AF
Judges · read by Andrew Foster
92 verses, in order. Only the verses Andrew read aloud are shown.
Judges 1
1
After the death of Joshua, the Israelites inquired of the LORD, "Who will be the first to go up and fight for us against the Canaanites?"Read from KJV · Samson #3 - a Lonely Struggle
2
"Judah shall go up," answered the LORD. "Indeed, I have delivered the land into their hands."Read from KJV · Samson #3 - a Lonely Struggle
Judges 10
6
And again the Israelites did evil in the sight of the LORD. They served the Baals, the Ashtoreths, the gods of Aram, Sidon, and Moab, and the gods of the Ammonites and Philistines. Thus they forsook the LORD and did not serve Him.Read from KJV · Samson #1 - His Home
Judges 13
1
Again the Israelites did evil in the sight of the LORD, so He delivered them into the hand of the Philistines for forty years.Read from KJV · Samson #1 - His Home
2
Now there was a man from Zorah named Manoah, from the clan of the Danites, whose wife was barren and had no children.Read from KJV · Samson #1 - His Home
4
Now please be careful not to drink wine or strong drink, and not to eat anything unclean.Read from KJV · Samson #1 - His Home
5
For behold, you will conceive and give birth to a son. And no razor shall come over his head, because the boy will be a Nazirite to God from the womb, and he will begin the deliverance of Israel from the hand of the Philistines."Read from KJV · Samson #1 - His Home
6
So the woman went and told her husband, "A man of God came to me. His appearance was like the angel of God, exceedingly awesome. I did not ask him where he came from, and he did not tell me his name.Read from KJV · Samson #1 - His Home
7
But he said to me, 'Behold, you will conceive and give birth to a son. Now, therefore, do not drink wine or strong drink, and do not eat anything unclean, because the boy will be a Nazirite to God from the womb until the day of his death.'"Read from KJV · Samson #1 - His Home
8
Then Manoah prayed to the LORD, "Please, O Lord, let the man of God You sent us come to us again to teach us how to raise the boy who is to be born."Read from KJV · Samson #1 - His Home
9
And God listened to the voice of Manoah, and the angel of God returned to the woman as she was sitting in the field; but her husband Manoah was not with her.Read from KJV · Samson #1 - His Home
10
The woman ran quickly to tell her husband, "Behold, the man who came to me the other day has reappeared!"Read from KJV · Samson #1 - His Home
11
So Manoah got up and followed his wife. When he came to the man, he asked, "Are you the man who spoke to my wife?" "I am," he said.Read from KJV · Samson #1 - His Home
12
Then Manoah asked, "When your words come to pass, what will be the boy's rule of life and mission?"Read from KJV · Samson #1 - His Home
13
So the angel of the LORD answered Manoah, "Your wife is to do everything I told her.Read from KJV · Samson #1 - His Home
14
She must not eat anything that comes from the vine, nor drink any wine or strong drink, nor eat anything unclean. She must do everything I have commanded her."Read from KJV · Samson #1 - His Home
15
"Please stay here," Manoah said to the angel of the LORD, "and we will prepare a young goat for you."Read from KJV · Samson #1 - His Home
16
And the angel of the LORD replied, "Even if I stay, I will not eat your food. But if you prepare a burnt offering, offer it to the LORD." For Manoah did not know that it was the angel of the LORD.Read from KJV · Samson #1 - His Home
17
Then Manoah said to the angel of the LORD, "What is your name, so that we may honor you when your word comes to pass?"Read from KJV · Samson #1 - His Home
18
"Why do you ask my name," said the angel of the LORD, "since it is beyond comprehension?"Read from KJV · Samson #1 - His Home
19
Then Manoah took a young goat and a grain offering and offered them on a rock to the LORD. And as Manoah and his wife looked on, the LORD did a marvelous thing.Read from KJV · Samson #1 - His Home
20
When the flame went up from the altar to the sky, the angel of the LORD ascended in the flame. When Manoah and his wife saw this, they fell facedown to the ground.Read from KJV · Samson #1 - His Home
21
And when the angel of the LORD did not appear again to Manoah and his wife, Manoah realized that it had been the angel of the LORD.Read from KJV · Samson #1 - His Home
22
"We are going to die," he said to his wife, "for we have seen God!"Read from KJV · Samson #1 - His Home
23
But his wife replied, "If the LORD had intended to kill us, He would not have accepted the burnt offering and the grain offering from our hands, nor would He have shown us all these things or spoken to us this way."Read from KJV · Samson #1 - His Home
