Psalm 91

Psalm 93

Samson’s Vengeance on the Philistines

15 Later on, at the time of wheat harvest,^(A) Samson^(B) took a young goat^(C) and went to visit his wife. He said, “I’m going to my wife’s room.”^(D) But her father would not let him go in.

² “I was so sure you hated her,” he said, “that I gave her to your companion.^(E) Isn’t her younger sister more attractive? Take her instead.”

³ Samson said to them, “This time I have a right to get even with the Philistines; I will really harm them.” ⁴ So he went out and caught three hundred foxes^(F) and tied them tail to tail in pairs. He then fastened a torch^(G) to every pair of tails, ⁵ lit the torches^(H) and let the foxes loose in the standing grain of the Philistines. He burned up the shocks^(I) and standing grain, together with the vineyards and olive groves.

⁶ When the Philistines asked, “Who did this?” they were told, “Samson, the Timnite’s son-in-law, because his wife was given to his companion.^(J)”

So the Philistines went up and burned her^(K) and her father to death.^{(L) 7} Samson said to them, “Since you’ve acted like this, I swear that I won’t stop until I get my revenge on you.” ⁸ He attacked them viciously and slaughtered many of them. Then he went down and stayed in a cave in the rock^(M) of Etam.^(N)

⁹ The Philistines went up and camped in Judah, spreading out near Lehi.^{(O) 10} The people of Judah asked, “Why have you come to fight us?”

“We have come to take Samson prisoner,” they answered, “to do to him as he did to us.”

¹¹ Then three thousand men from Judah went down to the cave in the rock of Etam and said to Samson, “Don’t you realize that the Philistines are rulers over us?^(P) What have you done to us?”

He answered, “I merely did to them what they did to me.”

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

Samson said, “Swear to me^(Q) that you won’t kill me yourselves.”

¹³ “Agreed,” they answered. “We will only tie you up and hand you over to them. We will not kill you.” So they bound him with two new ropes^(R) and led him up from the rock. ¹⁴ As he approached Lehi,^(S) the Philistines came toward him shouting. The Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him.^(T) The ropes on his arms became like charred flax,^(U) and the bindings dropped from his hands. ¹⁵ Finding a fresh jawbone of a donkey, he grabbed it and struck down a thousand men.^(V)

¹⁶ Then Samson said,

¹⁷ When he finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone; and the place was called Ramath Lehi.^[b](X)

¹⁸ Because he was very thirsty, he cried out to the Lord,^(Y) “You have given your servant this great victory.^(Z) Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?” ¹⁹ Then God opened up the hollow place in Lehi, and water came out of it. When Samson drank, his strength returned and he revived.^(AA) So the spring^(AB) was called En Hakkore,^[c] and it is still there in Lehi.

²⁰ Samson led^[d] Israel for twenty years^(AC) in the days of the Philistines.

Samson and Delilah

16 One day Samson^(AD) went to Gaza,^(AE) where he saw a prostitute.^(AF) He went in to spend the night with her. ² The people of Gaza were told, “Samson is here!” So they surrounded the place and lay in wait for him all night at the city gate.^(AG) They made no move during the night, saying, “At dawn^(AH) we’ll kill him.”

³ But Samson lay there only until the middle of the night. Then he got up and took hold of the doors of the city gate, together with the two posts, and tore them loose, bar and all. He lifted them to his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill that faces Hebron.^(AI)

The Little Children and Jesus^(A)

¹⁵ People were also bringing babies to Jesus for him to place his hands on them. When the disciples saw this, they rebuked them. ¹⁶ But Jesus called the children to him and said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. ¹⁷ Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child^(B) will never enter it.”

The Rich and the Kingdom of God^(C)

¹⁸ A certain ruler asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”^(D)

¹⁹ “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. ²⁰ You know the commandments: ‘You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.’^[a]”^(E)

²¹ “All these I have kept since I was a boy,” he said.

²² When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor,^(F) and you will have treasure in heaven.^(G) Then come, follow me.”

²³ When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was very wealthy. ²⁴ Jesus looked at him and said, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!^{(H) 25} Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”

²⁶ Those who heard this asked, “Who then can be saved?”

²⁷ Jesus replied, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.”^(I)

²⁸ Peter said to him, “We have left all we had to follow you!”^(J)

²⁹ “Truly I tell you,” Jesus said to them, “no one who has left home or wife or brothers or sisters or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God ³⁰ will fail to receive many times as much in this age, and in the age to come^(K) eternal life.”^(L)