Judges 15
1 And it cometh to pass, after [some] days, in the days of wheat-harvest, that Samson looketh after his wife, with a kid of the goats, and saith, 'I go in unto my wife, to the inner chamber;' and her father hath not permitted him to go in,
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.
2 and her father saith, I certainly said, that thou didst certainly hate her, and I give her to thy companion; is not her sister — the young one — better than she? Let her be, I pray thee, to thee, instead of her.'
“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?”
3 And Samson saith of them, 'I am more innocent this time than the Philistines, though I am doing with them evil.'
“This time I can't be blamed for the trouble I'm going to cause the Philistines,” Samson declared.
4 And Samson goeth and catcheth three hundred foxes, and taketh torches, and turneth tail unto tail, and putteth a torch between the two tails, in the midst,
He went and caught three hundred foxes and tied their tails together, two by two.
5 and kindleth fire in the torches, and sendeth [them] out into the standing corn of the Philistines, and burneth [it] from heap even unto standing corn, even unto vineyard — olive-yard.
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.
6 And the Philistines say, 'Who hath done this?' And they say, 'Samson, son-in-law of the Timnite, because he hath taken away his wife, and giveth her to his companion;' and the Philistines go up, and burn her and her father with fire.
“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.
7 And Samson saith to them, 'Though ye do thus, nevertheless I am avenged on you, and afterwards I cease!'
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!”
8 And he smiteth them hip and thigh — a great smiting, and goeth down and dwelleth in the cleft of the rock Etam.
He attacked them violently, killing them, and then left to go and live in a cave at the rock of Etam.
9 And the Philistines go up, and encamp in Judah, and are spread out in Lehi,
So the Philistine army came and camped in Judah, drawn up for battle near Lehi.
10 and the men of Judah say, 'Why have ye come up against us?' and they say, 'To bind Samson we have come up, to do to him as he hath done to us.'
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.
11 And three thousand men of Judah go down unto the cleft of the rock Etam, and say to Samson, 'Hast thou now known that the Philistines are rulers over us? and what [is] this thou hast done to us?' And he saith to them, 'As they did to me, so I did to them.'
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.
12 And they say to him, 'To bind thee we have come down — to give thee into the hand of the Philistines.' And Samson saith to them, 'Swear to me, lest ye fall upon me yourselves.'
“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.
13 And they speak to him, saying, No, but we certainly bind thee, and have given thee into their hand, and we certainly do not put thee to death;' and they bind him with two thick bands, new ones, and bring him up from the rock.
“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.
14 He hath come unto Lehi — and the Philistines have shouted at meeting him — and the Spirit of Jehovah prospereth over him, and the thick bands which [are] on his arms are as flax which they burn with fire, and his bands are wasted from off his hands,
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.
15 and he findeth a fresh jaw-bone of an ass, and putteth forth his hand and taketh it, and smiteth with it — a thousand men.
He grabbed the fresh jawbone of a donkey, using it to kill a thousand Philistines.
16 And Samson saith, 'With a jaw-bone of the ass — an ass upon asses — with a jaw-bone of the ass I have smitten a thousand men.'
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.”
17 And it cometh to pass when he finisheth speaking, that he casteth away the jaw-bone out of his hand, and calleth that place Ramath-Lehi;
After Samson had finished his speech, he threw away the jawbone, and he named the place Hill of the Jawbone.
18 and he thirsteth exceedingly, and calleth unto Jehovah, and saith, 'Thou — Thou hast given by the hand of Thy servant this great salvation; and now, I die with thirst, and have fallen into the hand of the uncircumcised.'
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?”
19 And God cleaveth the hollow place which [is] in Lehi, and waters come out of it, and he drinketh, and his spirit cometh back, and he reviveth; therefore hath [one] called its name 'The fountain of him who is calling,' which [is] in Lehi unto this day.
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.
20 And he judgeth Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.
Samson led Israel as judge for twenty years during the time of the Philistines.
