Rebellion and Redemption

Conflict and Crisis: The Judges Lesson #4 for January 23, 2016 Scriptures: [Judges 4; 6; 14; Hebrews 11:32; 1 Samuel 2:12-25; 8:1-7][i].

1.    In this lesson we will study the repeating cycles of evil as presented in the book of Judges. Repeatedly, the Israelites sinned against God, worshiping Baal and Astarte and other Canaanite gods, leading to God’s “wrath” described as God selling them into the hands of an oppressor. After some considerable period of subjugation by their enemies, they cried out to the Lord on multiple occasions, and the Lord repeatedly raised up a deliverer who helped them overcome their enemies and brought peace back to the land. What did the judges actually do? Mostly, they helped to settle civil suits. But, at times, they also were military leaders.

2.    Those judges ruled for various lengths of time until they died; and then, the people fell back into their old evil ways again. Judges 2 and 3 are among the most succinct descriptions of God’s “wrath” in the entire Bible. What happens when God becomes furious or angry? See the handout on www.Theox.org: “God’s Wrath/Anger in the Book of Judges.”

3.    The picture of God’s wrath throughout Scripture could be summarized in the following words: God’s wrath or anger is simply His turning away in loving disappointment from those who do not want Him anyway, thus leaving them to the inevitable and awful consequences of their own rebellious choices.

4.    In this lesson we will discuss briefly the stories of Deborah and Barak, Samson, Gideon, Eli’s sons, and Samuel.

5.    How would you assess the spiritual condition of God’s covenant people living in Palestine during the period of the judges? What would God say about our church today? About the Christian community as a whole? About the world in general?

6.    Jabin, King of Hazor, tried to organize a large number of kings from the northern part of Canaan to attack and destroy the Israelites when the Israelites first entered Palestine. Many years later, Jabin, which was the name for each king of Hazor, appointed Sisera his army chief to attack and destroy the Israelites living near him. Deborah, designated as a prophetess and judge, received a message from God to appoint Barak to meet the challenge from Sisera.

7.    Read Judges 4. Who was the victor in that battle? How many times in the Bible did God do the “fighting” instead of having the children of Israel do it? (What about Jericho? The Amalekites? etc.) What were the results when God took charge? Why were the Israelites so determined to do their own fighting on so many occasions? How did they do? Did they only let God do the fighting when they recognized that their chances of succeeding by themselves were nearly hopeless?

8.    Deborah was not the only female heroine in this story. Heber was a descendent of Jethro and his son Hobab the Kenite, Moses’s brother-in-law. His wife Jael who lived not far from Hazor welcomed the escaping general, Sisera, into her home and promised to hide him from the pursuing Israelites. While he was sleeping, she got a large hammer and drove a tent peg through his temples and into the ground. That ended the domination by the Canaanites over the Hebrews for about 40 years.

9.    Do you think it was God’s idea for Jael to kill Sisera? How did she manage to do that without waking him up first?

10.    Read Judges 4:7; 5:4-5,21ii. It seems clear from these passages that the iron chariots of Sisera’s army became a serious hindrance instead of a help as they bogged down in the flash floods that swept away many of Sisera’s soldiers. Once again, God was the winner.

11.    Do you think the Israelite armies put their trust in Deborah because of her beauty? Her personality? Her force of character? Her righteous judgments? Or, because they believed that she was directed by God?

12.    Many years after the story of Deborah, the Midianites, the Amalekites, and the desert tribesmen began to oppress the Israelites, coming up from the southeast and stealing and plundering whatever they could from the Israelites. (Read Judges 6:3-16.)

13.    Why do you think God chose Gideon to defeat them? Was God’s angel being sarcastic when he said to Gideon: “The Lord is with you, brave and mighty man!” (Judges 6:12, GNB) while Gideon was hiding in a wine press, trying to thresh wheat? How could God command him: “Go with all your great strength and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I myself am sending you”? (Judges 6:14, GNB) Gideon required quite a lot of convincing and several miracles before he was ready to undertake the mission. Maybe Gideon’s greatest qualification was his own sense of unimportance and weakness. Does that remind you of the call of Ellen White?

14.    Who can forget the story recorded in Judges 6:36-40iii? Gideon put out his fleece and asked that the fleece be full of water in the morning while the ground was dry. God, recognizing the terrible condition of things in the land, complied with Gideon’s request. But, the next morning after ringing a lot of water out of his piece of wool, Gideon recognized that perhaps the water would naturally remain in the wool longer that it would on the ground. So, he requested God to send another miracle and have the ground be wet and the wool be dry. So, God complied.

15.    But, when Gideon called together an army of 32,000 men, God effectively said, “Whoa now! That is way too many. If the Israelites go to war with that many men, they might be inclined to think that they managed to win the victory themselves.” (See Judges 7:2iv.) So, 22,000 were allowed to go home because they were afraid. Then, another test was applied, depending on how they drank water at a small stream. Only 300 were left. Finally, those 300 were divided into 3 groups with lanterns hidden in clay pots and trumpets made of ram’s horns. In the middle of the night, they blasted on their ram’s horns and broke the pitchers, revealing the lights from three different sides of the Midianites, giving the appearance that thousands of soldiers were surrounding the Midianites. God did the rest. The enemy-confused in the middle of the night-attacked themselves, one against the other, and the Israelites did not even need to fight. Only a fleeing group of men including some of the Midianite chiefs and two kings of Midian were finally captured and killed by the Israelites. From an enemy army of 120,000, only 15,000 escaped.

