Bible Reading Plan – Day 70

₂₂They occupied all the Amorite territory from the Arnon in the south to the Jabbok in the north and from the desert on the east to the Jordan on the west. ₂₃So it was the LORD, the God of Israel, who drove out the Amorites for his people, the Israelites. ₂₄Are you going to try to take it back? You can keep whatever your god Chemosh has given you. But we are going to keep everything that the LORD, our God, has given us. ₂₅Do you think you are any better than Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab? He never challenged Israel, did he? Did he ever go to war against us? ₂₆For 300 years Israel has occupied Heshbon and Aroer, and the towns round them, and all the cities on the banks of the River Arnon. Why haven't you taken them back in all this time? ₂₇No, I have not done you any wrong. You are doing wrong by making war on me. The LORD is the judge. He will decide today between the Israelites and the Ammonites.” ₂₈But the king of Ammon paid no attention to this message from Jephthah.

₂₉Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah. He went through Gilead and Manasseh and returned to Mizpah in Gilead and went on to Ammon. ₃₀Jephthah promised the LORD: “If you give me victory over the Ammonites, ₃₁I will burn as an offering the first person that comes out of my house to meet me, when I come back from the victory. I will offer that person to you as a sacrifice.”

₃₂So Jephthah crossed the river to fight the Ammonites, and the LORD gave him victory. ₃₃He struck at them from Aroer to the area round Minnith, twenty cities in all, and as far as Abel Keramim. There was a great slaughter, and the Ammonites were defeated by Israel.

₃₄When Jephthah went back home to Mizpah, there was his daughter coming out to meet him, dancing and playing the tambourine. She was his only child. ₃₅When he saw her, he tore his clothes in sorrow and said, “Oh, my daughter! You are breaking my heart! Why must it be you that causes me pain? I have made a solemn promise to the LORD, and I cannot take it back!”

₃₆She said to him, “If you have made a promise to the LORD, do what you said you would do to me, since the LORD has given you revenge on your enemies, the Ammonites.” ₃₇But she asked her father, “Do this one thing for me. Leave me alone for two months, so that I can go with my friends to wander in the mountains and grieve that I must die a virgin.” ₃₈He told her to go and sent her away for two months. She and her friends went up into the mountains and grieved because she was going to die unmarried and childless. ₃₉After two months she came back to her father. He did what he had promised the LORD, and she died still a virgin.

This was the origin of the custom in Israel ₄₀that the young women would go away for four days every year to grieve for the daughter of Jephthah of Gilead.

₁The men of Ephraim prepared for battle; they crossed the River Jordan to Zaphon and said to Jephthah, “Why did you cross the border to fight the Ammonites without calling us to go with you? We'll burn the house down over your head!”

₂But Jephthah said to them, “My people and I had a serious quarrel with the Ammonites. I did call you, but you would not rescue me from them. ₃When I saw that you were not going to, I risked my life and crossed the border to fight them, and the LORD gave me victory over them. So why are you coming to fight me now?” ₄Then Jephthah brought all the men of Gilead together, fought the men of Ephraim and defeated them. (The Ephraimites had said, “You Gileadites in Ephraim and Manasseh, you are deserters from Ephraim!”) ₅In order to keep the Ephraimites from escaping, the Gileadites captured the places where the Jordan could be crossed. When any Ephraimite who was trying to escape asked permission to cross, the men of Gilead would ask, “Are you an Ephraimite?” If he said, “No,” ₆they would tell him to say “Shibboleth”. But he would say “Sibboleth”, because he could not pronounce it correctly. Then they would seize him and kill him there at one of the crossings of the Jordan. At that time 42,000 of the Ephraimites were killed.

₇Jephthah led Israel for six years. Then he died and was buried in his home town in Gilead.

₈After Jephthah, Ibzan from Bethlehem led Israel. ₉He had thirty sons and thirty daughters. He gave his daughters in marriage outside the clan and brought thirty women from outside the clan for his sons to marry. Ibzan led Israel for seven years, ₁₀then he died and was buried at Bethlehem.

₁₁After Ibzan, Elon from Zebulun led Israel for ten years. ₁₂Then he died and was buried at Aijalon in the territory of Zebulun.

₁₃After Elon, Abdon son of Hillel from Pirathon led Israel. ₁₄He had forty sons and thirty grandsons, who rode on seventy donkeys. Abdon led Israel for eight years, ₁₅then he died and was buried at Pirathon in the territory of Ephraim in the hill country of the Amalekites.

₁The Israelites sinned against the LORD again, and he let the Philistines rule them for forty years.

₂At that time there was a man named Manoah from the town of Zorah. He was a member of the tribe of Dan. His wife had never been able to have children. ₃The LORD's angel appeared to her and said, “You have never been able to have children, but you will soon be pregnant and have a son. ₄Take care not to drink any wine or beer, or eat any forbidden food; ₅and after your son is born, you must never cut his hair, because from the day of his birth he will be dedicated to God as a Nazirite. He will begin the work of rescuing Israel from the Philistines.”

