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Day 73: Judges 12–16 · Luke 24 · Psalm 146 · Commentary · Commentary² · Audio

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• The Bible text is included for reading continuity; it is accurate in substance, aligned with major modern translations, and may be read alongside any Bible you prefer.¹

Special Note about the following Bible text: The following translation uses the Hebrew terms tamé (טָמֵא) and tahor (טָהוֹר) instead of the traditional “unclean” and “clean.” These terms describe ritual status in relation to sanctuary access, not moral fault, shame, or physical dirtiness. A fuller explanation will follow in a dedicated article.

Judges 12

The men of Ephraim were called together, and they crossed to Zaphon and said to Jephthah, “Why did you cross over to fight against the Ammonites and did not call us to go with you? We will burn your house over you with fire.”

Jephthah said to them, “I and my people had a severe conflict with the Ammonites. I called you, but you did not save me from their hand. When I saw that you would not save me, I put my life in my own hand and crossed over against the Ammonites, and Jehovah gave them into my hand. Why then have you come up to me this day to fight against me?”

Then Jephthah gathered all the men of Gilead and fought with Ephraim. The men of Gilead struck Ephraim, because they said, “You are fugitives of Ephraim, you Gileadites, in the midst of Ephraim and Manasseh.” And Gilead captured the fords of the Jordan against Ephraim.

When any of the fugitives of Ephraim said, “Let me cross over,” the men of Gilead said to him, “Are you an Ephraimite?” If he said, “No,” they said to him, “Then say ‘Shibboleth.’” And he said, “Sibboleth,” because he could not pronounce it correctly. Then they seized him and slaughtered him at the fords of the Jordan. At that time forty-two thousand from Ephraim fell.

Jephthah judged Israel six years. Then Jephthah the Gileadite died and was buried in one of the cities of Gilead.

After him Ibzan of Bethlehem judged Israel. He had thirty sons and thirty daughters. He sent his daughters outside and brought in thirty daughters from outside for his sons. He judged Israel seven years. Then Ibzan died and was buried at Bethlehem.

After him Elon the Zebulunite judged Israel, and he judged Israel ten years. Then Elon the Zebulunite died and was buried at Aijalon in the land of Zebulun.

After him Abdon son of Hillel the Pirathonite judged Israel. He had forty sons and thirty grandsons who rode on seventy donkeys, and he judged Israel eight years. Then Abdon son of Hillel the Pirathonite died and was buried at Pirathon in the land of Ephraim, in the hill country of the Amalekites.

Judges 13

There was a man from Zorah, from the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah. His wife was barren and had not borne children.

The messenger of Jehovah appeared to the woman and said to her, “See, you are barren and have not borne children, but you will conceive and bear a son. Now therefore be careful: do not drink wine or strong drink, and do not eat anything tamé. For see, you will conceive and bear a son. No razor shall come upon his head, because the boy will be a Nazirite to God from the womb. He will begin to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines.”

Then the woman went and spoke to her husband, saying, “A man of God came to me, and his appearance was like the appearance of a messenger of God, very awe-inspiring. I did not ask him where he was from, and he did not tell me his name. He said to me, ‘See, you will conceive and bear a son. Now do not drink wine or strong drink, and do not eat anything tamé, because the boy will be a Nazirite to God from the womb until the day of his death.’”

Then Manoah prayed to Jehovah and said, “Please, my Lord, let the man of God whom you sent come again to us and teach us what we are to do for the boy who will be born.” God listened to the voice of Manoah, and the messenger of God came again to the woman while she was sitting in the field, but Manoah her husband was not with her. The woman ran quickly and told her husband and said to him, “See, the man who came to me the other day has appeared to me.”

Manoah rose, followed his wife, and came to the man and said to him, “Are you the man who spoke to the woman?” He said, “I am.” Manoah said, “When your words come true, what will be the rule for the boy and his work?”

The messenger of Jehovah said to Manoah, “Let the woman pay attention to everything I said to her. She must not eat anything that comes from the vine, and she must not drink wine or strong drink, and she must not eat anything tamé. Let her observe everything that I commanded her.”

Manoah said to the messenger of Jehovah, “Please stay with us, and we will prepare a young goat for you.” The messenger of Jehovah said to Manoah, “If you detain me, I will not eat your food. But if you prepare a burnt offering, you must offer it to Jehovah.” For Manoah did not know that he was the messenger of Jehovah. Manoah said to the messenger of Jehovah, “What is your name, so that when your words come true we may honor you?” The messenger of Jehovah said to him, “Why do you ask my name, since it is beyond understanding?”