16.    The story of Samson is a sordid one. His birth was predicted, and his mother was clearly instructed about how she should prepare for that special baby. (See [Judges 13:4,13-14; Leviticus 11; and Deuteronomy 14].[v]) But, although Samson received very special training as a child, things began to turn bad just as he was becoming a young man.

Just as he was entering upon manhood, the time when he must execute his divine mission-the time above all others when he should have been true to God-Samson connected himself with the enemies of Israel. He did not ask whether he could better glorify God when united with the object of his choice, or whether he was placing himself in a position where he could not fulfill the purpose to be accomplished by his life. To all who seek first to honor Him, God has promised wisdom; but there is no promise to those who are bent upon self-pleasing.—Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 563.1.

17.    Read Judges 14:1-4vi. Clearly, Samson had a weakness for foreign women. So, how did God use that terrible weakness as “an occasion to move against the Philistines”?

Samson “moved” against the Philistines in a number of ways, each in angry response to personal slights. First he killed 30 men and took their clothes back to his wedding feast to pay a debt (Judg. 14:19). Then he destroyed their crops when his wife was given to his best man (Judg. 14:20, 15:1-5).

Then Samson killed many in revenge for the Philistines killing his wife and her father (Judg. 15:6-8). When the Philistines tried to avenge that action (Judg. 15:9, 10), he killed one thousand with a donkey’s jawbone (Judg. 15:14, 15). Finally he pulled down their temple and killed three thousand for blinding him (Judg. 16:21, 28,30).—Adult Sabbath School Bible Study Guide for Tuesday, January 19.

18.    But, incredible as it may seem and despite all his flaws and foibles, Samson ended up in the “faith chapter” in Hebrews 11:32vii. What do you think about Samson being named in that chapter alongside Rahab, Jephthah, and David as well as Abraham, Sarah, and Moses?

19.    Read Ruth 1:8,16-17; 2:10-12; 3:10-11viii. Why did those famines keep occurring in Judah and Israel? Did God literally send the famines? Or, did God just remove His blessings which had previously come in the form of rain? Was Satan involved in any way?

20.    The country of Moab was located across the Jordan Valley from Bethlehem, the home of Elimelech, Naomi, and their two sons. It is easy to see across the valley from Bethlehem to Moab. They must have thought that the grass looked greener on the other side of the valley! But, a few years later, with all the men in her family dead, Ruth was left with only two mourning daughters-in-law in the country of Moab. Why do you think that neither of those young women managed to get pregnant from their young husbands while in Moab? Was God practicing “birth control”? While Orpah at the urging of Naomi returned to her mother’s home, Ruth, for reasons that we are not completely aware of, was determined to stay with Naomi and return with her to Bethlehem. Remember that the Moabites were descendants of Lot and his oldest daughter. (Genesis 19:30-38) Naomi decided to return home because it was her rightful inheritance to take the property that had belonged to her husband. Arriving at Bethlehem, Ruth was quickly identified by the people there as industrious, probably beautiful, and they welcomed her. No doubt, by the guidance of God, Ruth chose to go and gather what she could from the gleanings in the field of Boaz. She obviously attracted the attention of Boaz. He instructed her not to go to anyone else’s field because it was not safe. How were the Israelites supposed to treat Moabites? See Deuteronomy 23:3. We do not know exactly how old Boaz was; but, the story seems to suggest that he was older than Ruth. Remember that he was the son of Rahab the prostitute from Jericho and one of the leaders from the tribe of Judah by the name of Salmon. After some legal arranging, Boaz married Ruth; and soon thereafter, she happily produced a baby son by the name of Obed who became the grandfather of King David. Did Boaz choose to ignore the rules recorded in Deuteronomy?

21.    What do you think this story has to do with the great controversy? It is important to remember that the story of Naomi and Ruth took place during the times of the judges. Why do you think this personal story made it into Scripture? Was it because Boaz’s mother was Rahab the prostitute from Jericho? Or, because Ruth’s great grandson was King David?

22.    Near the end of the times of the judges, we have the story of Samuel. Elkanah, from the tribe of Levi but living in the town of Ramah, had taken a second wife because Hannah did not seem to be able to bear children. He loved her; but, her barrenness was a bitterness for both of them. Every year Elkanah, Hannah, as well as Penninah and her children traveled from Ramah to Shiloh to offer sacrifices to the Lord. Those were bitter experiences for Hannah. On one occasion, she went to the tent opening and prayed silently but fervently for a baby. Eli, thinking she might be drunk but being assured that she was not, promised her that God would grant her wish. After he was weaned, she took her baby son to the tabernacle or tent at Shiloh and placed him in the care of Eli.

23.    Read 1 Samuel 2:12-25ix. Considering how evil Eli’s sons were, should Hannah have dared to place her young son in the hands of Eli?

24.    God destroyed Aaron’s sons for taking the wrong incense into the tent/tabernacle while they were intoxicated. Why did He not destroy the sons of Eli? Or, did He?

