Iudicum 15
1 Post aliquantulum autem temporis, cum dies triticeæ messis instarent, venit Samson, invisere volens uxorem suam, et attulit ei hædum de capris. Cumque cubiculum ejus solito vellet intrare, prohibuit eum pater illius, dicens:
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 Putavi quod odisses eam, et ideo tradidi illam amico tuo: sed habet sororem, quæ junior et pulchrior illa est: sit tibi pro ea uxor.
“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 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 doing harm to the Philistines.”
4 Perrexitque et cepit trecentas vulpes, caudasque earum junxit ad caudas, et faces ligavit in medio:
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 quas igne succendens, dimisit ut huc illucque discurrerent. Quæ statim perrexerunt in segetes Philisthinorum. Quibus succensis, et comportatæ jam fruges, et adhuc stantes in stipula, concrematæ sunt, in tantum ut vineas quoque et oliveta flamma consumeret.
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 Dixeruntque Philisthiim: Quis fecit hanc rem? Quibus dictum est: Samson gener Thamnathæi: quia tulit uxorem ejus, et alteri tradidit, hæc operatus est. Ascenderuntque Philisthiim, et combusserunt tam mulierem quam patrem ejus.
“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 Quibus ait Samson: Licet hæc feceritis, tamen adhuc ex vobis expetam ultionem, et tunc quiescam.
And Samson told them, “Because you have done this, I will not rest until I have taken vengeance upon you.”
8 Percussitque eos ingenti plaga, ita ut stupentes suram femori imponerent. Et descendens habitavit in spelunca petræ 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 Igitur ascendentes Philisthiim in terram Juda, castrametati sunt in loco, qui postea vocatus est Lechi, id est, Maxilla, ubi eorum effusus est exercitus.
Then the Philistines went up, camped in Judah, and deployed themselves near the town of Lehi.
10 Dixeruntque ad eos de tribu Juda: Cur ascendistis adversum nos? Qui responderunt: Ut ligemus Samson venimus, et reddamus ei quæ in nos operatus est.
“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 Descenderunt ergo tria millia virorum de Juda 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.
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 Ligare, inquiunt, te venimus, et tradere in manus Philisthinorum. Quibus Samson: Jurate, ait, et spondete mihi quod non occidatis me.
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 Dixerunt: Non te occidemus, sed vinctum trademus. Ligaveruntque eum duobus novis funibus, et tulerunt eum de petra Etam.
“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 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 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 Inventamque maxillam, id est, mandibulam asini, quæ jacebat, arripiens interfecit in ea mille viros,
He found the fresh jawbone of a donkey, reached out his hand and took it, and struck down a thousand men.
16 et ait: In maxilla asini, in mandibula pulli asinarum, delevi eos, et percussi mille viros.
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 Cumque hæc verba canens complesset, projecit mandibulam de manu, et vocavit nomen loci illius Ramathlechi, quod interpretatur, Elevatio maxillæ.
And when Samson had finished speaking, he cast the jawbone from his hand; and he named that place 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.
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 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.
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 Judicavitque Israël in diebus Philisthiim viginti annis.
And Samson judged Israel for twenty years in the days of the Philistines.
