The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Saturday May 1, 2021 (NIV)

The Birth of Samson

13 The Israelites sinned against the Lord again, and he let the Philistines rule them for forty years.

² At that time there was a man named Manoah from the town of Zorah. He was a member of the tribe of Dan. His wife had never been able to have children. ³ The Lord's angel appeared to her and said, “You have never been able to have children, but you will soon be pregnant and have a son. ⁴ Be sure not to drink any wine or beer, or eat any forbidden food; ^5 (A)and after your son is born, you must never cut his hair, because from the day of his birth he will be dedicated to God as a nazirite.^[a] He will begin the work of rescuing Israel from the Philistines.”

⁶ Then the woman went and told her husband, “A man of God has come to me, and he looked as frightening as the angel^[b] of God. I didn't ask him where he came from, and he didn't tell me his name. ⁷ But he did tell me that I would become pregnant and have a son. He told me not to drink any wine or beer, or eat any forbidden food, because the boy is to be dedicated to God as a nazirite as long as he lives.”

⁸ Then Manoah prayed to the Lord, “Please, Lord, let the man of God that you sent come back to us and tell us what we must do with the boy when he is born.”

⁹ God did what Manoah asked, and his angel came back to the woman while she was sitting in the field. Her husband Manoah was not with her, ¹⁰ so she ran at once and told him, “Look! The man who came to me the other day has appeared to me again.”

¹¹ Manoah got up and followed his wife. He went to the man and asked, “Are you the man who talked to my wife?”

“Yes,” he answered.

¹² Then Manoah said, “Now then, when your words come true, what must the boy do? What kind of a life must he lead?”

¹³ The Lord's angel answered, “Your wife must be sure to do everything that I have told her. ¹⁴ She must not eat anything that comes from the grapevine; she must not drink any wine or beer, or eat any forbidden food. She must do everything that I have told her.”

^15-16 Not knowing that it was the Lord's angel, Manoah said to him, “Please do not go yet. Let us cook a young goat for you.”

But the angel said, “If I do stay, I will not eat your food. But if you want to prepare it, burn it as an offering to the Lord.”

¹⁷ Manoah replied, “Tell us your name, so that we can honor you when your words come true.”

¹⁸ The angel asked, “Why do you want to know my name? It is a name of wonder.”^[c]

¹⁹ So Manoah took a young goat and some grain, and offered them on the rock altar to the Lord who works wonders.^{[d] 20-21} While the flames were going up from the altar, Manoah and his wife saw the Lord's angel go up toward heaven in the flames. Manoah realized then that the man had been the Lord's angel, and he and his wife threw themselves face downward on the ground. They never saw the angel again.

²² Manoah said to his wife, “We are sure to die, because we have seen God!”

²³ But his wife answered, “If the Lord had wanted to kill us, he would not have accepted our offerings; he would not have shown us all this or told us such things at this time.”

²⁴ The woman gave birth to a son and named him Samson. The child grew and the Lord blessed him. ²⁵ And the Lord's power began to strengthen him while he was between Zorah and Eshtaol in the Camp of Dan.

Samson and the Woman from Timnah

14 One day Samson went down to Timnah, where he noticed a certain young Philistine woman. ² He went back home and told his father and mother, “There is a Philistine woman down at Timnah who caught my attention. Get her for me; I want to marry her.”

³ But his father and mother asked him, “Why do you have to go to those heathen Philistines to get a wife? Can't you find someone in our own clan, among all our people?”

But Samson told his father, “She is the one I want you to get for me. I like her.”

⁴ His parents did not know that it was the Lord who was leading Samson to do this, for the Lord was looking for a chance to fight the Philistines. At this time the Philistines were ruling Israel.

⁵ So Samson went down to Timnah with his father and mother. As they were going through the vineyards there, he heard a young lion roaring. ⁶ Suddenly the power of the Lord made Samson strong, and he tore the lion apart with his bare hands, as if it were a young goat. But he did not tell his parents what he had done.

⁷ Then he went and talked to the young woman, and he liked her. ⁸ A few days later Samson went back to marry her. On the way he left the road to look at the lion he had killed, and he was surprised to find a swarm of bees and some honey inside the dead body. ⁹ He scraped the honey out into his hands and ate it as he walked along. Then he went to his father and mother and gave them some. They ate it, but Samson did not tell them that he had taken the honey from the dead body of a lion.