Eli was priest and judge in Israel. He held the highest and most responsible positions among the people of God. As a man divinely chosen for the sacred duties of the priesthood, and set over the land as the highest judicial authority, he was looked up to as an example, and he wielded a great influence over the tribes of Israel. But although he had been appointed to govern the people, he did not rule his own household. Eli was an indulgent father. Loving peace and ease, he did not exercise his authority to correct the evil habits and passions of his children. Rather than contend with them or punish them, he would submit to their will and give them their own way. Instead of regarding the education of his sons as one of the most important of his responsibilities, he treated the matter as of little consequence. The priest and judge of Israel had not been left in darkness as to the duty of restraining and governing the children that God had given to his care. But Eli shrank from this duty, because it involved crossing the will of his sons, and would make it necessary to punish and deny them. Without weighing the terrible consequences that would follow his course, he indulged his children in whatever they desired and neglected the work of fitting them for the service of God and the duties of life.—Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 575.1. [Bold type is added.]

25.    In contrast to the story of Eli and his grown sons, the small boy, Samuel, grew into being a man of God. “So all the people of Israel, from one end of the country to the other, knew that Samuel was indeed a prophet of the Lord.” (1 Samuel 3:20, GNB)

26.    Read 1 Samuel 4:14-18[x]. The Israelites faced a time of war with the Philistines. They were doing very poorly without God’s help. They called upon Eli’s sons to take the covenant box to the battlefield, trying to force God to help them fight. The results were a disaster. Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phineas, died; the covenant box was captured by the Philistines. When Eli, very old at that point, heard about it, he fell backwards from his chair and died.

27.    That left the young Samuel in charge of the sanctuary. Unfortunately, Samuel did not do much better with his children than Eli had done with his. As Samuel’s sons grew up, it became apparent that they were not like their father. They were doing evil things such as accepting bribes and perverting justice. Even though Samuel managed to establish the schools of the prophets, because of the evil activities of his sons, the leaders of the tribes and the people of Israel insisted that Samuel anoint a king for them. The result was the choosing of Saul as the first king of Israel. Saul was the kind of king they wanted, not the kind of king God wanted.

28.    How do you understand that story? (1 Samuel 8:1-9xi) Would the people have been satisfied with their so-called “theocracy” and their “judges” if the sons of Samuel had been as faithful as their father was?

29.    After appointing Saul and watching him deteriorate, Samuel was given the challenge of secretly anointing David to become the next king.

30.    One of the obvious facts in the great controversy is that we each are free to make up our own minds and go our own ways.

31.    It is very clear that the Bible does not gloss over the behaviors-even the sins-of its prominent characters. Sons of Belial is the term 1 Samuel 2:12-25xii uses for the sons of Eli. Belial is a Hebrew word which means basically “worthless,” “useless,” as well as other negative terms. It is sometimes used to describe Satan himself.

32.    What a tragedy the sons of Eli and the sons of Samuel proved to be. Was God responsible for the death of Eli’s sons?

God does not stand toward the sinner as an executioner of the sentence against transgression; but He leaves the rejecters of His mercy to themselves, to reap that which they have sown.—Ellen G. White, Spirit of Prophecy, vol. 4, 36.3; The Great Controversy 36.1.

33.    In the great controversy, every individual must make up his own mind. We are either on God’s side or on Satan’s side. We cannot remain as fence-sitters.

34.    What should we learn about God from the book of Judges? In addition to learning some important things about God’s wrath, we should also note that He could not resist the cries of those who honestly turned back to Him. More than that, He chose feeble, defective human beings to work for Him. Who else was available? Should God have used angels to do His work?

35.    If we had time to review all of the book of Judges, we would note that God was involved in one way or another in many very serious battles. How did God involve Himself in those battles?

36.    Clearly, in the book of Judges, we see this cycle repeated over and over again: 1) Apostasy, 2) Oppression, 3) Cries for help, and 4) Divine intervention. How do you think God felt about all of that? How did the onlooking universe feel about those events?

37.    Even the angels needed to learn some important things through the great controversy.

For centuries God looked with patience and forbearance upon the cruel treatment given to his ambassadors, at his holy law prostrate, despised, trampled underfoot. He swept away the inhabitants of the Noachian world with a flood. But when the earth was again peopled, men drew away from God, and renewed their hostility to him, manifesting bold defiance. Those whom God rescued from Egyptian bondage followed in the footsteps of those who had preceded them. Cause was followed by effect; the earth was being corrupted.

A crisis had arrived in the government of God...All heaven was prepared at the word of God to move to the help of his elect. One word from him, and the bolts of heaven would have fallen upon the earth, filling it with fire and flame. God had but to speak, and there would have been thunderings and lightnings and earthquakes and destruction.

The heavenly intelligences were prepared for a fearful manifestation of Almighty power. Every move was watched with intense anxiety. The exercise of justice was expected. The angels looked for God to punish the inhabitants of the earth....

The heavenly universe was amazed at God’s patience and love. To save fallen humanity the Son of God took humanity upon himself.—Ellen G. White, Review and Herald, July 17, 1900 par 4-7. Compare Desire of Ages 37.2. [Bold type is added.]

38. Try to imagine yourself among the angels in heaven, watching the events we have studied in this lesson. Would you have agreed with their feelings? How well do we understand God’s actions and His patience today?

© 2015, Kenneth Hart, MD, MA, MPH. Permission is hereby granted for any noncommercial use of these materials. Free distribution of all or of a portion of this material such as to a Bible study class is encouraged.    Info@theox. org

i-Judges 4:1 After Ehud died, the people of Israel sinned against the LORD again. 2 So the LORD let them be conquered by Jabin, a Canaanite king who ruled in the city of Hazor. The commander of his army was Sisera, who lived at Harosheth-of-the-Gentiles. 3 Jabin had nine hundred iron chariots, and he ruled the people of Israel with cruelty and violence for twenty years. Then the people of Israel cried out to the LORD for help.

