So she made him go to sleep, wove the seven braids of his hair into the fabric on the loom, fastened it with the pin, and said to him, “The Philistines are here, ¹  Samson!” ²  He woke up ³  and tore away the pin of the loom and the fabric.

The cart was coming to the field of Joshua, who was from Beth Shemesh. It paused there near a big stone. Then they cut up the wood of the cart and offered the cows as a burnt offering to the Lord.

He even stripped off his clothes and prophesied before Samuel. He lay there ¹  naked all that day and night. (For that reason it is asked, “Is Saul also among the prophets?”)

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.

Eliakim son of Hilkiah, the palace supervisor, accompanied by Shebna the scribe and Joah son of Asaph, the secretary, went to Hezekiah with their clothes torn ¹  and reported to him what the chief adviser had said.

Josiah also removed all the shrines on the high places in the cities of Samaria. The kings of Israel had made them and angered the Lord. ¹  He did to them what he had done to the high place in Bethel. ² 

He removed the foreign gods and images from the Lord’s temple and all the altars he had built on the hill of the Lord’s temple and in Jerusalem; he threw them outside the city.

Eliakim son of Hilkiah, the palace supervisor, accompanied by Shebna the scribe and Joah son of Asaph, the secretary, went to Hezekiah with their clothes torn in grief ¹  and reported to him what the chief adviser had said.

He was wounded because of ¹  our rebellious deeds, crushed because of our sins; he endured punishment that made us well; ²  because of his wounds we have been healed. ³ 

But it was plucked up in anger; it was thrown down to the ground. The east wind ¹  dried up its fruit; its strong branches broke off and withered – a fire consumed them.

For his hands and feet had often been bound with chains and shackles, ¹  but ²  he had torn the chains apart and broken the shackles in pieces. No one was strong enough to subdue him.

Samson spent half the night with the prostitute; then he got up in the middle of the night and left. ¹  He grabbed the doors of the city gate, as well as the two posts, and pulled them right off, bar and all. ²  He put them on his shoulders and carried them up to the top of a hill east of Hebron. ³ 

So Delilah took new ropes and tied him with them and said to him, “The Philistines are here, ¹  Samson!” (The Philistines were hiding in the bedroom.) ²  But he tore the ropes ³  from his arms as if they were a piece of thread.

They tore down the cities and each man threw a stone into every cultivated field until they were covered. ¹  They stopped up every spring and chopped down every productive tree. Only Kir Hareseth was left intact, ²  but the slingers surrounded it and attacked it.

King Jehoash of Israel captured King Amaziah of Judah, son of Jehoash son of Ahaziah, in Beth Shemesh. He ¹  attacked ²  Jerusalem and broke down the wall of Jerusalem from the Gate of Ephraim to the Corner Gate – a distance of about six hundred feet. ³ 

He brought all the priests from the cities of Judah and ruined ¹  the high places where the priests had offered sacrifices, from Geba to Beer Sheba. ²  He tore down the high place of the goat idols ³  situated at the entrance of the gate of Joshua, the city official, on the left side of the city gate.

He even killed an Egyptian who was seven and a half feet ¹  tall. The Egyptian had a spear as big as the crossbeam of a weaver’s loom; Benaiah attacked ²  him with a club. He grabbed the spear out of the Egyptian’s hand and killed him with his own spear.

In the spring, at the time when kings normally conduct wars, ¹  Joab led the army into battle and devastated the land of the Ammonites. He went and besieged Rabbah, while David stayed in Jerusalem. Joab defeated Rabbah and tore it down.

King Asa also removed Maacah his grandmother ¹  from her position as queen mother ²  because she had made a loathsome Asherah pole. Asa cut down her Asherah pole and crushed and burned it in the Kidron Valley.

King Joash of Israel captured King Amaziah of Judah, son of Joash son of Jehoahaz, in Beth Shemesh and brought him to Jerusalem. He broke down the wall of Jerusalem from the Gate of Ephraim to the Corner Gate – a distance of about six hundred feet. ¹