groomsmen who accompanied you. Isn’t her younger sister more beautiful than she is? Why not take her instead?”

Judges 15:3 Samson said to them, “This time I will be blameless when I harm the Philistines.”

Judges 15:4 So he went out and caught three hundred foxes. He took torches, turned the foxes tail-to-tail, and put a torch between each pair of tails.

Judges 15:5 Then he ignited the torches and released the foxes into the standing grain fields of the Philistines. He burned the piles of grain and also the standing grain as well as the vineyards and olive groves.

Judges 15:6 Then the Philistines asked, “Who did this?” They were told, “It was Samson, the Timnite’s son-in-law because he took Samson’s wife and gave her to his companion.” So the Philistines went to her and her father and burned them to death.

Judges 15:7 Then Samson told them, “Because you did this, I swear that I won’t rest until I have taken vengeance on you.”

Judges 15:8 He struck them down the leg on the thigh and then went down and stayed in the cave at the rock of Etam.

Judges 15:9 The Philistines went up, camped in Judah, and raided Lehi.

Judges 15:10 The men of Judah said, “Why have you attacked us?” They replied, “We have come to take Samson prisoner and pay him back for what he did to us.”

Judges 15:11 Then three thousand men of Judah went to the cave at the rock of Etam, and they asked Samson, “Don’t you realize that the Philistines govern us? What have you done to us?” “I have done to them what they did to me,” he answered.

Judges 15:12 They said to him, “We’ve come to take you prisoner and hand you over to the Philistines.” Then Samson told them, “Swear to me that you yourselves won’t kill me.”

Judges 15:13 “No,” they said, “we won’t kill you, but we will tie you securely and hand you over to them.” So they tied him up with two new ropes and led him away from the rock.

Judges 15:14 When he came to Lehi, the Philistines came to meet him shouting. The Breath of Yahveh came powerfully on him, and the ropes that were on his arms and wrists became like burnt flax and fell off.

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

Judges 15:16 Then Samson said: With the jawbone of a donkey, heaps on heaps. With the jawbone of a donkey, I have struck down a thousand men.

Judges 15:17 When he finished saying that, he threw away the jawbone and named that place Ramath-lehi.

Judges 15:18 He became very thirsty and called out to Yahveh: “You have accomplished this great victory through your servant. Do I now have to die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?”

Judges 15:19 So God split a hollow place in the ground at Lehi, and water came out of it. After Samson drank, his breath returned, and he revived. That is why he named it En-hakkore, which is still in Lehi today.

Judges 15:20 And he judged Israel twenty years in the days of the Philistines.

Judges 15 quotes:

“The Judahites thus serve as mediators between the Philistines and Samson. As is often the case for those caught within ethnic violence, they just desire some degree of peace. Notice the way in which Samson’s excuse for acting violently echoes that of the Philistines in a quintessential expression of what David Little (1995: 3-9) calls “the pathology of violence”: “to do to them as he did to us.” The Judahites negotiate with the hero (15:12—13), promising merely to restrain him and hand him over. They take an oath not to kill Samson, for although he is a superhero, he is not immortal. The “new ropes” used by them anticipate the scene with Delilah (16:11—12), as does Samson’s capacity to extricate himself (16:9). The ropes melt as if in fire. Again, the image of burning captures the intensity of Samson’s actions and testifies to the divine spirit that operates within him, for Yhwh is a god of fire.”

Niditch Susan. Judges: A Commentary. 1st ed. Westminster John Knox Press 2008. p. 159.

Judges 15 links:

emotions and the Spirit
stable servants
where did all the spirits go?

The JUDGES shelf in Jeff’s library

Judges 14

Judges 14:1 Samson went down to Timnah and saw a young woman there among the daughters of the Philistines.

Judges 14:2 He went back and told his father and his mother: “I have seen a young woman in Timnah among the daughters of the Philistines. Get her for me as a wife.”