4 Now Deborah, the wife of Lappidoth, was a prophet, and she was serving as a judge for the Israelites at that time. 5 She would sit under a certain palm tree between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the people of Israel would go there for her decisions. 6 One day she sent for Barak son of Abinoam from the city of Kedesh in Naphtali and said to him, “The LORD, the God of Israel, has given you this command: ‘Take ten thousand men from the tribes of Naphtali and Zebulun and lead them to Mount Tabor. 7 I will bring Sisera, the commander of Jabin's army, to fight you at the Kishon River. He will have his chariots and soldiers, but I will give you victory over him.’”

8 Then Barak replied, “I will go if you go with me, but if you don't go with me, I won't go either.”

9 She answered, “All right, I will go with you, but you won't get any credit for the victory, because the LORD will hand Sisera over to a woman.” So Deborah set off for Kedesh with Barak. 10 Barak called the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh, and ten thousand men followed him. Deborah went with him.

11 In the meantime Heber the Kenite had set up his tent close to Kedesh near the oak tree at Zaanannim. He had moved away from the other Kenites, the descendants of Hobab, the brother-in-law of Moses.

12 When Sisera learned that Barak had gone up to Mount Tabor, 13 he called out his nine hundred iron chariots and all his men, and sent them from Harosheth-of-the-Gentiles to the Kishon River.

14 Then Deborah said to Barak, “Go! The LORD is leading you! Today he has given you victory over Sisera.” So Barak went down from Mount Tabor with his ten thousand men. 15 When Barak attacked with his army, the LORD threw Sisera into confusion together with all his chariots and men. Sisera got down from his chariot and fled on foot. 16 Barak pursued the chariots and the army to Harosheth-of-the-Gentiles, and Sisera's whole army was killed. Not a man was left.

17 Sisera ran away to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, because King Jabin of Hazor was at peace with Heber's family. 18 Jael went out to meet Sisera and said to him, “Come in, sir; come into my tent. Don't be afraid.” So he went in, and she hid him behind a curtain.[a] 19 He said to her, “Please give me a drink of water; I'm thirsty.” She opened a leather bag of milk, gave him a drink, and hid him again. 20 Then he told her, “Stand at the door of the tent, and if anyone comes and asks you if anyone is here, say no.”

21 Sisera was so tired that he fell sound asleep. Then Jael took a hammer and a tent peg, quietly went up to him, and killed him by driving the peg right through the side of his head and into the ground. 22 When Barak came looking for Sisera, Jael went out to meet him and said to him, “Come here! I'll show you the man you're looking for.” So he went in with her, and there was Sisera on the ground, dead, with the tent peg through his head.

23 That day God gave the Israelites victory over Jabin, the Canaanite king. 24 They pressed harder and harder against him until they destroyed him.

Footnotes:

1. Judges 4:18 hid him behind a curtain; or covered him with a rug.

6:1 Once again the people of Israel sinned against the LORD, so he let the people of Midian rule them for seven years. 2 The Midianites were stronger than Israel, and the people of Israel hid from them in caves and other safe places in the hills. 3 Whenever the Israelites would plant their crops, the Midianites would come with the Amalekites and the desert tribes and attack them. 4 They would camp on the land and destroy the crops as far south as the area around Gaza. They would take all the sheep, cattle, and donkeys, and leave nothing for the Israelites to live on. 5 They would come with their livestock and tents, as thick as locusts. They and their camels were too many to count. They came and devastated the land, 6 and Israel was helpless against them.

7 Then the people of Israel cried out to the LORD for help against the Midianites, 8 and he sent them a prophet who brought them this message from the LORD, the God of Israel: “I brought you out of slavery in Egypt. 9 I rescued you from the Egyptians and from the people who fought you here in this land. I drove them out as you advanced, and I gave you their land. 10 I told you that I am the LORD your God and that you should not worship the gods of the Amorites, whose land you are now living in. But you have not listened to me.”

11 Then the LORD's angel came to the village of Ophrah and sat under the oak tree that belonged to Joash, a man of the clan of Abiezer. His son Gideon was threshing some wheat secretly in a wine press, so that the Midianites would not see him. 12 The LORD's angel appeared to him there and said, “The LORD is with you, brave and mighty man!”

13 Gideon said to him, “If I may ask, sir, why has all this happened to us if the LORD is with us? What happened to all the wonderful things that our fathers told us the LORD used to do—how he brought them out of Egypt? The LORD has abandoned us and left us to the mercy of the Midianites.”

14 Then the LORD ordered him, “Go with all your great strength and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I myself am sending you.”

15 Gideon replied, “But Lord, how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest in the tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least important member of my family.”

16 The LORD answered, “You can do it because I will help you. You will crush the Midianites as easily as if they were only one man.”

17 Gideon replied, “If you are pleased with me, give me some proof that you are really the LORD. 18 Please do not leave until I bring you an offering of food.”

He said, “I will stay until you come back.”

19 So Gideon went into his house and cooked a young goat and used a bushel of flour to make bread without any yeast. He put the meat in a basket and the broth in a pot, brought them to the LORD's angel under the oak tree, and gave them to him. 20 The angel told him, “Put the meat and the bread on this rock, and pour the broth over them.” Gideon did so. 21 Then the LORD's angel reached out and touched the meat and the bread with the end of the stick he was holding. Fire came out of the rock and burned up the meat and the bread. Then the angel disappeared.