24
So the woman gave birth to a son and named him Samson. The boy grew, and the LORD blessed him.Read from KJV · Samson #1 - His Home
25
And the Spirit of the LORD began to stir him at Mahaneh-dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.Read from KJV · Samson #1 - His Home
Judges 14
1
One day Samson went down to Timnah, where he saw a young Philistine woman.Read from KJV · Samson #2 - First Warfare
2
So he returned and told his father and mother, "I have seen a daughter of the Philistines in Timnah. Now get her for me as a wife."Read from KJV · Samson #2 - First Warfare
3
But his father and mother replied, "Can't you find a young woman among your relatives or among any of our people? Must you go to the uncircumcised Philistines to get a wife?" But Samson told his father, "Get her for me, for she is pleasing to my eyes."Read from KJV · Samson #2 - First Warfare
4
(Now his father and mother did not know this was from the LORD, who was seeking an occasion to move against the Philistines; for at that time the Philistines were ruling over Israel.)Read from KJV · Samson #2 - First Warfare
5
Then Samson went down to Timnah with his father and mother and came to the vineyards of Timnah. Suddenly a young lion came roaring at him,Read from KJV · Samson #2 - First Warfare
6
and the Spirit of the LORD came powerfully upon him, and he tore the lion apart with his bare hands as one would tear a young goat. But he did not tell his father or mother what he had done.Read from KJV · Samson #2 - First Warfare
7
Then Samson continued on his way down and spoke to the woman, because she was pleasing to his eyes.Read from KJV · Samson #2 - First Warfare
8
When Samson returned later to take her, he left the road to see the lion's carcass, and in it was a swarm of bees, along with their honey.Read from KJV · Samson #2 - First Warfare
9
So he scooped some honey into his hands and ate it as he went along. And when he returned to his father and mother, he gave some to them and they ate it. But he did not tell them that he had taken the honey from the lion's carcass.Read from KJV · Samson #2 - First Warfare
10
Then his father went to visit the woman, and Samson prepared a feast there, as was customary for the bridegroom.Read from KJV · Samson #2 - First Warfare
11
And when the Philistines saw him, they selected thirty men to accompany him.Read from NASB1995 · Samson #2 - First Warfare
12
"Let me tell you a riddle," Samson said to them. "If you can solve it for me within the seven days of the feast, I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty sets of clothes.Read from KJV · Samson #2 - First Warfare
13
But if you cannot solve it, you must give me thirty linen garments and thirty sets of clothes." "Tell us your riddle," they replied. "Let us hear it."Read from KJV · Samson #2 - First Warfare
14
So he said to them: "Out of the eater came something to eat, and out of the strong came something sweet." For three days they were unable to explain the riddle.Read from KJV · Samson #2 - First Warfare
15
So on the fourth day they said to Samson's wife, "Entice your husband to explain the riddle to us, or we will burn you and your father's household to death. Did you invite us here to rob us?"Read from KJV · Samson #2 - First Warfare
16
Then Samson's wife came to him, weeping, and said, "You hate me! You do not really love me! You have posed to my people a riddle, but have not explained it to me." "Look," he said, "I have not even explained it to my father or mother, so why should I explain it to you?"Read from KJV · Samson #2 - First Warfare
17
She wept the whole seven days of the feast, and finally on the seventh day, because she had pressed him so much, he told her the answer. And in turn she explained the riddle to her people.Read from KJV · Samson #2 - First Warfare
18
Before sunset on the seventh day, the men of the city said to Samson: "What is sweeter than honey? And what is stronger than a lion?" So he said to them: "If you had not plowed with my heifer, you would not have solved my riddle!"Read from KJV · Samson #2 - First Warfare
19
Then the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him, and he went down to Ashkelon, killed thirty of their men, took their apparel, and gave their clothes to those who had solved the riddle. And burning with anger, Samson returned to his father's house,Read from KJV · Samson #2 - First Warfare
20
and his wife was given to one of the men who had accompanied him.Read from KJV · Samson #2 - First Warfare
Judges 15
8
And he struck them ruthlessly with a great slaughter, and then went down and stayed in the cave at the rock of Etam.Read from KJV · Samson #3 - a Lonely Struggle
