American Standard Version of 1901
Versliste
In those days also saw I the Jews that {Hebrew: had made to dwell with them.}had married women of Ashdod, of Ammon, and of Moab:
and their children spake half in the speech of Ashdod, and could not speak in the Jews' language, but according to the language of each people.
And I contended with them, and {Or, reviled}cursed them, and smote certain of them, and plucked off their hair, and made them swear by God, saying, Ye shall not give your daughters unto their sons, nor take their daughters for your sons, or for yourselves.
Did not Solomon king of Israel sin by these things? yet among many nations was there no king like him, and he was beloved of his God, and God made him king over all Israel: nevertheless even him did foreign women cause to sin.
Shall we then hearken unto you to do all this great evil, to trespass against our God in marrying foreign women?
And one of the sons of Joiada, the son of Eliashib the high priest, was son-in-law to Sanballat the Horonite: therefore I chased him from me.
Now king Solomon loved many foreign women, {Or, besides}together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites;
of the nations concerning which Jehovah said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall not go among them, neither shall they come among you; for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods: Solomon clave unto these in love.
And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart.
For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods; and his heart was not perfect with Jehovah his God, as was the heart of David his father.
For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.
And Solomon did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah, and went not fully after Jehovah, as did David his father.
Then did Solomon build a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, in the mount that is before Jerusalem, and for Molech the abomination of the children of Ammon.
And so did he for all his foreign wives, who burnt incense and sacrificed unto their gods.
You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will visit upon you all your iniquities.
And when Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, heard of it, it grieved them exceedingly, for that there was come a man to seek the welfare of the children of Israel.
They shall not take a woman that is a harlot, or {Or, polluted}profane; neither shall they take a woman put away from her husband: for he is holy unto his God.
A widow, or one divorced, or a {Or, polluted}profane woman, a harlot, these shall he not take: but a virgin of his own people shall he take to wife.
And it came to pass, when she pressed him daily with her words, and urged him, that his soul was vexed unto death.
And he told her all his heart, and said unto her, There hath not come a razor upon my head; for I have been a Nazirite unto God from my mother's womb: if I be shaven, then my strength will go from me, and I shall become weak, and be like any other man.
And when Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called for the lords of the Philistines, saying, Come up this once, for {Or, according to another reading, he had told her}he hath told me all his heart. Then the lords of the Philistines came up unto her, and brought the money in their hand.
And she made him sleep upon her knees; and she called for {Or, the men}a man, and shaved off the seven locks of his head; and she began to afflict him, and his strength went from him.
And she said, The Philistines are upon thee, Samson. And he awoke out of his sleep, and said, I will go out as at other times, and shake myself free. But he knew not that Jehovah was departed from him.
And the Philistines laid hold on him, and put out his eyes; and they brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with fetters of brass; and he did grind in the prison-house.
My son, hear the instruction of thy father,And forsake not the {Or, teaching}law of thy mother:
and all the mingled people, and all the kings of the land of the Uz, and all the kings of the Philistines, and Ashkelon, and Gaza, and Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod;
holding a form of godliness, but having denied the power thereof: from these also turn away.
I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go:I will counsel thee with mine eye upon thee.
Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek of him a straight way for us, and for our little ones, and for all our substance.
So we fasted and besought our God for this: and he was entreated of us.
Arise, cry out in the night, at the beginning of the watches;Pour out thy heart like water before the face of the Lord:Lift up thy hands toward him for the life of thy young children, that faint for hunger at the head of every street.