22 Gideon then realized that it was the LORD's angel he had seen, and he said in terror, “Sovereign LORD! I have seen your angel face-to-face!”

23 But the LORD told him, “Peace. Don't be afraid. You will not die.” 24 Gideon built an altar to the LORD there and named it “The LORD is Peace.” (It is still standing at Ophrah, which belongs to the clan of Abiezer.)

25 That night the LORD told Gideon, “Take your father's bull and another bull seven years old,[a] tear down your father's altar to Baal, and cut down the symbol of the goddess Asherah, which is beside it. 26 Build a well-constructed altar to the LORD your God on top of this mound. Then take the second bull[b] and burn it whole as an offering, using for firewood the symbol of Asherah you have cut down.” 27 So Gideon took ten of his servants and did what the LORD had told him. He was too afraid of his family and the people in town to do it by day, so he did it at night.

28 When the people in town got up early the next morning, they found that the altar to Baal and the symbol of Asherah had been cut down, and that the second bull had been burned on the altar that had been built there. 29 They asked each other, “Who did this?” They investigated and found out that Gideon son of Joash had done it. 30 Then they said to Joash, “Bring your son out here, so that we can kill him! He tore down the altar to Baal and cut down the symbol of Asherah beside it.”

31 But Joash said to all those who confronted him, “Are you arguing for Baal? Are you defending him? Anyone who argues for him will be killed before morning. If Baal is a god, let him defend himself. It is his altar that was torn down.” 32 From then on Gideon was known as Jerubbaal,[c] because Joash said, “Let Baal defend himself; it is his altar that was torn down.”

33 Then all the Midianites, the Amalekites, and the desert tribes assembled, crossed the Jordan River, and camped in Jezreel Valley. 34 The spirit of the LORD took control of Gideon, and he blew a trumpet to call the men of the clan of Abiezer to follow him. 35 He sent messengers throughout the territory of both parts of Manasseh to call them to follow him. He sent messengers to the tribes of Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, and they also came to join him.

36 Then Gideon said to God, “You say that you have decided to use me to rescue Israel. 37 Well, I am putting some wool on the ground where we thresh the wheat. If in the morning there is dew only on the wool but not on the ground, then I will know that you are going to use me to rescue Israel.” 38 That is exactly what happened. When Gideon got up early the next morning, he squeezed the wool and wrung enough dew out of it to fill a bowl with water. 39 Then Gideon said to God, “Don't be angry with me; let me speak just once more. Please let me make one more test with the wool. This time let the wool be dry, and the ground be wet.” 40 That night God did that very thing. The next morning the wool was dry, but the ground was wet with dew.

Footnotes:

1. Judges 6:25 bull and another bull seven years old; or bull, the seven-year-old one.

2. Judges 6:26 the second bull; or the bull.

3. Judges 6:32 This name in Hebrew means “Let Baal defend himself.”

14:1 One day Samson went down to Timnah, where he noticed a certain young Philistine woman. 2 He went back home and told his father and mother, “There is a Philistine woman down at Timnah who caught my attention. Get her for me; I want to marry her.”

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

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

4 His 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.

5 So Samson went down to Timnah with his father and mother. As they were going through the vineyards there, he heard a young lion roaring. 6 Suddenly 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.

7 Then he went and talked to the young woman, and he liked her. 8 A 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. 9 He 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.

10 His father went to the woman's house, and Samson gave a banquet there. This was a custom among the young men. 11 When the Philistines saw him, they sent thirty young men to stay with him. 12-13 Samson said to them, “Let me tell 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.”

14 He said,

“Out of the eater came something to eat;

Out of the strong came something sweet.”

Three days later they had still not figured out what the riddle meant.

15 On the fourth[a] 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.[b] You two invited us so that you could rob us, didn't you?”

16 So Samson's wife went to him in tears and said, “You don't love me! You just hate me! You told 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?” 17 She 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 so about it. Then she told the Philistines. 18 So on the seventh day, before Samson went into the bedroom,[c] the men of the city said to him,

“What could be sweeter than honey?

What could be stronger than a lion?”

Samson replied,

“If you hadn't been plowing with my cow,

You wouldn't know the answer now.”

19 Suddenly the power of the LORD made him strong, and he went down to Ashkelon, where he killed thirty men, stripped them, and gave their fine clothes to the men who had solved the riddle. After that, he went back home, furious about what had happened, 20 and his wife was given to the man that had been his best man at the wedding.

Footnotes:

1. Judges 14:15 Some ancient translations fourth; Hebrew seventh.

2. Judges 14:15 set fire … you with it; or burn you and your family.

3. Judges 14:18 Probable text bedroom; Hebrew sun.

Hebrews 11:32 Should I go on? There isn't enough time for me to speak of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets.

1 Samuel 2:12-25;

8:112 The sons of Eli were scoundrels. They paid no attention to the LORD 13 or to the regulations concerning what the priests could demand from the people. Instead, when someone was offering a sacrifice, the priest's servant would come with a three-pronged fork. While the meat was still cooking, 14 he would stick the fork into the cooking pot, and whatever the fork brought out belonged to the priest. All the Israelites who came to Shiloh to offer sacrifices were treated like this. 15 In addition, even before the fat was taken off and burned, the priest's servant would come and say to the one offering the sacrifice, “Give me some meat for the priest to roast; he won't accept boiled meat from you, only raw meat.”