₆Then the woman went and said to her husband, “A man of God has come to me, and he looked as frightening as the angel of God. I didn't ask him where he came from, and he didn't tell me his name. ₇But he did tell me that I would become pregnant and have a son. He told me not to drink any wine or beer, or eat any forbidden food, because the boy is to be dedicated to God as a Nazirite as long as he lives.”

₈Then Manoah prayed to the LORD, “Please, LORD, let the man of God that you sent come back to us and tell us what we must do with the boy when he is born.”

₉God did what Manoah asked, and his angel came back to the woman while she was sitting in the fields. Her husband Manoah was not with her, ₁₀so she ran at once and said to him, “Look! The man who came to me the other day has appeared to me again.”

₁₁Manoah got up and followed his wife. He went to the man and asked, “Are you the man who was talking to my wife?”

“Yes,” he answered.

₁₂Then Manoah asked, “When your words come true, what must the boy do? What kind of a life must he lead?”

₁₃The LORD's angel answered, “Your wife must be sure to do everything that I have told her. ₁₄She must not eat anything that comes from the grapevine; she must not drink any wine or beer, or eat any forbidden food. She must do everything that I have told her.”

_15-16Manoah did not know that it was the LORD's angel, so he said to him, “Please do not go yet. Let us cook a young goat for you.”

But the angel said, “If I do stay, I will not eat your food. But if you want to prepare it, burn it as an offering to the LORD.”

₁₇Manoah replied, “Tell us your name, so that we can honour you when your words come true.”

₁₈The angel asked, “Why do you want to know my name? It is a name of wonder.”

₁₉So Manoah took a young goat and some grain, and offered them on the rock altar to the LORD who works wonders. _20-21While the flames were going up from the altar, Manoah and his wife saw the LORD's angel go up towards heaven in the flames. Manoah realized then that the man had been the LORD's angel, and he and his wife threw themselves face downwards on the ground. They never saw the angel again.

₂₂Manoah said to his wife, “We are sure to die, because we have seen God!”

₂₃But his wife answered, “If the LORD had wanted to kill us, he would not have accepted our offerings; he would not have shown us all this or told us such things now.”

₂₄The woman gave birth to a son and named him Samson. The child grew and the LORD blessed him. ₂₅And the LORD's power began to strengthen him while he was between Zorah and Eshtaol in the Camp of Dan.

₁One day Samson went down to Timnah, where he noticed a certain Philistine woman. ₂He went back home and said to his father and mother, “There is a Philistine woman down at Timnah who has caught my attention. Get her for me; I want to marry her.”

₃But his father and mother asked him, “Why do you have to go to those heathen Philistines to get a wife? Can't you find a girl in our own clan, among all our people?”

But Samson said to his father, “She is the one I want you to get for me. I like her.”

₄His parents did not know that it was the LORD who was leading Samson to do this, for the LORD was looking for a chance to fight the Philistines. At this time the Philistines were ruling Israel.

₅So Samson went down to Timnah with his father and mother. As they were going through the vineyards there, he heard a young lion roaring. ₆Suddenly the power of the LORD made Samson strong, and he tore the lion apart with his bare hands, as if it were a young goat. But he did not tell his parents what he had done.

₇Then he went and talked to the woman, and he liked her. ₈A few days later Samson went back to marry her. On the way he left the road to look at the lion he had killed, and he was surprised to find a swarm of bees and some honey inside the dead body. ₉He scraped the honey out into his hands and ate it as he walked along. Then he went to his father and mother and gave them some. They ate it, but Samson did not tell them that he had taken the honey from the dead body of a lion.

₁₀His father went to the woman's house, and Samson gave a banquet there. This was a custom among the young men. ₁₁When the Philistines saw him, they sent thirty young men to stay with him. _12-13Samson said to them, “Let me ask you a riddle. I'll bet each one of you a piece of fine linen and a change of fine clothes that you can't tell me its meaning before the seven days of the wedding feast are over.”

“Tell us your riddle,” they said. “Let's hear it.”

₁₄He said,

₁₅On the fourth day they said to Samson's wife, “Trick your husband into telling us what the riddle means. If you don't, we'll set fire to your father's house and burn you with it. You two invited us so that you could rob us, didn't you?”

₁₆So Samson's wife went to him in tears and said, “You don't love me! You just hate me! You asked my friends a riddle and didn't tell me what it means!”

He said, “Look, I haven't even told my father and mother. Why should I tell you?” ₁₇She cried about it for the whole seven days of the feast. But on the seventh day he told her what the riddle meant, for she nagged him about it so much. Then she told the Philistines. ₁₈So on the seventh day, before Samson went into the bedroom, the men of the city said to him,