¹⁰ His father went to the woman's house, and Samson gave a banquet there. This was a custom among the young men. ¹¹ When the Philistines saw him, they sent thirty young men to stay with him. ^12-13 Samson said to them, “Let me tell you a riddle. I'll bet each one of you a piece of fine linen and a change of fine clothes that you can't tell me its meaning before the seven days of the wedding feast are over.”

“Tell us your riddle,” they said. “Let's hear it.”

¹⁴ He said,

Three days later they had still not figured out what the riddle meant.

¹⁵ On the fourth^[e] day they said to Samson's wife, “Trick your husband into telling us what the riddle means. If you don't, we'll set fire to your father's house and burn you with it.^[f] You two invited us so that you could rob us, didn't you?”

¹⁶ So Samson's wife went to him in tears and said, “You don't love me! You just hate me! You told my friends a riddle and didn't tell me what it means!”

He said, “Look, I haven't even told my father and mother. Why should I tell you?” ¹⁷ She cried about it for the whole seven days of the feast. But on the seventh day he told her what the riddle meant, for she nagged him so about it. Then she told the Philistines. ¹⁸ So on the seventh day, before Samson went into the bedroom,^[g] the men of the city said to him,

¹⁹ Suddenly the power of the Lord made him strong, and he went down to Ashkelon, where he killed thirty men, stripped them, and gave their fine clothes to the men who had solved the riddle. After that, he went back home, furious about what had happened, ²⁰ and his wife was given to the man that had been his best man at the wedding.

The Lamb of God

²⁹ The next day John saw Jesus coming to him, and said, “There is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! ³⁰ This is the one I was talking about when I said, ‘A man is coming after me, but he is greater than I am, because he existed before I was born.’ ³¹ I did not know who he would be, but I came baptizing with water in order to make him known to the people of Israel.”

³² And John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down like a dove from heaven and stay on him. ³³ I still did not know that he was the one, but God, who sent me to baptize with water, had said to me, ‘You will see the Spirit come down and stay on a man; he is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ ³⁴ I have seen it,” said John, “and I tell you that he is the Son of God.”

The First Disciples of Jesus

³⁵ The next day John was standing there again with two of his disciples, ³⁶ when he saw Jesus walking by. “There is the Lamb of God!” he said.

³⁷ The two disciples heard him say this and went with Jesus. ³⁸ Jesus turned, saw them following him, and asked, “What are you looking for?”

They answered, “Where do you live, Rabbi?” (This word means “Teacher.”)

³⁹ “Come and see,” he answered. (It was then about four o'clock in the afternoon.) So they went with him and saw where he lived, and spent the rest of that day with him.

⁴⁰ One of them was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. ⁴¹ At once he found his brother Simon and told him, “We have found the Messiah.” (This word means “Christ.”) ⁴² Then he took Simon to Jesus.

Jesus looked at him and said, “Your name is Simon son of John, but you will be called Cephas.” (This is the same as Peter and means “a rock.”)

Jesus Calls Philip and Nathanael

⁴³ The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Come with me!” (⁴⁴ Philip was from Bethsaida, the town where Andrew and Peter lived.) ⁴⁵ Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one whom Moses wrote about in the book of the Law and whom the prophets also wrote about. He is Jesus son of Joseph, from Nazareth.”

⁴⁶ “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” Nathanael asked.

“Come and see,” answered Philip.

⁴⁷ When Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, he said about him, “Here is a real Israelite; there is nothing false in him!”

⁴⁸ Nathanael asked him, “How do you know me?”

Jesus answered, “I saw you when you were under the fig tree before Philip called you.”

⁴⁹ “Teacher,” answered Nathanael, “you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!”

⁵⁰ Jesus said, “Do you believe just because I told you I saw you when you were under the fig tree? You will see much greater things than this!” ^51 (A)And he said to them, “I am telling you the truth: you will see heaven open and God's angels going up and coming down on the Son of Man.”

The Prayer of a Troubled Youth^[a]

¹⁵ A fool will believe anything; smart people watch their step.

¹⁶ Sensible people are careful to stay out of trouble, but stupid people are careless and act too quickly.