16 If the person answered, “Let us do what is right and burn the fat first; then take what you want,” the priest's servant would say, “No! Give it to me now! If you don't, I will have to take it by force!”

17 This sin of the sons of Eli was extremely serious in the LORD's sight, because they treated the offerings to the LORD with such disrespect.

Samuel at Shiloh

18 In the meantime the boy Samuel continued to serve the LORD, wearing a sacred linen apron. 19 Each year his mother would make a little robe and take it to him when she accompanied her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice. 20 Then Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife, and say to Elkanah, “May the LORD give you other children by this woman to take the place of the one you dedicated to him.”

After that they would go back home.

21 The LORD did bless Hannah, and she had three more sons and two daughters. The boy Samuel grew up in the service of the LORD.

Eli and His Sons

22 Eli was now very old. He kept hearing about everything his sons were doing to the Israelites and that they were even sleeping with the women who worked at the entrance to the Tent of the LORD's presence. 23 So he said to them, “Why are you doing these things? Everybody tells me about the evil you are doing. 24 Stop it, my sons! This is an awful thing the people of the LORD are talking about! 25 If anyone sins against someone else, God can defend the one who is wrong; but who can defend someone who sins against the LORD?”

But they would not listen to their father, for the LORD had decided to kill them.

8:1When Samuel grew old, he made his sons judges in Israel. 2 The older son was named Joel and the younger one Abijah; they were judges in Beersheba. 3 But they did not follow their father's example; they were interested only in making money, so they accepted bribes and did not decide cases honestly.

4 Then all the leaders of Israel met together, went to Samuel in Ramah, 5 and said to him, “Look, you are getting old and your sons don't follow your example. So then, appoint a king to rule over us, so that we will have a king, as other countries have.” 6 Samuel was displeased with their request for a king; so he prayed to the LORD, 7 and the LORD said, “Listen to everything the people say to you. You are not the one they have rejected; I am the one they have rejected as their king.

ii-Judges 4:7 I will bring Sisera, the commander of Jabin's army, to fight you at the Kishon River. He will have his chariots and soldiers, but I will give you victory over him.’”

5:Good News Translation (GNT)

4 LORD, when you left the mountains of Seir,

when you came out of the region of Edom,

the earth shook, and rain fell from the sky.

Yes, water poured down from the clouds.

5 The mountains quaked before the LORD of Sinai,

before the LORD, the God of Israel.

Good News Translation (GNT)

21 A flood in the Kishon swept them away—

the onrushing Kishon River.

I shall march, march on, with strength!

iii-Judges 6:36 Then Gideon said to God, “You say that you have decided to use me to rescue Israel. 37 Well, I am putting some wool on the ground where we thresh the wheat. If in the morning there is dew only on the wool but not on the ground, then I will know that you are going to use me to rescue Israel.” 38 That is exactly what happened. When Gideon got up early the next morning, he squeezed the wool and wrung enough dew out of it to fill a bowl with water. 39 Then Gideon said to God, “Don't be angry with me; let me speak just once more. Please let me make one more test with the wool. This time let the wool be dry, and the ground be wet.” 40 That night God did that very thing. The next morning the wool was dry, but the ground was wet with dew.

iv-Judges 7:2 The LORD said to Gideon, “The men you have are too many for me to give them victory over the Midianites. They might think that they had won by themselves, and so give me no credit.

v-Judges 13:4 Be sure not to drink any wine or beer, or eat any forbidden food;

13 The LORD's angel answered, “Your wife must be sure to do everything that I have told her. 14 She 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.”

Leviticus 11 The LORD gave Moses and Aaron the following regulations 2 for the people of Israel. You may eat any land animal 3 that has divided hoofs and that also chews the cud, 4-6 but you must not eat camels, rock badgers, or rabbits. These must be considered unclean; they chew the cud, but do not have divided hoofs. 7 Do not eat pigs. They must be considered unclean; they have divided hoofs, but do not chew the cud. 8 Do not eat these animals or even touch their dead bodies; they are unclean.

9 You may eat any kind of fish that has fins and scales, 10 but anything living in the water that does not have fins and scales must not be eaten. 11 Such creatures must be considered unclean. You must not eat them or even touch their dead bodies. 12 You must not eat anything that lives in the water and does not have fins and scales.

13-19 You must not eat any of the following birds: eagles, owls, hawks, falcons; buzzards, vultures, crows; ostriches; seagulls, storks, herons, pelicans, cormorants;[a] hoopoes; or bats.

20 All winged insects are unclean, 21 except those that hop. 22 You may eat locusts, crickets, or grasshoppers. 23 But all other small things that have wings and also crawl must be considered unclean.

24-28 If you touch the dead bodies of the following animals, you will be unclean until evening: all animals with hoofs, unless their hoofs are divided and they chew the cud, and all four-footed animals with paws. If you carry their dead bodies, you must wash your clothes, but you will still be unclean until evening.

29-30 Moles, rats, mice, and lizards must be considered unclean. 31 Whoever touches them or their dead bodies will be unclean until evening. 32 And if their dead bodies fall on anything, it will be unclean. This applies to any article of wood, cloth, leather, or sacking, no matter what it is used for. It shall be dipped in water, but it will remain unclean until evening. 33 And if their bodies fall into a clay pot, everything that is in it shall be unclean, and you must break the pot. 34 Any food which could normally be eaten, but on which water from such a pot has been poured, will be unclean, and anything drinkable in such a pot is unclean. 35 Anything on which the dead bodies fall is unclean; a clay stove or oven shall be broken, 36 but a spring or a cistern remains clean, although anything else that touches their dead bodies is unclean. 37 If one of them falls on seed that is going to be planted, the seed remains clean. 38 But if the seed is soaking in water and one of them falls on it, the seed is unclean.

