The Pillars of Three Faiths: Tanakh, Bible & Qu'ran. Various Authors

Lehi, the Philistines shouted as they met him; and the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and the ropes that were upon his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire, and his bands dropped from off his hands. ¹⁵And he found a new jawbone of an ass, and put forth his hand, and took it, and smote a thousand men therewith. ¹⁶And Samson said:

      With the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps,With the jawbone of an ass have I smitten a thousand men.

¹⁷And 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 ⁵Ramath-lehi. ¹⁸And 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 uncircumcised?' ¹⁹But God cleaved the hollow place that is in Lehi, and there came water thereout; and when he had drunk, his spirit came back, and he revived; wherefore the name thereof was called ⁶En-hakkore, which is in Lehi unto this day. ²⁰And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.

      16And Samson went to Gaza, and saw there a harlot, and went in unto her. ²[And it was told] the Gazites, saying: 'Samson is come hither.' And they compassed him in, and lay in wait for him all night in the gate of the city, and were quiet all the night, saying: 'Let be till morning light, then we will kill him.' ³And Samson lay till midnight, and arose at midnight, and laid hold of the doors of the gate of the city, and the two posts, and plucked them up, bar and all, and put them upon his shoulders, and carried them up to the top of the mountain that is before Hebron.

      ⁴And it came to pass afterward, that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. ⁵And the lords of the Philistines came up unto her, and said unto 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.' ⁶And Delilah said to Samson: 'Tell me, I pray thee, wherein thy great strength lieth, and wherewith thou mightest be bound to afflict thee.' ⁷And Samson said unto her: 'If they bind me with seven fresh bowstrings that were never dried, then shall I become weak, and be as any other man.' ⁸Then the lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven fresh bowstrings which had not been dried, and she bound him with them. ⁹Now she had liers-in-wait abiding in the inner chamber. And she said unto 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. ¹⁰And Delilah said unto Samson: 'Behold, thou hast mocked me, and told me lies; now tell me, I pray thee, wherewith thou mightest be bound.' ¹¹And he said unto her: 'If they only bind me with new ropes wherewith no work, hath been done, then shall I become weak, and be as any other man.' ¹²So Delilah took new ropes, and bound him therewith, and said unto him: 'The Philistines are upon thee, Samson.' And the liers-in-wait were abiding in the inner chamber. And he broke them from off his arms like a thread. ¹³And Delilah said unto Samson: 'Hitherto thou hast mocked me, and told me lies; tell me wherewith thou mightest be bound.' And he said unto her: 'If thou weavest the seven locks of my head with the web.' ¹⁴And she fastened it with the pin, and said unto him: 'The Philistines are upon thee, Samson.' And he awoke out of his sleep, and plucked away the pin of the beam, and the web. ¹⁵And she said unto him: 'How canst thou say: I love thee, when thy heart is not with me? thou hast mocked me these three times, and hast not told me wherein thy great strength lieth.' ¹⁶And it came to pass, when she pressed him daily with her words, and urged him, that his soul was vexed unto death. ¹⁷And he told her all his heart, and said unto her: 'There hath not come a razor upon my head; for I have been a Nazirite unto God from my mother's womb; if I be shaven, then my strength will go from me, and I shall become weak, and be like any other man.' ¹⁸And when Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called for the lords of the Philistines, saying: 'Come up this once, for he hath told me all his heart.' Then the lords of the Philistines came up unto her, and brought the money in their hand. ¹⁹And she made him sleep upon her knees; and she called for a man, and had the seven locks of his head shaven off; and she began to afflict him, and his strength went from him. ²⁰And she said: 'The Philistines are upon thee, Samson.' And he awoke out of his sleep, and said: 'I will go out as at other times, and shake myself.' But he knew not that the Lord was departed from him. ²¹And the Philistines laid hold on him, and put out his eyes; and they brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with fetters of brass; and he did grind in the prison-house. ²²Howbeit the hair of his head began to grow again after he was shaven.

      ²³And the lords of the Philistines gathered them together to offer a great sacrifice unto Dagon their god, and to rejoice; for they said: 'Our god hath delivered Samson our enemy into our hand.' ²⁴And when the people saw him, they praised their god; for they said: 'Our god hath delivered into our hand our enemy, and the destroyer of our country, who hath slain many of us.' ²⁵And it came to pass, when their hearts were merry, that they said: 'Call for Samson, that he may make us sport.' And they called for Samson out of the prison-house; and he made sport before them; and they set him between the pillars. ²⁶And Samson said unto the lad that held him by the hand: 'Suffer me that I may feel the pillars whereupon the house resteth, that I may lean upon them.' ²⁷Now the house was full of men and women; and all the lords of the Philistines were there; and there were upon the roof about three thousand men and women, that beheld while Samson made sport. ²⁸And Samson called unto the Lord, and said: 'O Lord God, remember me, I pray Thee, and strengthen me, I pray Thee, only this once, O God, that I may be this once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes.' ²⁹And Samson took fast hold of the two middle pillars upon which the house rested, and leaned upon them, the one with his right hand, and the other with his left. ³⁰And Samson said: 'Let me die with the Philistines.' And he bent with all his might; and the house fell upon the lords, and upon all the people that were therein. So the dead that he slew at his death were more than they that he slew in his life. ³¹Then his brethren and all the house of his father came down, and took him, and brought him up, and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the burying-place of Manoah his father. And he judged Israel twenty years.

      17Now there was a man of the hill-country of Ephraim, whose name was Micah. ²And he said unto his mother: 'The eleven hundred pieces of silver that were taken from thee, about which thou didst utter a curse, and didst also speak it in mine ears, behold, the silver is with me; I took it.' And his mother said: 'Blessed be my son of the Lord.' ³And he restored the eleven hundred pieces of silver to his mother, and his mother said: 'I verily dedicate the silver unto the Lord from my hand for my son, to make a graven image and a molten image; now therefore I will restore it unto thee.' ⁴And when he restored the money unto his mother, his mother took two hundred pieces of silver, and gave them to the founder, who made thereof a graven image and a molten image; and it was in the house of Micah. ⁵And the man Micah had a house of God, and he made an ephod, and teraphim, and consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest. ⁶In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did that which was right in his own eyes.

      ⁷And there was a young man out of Beth-lehem in Judah—in the family of Judah—who was a Levite, and he sojourned there. ⁸And the man departed out of the city, out of Beth-lehem in Judah, to sojourn where he could find a place; and he came to the hill-country of Ephraim to the house of Micah, as he journeyed. ⁹And Micah said unto him: 'Whence comest thou?' And he said unto him: 'I am a Levite of Beth-lehem in Judah, and I go to sojourn where I may find a place.' ¹⁰And Micah said unto him: 'Dwell with me, and be unto me a father and a priest, and I will give thee ten pieces of silver by the year, and a suit of apparel, and thy victuals.' So the Levite went in. ¹¹And the Levite was content to dwell with the man; and the young man was unto him as one of his sons. ¹²And Micah consecrated the Levite, and the young man became his priest, and was in the house of Micah. ¹³Then said Micah: 'Now know I that the Lord will do me good, seeing I have a Levite as my priest.'

      18In those days there was no king in Israel; and in those days the tribe of the Danites sought them an inheritance to dwell in; for unto that day there had nothing been allotted unto