9
Then the Philistines went up, camped in Judah, and deployed themselves near the town of Lehi.Read from KJV · Samson #3 - a Lonely Struggle
10
"Why have you attacked us?" said the men of Judah. The Philistines replied, "We have come to arrest Samson and pay him back for what he has done to us."Read from KJV · Samson #3 - a Lonely Struggle
11
In response, three thousand men of Judah went to the cave at the rock of Etam, and they asked Samson, "Do you not realize that the Philistines rule over us? What have you done to us?" "I have done to them what they did to me," he replied.Read from KJV · Samson #3 - a Lonely Struggle
12
But they said to him, "We have come down to arrest you and hand you over to the Philistines." Samson replied, "Swear to me that you will not kill me yourselves."Read from KJV · Samson #3 - a Lonely Struggle
13
"No," they answered, "we will not kill you, but we will tie you up securely and hand you over to them." So they bound him with two new ropes and led him up from the rock.Read from KJV · Samson #3 - a Lonely Struggle
14
When Samson arrived in Lehi, the Philistines came out shouting against him. And the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him. The ropes on his arms became like burnt flax, and the bonds broke loose from his hands.Read from KJV · Samson #3 - a Lonely Struggle
15
He found the fresh jawbone of a donkey, reached out his hand and took it, and struck down a thousand men.Read from KJV · Samson #3 - a Lonely Struggle
16
Then Samson said: "With the jawbone of a donkey I have piled them into heaps. With the jawbone of a donkey I have slain a thousand men."Read from KJV · Samson #3 - a Lonely Struggle
17
And when Samson had finished speaking, he cast the jawbone from his hand; and he named that place Ramath-lehi.Read from KJV · Samson #3 - a Lonely Struggle
18
And being very thirsty, Samson cried out to the LORD, "You have accomplished this great deliverance through Your servant. Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?"Read from KJV · Samson #3 - a Lonely Struggle
19
So God opened up the hollow place in Lehi, and water came out of it. When Samson drank, his strength returned, and he was revived. That is why he named it En-hakkore, and it remains in Lehi to this day.Read from KJV · Samson #3 - a Lonely Struggle
20
And Samson judged Israel for twenty years in the days of the Philistines.Read from ESV · Samson #3 - a Lonely Struggle
Judges 16
1
One day Samson went to Gaza, where he saw a prostitute and went in to spend the night with her.Read from KJV · Samson #4 - Indulging Sin
2
When the Gazites heard that Samson was there, they surrounded that place and lay in wait for him all night at the city gate. They were quiet throughout the night, saying, "Let us wait until dawn; then we will kill him."Read from KJV · Samson #4 - Indulging Sin
3
But Samson lay there only until midnight, when he got up, took hold of the doors of the city gate and both gateposts, and pulled them out, bar and all. Then he put them on his shoulders and took them to the top of the mountain overlooking Hebron.Read from KJV · Samson #4 - Indulging Sin
4
Some time later, Samson fell in love with a woman in the Valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah.Read from KJV · Samson #4 - Indulging Sin
5
The lords of the Philistines went to her and said, "Entice him and find out the source of his great strength and how we can overpower him to tie him up and subdue him. Then each one of us will give you eleven hundred shekels of silver."Read from KJV · Samson #4 - Indulging Sin
6
So Delilah said to Samson, "Please tell me the source of your great strength and how you can be tied up and subdued."Read from KJV · Samson #4 - Indulging Sin
7
Samson told her, "If they tie me up with seven fresh bowstrings that have not been dried, I will become as weak as any other man."Read from KJV · Samson #4 - Indulging Sin
8
So the lords of the Philistines brought her seven fresh bowstrings that had not been dried, and she tied him up with them.Read from KJV · Samson #4 - Indulging Sin
9
While the men were hidden in her room, she called out, "Samson, the Philistines are here!" But he snapped the bowstrings like a strand of yarn seared by a flame. So the source of his strength remained unknown.Read from KJV · Samson #4 - Indulging Sin
10
Then Delilah said to Samson, "You have mocked me and lied to me! Now please tell me how you can be tied up."Read from KJV · Samson #4 - Indulging Sin
11
He replied, "If they tie me up with new ropes that have never been used, I will become as weak as any other man."Read from KJV · Samson #4 - Indulging Sin
12