39 If any animal that may be eaten dies, anyone who touches it will be unclean until evening. 40 And if any of you eat any part of the animal, you must wash your clothes, but you will still be unclean until evening; any of you who carry the dead body must wash your clothes, but you will still be unclean until evening.

41 You must not eat any of the small animals that move on the ground, 42 whether they crawl, or walk on four legs, or have many legs. 43 Do not make yourselves unclean by eating any of these. 44 I am the LORD your God, and you must keep yourselves holy, because I am holy. 45 I am the LORD who brought you out of Egypt so that I could be your God. You must be holy, because I am holy.

46 This, then, is the law about animals and birds, about everything that lives in the water, and everything that moves on the ground. 47 You must be careful to distinguish between what is ritually clean and unclean, between animals that may be eaten and those that may not.

Footnotes:

1. Leviticus 11:13 The identification of some of the birds in verses 13-19 is uncertain.

Deuteronomy 14 “You are the people of the LORD your God. So when you mourn for the dead, don't gash yourselves or shave the front of your head, as other people do. 2 You belong to the LORD your God; he has chosen you to be his own people from among all the peoples who live on earth.

Clean and Unclean Animals

3 “Do not eat anything that the LORD has declared unclean. 4 You may eat these animals: cattle, sheep, goats, 5 deer, wild sheep, wild goats, or antelopes— 6 any animals that have divided hoofs and that also chew the cud. 7 But no animals may be eaten unless they have divided hoofs and also chew the cud. You may not eat camels, rabbits, or rock badgers. They must be considered unclean; they chew the cud but do not have divided hoofs. 8 Do not eat pigs. They must be considered unclean; they have divided hoofs but do not chew the cud. Do not eat any of these animals or even touch their dead bodies.

9 “You may eat any kind of fish that has fins and scales, 10 but anything living in the water that does not have fins and scales may not be eaten; it must be considered unclean.

11 “You may eat any clean bird. 12-18 But these are the kinds of birds you are not to eat: eagles, owls, hawks, falcons; buzzards, vultures, crows; ostriches; seagulls, storks, herons, pelicans, cormorants;[a] hoopoes; and bats.

19 “All winged insects are unclean; do not eat them. 20 You may eat any clean insect.

21 “Do not eat any animal that dies a natural death. You may let the foreigners who live among you eat it, or you may sell it to other foreigners. But you belong to the LORD your God; you are his people.

“Do not cook a young sheep or goat in its mother's milk.

The Law of the Tithe

22 “Set aside a tithe—a tenth of all that your fields produce each year. 23 Then go to the one place where the LORD your God has chosen to be worshiped; and there in his presence eat the tithes of your grain, wine, and olive oil, and the first-born of your cattle and sheep. Do this so that you may learn to honor the LORD your God always. 24 If the place of worship is too far from your home for you to carry there the tithe of the produce that the LORD has blessed you with, then do this: 25 Sell your produce and take the money with you to the one place of worship. 26 Spend it on whatever you want—beef, lamb, wine, beer—and there, in the presence of the LORD your God, you and your families are to eat and enjoy yourselves.

27 “Do not neglect the Levites who live in your towns; they have no property of their own. 28 At the end of every third year bring the tithe of all your crops and store it in your towns. 29 This food is for the Levites, since they own no property, and for the foreigners, orphans, and widows who live in your towns. They are to come and get all they need. Do this, and the LORD your God will bless you in everything you do.

Footnotes:

1. Deuteronomy 14:12 The identification of some of these birds is uncertain.

vi-Judges 14:1 “You are the people of the LORD your God. So when you mourn for the dead, don't gash yourselves or shave the front of your head, as other people do. 2 You belong to the LORD your God; he has chosen you to be his own people from among all the peoples who live on earth.

Clean and Unclean Animals

3 “Do not eat anything that the LORD has declared unclean. 4 You may eat these animals: cattle, sheep, goats, 5 deer, wild sheep, wild goats, or antelopes—

vii-Hebrews 11:32 Should I go on? There isn't enough time for me to speak of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets.

viii-Ruth 1:8 she said to them, “Go back home and stay with your mothers. May the LORD be as good to you as you have been to me and to those who have died.

16 But Ruth answered, “Don't ask me to leave you! Let me go with you. Wherever you go, I will go; wherever you live, I will live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. 17 Wherever you die, I will die, and that is where I will be buried. May the LORD's worst punishment come upon me if I let anything but death[a] separate me from you!”

Footnotes:

1. Ruth 1:17 anything but death; or even death.

2:10 Ruth bowed down with her face touching the ground, and said to Boaz, “Why should you be so concerned about me? Why should you be so kind to a foreigner?”

11 Boaz answered, “I have heard about everything that you have done for your mother-in-law since your husband died. I know how you left your father and mother and your own country and how you came to live among a people you had never known before. 12 May the LORD reward you for what you have done. May you have a full reward from the LORD God of Israel, to whom you have come for protection!”