So Manoah took the young goat with the grain offering and offered it on the rock to Jehovah. He performed a wonder while Manoah and his wife were watching. When the flame went up toward heaven from the altar, the messenger of Jehovah went up in the flame of the altar. Manoah and his wife watched, and they fell on their faces to the ground.

The messenger of Jehovah did not appear again to Manoah and his wife. Then Manoah knew that he was the messenger of Jehovah. Manoah said to his wife, “We will surely die, because we have seen God.” But his wife said to him, “If Jehovah had intended to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering from our hand, and he would not have shown us all these things, nor would he have told us such things as these at this time.”

The woman bore a son and named him Samson. The boy grew, and Jehovah blessed him. The Spirit of Jehovah began to stir him in Mahaneh-dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.

Judges 14

Samson went down to Timnah and saw a woman in Timnah from the daughters of the Philistines. He went up and told his father and mother, saying, “I saw a woman in Timnah from the daughters of the Philistines. Now take her for me as a wife.”

His father and mother said to him, “Is there not a woman among the daughters of your relatives or among all our people, that you must go to take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?” But Samson said to his father, “Take her for me, because she is right in my eyes.” His father and mother did not know that this was from Jehovah, because he was seeking an occasion against the Philistines. At that time the Philistines ruled over Israel.

Then Samson went down to Timnah with his father and mother and came to the vineyards of Timnah. Suddenly, a young lion came roaring toward him. The Spirit of Jehovah rushed upon him, and he tore the lion apart with his bare hands, as one tears apart a young goat, though he had nothing in his hand. But he did not tell his father or his mother what he had done.

Then he went down and spoke to the woman, and she was right in Samson’s eyes. After some days he returned to take her, and he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion. There was a swarm of bees and honey in the body of the lion. He scraped it into his hands and went on eating as he walked. When he came to his father and mother, he gave some to them, and they ate, but he did not tell them that he had taken the honey from the body of the lion.

His father went down to the woman, and Samson prepared a feast there, because that is what the young men used to do. When they saw him, they brought thirty companions to be with him.

Samson said to them, “Let me tell you a riddle. If you correctly tell it to me within the seven days of the feast and solve it, I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothes. But if you cannot tell it to me, then you must give me thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothes.” They said to him, “Tell your riddle, so that we may hear it.”

He said to them,
“Out of the eater came something to eat,
and out of the strong came something sweet.”

But they could not solve the riddle in three days. On the fourth day they said to Samson’s wife, “Persuade your husband to explain the riddle to us, or we will burn you and your father’s house with fire. Have you invited us here to take what belongs to us?”

Samson’s wife wept before him and said, “You only hate me and do not love me. You have told a riddle to the sons of my people, but you have not explained it to me.” He said to her, “See, I have not explained it to my father or my mother, so should I explain it to you?” She wept before him during the seven days their feast lasted. On the seventh day he told her, because she pressed him hard. Then she explained the riddle to the sons of her people.

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?”

He said to them,
“If you had not plowed with my heifer,
you would not have solved my riddle.”

Then the Spirit of Jehovah rushed upon him, and he went down to Ashkelon and struck thirty men from among them and took their spoil and gave the changes of clothes to those who had explained the riddle. His anger burned, and he went up to his father’s house.

Samson’s wife was given to his companion, who had been his best man.

Judges 15

After some days, in the days of wheat harvest, Samson went to visit his wife with a young goat. He said, “I will go in to my wife in the inner room,” but her father would not allow him to go in. Her father said, “I truly thought that you hated her, so I gave her to your companion. Is not her younger sister more attractive than she? Please take her instead.”

Samson said to them, “This time I will be blameless with respect to the Philistines when I do them harm.” Samson went and caught three hundred foxes and took torches. He turned the foxes tail to tail and put one torch between each pair of tails. When he had set fire to the torches, he released the foxes into the standing grain of the Philistines and burned up both the stacked grain and the standing grain, as well as the vineyards and olive groves.

Then the Philistines said, “Who did this?” They said, “Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he took his wife and gave her to his companion.” So the Philistines went up and burned her and her father with fire. Samson said to them, “If this is what you do, then I will take revenge on you, and after that I will stop.” He struck them hip and thigh with a great blow, and he went down and stayed in the cleft of the rock of Etam.

