Judges 15
1 And it came to pass after a time, in the days of the wheat-harvest, that Samson visited his wife with a kid of the goats. And he said, I will go in to my wife into the chamber; but her father would not suffer him to go in.
After some days, during the time of wheat harvest, Samson took a young goat and went to visit his wife. He said to himself, “I will go to my wife's room.” But her father would not allow him to go in.
2 And her father said, I verily thought that thou didst utterly hate her; therefore I gave her to thy companion. Is not her younger sister fairer than she? Let her, I pray thee, be thine instead of her.
Her father said, “I really thought you hated her, so I gave her to your friend. Her younger sister is more beautiful than she is, is she not? Take her instead.”
3 And Samson said to them, This time I am blameless toward the Philistines, though I do them harm.
Samson said to them, “This time I will be innocent in regard to the Philistines when I hurt them.”
4 And Samson went and caught three hundred jackals, and took torches, and turned tail to tail, and put a torch in the midst between the two tails.
Samson went and caught three hundred foxes and he tied together each pair, tail to tail. Then he took torches and tied them in the middle of each pair of tails.
5 And he set the torches on fire, and let [them] run into the standing corn of the Philistines, and burnt up both the shocks, and also the standing corn, and the olive gardens.
When he had set the torches on fire, he let the foxes go into the standing grain of the Philistines, and they set fire to both the stacked grain and the grain standing in the field, along with the vineyards and the olive orchards.
6 And the Philistines said, Who has done this? And they answered, Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he took his wife and gave her to his companion. And the Philistines came up, and burned her and her father with fire.
The Philistines asked, “Who did this?” They were told, “Samson, the Timnite's son-in-law, did this because the Timnite took Samson's wife and gave her to his friend.” Then the Philistines went and burned up her and her father.
7 And Samson said to them, If ye act thus, for a certainty I will avenge myself on you, and then I will cease.
Samson said to them, “If this is what you do, I will get my revenge against you, and after that is done, I will stop.”
8 And he smote them hip and thigh with a great slaughter. And he went down and dwelt in the cleft of the cliff Etam.
Then he cut them to pieces, hip and thigh, with a great slaughter. Then he went down and lived in a cave in the cliff of Etam.
9 And the Philistines went up, and encamped in Judah, and spread themselves in Lehi.
Then the Philistines came up and they prepared for battle in Judah and set up their army in Lehi.
10 And the men of Judah said, Why are ye come up against us? And they said, To bind Samson are we come up, to do to him as he has done to us.
The men of Judah said, “Why have you come up to attack us?” They said, “We are attacking so we may capture Samson, and do to him as he has done to us.”
11 Then three thousand men of Judah went down to the cleft of the cliff Etam, and said to Samson, Knowest thou not that the Philistines rule over us? And what is this that thou hast done to us? And he said to them, As they did to me, so have I done to them.
Then three thousand men of Judah went down to the cave in the cliff of Etam, and they said to Samson, “Do you not know that the Philistines are rulers over us? What is this you have done to us?” Samson said to them, “They did to me, and so I have done to them.”
12 And they said to him, We are come down to bind thee, that we may give thee into the hand of the Philistines. And Samson said to them, Swear to me that ye will not fall on me yourselves.
They said to Samson, “We have come down to tie you up and give you into the hands of the Philistines.” Samson said to them, “Swear to me that you will not kill me yourselves.”
13 And they spoke to him, saying, No; but we will bind thee fast, and deliver thee into their hand; but we certainly shall not put thee to death. And they bound him with two new cords, and brought him up from the cliff.
They said to him, “No, we will only tie you with ropes and hand you over to them. We promise we will not kill you.” Then they tied him up with two new ropes and brought him up from the rock.
14 When he came to Lehi, the Philistines shouted against him. And the Spirit of Jehovah came upon him, and the cords that were on his arms became as threads of flax that are burned with fire, and his bands loosed from off his hands.
When he came to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting as they met him. Then Yahweh's Spirit came on him with power. The ropes on his arms became like burnt flax, and they fell off his hands.
15 And he found a fresh jawbone of an ass, and put forth his hand and took it, and slew with it a thousand men.
Samson found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, and he picked it up and killed a thousand men with it.
16 And Samson said, With the jawbone of an ass, a heap, two heaps, With the jawbone of an ass have I slain a thousand men.
Samson said, “With the jawbone of a donkey, heaps upon heaps, with the jawbone of a donkey I have killed a thousand men.”
17 And it came to pass when he had ended speaking, that he cast away the jawbone out of his hand, and called that place Ramath-Lehi.
When Samson finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone, and he called the place Ramath Lehi.
18 And he was very thirsty, and called on Jehovah, and said, Thou hast given by the hand of thy servant this great deliverance, and now shall I die for thirst, and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised?
Samson was very thirsty and called on Yahweh and said, “You have given this great victory to your servant. But now will I die of thirst and fall into the hands of those who are uncircumcised?”
19 And God clave the hallow rock which was in Lehi, and water came out of it. And he drank, and his spirit came again, and he revived. Therefore its name was called En-hakkore, which is in Lehi to this day.
God split open the hollow place that is at Lehi and water came out. When he drank, his strength returned and he revived. So he called the name of that place En Hakkore, and it is at Lehi to this day.
20 And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.
Samson judged Israel in the days of the Philistines for twenty years.
