myself... This desire of revenge was out of zeal for justice
against the enemies of God and his people; and not out of private
rancour and malice of heart.

16:29. 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,

16:30. 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.

Let me die... Literally, let my soul die. Samson did not sin on this
occasion, though he was indirectly the cause of his own death. Because
he was moved to what he did, by a particular inspiration of God, who
also concurred with him by a miracle, in restoring his strength upon the
spot, in consequence of his prayer. Samson, by dying in this manner, was
a figure of Christ, who by his death overcame all his enemies.

16:31. 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.

Judges Chapter 17

The history of the idol of Michas, and the young Levite.

17:1. There was at that time a man of mount Ephraim, whose name was
Michas.

17:2. 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.

17:3. 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.

17:4. 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.

17:5. 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 became his
priest.

Filled the hand... That is, appointed and consecrated him to the
priestly office.

17:6. In those days there was no king in Israel, but every one did that
which seemed right to himself.

17:7. There was also another young man of Bethlehem Juda, of t