< Judges 15 >
1 During the time that they harvested wheat, Samson took a young goat to Timnah as a present for his wife. He planned to sleep with [EUP] his wife, but her father would not let him go into [her room].
And it was from days in [the] days of [the] harvest of wheat and he visited Samson wife his with a kid of goats and he said let me go into wife my the chamber towards and not he permitted him father her to go.
2 He said to Samson, “I really thought that you hated her. So I gave her to the man who had been your best man at the wedding, and she married him. But look, her younger sister is [RHQ] more beautiful than she is. You can marry her!”
And he said father her certainly I thought that certainly you hated her and I gave her to companion your ¿ not [is] sister her young good more than her let her belong please to you in place of her.
3 Samson replied, “No! And this time I have a right to get revenge on you Philistines!”
And he said to them Samson I will be free this time from [the] Philistines for [am] about to do I with them harm.
4 Then he went out [into the fields] and caught 300 foxes. He tied their tails together, two-by-two. He fastened torches to each pair of tails.
And he went Samson and he captured three hundred foxes and he took torches and he turned tail to tail and he put a torch one between [the] two the tails in the middle.
5 Then he lit the torches and let the foxes run through the fields of the Philistines. The fire [from the torches] burned all the grain to the ground, including the grain that had been cut and piled in bundles. The fire also burned down their grapevines and their olive trees.
And he kindled fire on the torches and he sent [them] among [the] standing grain of [the] Philistines and it burned up from [the] heap of sheaves and unto [the] standing grain and unto [the] vineyard of olive tree[s].
6 The Philistines asked, “Who did this?” Someone told them, “Samson did it. He married a woman from Timnah, but then his father-in-law gave her to the man who was Samson’s best man at the wedding, and she married him.” So the Philistines went [to Timnah] and got the woman and her father, and burned them to death.
And they said [the] Philistines who? did he do this [thing] and they said Samson [the] son-in-law of the Timnite for he has taken wife his and he has given her to companion his and they went up [the] Philistines and they burned her and father her with fire.
7 Samson [found out about that, and he] said to them, “Because you have done this, I will not stop until I get revenge on you!”
And he said to them Samson if you will do! like this that except I have avenged myself on you and after I will cease.
8 So he attacked the Philistines furiously, and killed many of them. Then he went [to hide] in a cave in the large rock at a place called Etam.
And he struck them leg with thigh a defeat great and he went down and he dwelt in [the] cleft of [the] rock of Etam.
9 The Philistines [did not know where he was, so they] went up to where the descendants of Judah lived, set up their tents near Lehi [town and then raided the town].
And they went up [the] Philistines and they encamped in Judah and they were spread out at Lehi.
10 The men there asked the Philistines, “Why have you attacked us?” The Philistines replied, “We have come to capture Samson. We have come to get revenge on him for what he did to us.”
And they said [the] man of Judah why? have you come up on us and they said to bind Samson we have come up to do to him just as he did to us.
11 [Someone there knew where Samson was hiding]. So 3,000 men from Judah went down to get Samson at the cave in the rock where he was hiding. They said to Samson, “Do you not realize that the people of Philistia are ruling over us? Do you not realize what they will do to us?” Samson replied, “The only thing I did was that I got revenge on them for what they did to me.”
And they went down three thousand man from Judah to [the] cleft of [the] rock of Etam and they said to Samson ¿ not do you know that [are] ruling over us [the] Philistines and what? this have you done to us and he said to them just as they did to me so I have done to them.
12 But the men from Judah said to him, “We have come to tie you up and put you in the hands of the Philistines.” Samson said, “All right, but promise me that you yourselves will not kill me!”
And they said to him to bind you we have come down to give you in [the] hand of [the] Philistines and he said to them Samson swear to me lest you should fall! on me you.
13 They replied, “We will just tie you up and take you to the Philistines. We will not kill you.” So they tied him with two new ropes, and led him away from the cave.
And they said to him saying In-deed certainly we will bind you and we will give you in hand their and certainly not we will kill you and they bound him with two ropes new and they brought up him from the rock.
14 When they arrived at Lehi, the Philistines came toward him, shouting [triumphantly]. But Yahweh’s Spirit came upon Samson powerfully. He snapped the ropes on his arms as easily as if they were stalks of burned flax, and the ropes fell off his wrists.
He [was] coming to Lehi (and [the] Philistines *L(abh)*) they shouted to meet him and it rushed on him [the] spirit of Yahweh and they became the ropes which [were] on arms his like flax which people have burned with fire and they dropped off bonds his from on hands his.
15 Then he saw a donkey’s jawbone lying on the ground. It was fresh, [so it was hard]. He picked it up and killed about 1,000 Philistine men with it.
And he found a jawbone of a donkey fresh and he stretched out hand his and he took it and he struck down with it a thousand man.
16 Then Samson wrote this poem: “With the jawbone of a donkey I have made them like a heap of [dead] donkeys. With the jawbone of a donkey I killed 1,000 men.”
And he said Samson with [the] jawbone of the donkey a heap two heaps with [the] jawbone of the donkey I struck down a thousand man.
17 When he finished killing those men, he threw the jawbone away, and later that place was called Jawbone Hill.
And it was when finished he to speak and he threw the jawbone from hand his and he called the place that Ramath Lehi.
18 Then Samson was very thirsty, so he called out to Yahweh, “You have given me strength to win a great victory. So now must I die because of being thirsty, with the result that those heathen Philistines will take away my body [and mutilate it]?”
And he was thirsty very and he called out to Yahweh and he said you you have given by [the] hand of servant your the victory great this and now [must] I die with thirst and I fall in [the] hand of the uncircumcised [men]?
19 So God caused water to gush out of a depression in the ground at Lehi. Samson drank from it and soon felt strong again. He named that place ‘The spring of the one who called out’. That spring is still there at Lehi.
And he split open God the deep hollow which [is] at Lehi and they came out from it waters and he drank and it returned spirit his and he lived there-fore - he called name its En Hakkore which [is] at Lehi until the day this.
20 Samson was the leader of the Israeli people for 20 years, but during that time the Philistines [were the ones who really ruled over the land].
And he judged Israel in [the] days of [the] Philistines twenty year[s].