Then the Philistines went up and encamped in Judah and spread out in Lehi. The men of Judah said, “Why have you come up against us?” They said, “We have come up to bind Samson, to do to him as he did to us.” Then three thousand men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam and said to Samson, “Do you not know that the Philistines rule over us? What is this that you have done to us?” He said to them, “As they did to me, so I have done to them.”

They said to him, “We have come down to bind you, so that we may give you into the hand of the Philistines.” Samson said to them, “Swear to me that you yourselves will not attack me.” They said to him, “No, we will bind you securely and give you into their hand, but we will surely not kill you.” So they bound him with two new ropes and brought him up from the rock.

When he came to Lehi, the Philistines shouted when they met him. Then the Spirit of Jehovah rushed upon him, and the ropes that were on his arms became like flax burned with fire, and his bindings melted from his hands. He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey and reached out his hand and took it and struck down a thousand men with it.

Samson said,
“With the jawbone of a donkey,
heaps upon heaps,
with the jawbone of a donkey
I have struck down a thousand men.”

When he finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone from his hand, and he called that place Ramath-lehi.

Then he became very thirsty, and he called to Jehovah and said, “You have given this great salvation by the hand of your servant, and now shall I die of thirst and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised?” So God split open the hollow place that is at Lehi, and water came out from it. When he drank, his spirit returned, and he revived. Therefore he called its name En-hakkore, which is at Lehi to this day.

He judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.

Judges 16

Samson went to Gaza, and there he saw a prostitute, and he went in to her. It was told to the Gazites, saying, “Samson has come here.” So they surrounded the place and lay in wait for him all night at the gate of the city. They kept quiet all night, saying, “Let us wait until the morning light; then we will kill him.”

But Samson lay until midnight. At midnight he arose and took hold of the doors of the gate of the city and the two posts, and he pulled them up, bar and all, and put them on his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill that is before Hebron.

Afterward he loved a woman in the Valley of Sorek whose name was Delilah. The rulers of the Philistines came up to her and said to her, “Persuade him, and see where his great strength lies, and how we may overpower him so that we may bind him to humble him. Each of us will give you eleven hundred pieces of silver.”

So Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me where your great strength lies, and how you could be bound so that one could humble you.” Samson said to her, “If they bind me with seven fresh bowstrings that have not been dried, then I will become weak and be like any other man.” Then the rulers of the Philistines brought up to her seven fresh bowstrings that had not been dried, and she bound him with them.

Now she had men lying in wait in the inner room. She said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” But he snapped the bowstrings as a strand of flax snaps when it touches fire. So the secret of his strength was not known.

Then Delilah said to Samson, “See, you have mocked me and told me lies. Please tell me now how you could be bound.” He said to her, “If they bind me tightly with new ropes that have not been used, then I will become weak and be like any other man.” So Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them and said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” And the men lying in wait were in the inner room. But he snapped the ropes from his arms like thread.

Then Delilah said to Samson, “Until now you have mocked me and told me lies. Tell me how you could be bound.” He said to her, “If you weave the seven locks of my head into the web of the loom.” So she fastened it with the pin and said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” But he awoke from his sleep and pulled away the pin, the loom, and the web.

She said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when your heart is not with me? You have mocked me these three times and have not told me where your great strength lies.” When she pressed him hard with her words day after day and urged him, his soul was worn down to death.

So he told her all his heart and said to her, “No razor has ever come upon my head, because I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If I am shaved, then my strength will leave me, and I will become weak and be like any other man.”

When Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called the rulers of the Philistines, saying, “Come up again, for he has told me all his heart.” Then the rulers of the Philistines came up to her and brought the silver in their hand.

She made him sleep on her knees, and she called a man and had him shave off the seven locks of his head. Then she began to humble him, and his strength left him.

She said, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” And he awoke from his sleep and said, “I will go out as at other times and shake myself free.” But he did not know that Jehovah had left him.

Then the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes and brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze chains. He was grinding at the mill in the prison.

But the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaved.

Now the rulers of the Philistines gathered to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god and to rejoice. They said, “Our god has given Samson our enemy into our hand.” When the people saw him, they praised their god, because they said, “Our god has given our enemy into our hand, the destroyer of our land, who multiplied our slain.”

When their hearts were merry, they said, “Call Samson, that he may entertain us.” So they called Samson out of the prison, and he entertained them. They made him stand between the pillars.

Samson said to the boy who held his hand, “Let me feel the pillars on which the house rests, so that I may lean against them.”

