³ His father and mother replied, “Isn’t there an acceptable woman among your relatives or among all our people?^(A) Must you go to the uncircumcised^(B) Philistines to get a wife?^(C)”

But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me. She’s the right one for me.”

² the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners^(A) and said, “What shall we do with the ark of the Lord? Tell us how we should send it back to its place.”

² Now Ahaziah had fallen through the lattice of his upper room in Samaria and injured himself. So he sent messengers,^(A) saying to them, “Go and consult Baal-Zebub,^(B) the god of Ekron,^(C) to see if I will recover^(D) from this injury.”

³ But the angel^(E) of the Lord said to Elijah^(F) the Tishbite, “Go up and meet the messengers of the king of Samaria and ask them, ‘Is it because there is no God in Israel^(G) that you are going off to consult Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron?’ ⁴ Therefore this is what the Lord says: ‘You will not leave^(H) the bed you are lying on. You will certainly die!’” So Elijah went.

⁵ When the messengers returned to the king, he asked them, “Why have you come back?”

⁶ “A man came to meet us,” they replied. “And he said to us, ‘Go back to the king who sent you and tell him, “This is what the Lord says: Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are sending messengers to consult Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron? Therefore you will not leave^(I) the bed you are lying on. You will certainly die!”’”