a great feast to sacrifice to their
god Dagon, for they said,

"Our god has delivered Samson into our hands." While they were merry
they said:

"Let us send for Samson to make sport for us," and he was brought out
of the prison. It was very sad to see the strong judge of Israel, weak
and blind, led by a little lad, and making sport for the people in
front of their temple. All the lords of the Philistines were there,
and upon the broad roof of the temple were about three thousand people
watching Samson while he showed his strength, for his hair had grown
and his strength was returning. At last as he was standing between two
great pillars that held up the roof, he prayed, lifting his sightless
eyes to God:

"O Lord God, remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me only this
once."

Then he clasped his arms around the pillars on either side of him, and
bowing himself with all his might, saying,

"Let me die with the Philistines," he drew the great pillars with him,
and the house fell with all that were upon it, on all that were within
it. So died Samson who judged Israel twenty years, yet a woman,
Deborah, who was also one of the judges in Israel, was stronger than
he, for the Lord looketh on the heart.

[Illustration: The death of Samson]

CHAPTER XVI.

RUTH.

In the days when the judges ruled in Israel, there was a famine in the
land, and an Israelite, who lived in Bethlehem, took his wife and his
two sons into Moab where there was food. After a while the Israelite
died, and the two sons married women of Moab.

After two years the sons died also, and their mother, Naomi, longed for
her home in Bethlehem, for there was no longer a famine there. So she
took Ruth and Orpah, her sons' wives, and started on the journey into
the land of Israel.

But before they had gone far Naomi said:

"Go! return each to her mother's house; the Lord deal kindly with you,
as ye have dealt with the dead, and with me."

She kissed them, and they wept and would not leave her.

"Turn again, my daughters," she said, "why will ye go with me?"

And Orpah kissed Naomi, and went back to her own mothers' house, but
Ruth, whose heart was with Naomi, would not go back.

"Entreat me not to leave thee," she said, "or to return from following
after thee, for where thou goest I will go; and where thou lodgest I
will lodge; thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God; where
thou diest I will die, and there will I be bu