She made him go to sleep on her lap ¹  and then called a man in to shave off ²  the seven braids of his hair. ³  She made him vulnerable ⁴  and his strength left him.

She said, “The Philistines are here, ¹  Samson!” He woke up ²  and thought, ³  “I will do as I did before ⁴  and shake myself free.” But he did not realize that the Lord had left him.

But his master said to him, “We should not stop at a foreign city where non-Israelites live. ¹  We will travel on to Gibeah.”

They stopped there and decided to spend the night ¹  in Gibeah. They came into the city and sat down in the town square, but no one invited them to spend the night. ² 

All Israel rose up in unison ¹  and said, “Not one of us will go home! ²  Not one of us will return ³  to his house!

You should not turn aside after empty things that can’t profit and can’t deliver, since they are empty. ¹ 

Then Samuel said, “Bring me King Agag of the Amalekites.” So Agag came to him trembling, ¹  thinking to himself, ²  “Surely death is bitter!” ³ 

Ahimelech replied to the king, “Who among all your servants is faithful like David? He is the king’s son-in-law, the leader of your bodyguard, and honored in your house!

Now Samuel had died, and all Israel had lamented over him and had buried him in Ramah, his hometown. ¹  In the meantime Saul had removed the mediums ²  and magicians ³  from the land.

So Abner spoke again to Asahel, “Turn aside from following me! I do not want to strike you to the ground. ¹  How then could I show ²  my face in the presence of Joab your brother?”

So David was no longer willing to bring the ark of the Lord to be with him in the City of David. David left it in the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite.

So now the sword will never depart from your house. For you have despised me by taking the wife of Uriah the Hittite as your own!’

He also removed Maacah his grandmother ¹  from her position as queen because she had made a loathsome Asherah pole. Asa cut down her Asherah pole and burned it in the Kidron Valley.

The prophet ¹  quickly removed the bandage from his eyes and the king of Israel recognized he was one of the prophets.

When the chariot commanders saw Jehoshaphat, they said, “He must be the king of Israel.” So they turned and attacked him, but Jehoshaphat cried out.

He did evil in the sight of ¹  the Lord, but not to the same degree as his father and mother. He did remove the sacred pillar of Baal that his father had made.

Yet he persisted in ¹  the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, who encouraged Israel to sin; he did not turn from them. ² 

Let’s make a small private upper room ¹  and furnish it with ²  a bed, table, chair, and lamp. When he visits us, he can stay there.”

He did evil in the sight of ¹  the Lord. He continued in ²  the sinful ways of Jeroboam son of Nebat who had encouraged Israel to sin; he did not repudiate those sins. ³ 

But they did not repudiate ¹  the sinful ways of the family ²  of Jeroboam, who encouraged Israel to sin; they continued in those sins. ³  There was even an Asherah pole ⁴  standing in Samaria.