3:10 “The LORD bless you,” he said. “You are showing even greater family loyalty in what you are doing now than in what you did for your mother-in-law. You might have gone looking for a young man, either rich or poor, but you haven't. 11 Now don't worry, Ruth. I will do everything you ask; as everyone in town knows, you are a fine woman.

ix-1 Samuel 2:12 The sons of Eli were scoundrels. They paid no attention to the LORD 13 or to the regulations concerning what the priests could demand from the people. Instead, when someone was offering a sacrifice, the priest's servant would come with a three-pronged fork. While the meat was still cooking, 14 he would stick the fork into the cooking pot, and whatever the fork brought out belonged to the priest. All the Israelites who came to Shiloh to offer sacrifices were treated like this. 15 In addition, even before the fat was taken off and burned, the priest's servant would come and say to the one offering the sacrifice, “Give me some meat for the priest to roast; he won't accept boiled meat from you, only raw meat.”

16 If the person answered, “Let us do what is right and burn the fat first; then take what you want,” the priest's servant would say, “No! Give it to me now! If you don't, I will have to take it by force!”

17 This sin of the sons of Eli was extremely serious in the LORD's sight, because they treated the offerings to the LORD with such disrespect.

Samuel at Shiloh

18 In the meantime the boy Samuel continued to serve the LORD, wearing a sacred linen apron. 19 Each year his mother would make a little robe and take it to him when she accompanied her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice. 20 Then Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife, and say to Elkanah, “May the LORD give you other children by this woman to take the place of the one you dedicated to him.”

After that they would go back home.

21 The LORD did bless Hannah, and she had three more sons and two daughters. The boy Samuel grew up in the service of the LORD.

Eli and His Sons

22 Eli was now very old. He kept hearing about everything his sons were doing to the Israelites and that they were even sleeping with the women who worked at the entrance to the Tent of the LORD's presence. 23 So he said to them, “Why are you doing these things? Everybody tells me about the evil you are doing. 24 Stop it, my sons! This is an awful thing the people of the LORD are talking about! 25 If anyone sins against someone else, God can defend the one who is wrong; but who can defend someone who sins against the LORD?”

But they would not listen to their father, for the LORD had decided to kill them.

x-1 Samuel 4:14 Eli heard the noise and asked, “What is all this noise about?” The man hurried to Eli to tell him the news. (15 Eli was now ninety-eight years old and almost completely blind.) 16 The man said, “I have escaped from the battle and have run all the way here today.”

Eli asked him, “What happened, my son?”

17 The messenger answered, “Israel ran away from the Philistines; it was a terrible defeat for us! Besides that, your sons Hophni and Phinehas were killed, and God's Covenant Box was captured!”

18 When the man mentioned the Covenant Box, Eli fell backward from his seat beside the gate. He was so old and fat that the fall broke his neck, and he died. He had been a leader in Israel for forty years.

xi-1 Samuel 8:1When Samuel grew old, he made his sons judges in Israel. 2 The older son was named Joel and the younger one Abijah; they were judges in Beersheba. 3 But they did not follow their father's example; they were interested only in making money, so they accepted bribes and did not decide cases honestly.

4 Then all the leaders of Israel met together, went to Samuel in Ramah, 5 and said to him, “Look, you are getting old and your sons don't follow your example. So then, appoint a king to rule over us, so that we will have a king, as other countries have.” 6 Samuel was displeased with their request for a king; so he prayed to the LORD, 7 and the LORD said, “Listen to everything the people say to you. You are not the one they have rejected; I am the one they have rejected as their king. 8 Ever since I brought them out of Egypt, they have turned away from me and worshiped other gods; and now they are doing to you what they have always done to me. 9 So then, listen to them, but give them strict warnings and explain how their kings will treat them.”

xii-1 Samuel 2:12 The sons of Eli were scoundrels. They paid no attention to the LORD 13 or to the regulations concerning what the priests could demand from the people. Instead, when someone was offering a sacrifice, the priest's servant would come with a three-pronged fork. While the meat was still cooking, 14 he would stick the fork into the cooking pot, and whatever the fork brought out belonged to the priest. All the Israelites who came to Shiloh to offer sacrifices were treated like this. 15 In addition, even before the fat was taken off and burned, the priest's servant would come and say to the one offering the sacrifice, “Give me some meat for the priest to roast; he won't accept boiled meat from you, only raw meat.”

16 If the person answered, “Let us do what is right and burn the fat first; then take what you want,” the priest's servant would say, “No! Give it to me now! If you don't, I will have to take it by force!”

17 This sin of the sons of Eli was extremely serious in the LORD's sight, because they treated the offerings to the LORD with such disrespect.

Samuel at Shiloh

18 In the meantime the boy Samuel continued to serve the LORD, wearing a sacred linen apron. 19 Each year his mother would make a little robe and take it to him when she accompanied her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice. 20 Then Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife, and say to Elkanah, “May the LORD give you other children by this woman to take the place of the one you dedicated to him.”

After that they would go back home.

21 The LORD did bless Hannah, and she had three more sons and two daughters. The boy Samuel grew up in the service of the LORD.

Eli and His Sons

22 Eli was now very old. He kept hearing about everything his sons were doing to the Israelites and that they were even sleeping with the women who worked at the entrance to the Tent of the LORD's presence. 23 So he said to them, “Why are you doing these things? Everybody tells me about the evil you are doing. 24 Stop it, my sons! This is an awful thing the people of the LORD are talking about! 25 If anyone sins against someone else, God can defend the one who is wrong; but who can defend someone who sins against the LORD?”

But they would not listen to their father, for the LORD had decided to kill them.

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