Judges 15
1 Some time later when the wheat was being harvested, Samson went to pay his wife a visit, taking with him a young goat as a present. “I want to go to my wife in her bedroom,” he said when he arrived, but her father would not let him go in.
And it came to pass after a time, in the days of wheat harvest, that Sampson visited his wife with a kid, and said, I will go in to my wife even into the chamber: but her father did not suffer him to go in.
2 “I thought you must totally hate her, so I gave her to your best man,” he told Samson. “But her younger sister is even more attractive—why don't you marry her instead?”
And her father spoke, saying, I said that you did surely hate her, and I gave her to one of your friends: [is] not her younger sister better than she? let her be to you instead of her.
3 “This time I can't be blamed for the trouble I'm going to cause the Philistines,” Samson declared.
And Sampson said to them, Even for once am I guiltless with regard to the Philistines, in that I do mischief amongst them.
4 He went and caught three hundred foxes and tied their tails together, two by two.
And Sampson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took torches, and turned tail to tail, and put a torch between two tails, and fastened it.
5 He attached a torch to each of the tied tails and set them on fire. Then he let them loose in the grain fields of the Philistines, setting fire to all the grain, harvested and unharvested, as well as the vineyards and olive groves.
And he set fire to the torches, and sent [the foxes] into the corn of the Philistines; and every thing was burnt from the threshing floor to the standing corn, and even to the vineyard and olives.
6 “Who did this?” the Philistines asked. “It was Samson, the son-in-law of the man from Timnah,” they were told. “That man gave Samson's wife to Samson's best man.” So the Philistines went and burned her and her father to death.
And the Philistines said, Who [has done] these things? and they said, Sampson the son-in-law of the Thamnite, because he has taken his wife, and given her to one of his friends; and the Philistines went up, and burnt her and her father's house with fire.
7 Samson told them, “If this is the way you're going to act, then I won't stop until I take my revenge on you!”
And Sampson said to them, Though you may have dealt thus with her, verily I will be avenged of you, and afterwards I will cease.
8 He attacked them violently, killing them, and then left to go and live in a cave at the rock of Etam.
And he struck them leg on thigh [with] a great overthrow; and went down and lived in a cave of the rock Etam.
9 So the Philistine army came and camped in Judah, drawn up for battle near Lehi.
And the Philistines went up, and encamped in Juda, and spread themselves abroad in Lechi.
10 The people of Judah asked, “Why have you invaded us?” “We've come to capture Samson, to do to him what he's done to us!” they replied.
And the men of Juda said, Why are you come up against us? and the Philistines said, We are come up to bind Sampson, and to do to him as he has done to us.
11 Three thousand men of Judah went to the cave at the rock of Etam and asked Samson, “Don't you understand that the Philistines rule over us? What do you think you're doing to us?” “I only did what they did to me,” he replied.
And the three thousand men of Juda went down to the hole of the rock Etam, and they said to Sampson, Know you not that the Philistines rule over us? and what [is] this [that] you have done to us? and Sampson said to them, As they did to me, so have I done to them.
12 “Well, we've come to take you prisoner and hand you over to the Philistines,” they told him. “Just swear to me that you're not going to kill me yourselves,” Samson answered.
And they said to him, We are come down to bind you to deliver you into the hand of the Philistines: and Sampson said to them, Swear to me that you will not fall upon me yourselves.
13 “No, we won't,” they assured him. “We'll only tie you up and hand you over to the Philistines. We certainly aren't going to kill you!” They tied him using two new ropes and led him up from the rock.
And they spoke to him, saying, Nay, but we will only bind you fast, and deliver you into their hand, and will by no means kill you: and they bound him with two new ropes, and brought him from that rock.
14 When Samson got close to Lehi, the Philistines ran towards him, shouting at him. But the Spirit of the Lord swept over him, and the ropes tying his arms together became as weak as burnt flax, and his hands broke free.
And they came to Lechi: and the Philistines shouted, and ran to meet him: and the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and the ropes that were upon his arms became as tow which is burnt with fire; and his bonds were consumed from off his hands.
15 He grabbed the fresh jawbone of a donkey, using it to kill a thousand Philistines.
And he found the jaw-bone of an ass that had been cast away, and he put forth his hand and took it, and struck with it a thousand men.
16 Then Samson declared, “With a donkey's jawbone I have piled the dead into heaps. With a donkey's jawbone I have killed a thousand men.”
And Sampson said, With the jaw-bone of an ass I have utterly destroyed them, for with the jaw-bone of an ass I have struck a thousand men.
17 After Samson had finished his speech, he threw away the jawbone, and he named the place Hill of the Jawbone.
And it came to pass when he ceased speaking, that he cast the jaw-bone out of his hand; and he called that place the Lifting of the jaw-bone.
18 He was now extremely thirsty, and he Samson called out to the Lord, saying, “You have achieved this amazing victory through your servant, but now do I have to die of thirst and be captured by the heathen?”
And he was very thirsty, and wept before the Lord, and said, You have been well pleased to grant this great deliverance by the hand of your servant, and new shall I die for thirst, and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised?
19 So God split open a rock seam in Lehi, and water came out of it. Samson drank and his strength returned—he felt much better. That's why he named it the Spring of the Caller, and it's still there in Lehi to this very day.
And God broke open a hollow place in the jaw, and there came thence water, and he drank; and his spirit returned and he revived: therefore the name of the fountain was called 'The well of the invoker,' which is in Lechi, until this day.
20 Samson led Israel as judge for twenty years during the time of the Philistines.
And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.
