But he said to her, "Behold, I have not told it to my father nor my mother, and shall I tell it to thee?"

And she wept before him the seven days, while their feast lasted: and it came to pass on the seventh day, that he told her, because she urged him much: and she told the riddle to the children of her people. And the men of the city said to him on the seventh day before the sun went down, "What is sweeter than honey?

And what is stronger than a lion?"

Then he said to them,

"If ye had not plowed with my heifer,
Ye had not found out my riddle.'

And the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and he went down to Ashkelon, and slew thirty men of them and took their spoil, and gave the changes of raiment to them that declared the riddle. And his anger was kindled, and he went up to his father's house. But Samson's wife was given to his companion, whom he had used as his friend.14

SAMSON'S VENGEANCE UPON THE PHILISTINES

HE DESTROYS THEIR GRAINFIELDS AND SLAYS MANY

But it came to pass after a while, in the time of wheat harvest, that Samson visited his wife with a kid; and he said, "I will go in to visit my wife."

But her father would not allow him to go in. And her father said, "I verily thought that thou hadst utterly hated her; therefore I gave her to thy companion: is not her younger sister more beautiful than she? take her, I pray thee, instead of her."

But Samson said to them, "This time shall I be blameless in regard to the Philistines, when I do them a mischief."

And Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took firebrands, and turned tail to tail, and put a firebrand in the midst between every two tails. And when he had set

the brands on fire, he let them go into the standing grain of the Philistines and burnt up both the shocks, and also the standing grain, with the vineyards and olives.

Then the Philistines said, "Who hath done this?"

And they answered, "Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he hath taken his wife, and given her to his companion." And the Philistines came up, and burnt her and her father with fire.

And Samson said to them, "Though ye have done this, yet will I be avenged of you, and after that I will cease." And he smote them hip and thigh with a great slaughter: and he went down and dwelt in the top of the cliff Etam. SAMSON'S ENEMIES ARE HELPLESS BECAUSE OF HIS STRENGTH

Then the Philistines went up, and pitched in Judah, and spread themselves in Lehi. And the men of Judah said, "Why are ye come up against us?"

And they answered, “To bind Samson are we come up, to do to him as he hath done to us."

Then three thousand men of Judah went to the top of the cliff Etam, and said to Samson, "Knowest thou not that the Philistines are rulers over us? what is this that thou hast done to us?"

And he said to them, "As they did to me, so have I done to them.

Then they said to him, "We are come down to bind thee, that we may deliver thee into the hand of the Philistines." And Samson said to them, "Swear to me, that ye will not fall upon me yourselves.'

And they spoke to him, saying, "No; but we will bind thee fast, and deliver thee into their hand: but surely we will not kill thee." And they bound him with two new cords, and brought him up from the cliff.

When he came to Lehi, the Philistines shouted against him: and the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him,

Gaza, the last outpost of civilization toward the Egyptian desert. The main caravan line from Egypt to Babylon passes by this town. Along this road the conquerors of Palestine have always come, from Thothmes to Allenby. Here was fought the first battle for the liberation of Palestine in 1917. The navy bombarded Gaza from the sea, while Allenby's troops captured the gallantly defended trenches with which the olive orchards were honeycombed. Thus, at Gaza, began the returning tide of Christian domination.

and the cords that were upon his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire, and his bands loosed from off his hands. And he found a new jawbone of an ass, and put forth his hand, and took it, and slew a thousand men therewith. And Samson said:

"With the jawbone of an ass I have piled them up;

99

With the jawbone of an ass I have slain a thousand men. And it came to pass, when he had made an end of speaking, that he cast away the jawbone out of his hand. And that place was called Ramath-lehi [Mount Jawbone].

And he was sore athirst, and called on the Lord, and said, "Thou hast given this great deliverance by the hand of thy servant: and now shall I die for thirst, and fall into the hand of the enemy?"

But God clave the hollow place that is in Lehi, and there came water thereout; and when he had drunk, his spirit came

again, and he revived: wherefore he called the name thereof En-hakkore, which is in Lehi unto this day.

Then went Samson to Gaza; and it was told the Gazites, saying, "Samson is come hither."

And they surrounded him, and laid wait for him all night in the gate of the city, and were quiet all the night, saying, "In the morning, when it is day, we shall kill him."

Now Samson lay till midnight, and rose at midnight, and took the doors of the gate of the city, and the two posts, and went away with them, bar and all, and put them upon his shoulders, and carried them up to the top of a hill that is before Hebron.

THE DECEITFULNESS OF DELILAH

THE PHILISTINES OFFER A HUGE BRIBE

And it came to pass afterward, that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. And the lords of the Philistines came up to her, and said to her, "Entice him, and see wherein his great strength lieth, and by what means we may prevail against him, that we may bind him to afflict him: and we will give thee every one of us eleven hundred pieces of silver.'

And Delilah said to Samson, "Tell me, I pray thee, wherein thy great strength lieth, and wherewith thou mightest be bound to afflict thee."

And Samson said to her, "If they bind me with seven new bowstrings that were never dried, then shall I become weak, and be as another man."

Then the lords of the Philistines 15 brought up to her seven new bowstrings which had not been dried, and she bound him with them. Now there were men lying in wait abiding with her in the inner chamber. And she said to him, "The Philistines are upon thee, Samson!"

And he broke the bowstrings as a string of tow is broken when it toucheth the fire. So his strength was not known.

Then Delilah said to Samson, "Behold, thou hast mocked me, and told me lies: now tell me, I pray thee, wherewith thou mightest be bound." And he said to her, "If they only bind me with new ropes wherewith no work hath been done, then shall I become weak, and be as another man."

So Delilah took new ropes, and bound him therewith, and said to him, “The Philistines are upon thee, Samson!"

And there were liers-in-wait abiding in the inner chamber. But he broke them from off his arms like a thread.

Then Delilah said to Samson, "Hitherto thou hast mocked me, and told me lies: tell me wherewith thou mightest be bound."