Bible Reading Plan

Day 124 - Read Judges 15-16

Samson took revenge on the Philistines. The people of Judah came to bind Samson to deliver him to the Philistines. The Spirit of the Lord came upon Samson, and the ropes that bound him melted away. He struck 1,000 men with the jawbone of a donkey. Samson loved a woman named Delilah so much that he allowed her to seduce him into sharing his source of strength. She conspired with the Philistines and he was successfully bound. His hair grew, and he asked God to strengthen him. He was tied to pillars that held the roof of a house. God strengthened him and he pushed the pillars down, crushing and killing about 3,000 men and women. Samson was also crushed and killed by the falling roof. He had judged Israel for twenty years.

Duration:: 10m
Broadcast on:: 25 Aug 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

O and welcome to our daily Bible reading. Today we're reading Judges chapters 15 and 16. Samson took revenge on the Philistines. The people of Judah came to bind Samson to deliver him to the Philistines. The Spirit of the Lord came upon Samson and the ropes that bound him melted away. He struck one thousand men with the jawbone of a donkey. Samson loved a woman named Delilah so much that he allowed her to seduce him into sharing his source of strength. She conspired with the Philistines and he was successfully bound. His hair grew and he asked God to strengthen him. He was tied to pillars that held the roof of a house. God strengthened him and he pushed the pillars down, crushing and killing about three thousand men and women. Samson was also crushed and killed by the falling roof. He had judged Israel for 20 years. Follow along with me as I begin to read Judges chapter 15 starting in verse 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 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 and Samson said to them this time I shall be innocent in regard to the Philistines when I do them harm. So Samson went and caught 300 foxes and took torches and he turned them tell to tell and put a torch between each pair of tells 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 stack grain and the standing grain as well as the olive orchards. 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 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 and he struck them hip and thigh with a great blow and he went down and stayed in the cleft of the rock of Edom. Then the Philistines came up and encamped in Judah and made a raid on Lehi and the men of Judah said why have you come up against us they said we have come up to bond Samson to do to him as he did to us then three thousand men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Edom 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 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 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 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 and he found a fresh jawbone of a donkey and put out his hand and took it and with it he struck one thousand men and Samson said with the jawbone of a donkey heaps upon heaps with a jawbone of a donkey have I struck down a thousand men as soon as he had finished speaking he threw away the jawbone out of his hand and that place was called Ramath Lehi 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 and God split open the hollow place that is at Lehi the water came out from it and when he drank his spirit returned and he revived therefore the name of it was called in Hakori it is at Lehi to this day and he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines 20 years chapter 16 Samson went to Gaza and there he saw a prostitute and he went into her the gazites were told Samson has come here and they surrounded the place and said an ambush for him all night at the gate of the city they kept quiet all night saying let us wait till the light of the morning then we will kill him but Samson lay till midnight and at midnight he arose and took hold of the doors of the gate of the city and two posts and pulled them up bar and all and put them on his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill that is in front of Hebron after this he loved a woman in the valley of Sorret whose name was Delilah and the lords of the Philistines came up to her and said to her seduce him and see where his great strength lies and by what means we may overpower him that we may bind him to humble him and we will each give you one thousand one hundred pieces of silver so Delilah said to Samson please tell me where your great strength lies and how you might be bound that one could subdue you Samson said to her if they bind me with seven fresh bow strings that have not been dried then I shall become weak and be like any other man then the lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven fresh bow strings that had not been dried and she bound him with them now she had men lying in ambush in an outer chamber and she said to him the Philistines are upon you Samson but he snapped the bow strings as a thread of flax snaps when it touches the fire so the secret of his strength was not known then Delilah said to Samson behold you have mocked me and told me lies please tell me how you might be bound and he said to her if they bind me with new ropes that have not been used then I shall become weak and be like any other man so Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them and said to him the Philistines are upon you Samson and the men lying in ambush were in an outer chamber but he snapped the ropes off his arms like a thread then Delilah said to Samson until now you have mocked me and told me lies tell me how you might be bound and he said to her if you weave the seven locks of my hair with the web and fasten it tight with a pin then I shall become weak and be like any other man so while he slept Delilah took the seven locks of his head and wove them into the web and she made them tight with a pin and said to him the Philistines are upon you Samson but he awoke from his sleep and pulled away the pin the loom and the web and she said to him how can you say I love you when your heart is not with me you have mocked me these three times and you have not told me where your great strength lies and when she pressed him hard with her words day after day and urged him his soul was vexed to death and he told her all his heart and said to her a razor has never come up on my head for I have been a Nazarite to God from my mother's womb if my head is shaved then my strength will leave me and I shall become weak and be like any other man when Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart she sent and called for the lords of the Philistines saying come up again for he has told me all his heart then the lords of the Philistines came up to her and brought the money in their hands she made him sleep on her knees and she called a man and had him shave off the seven locks of his head then she began to torment him and his strength left him and she said the Philistines are upon you Samson and he awoke from his sleep and said I will go out as at other times and shake myself free but he did not know that the lord had left him and the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes and brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze shackles and he ground at the mill in the prison but the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaved now the lords of the Philistines gathered to offer a great sacrifice to Dagen their God and to rejoice and they said our God has given Samson our enemy into our hand and when the people saw him they praised their God for they said our God has given our enemy into our hand the ravager of our country who has killed many of us and when their hearts were married they said call Samson that he may entertain us so they called Samson out of the prison and he entertained them they made him stand between the pillars and Samson said to the young men who held him by the hand let me fill the pillars on which the house rests that I may lean against them now the house was full of men and women all the lords of the Philistines were there and on the roof there was about 3000 men and women who looked on while Samson entertained then Samson called to the lord and said oh lord god please remember me and please strengthen me only this once oh god that I may be avenged on the Philistines for my two eyes and Samson grasped the two middle pillars on which the house rests and he leaned his weight against them his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other and Samson said let me die with the Philistines then he bowed with all his strength and the house fell up on the lords and upon all the people who were in it so the dead whom he killed at his death were more than those whom he had killed during his life then his brothers and all his family came down and took him and brought him up and buried him between Zorah and Nashville in the tomb of Manoa his father he had judged Israel 20 years