Judges 15
1 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.
Later on, at the time of the wheat harvest, Samson took a young goat and went to visit his wife. “I want to go to my wife in her room,” he said. But her father would not let him enter.
2 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.
“I was sure that you thoroughly hated her,” said her father, “so I gave her to one of the men who accompanied you. Is not her younger sister more beautiful than she? Please take her instead.”
3 And Sampson said to them, Even for once am I guiltless with regard to the Philistines, in that I do mischief among them.
Samson said to them, “This time I will be blameless in doing harm to the Philistines.”
4 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.
Then Samson went out and caught three hundred foxes. And he took torches, turned the foxes tail-to-tail, and fastened a torch between each pair of tails.
5 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.
Then he lit the torches and released the foxes into the standing grain of the Philistines, burning up the piles of grain and the standing grain, as well as the vineyards and olive groves.
6 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.
“Who did this?” the Philistines demanded. “It was Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite,” they were told. “For his wife was given to his companion.” So the Philistines went up and burned her and her father to death.
7 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.
And Samson told them, “Because you have done this, I will not rest until I have taken vengeance upon you.”
8 And he struck them leg on thigh [with] a great overthrow; and went down and lived in a cave of the rock Etam.
And he struck them ruthlessly with a great slaughter, and then went down and stayed in the cave at the rock of Etam.
9 And the Philistines went up, and encamped in Juda, and spread themselves abroad in Lechi.
Then the Philistines went up, camped in Judah, and deployed themselves near the town of Lehi.
10 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.
“Why have you attacked us?” said the men of Judah. The Philistines replied, “We have come to arrest Samson and pay him back for what he has done to us.”
11 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.
In response, three thousand men of Judah went to the cave at the rock of Etam, and they asked Samson, “Do you not realize that the Philistines rule over us? What have you done to us?” “I have done to them what they did to me,” he replied.
12 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.
But they said to him, “We have come down to arrest you and hand you over to the Philistines.” Samson replied, “Swear to me that you will not kill me yourselves.”
13 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.
“No,” they answered, “we will not kill you, but we will tie you up securely and hand you over to them.” So they bound him with two new ropes and led him up from the rock.
14 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.
When Samson arrived in Lehi, the Philistines came out shouting against him. And the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him. The ropes on his arms became like burnt flax, and the bonds broke loose from his hands.
15 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.
He found the fresh jawbone of a donkey, reached out his hand and took it, and struck down a thousand men.
16 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.
Then Samson said: “With the jawbone of a donkey I have piled them into heaps. With the jawbone of a donkey I have slain a thousand men.”
17 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.
And when Samson had finished speaking, he cast the jawbone from his hand; and he named that place Ramath-lehi.
18 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?
And being very thirsty, Samson cried out to the LORD, “You have accomplished this great deliverance through Your servant. Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?”
19 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.
So God opened up the hollow place in Lehi, and water came out of it. When Samson drank, his strength returned, and he was revived. That is why he named it En-hakkore, and it remains in Lehi to this day.
20 And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.
And Samson judged Israel for twenty years in the days of the Philistines.