So Delilah took new ropes, tied him up with them, and called out, "Samson, the Philistines are here!" But while the men were hidden in her room, he snapped the ropes off his arms like they were threads.Read from KJV · Samson #4 - Indulging Sin
13
Then Delilah said to Samson, "You have mocked me and lied to me all along! Tell me how you can be tied up." He told her, "If you weave the seven braids of my head into the web of a loom and tighten it with a pin, I will become as weak as any other man."Read from KJV · Samson #4 - Indulging Sin
14
So while he slept, Delilah took the seven braids of his hair and wove them into the web. Then she tightened it with a pin and called to him, "Samson, the Philistines are here!" But he awoke from his sleep and pulled out the pin with the loom and the web.Read from KJV · Samson #4 - Indulging Sin
15
"How can you say, 'I love you,'" she asked, "when your heart is not with me? This is the third time you have mocked me and failed to reveal to me the source of your great strength!"Read from KJV · Samson #4 - Indulging Sin
16
Finally, after she had pressed him daily with her words and pleaded until he was sick to death,Read from KJV · Samson #5 - Tragic Legacy
17
Samson told her all that was in his heart: "My hair has never been cut, because I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother's womb. If I am shaved, my strength will leave me, and I will become as weak as any other man."Read from KJV · Samson #5 - Tragic Legacy
18
When Delilah realized that he had revealed to her all that was in his heart, she sent this message to the lords of the Philistines: "Come up once more, for he has revealed to me all that is in his heart." Then the lords of the Philistines came to her, bringing the money in their hands.Read from KJV · Samson #4 - Indulging Sin
19
And having lulled him to sleep on her lap, she called a man to shave off the seven braids of his head. In this way she began to subdue him, and his strength left him.Read from KJV · Samson #4 - Indulging Sin
20
Then she called out, "Samson, the Philistines are here!" When Samson awoke from his sleep, he thought, "I will escape as I did before and shake myself free." But he did not know that the LORD had departed from him.Read from KJV · Samson #4 - Indulging Sin
21
Then the Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, where he was bound with bronze shackles and forced to grind grain in the prison.Read from KJV · Samson #4 - Indulging Sin
22
However, the hair of his head began to grow back after it had been shaved.Read from KJV · Samson #5 - Tragic Legacy
23
Now the lords of the Philistines gathered together to offer a great sacrifice to their god Dagon. They rejoiced and said, "Our god has delivered Samson our enemy into our hands."Read from KJV · Samson #5 - Tragic Legacy
24
And when the people saw him, they praised their god, saying: "Our god has delivered into our hands our enemy who destroyed our land and multiplied our dead."Read from KJV · Samson #4 - Indulging Sin
25
And while their hearts were merry, they said, "Call for Samson to entertain us." So they called Samson out of the prison to entertain them. And they stationed him between the pillars.Read from KJV · Samson #5 - Tragic Legacy
26
Samson said to the servant who held his hand, "Lead me where I can feel the pillars supporting the temple, so I can lean against them."Read from KJV · Samson #5 - Tragic Legacy
27
Now the temple was full of men and women; all the lords of the Philistines were there, and about three thousand men and women were on the roof watching Samson entertain them.Read from KJV · Samson #4 - Indulging Sin
28
Then Samson called out to the LORD: "O Lord GOD, please remember me. Strengthen me, O God, just once more, so that with one vengeful blow I may pay back the Philistines for my two eyes."Read from KJV · Samson #4 - Indulging Sin
29
And Samson reached out for the two central pillars supporting the temple. Bracing himself against them with his right hand on one pillar and his left hand on the other,Read from KJV · Samson #5 - Tragic Legacy
30
Samson said, "Let me die with the Philistines." Then he pushed with all his might, and the temple fell on the lords and all the people in it. So in his death he killed more than he had killed in his life.Read from KJV · Samson #5 - Tragic Legacy
31
Then Samson's brothers and his father's family came down, carried him back, and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of his father Manoah. And he had judged Israel twenty years.Read from KJV · Samson #5 - Tragic Legacy
Judges 18
31
So they set up for themselves Micah's graven image, and it was there the whole time the house of God was in Shiloh.Read from KJV · Samson #5 - Tragic Legacy