Book of Judges 309
bled together, to offer great sacrifices to Dagon
their god, and to make merry, saying: Our
god hath delivered our enemy Samson into our
hands.
24 And the people also seeing this, praised
their god, and said the same: Our god hath de-
livered our adversary into our hands, him that
destroyed our country, and killed very many.
25 And rejoicing in their feasts, when they had
now taken their good cheer, they commanded
that Samson should be called, and should play
before them. And being brought out of prison,
he played before them; and they made him stand
between two pillars.
26 And he said to the lad that guided his
steps: Suffer me to touch the pillars which sup-
port the whole house, and let me lean upon
them, and rest a little.
27 Now the house was full of men and women,
and all the princes of the Philistines were there.
Moreover about three thousand persons of both
sexes, from the roof and the higher part of the
house, were beholding Samson’s play.
28 But he called upon the Lord, saying: O
Lord God remember me, and restore to me now
my former strength, O my God, that I may re-
venge myself on my enemies, and for the loss of
my two eyes I may take one revenge.
29 And laying hold on both the pillars on
which the house rested, and holding the one with
his right hand, and the other with his left,
30 He said: Let me die with the Philistines.
And when he had strongly shook the pillars, the
house fell upon all the princes, and the rest of the
multitude, that was there: and he killed many
more at his death, than he had killed before in
his life.
31 And his brethren and all his kindred, going
down took his body, and buried it between Saraa
and Esthaol, in the buryingplace of his father
Manue: and he judged Israel twenty years.Chapter 17
There was at that time a man of mount Ephraim,
whose name was Michas.
2 Who said to his mother: The eleven hundred
pieces of silver, which thou hadst put aside for
thyself, and concerning which thou didst swear
in my hearing, behold I have, and they are with
me. And she said to him. Blessed be my son by
the Lord.
3 So he restored them to his mother, who said
to him: I have consecrated and vowed this silver
to the Lord, that my son may receive it at my
hand, and make a graven and a molten god; so
now I deliver it to thee.
4 And he restored them to his mother: and she
took two hundred pieces of silver and gave them
to the silversmith, to make of them a graven and
a molten God, which was in the house of Michas.
5 And he separated also therein a little temple
for the god, and made an ephod, and theraphim,
that is to say, a priestly garment, and idols: and
he filled the hand of one of his sons, and he be-
came his priest.
6 In those days there was no king in Israel, but
every one did that which seemed right to himself.
7 There was also another young man of Beth-
lehem Juda, of the kindred thereof: and he was
a Levite, and dwelt there.
8 Now he went out from the city of Bethlehem,
and desired to sojourn wheresoever he should
find it convenient for him. And when he was
come to mount Ephraim, as he was on his jour-
ney, and had turned aside a little into the house
of Michas,
9 He was asked by him whence he came. And
he answered: I am a Levite of Bethlehem Juda,