Judges 14:3 But his father and mother said to him, “Can’t you find a young woman among your relatives or any of our people? Do you have to go to the uncircumcised Philistines for a wife?” But Samson told his father, “Get her for me. She looks right for me.”

Judges 14:4 Now, his father and mother did not know this was from Yahveh, who wanted the Philistines to provide an opportunity for a confrontation. At that time, the Philistines were governing Israel.

Judges 14:5 Samson went down to Timnah with his father and mother and came to the vineyards of Timnah. Notice a young lion came roaring at him,

Judges 14:6 the Breath of Yahveh came powerfully on him, and he tore the lion apart with his bare hands like he might have torn a young goat. But he did not tell his father or mother what he had done.

Judges 14:7 Then he went and spoke to the woman, because she looked right to Samson.

Judges 14:8 After some time, when he returned to marry her, he left the road to see the lion’s carcass and noticed a swarm of bees with honey in the carcass.

Judges 14:9 He scooped some honey into his grasp and ate it as he went along. When he came to his father and mother, he gave some to them, and they ate it. But he did not tell them that he had scooped the honey from the lion’s carcass.

Judges 14:10 His father went to visit the woman, and Samson prepared a feast there, as young men were accustomed to do.

Judges 14:11 When the Philistines saw him, they brought thirty groomsmen to accompany him.

Judges 14:12 “Let me tell you a riddle,” Samson said to them. “If you can explain it to me during the seven days of the feast and figure it out, I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothes.

Judges 14:13 But if you can’t explain it to me, you must give me thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothes.” “Tell us your riddle,” they replied. “Let’s hear it.”

Judges 14:14 So he said to them: Out of the eater came something to eat, and out of the strong came something sweet. After three days, they were unable to explain the riddle.

Judges 14:15 On the fourth day they said to Samson’s wife, “Persuade your husband to explain the riddle to us, or we will burn you and your father’s family to death. Did you invite us here to rob us?”

Judges 14:16 So Samson’s wife came to him, weeping, and said, “You hate me and don’t love me! You told my people the riddle but haven’t explained it to me.” “Notice,” he said, “I haven’t even explained it to my father or mother, so why should I explain it to you?”

Judges 14:17 She wept the whole seven days of the feast, and at last, on the seventh day, he explained it to her because she had nagged him so much. Then she explained it to her people.

Judges 14:18 On the seventh day, before sunset, the men of the city said to him: What is sweeter than honey? What is stronger than a lion? So he said to them: If you hadn’t plowed with my young cow, you wouldn’t have discovered my riddle!

Judges 14:19 The Breath of Yahveh came powerfully on him, and he went down to Ashkelon and struck down thirty of their men. He stripped them and gave their clothes to those who had explained the riddle. His nose burning angrily, Samson returned to his father’s house,

Judges 14:20 and his wife were given to one of the groomsmen who had accompanied him.

Judges 14 quotes:

“The recurring events of the cycle of tales about Samson emphasize certain messages and trace dramatic developments in the life of the hero, although each of these episodes could have circulated on its own as a well-known piece of the larger tradition. Narrative threads emphasized in the cycle include: the up/down movement of the romance, framing tales of the hero on the drift; the us/them theme in which oppressed Israelites face ruling Philistines; the related contrast between exogamy and endogamy (see Crenshaw 1978: 78-81) that serves to color outsiders as enemies; and the contrasts between social and antisocial and nature and culture (see Gunkel 1913: 39-44, 51; Humbert 1919: 159), which portray Samson as a special kind of superhero, the “social bandit” (see introduction, section 1, and Hobsbawm 1969).”

Niditch Susan. Judges: A Commentary. 1st ed. Westminster John Knox Press 2008. p. 154.

Judges 14 links:

beyond our pay grade
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Monday, July 10, 2023
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Monday, July 8, 2019
our choices and God’s involvement
seeking an opportunity
where did all the spirits go?

The JUDGES shelf in Jeff’s library