Now the house was full of men and women. All the rulers of the Philistines were there, and on the roof there were about three thousand men and women who were watching while Samson entertained them.

Then Samson called to Jehovah and said, “Lord Jehovah, please remember me and strengthen me only this once, O God, so that I may be avenged on the Philistines for my two eyes.”

Samson grasped the two middle pillars on which the house rested, and he leaned his weight against them, his right hand on one and his left hand on the other.

Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines.” Then he bent with all his strength, and the house fell upon the rulers and upon all the people who were in it. So the dead whom he killed at his death were more than those whom he had killed during his life.

Then his brothers and all his father’s household came down and took him and brought him up and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of Manoah his father.

He had judged Israel twenty years.

Luke 24

On the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, bringing the spices they had prepared. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.

While they were perplexed about this, look, two men stood by them in dazzling clothing. As they became afraid and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has been raised. Remember how he spoke to you while he was still in Galilee, saying that the Son of Man must be handed over into the hands of sinful people, be crucified, and on the third day rise.” And they remembered his words.

Returning from the tomb, they reported all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles. But these words seemed to them like nonsense, and they did not believe them.

But Peter rose and ran to the tomb. Stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.

That same day, two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about sixty stadia from Jerusalem. They were talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him.

He said to them, “What are these words that you are exchanging with one another as you walk?”

They stood still, looking sad. One of them, named Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?”

He said to them, “What things?”

They said to him, “The things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet powerful in action and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and rulers handed him over to a sentence of death and crucified him. But we were hoping that he was the one who was going to restore Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened. Moreover, some women among us astonished us. They were at the tomb early, and when they did not find his body, they came saying that they had also seen a vision of messengers, who said that he is alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see.”

He said to them, “How unthinking you are, and slow in heart to trust all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary for the Anointed to suffer these things and enter into his glory?” And beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, he explained to them in all the writings the things concerning himself.

They came near to the village where they were going, and he acted as though he were going farther. But they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, because it is toward evening and the day is now far gone.” So he went in to stay with them.

When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him, and he disappeared from them. They said to each other, “Was not our heart burning within us while he was speaking to us on the road, while he was opening to us the writings?”

They rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem. They found the eleven and those with them gathered together, saying, “The Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to Simon!” Then they told what had happened on the road and how he was made known to them in the breaking of the bread.

While they were speaking about these things, he himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace to you.” But they were startled and afraid and thought that they were seeing a spirit.

He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me and see, because a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet.

While they still did not believe because of joy and were wondering, he said to them, “Do you have anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate it before them.

He said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their mind to understand the writings, and he said to them, “Thus it is written that the Anointed would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and that a change of thinking for release of sins would be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.

And look, I am sending what my Father promised upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”

He led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands, he blessed them. While he was blessing them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven.

They worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and they were continually in the temple, praising God.

Psalm 146

Praise the Lord.

Praise the Lord, my life.
I will praise the Lord while I live;
I will sing praise to my God
as long as I exist.

Do not trust in nobles,
in a human being who cannot save.

His breath goes out;
he returns to the ground;
on that very day his plans perish.

Happy is the one whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the Lord his God,

who made heaven and earth,
the sea, and all that is in them,
who keeps faithfulness forever,

who carries out justice for the oppressed,
who gives food to the hungry.

The Lord frees prisoners.
The Lord opens the eyes of the blind.
The Lord raises up those who are bowed down.
The Lord loves the righteous.

The Lord watches over the outsider;
he supports the orphan and the widow,
but he turns the way of the wicked upside down.

The Lord will reign forever,
your God, Zion, through all generations.

Praise the Lord.

Commentary - Day 73

Judges 12–16 · Luke 24 · Psalm 146

Summary:

Samson’s story unfolds in cycles of strength, betrayal, and retaliation. A single word at the Jordan separates life from death, showing how division spreads within Israel. Samson is set apart before birth, yet his strength moves without steadiness—lion torn, riddles spoken, fields burned, enemies struck down, and thirst following victory. His strength departs quietly when his hair is cut, and he does not recognize the loss until capture and blindness follow. Even in chains, his hair begins to grow again, and his final act brings collapse upon the rulers gathered against him.

In Luke 24, the stone is found rolled away at dawn, and confusion gives way to remembered words. Two travelers walk the road to Emmaus speaking of loss while the risen Jesus walks beside them unrecognized. Understanding unfolds along the road, but recognition comes only at the table when bread is broken. Christ later stands among the gathered disciples, shows his hands and feet, eats before them, opens the writings, blesses them, and departs from Bethany as they return to the temple praising God.

