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Today's Bible Reading :: Judges 13 - 15 (ESV)

Judges 13Listen to the passage

Judges 14Listen to the passage

Judges 15Listen to the passage

Judges 13

The Birth of Samson

(cf. Num 6:1–21 )

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Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 13:1

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 13:1 - And the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, so the LORD gave them into the hand of the Philistines for forty years.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 13:2

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 13:2 - There was a certain man of Zorah, of the tribe of the Danites, whose name was Manoah. And his wife was barren and had no children.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 13:3

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 13:3 - And 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.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 13:4

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 13:4 - Therefore be careful and drink no wine or strong drink, and eat nothing unclean,

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Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 13:5

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 13:5 - for behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. No razor shall come upon his head, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb, and he shall begin to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 13:6

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 13:6 - Then the woman came and told her husband, “A man of God came to me, and his appearance was like the appearance of the angel of God, very awesome. I did not ask him where he was from, and he did not tell me his name,

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Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 13:7

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 13:7 - but he said to me, ‘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.’”

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Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 13:8

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 13:8 - 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.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 13:9

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 13:9 - 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.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 13:10

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 13:10 - So the woman ran quickly and told her husband, “Behold, the man who came to me the other day has appeared to me.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 13:11

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 13:11 - 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.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 13:12

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 13:12 - And Manoah said, “Now when your words come true, what is to be the child’s manner of life, and what is his mission?”

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Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 13:13

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 13:13 - And the angel of the LORD said to Manoah, “Of all that I said to the woman let her be careful.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 13:14

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 13:14 - She may not eat of anything that comes from the vine, neither let her drink wine or strong drink, or eat any unclean thing. All that I commanded her let her observe.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 13:15

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 13:15 - Manoah said to the angel of the LORD, “Please let us detain you and prepare a young goat for you.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 13:16

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 13:16 - 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.)

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Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 13:17

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 13:17 - And Manoah said to the angel of the LORD, “What is your name, so that, when your words come true, we may honor you?”

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Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 13:18

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 13:18 - And the angel of the LORD said to him, “Why do you ask my name, seeing it is wonderful?”

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Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 13:19

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 13:19 - So Manoah took the young goat with the grain offering, and offered it on the rock to the LORD, to the one who works[fn] wonders, and Manoah and his wife were watching.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 13:20

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 13:20 - 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, and they fell on their faces to the ground.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 13:21

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 13:21 - The angel of the LORD appeared no more to Manoah and to his wife. Then Manoah knew that he was the angel of the LORD.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 13:22

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 13:22 - And Manoah said to his wife, “We shall surely die, for we have seen God.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 13:23

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 13:23 - 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.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 13:24

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 13:24 - And the woman bore a son and called his name Samson. And the young man grew, and the LORD blessed him.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 13:25

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 13:25 - And the Spirit of the LORD began to stir him in Mahaneh-dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.
ESV Footnotes
Septuagint, Vulgate; Hebrew LORD, and working

Judges 14

Samson’s Marriage

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Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 14:1

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 14:1 - Samson went down to Timnah, and at Timnah he saw one of the daughters of the Philistines.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 14:2

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 14:2 - Then he came up and told his father and mother, “I saw one of the daughters of the Philistines at Timnah. Now get her for me as my wife.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 14:3

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 14:3 - But his father and mother said to him, “Is there not a woman among the daughters of your relatives, or among all our people, that you must go to take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?” But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, for she is right in my eyes.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 14:4

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 14:4 - His father and mother did not know that it was from the LORD, for he was seeking an opportunity against the Philistines. At that time the Philistines ruled over Israel.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 14:5

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 14:5 - 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.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 14:6

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 14:6 - Then 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.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 14:7

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 14:7 - Then he went down and talked with the woman, and she was right in Samson’s eyes.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 14:8

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 14:8 - 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.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 14:9

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 14:9 - 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.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 14:10

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 14:10 - His father went down to the woman, and Samson prepared a feast there, for so the young men used to do.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 14:11

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 14:11 - As soon as the people saw him, they brought thirty companions to be with him.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 14:12

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 14:12 - And Samson said to them, “Let me now put a riddle to you. If you can tell me what it is, within the seven days of the feast, and find it out, then I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothes,

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Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 14:13

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 14:13 - 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.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 14:14

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 14:14 - And he said to them,
“Out of the eater came something to eat.
Out of the strong came something sweet.” And in three days they could not solve the riddle.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 14:15

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 14:15 - On the fourth[fn] day they said to Samson’s wife, “Entice your husband to tell us what the riddle is, lest we burn you and your father’s house with fire. Have you invited us here to impoverish us?”

