Iudicum 15
1 Post aliquantulum autem temporis, cum dies triticeæ messis instarent, venit Samson, invisere volens uxorem suam, et attulit ei hœdum de capris. Cumque cubiculum eius solito vellet intrare, prohibuit eum pater illius, dicens:
But after a while, in the time of wheat harvest, Samson visited his wife with a young goat. He said, “I will go in to my wife’s room.” But her father wouldn’t allow him to go in.
2 Putavi quod odisses eam, et ideo tradidi illam amico tuo: sed habet sororem, quæ iunior et pulchrior illa est, sit tibi pro ea uxor.
Her father said, “I most certainly thought that you utterly hated her; therefore I gave her to your companion. Isn’t her younger sister more beautiful than she? Please, take her instead.”
3 Cui Samson respondit: Ab hac die non erit culpa in me contra Philisthæos: faciam enim vobis mala.
Samson said to them, “This time I will be blameless in the case of the Philistines when I harm them.”
4 Perrexitque et cepit trecentas vulpes, caudasque earum iunxit ad caudas, et faces ligavit in medio:
Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took torches, and turned tail to tail, and put a torch in the middle between every two tails.
5 quas igne succendens, dimisit, ut huc illucque discurrerent. Quæ statim perrexerunt in segetes Philisthinorum. Quibus succensis, et comportatæ iam fruges, et adhuc stantes in stipula, concrematæ sunt, in tantum, ut vineas quoque et oliveta flamma consumeret.
When he had set the torches on fire, he let them go into the standing grain of the Philistines, and burned up both the shocks and the standing grain, and also the olive groves.
6 Dixeruntque Philisthiim: Quis fecit hanc rem? Quibus dictum est: Samson gener Thamnathæi: quia tulit uxorem eius, et alteri tradidit, hæc operatus est. Ascenderuntque Philisthiim: et combusserunt tam mulierem quam patrem eius.
Then the Philistines said, “Who has done this?” They said, “Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he has taken his wife and given her to his companion.” The Philistines came up, and burned her and her father with fire.
7 Quibus ait Samson: Licet hæc feceritis, tamen adhuc ex vobis expetam ultionem, et tunc quiescam.
Samson said to them, “If you behave like this, surely I will take revenge on you, and after that I will cease.”
8 Percussitque eos ingenti plaga, ita ut stupentes suram femori imponerent. Et descendens habitavit in spelunca petræ Etam.
He struck them hip and thigh with a great slaughter; and he went down and lived in the cave in Etam’s rock.
9 Igitur ascendentes Philisthiim in Terram Iuda castrametati sunt in loco, qui postea vocatus est Lechi, id est, Maxilla, ubi eorum effusus est exercitus.
Then the Philistines went up, encamped in Judah, and spread themselves in Lehi.
10 Dixeruntque ad eos de tribu Iuda: Cur ascendistis adversum nos? Qui responderunt: Ut ligemus Samson, venimus, et reddamus ei quæ in nos operatus est.
The men of Judah said, “Why have you come up against us?” They said, “We have come up to bind Samson, to do to him as he has done to us.”
11 Descenderunt ergo tria millia virorum de Iuda, ad specum silicis Etam, dixeruntque ad Samson: Nescis quod Philisthiim imperent nobis? Quare hoc facere voluisti? Quibus ille ait: Sicut fecerunt mihi, sic feci eis.
Then three thousand men of Judah went down to the cave in Etam’s rock, and said to Samson, “Don’t you know that the Philistines are rulers over us? What then is this that you have done to us?” He said to them, “As they did to me, so I have done to them.”
12 Ligare, inquiunt, te venimus, et tradere in manus Philisthinorum. Quibus Samson, Iurate, ait, et spondete mihi quod non occidatis me.
They said to him, “We have come down to bind you, that we may deliver you into the hand of the Philistines.” Samson said to them, “Swear to me that you will not attack me yourselves.”
13 Dixerunt: Non te occidemus, sed vinctum trademus. Ligaveruntque eum duobus novis funibus, et tulerunt eum de petra Etam.
They spoke to him, saying, “No, but we will bind you securely and deliver you into their hands; but surely we will not kill you.” They bound him with two new ropes, and brought him up from the rock.
14 Qui cum venisset ad locum Maxillæ, et Philisthiim vociferantes occurrissent ei, irruit Spiritus Domini in eum: et sicut solent ad odorem ignis lina consumi, ita vincula quibus ligatus erat, dissipata sunt et soluta.
When he came to Lehi, the Philistines shouted as they met him. Then Yahweh’s Spirit came mightily on him, and the ropes that were on his arms became as flax that was burned with fire; and his bands dropped from off his hands.
15 Inventamque maxillam, id est, mandibulam asini, quæ iacebat, arripiens, interfecit in ea mille viros,
He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, put out his hand, took it, and struck a thousand men with it.
16 et ait: In maxilla asini, in mandibula pulli asinarum delevi eos, et percussi mille viros.
Samson said, “With the jawbone of a donkey, heaps on heaps; with the jawbone of a donkey I have struck a thousand men.”
17 Cumque hæc verba canens complesset, proiecit mandibulam de manu, et vocavit nomen loci illius Ramathlechi, quod interpretatur Elevatio Maxillæ.
When he had finished speaking, he threw the jawbone out of his hand; and that place was called Ramath Lehi.
18 Sitiensque valde, clamavit ad Dominum, et ait: Tu dedisti in manu servi tui salutem hanc maximam atque victoriam: en siti morior, incidamque in manus incircumcisorum.
He was very thirsty, and called on Yahweh and said, “You have given this great deliverance by the hand of your servant; and now shall I die of thirst, and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?”
19 Aperuit itaque Dominus molarem dentem in maxilla asini, et egressæ sunt ex eo aquæ. Quibus haustis, refocillavit spiritum, et vires recepit. Idcirco appellatum est nomen loci illius, Fons invocantis de maxilla, usque in præsentem diem.
But God split the hollow place that is in Lehi, and water came out of it. When he had drunk, his spirit came again, and he revived. Therefore its name was called En Hakkore, which is in Lehi, to this day.
20 Iudicavitque Israel in diebus Philisthiim viginti annis.
He judged Israel twenty years in the days of the Philistines.