Psalm 146 contrasts fading human rulers with the enduring work of the One who feeds, frees, lifts, and reigns beyond the span of human breath.

The crossings at the Jordan in Judges 12 narrow into a test of speech. Men fleeing from Ephraim are halted at the fords and made to say a single word. The difference between “Shibboleth” and “Sibboleth” becomes the difference between passage and death, between belonging and exposure. The river crossing, which once carried Israel into land, now becomes a place where identity fractures and kin turns against kin. Leadership passes quickly afterward—Ibzan, Elon, Abdon—each marked by numbers of sons, daughters, and animals, each buried with little else recorded. The sequence of judges shortens into brief notices, as though continuity continues outwardly while inward unity thins. The record moves, but without gathering strength.

Into that thinning field, Judges 13 begins with barrenness. Manoah’s wife has borne no child, and the messenger’s announcement interrupts that absence with restriction before birth—no wine, no razor, no defilement. The child is set apart before he has acted. Fire rises from the rock when the offering is placed upon it, and the messenger ascends within the flame. Manoah fears death at the sight, but the woman answers by pointing to what has already occurred: the offering accepted, the promise given, the child born. Samson’s life begins under separation and strength that is declared before it is demonstrated. The Spirit stirs him before the narrative records any victory, as if motion begins before direction is clear.

In Judges 14 and 15, strength appears suddenly and without warning. A lion is torn apart in the vineyards. Honey is gathered from the carcass. A riddle grows out of a hidden act, and the feast becomes entangled with threat and betrayal. Fire spreads through fields by foxes bound tail to tail, and retaliation answers retaliation until violence repeats itself in widening circles. Even deliverance carries fracture within it. Samson is bound by his own people and handed over to those who rule them, and the ropes fall away when the Spirit rushes upon him. The jawbone lifted from the ground becomes a weapon, and afterward thirst follows victory. Water breaks open from rock where none was visible before, and the one who struck down enemies must drink to live.

Judges 16 carries the same strength into proximity with weariness. Gates are lifted from their hinges in the night and carried uphill, yet the movement that follows turns toward repeated deception. Delilah presses again and again, asking for the source of strength, until persistence wears down resistance. The hair that marked separation from the beginning is cut while Samson sleeps, and the narrative records a single quiet loss: he rises, expecting strength to return as before, but does not know that Jehovah has departed from him. Eyes are put out, chains are fastened, and the strong man grinds grain in the prison of those he once struck down. Yet even there, the detail remains that the hair begins to grow again. The closing scene gathers rulers and crowds into a house supported by pillars. Samson stands between them, leaning his weight into stone, and the structure collapses under pressure. Death gathers with deliverance once more, larger at the end than at the beginning, closing a life that moved in cycles of strength, loss, and return.

Luke 24, the final chapter of the book, opens before dawn with women carrying spices toward a sealed tomb. The stone is already moved, the body absent, and perplexity fills the space where expectation had been fixed. Messengers ask why the living is sought among the dead, and memory becomes the path by which recognition begins—words spoken earlier are recalled and only then understood. Two travelers walk toward Emmaus speaking of loss, and the risen one walks beside them without being recognized. The journey holds conversation before recognition, and explanation stretches from Moses through the prophets while the road lengthens toward evening. Recognition comes only at the table, in the breaking of bread, and vanishes at the same moment it arrives. Movement continues—back toward Jerusalem, into gathered rooms, into hands shown and food eaten—until doubt is met with touch, and promise with waiting. The ascent from Bethany lifts blessing into departure, leaving the disciples standing beneath lifted hands before returning to the temple in praise.

Psalm 146 closes the day with speech that turns away from princes and returns to the One whose action continues beyond the span of human plans. Breath leaves rulers, and their intentions return to dust, but the One who made heaven and earth feeds the hungry, frees prisoners, lifts the bowed, and watches over the outsider. The psalm gathers the scattered acts of deliverance—water from rock, sight restored, captivity undone—and sets them against the limits of human strength. The repetition of divine action—opening eyes, raising the bowed, sustaining the widow—forms a rhythm that does not shorten or fail. The final line returns to praise, framing the entire sequence within endurance that outlasts the rise and fall of those who rule.

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1. The Bible text provided in the daily readings is included so readers can follow the commentary without interruption or needing to choose between various versions. It is accurate in substance and consistent with all major modern translations.
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