²⁷ Complete the week of this one, and we will give you the other also in return for serving me another seven years.”^(A)

¹² Samson said to them, “Let me now put a riddle to you. If you can explain it to me within the seven days of the feast and find it out, then I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty festal garments.^(A)

²¹ But not forty days passed before two of Sennacherib’s^[a] sons killed him, and when they fled to the mountains of Ararat, his son Esar-haddon^[b] reigned after him. He appointed Ahikar, the son of my brother Hanael,^[c] over all the accounts of his kingdom, and he had authority over the entire administration.^(A)

¹⁰ I did not know that there were sparrows on the wall; their fresh droppings fell into my eyes and produced white films. I went to physicians to be healed, but the more they treated me with ointments, the more my vision was obscured by the white films, until I became completely blind. For four years I remained unable to see. All my kindred were sorry for me, and Ahikar took care of me for two years before he went to Elymais.^(A)

Wedding Feast

¹⁹ After this he asked his wife to bake many loaves of bread, and he went out to the herd and brought two steers and four rams and ordered them to be slaughtered. So they began to make preparations.^(A)