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CHAPTER XVII.

Israel in the Hands of the Philistines. Story of Samson, the Strong Man, and Judge of Israel.

ND the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord; and the Lord delivered them into the hand of the Phi

listines forty years.

And there was a certain man of the tribe of Dan, whose name was Manoah, and he had no children; and the angel of the Lord appeared unto his wife, and told her that she should have a son. And the angel said, No razor shall come on his head, for he shall be a Nazarite, and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hands of the Philistines. Then the woman came and told her husband, saying, A man of God came unto me, and his countenance was like the countenance of an angel of God, very terrible. But I asked him not whence he was, neither told he me his name. Then Manoah intreated the Lord to send the angel again. And God hearkened to the voice of Manoah, and the angel

of God came again, and told them how they should do with the child that should be born to them. And Manoah said unto the angel, I pray thee, let us detain thee, until we shall have made ready a kid for thee. And the angel said unto Manoah, Though thou detain me, I will not eat of thy bread: and if thou wilt offer a burnt offering, thou must offer it unto the Lord. For Manoah knew not that it was an angel of the Lord. And Manoah said unto the angel, What is thy name, that when thy sayings come to pass, we may do thee honour? And the angel of the Lord said unto him, Why askest thou thus after my name, seeing it is secret?

So Manoah took a kid and offered it upon a rock unto the Lord. And the angel did wondrously; for it came to pass, when the flame went up toward heaven from off the altar, that the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame of the altar. And Manoah and his wife looked on it, and fell on their faces to the ground. Then Manoah knew that he was an angel of the Lord. And he said unto his wife, We shall surely die, because we have seen God. But his wife said to him, If the Lord were pleased to kill us, He would not have received a burnt offering at our hands, nor would He have told us such things as these. And they had a son, and called his name Samson; and the child grew, and the Lord blessed him. And the Spirit of the Lord began to move him at times in the camp of Dan.

And Samson wished to take one of the daughters of the Philistines for a wife. And his father and

mother did not know that it was of the Lord that he sought an occasion against the Philistines; for at that time the Philistines had dominion over Israel.

So Samson and his father and mother went down, and came to the vineyards of Timnath; and behold, a young lion came, and roared against him. And the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and he rent the lion as he would have rent a kid, and he had nothing in his hand. But he told not his father or his mother what he had done. And he went down and talked with the woman, and she pleased Samson well. And after a time he returned, and he turned aside to see the carcase of the lion, and, behold, there was a swarm of bees and honey in the carcase of the lion. And he took thereof in his hands, and went on eating, and came to his father and mother, and he gave them, and they did eat, but he told them not that he had taken the honey out of the carcase of the lion.

So Samson married the woman, and made a feast, as the young men used to do, and thirty of the Philistines came to be companions with him. And Samson said to them, I will now put forth a riddle to you :-Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness. And they could not expound the riddle. And they told his wife that they would burn her and her father's house with fire unless she told them the meaning of the riddle. So she asked Samson, and he said, I have not told it to my father nor my mother, and shall I tell it

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