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Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 14:16

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 14:16 - And Samson’s wife wept over him and said, “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?”

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Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 14:17

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 14:17 - She wept before him the seven days that their feast lasted, and on the seventh day he told her, because she pressed him hard. Then she told the riddle to her people.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 14:18

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 14:18 - And the men of the city said to him on the seventh day before the sun went down,
“What is sweeter than honey?
What is stronger than a lion?” And he said to them,
“If you had not plowed with my heifer,
you would not have found out my riddle.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 14:19

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 14:19 - And the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon him, and he went down to Ashkelon 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.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 14:20

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 14:20 - And Samson’s wife was given to his companion, who had been his best man.
ESV Footnotes
Septuagint, Syriac; Hebrew seventh

Judges 15

Samson Defeats the Philistines

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Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 15:1

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 15:1 - After some days, at the time of wheat harvest, Samson went to visit his wife with a young goat. And he said, “I will go in to my wife in the chamber.” But her father would not allow him to go in.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 15:2

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 15:2 - And her father said, “I really thought that you utterly hated her, so I gave her to your companion. Is not her younger sister more beautiful than she? Please take her instead.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 15:3

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 15:3 - And Samson said to them, “This time I shall be innocent in regard to the Philistines, when I do them harm.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 15:4

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 15:4 - So Samson went and caught 300 foxes and took torches. And he turned them tail to tail and put a torch between each pair of tails.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 15:5

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 15:5 - And when he had set fire to the torches, he let the foxes go into the standing grain of the Philistines and set fire to the stacked grain and the standing grain, as well as the olive orchards.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 15:6

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 15:6 - Then the Philistines said, “Who has done this?” And they said, “Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he has taken his wife and given her to his companion.” And the Philistines came up and burned her and her father with fire.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 15:7

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 15:7 - And Samson said to them, “If this is what you do, I swear I will be avenged on you, and after that I will quit.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 15:8

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 15:8 - And he struck them hip and thigh with a great blow, and he went down and stayed in the cleft of the rock of Etam.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 15:9

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 15:9 - Then the Philistines came up and encamped in Judah and made a raid on Lehi.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 15:10

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 15:10 - And the men of Judah said, “Why have you come up against us?” They said, “We have come up to bind Samson, to do to him as he did to us.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 15:11

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 15:11 - Then 3,000 men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam, and said to Samson, “Do you not know that the Philistines are rulers over us? What then is this that you have done to us?” And he said to them, “As they did to me, so have I done to them.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 15:12

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 15:12 - And they said to him, “We have come down to bind you, that we may give you into the hands of the Philistines.” And Samson said to them, “Swear to me that you will not attack me yourselves.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 15:13

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 15:13 - They said to him, “No; we will only bind you and give you into their hands. We will surely not kill you.” So they bound him with two new ropes and brought him up from the rock.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 15:14

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 15:14 - When he came to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting to meet him. Then the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon him, and the ropes that were on his arms became as flax that has caught fire, and his bonds melted off his hands.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 15:15

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 15:15 - And he found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, and put out his hand and took it, and with it he struck 1,000 men.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 15:16

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 15:16 - And Samson said,
“With the jawbone of a donkey,
heaps upon heaps,
with the jawbone of a donkey
have I struck down a thousand men.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 15:17

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 15:17 - As soon as he had finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone out of his hand. And that place was called Ramath-lehi.[fn]

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Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 15:18

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 15:18 - And he was very thirsty, and he called upon the LORD and said, “You have granted this great salvation by the hand of your servant, and shall I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?”

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Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 15:19

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 15:19 - And God split open the hollow place that is at Lehi, and water came out from it. And when he drank, his spirit returned, and he revived. Therefore the name of it was called En-hakkore;[fn] it is at Lehi to this day.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 15:20

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 15:20 - And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.
See the ESV Preface
ESV Footnotes
Ramath-lehi means the hill of the jawbone
En-hakkore means the spring of him who called
ESV

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001, 2007, 2011, 2016, 2025 by Crossway Books and Bibles, a Publishing Ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

See detailed copyright information.

For more information on this translation, see the ESV Preface.

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