Judg 15
1
But it came to pass after a while, in the time of wheat harvest, that Samson visited
his wife with a kid; and he said, I will go in to my wife into the chamber. But her
father would not suffer him to go in.
2
And her father said, I truly thought that you had utterly hated her; therefore I gave
her to your companion: is not her younger sister fairer than she? take her, I pray
you, instead of her.
3
And Samson said to them, This time shall I be blameless in regard of the Philistines,
when I do them a mischief.
4
And Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took firebrands, and turned tail
to tail, and put a firebrand in the midst between every two tails.
5
And when he had set the brands on fire, he let them go into the standing grain of
the Philistines, and burnt up both the shocks and the standing grain, and also the
oliveyards.
6
Then the Philistines said, Who has done this? And they said, Samson, the son-in-law
of the Timnite, because he has taken his wife, and given her to his companion. And
the Philistines came up, and burnt her and her father with fire.
7
And Samson said to them, If you do after this manner, surely I will be avenged of
you, and after that I will cease.
8
And he smote them hip and thigh with a great slaughter: and he went down and dwelt
in the cleft of the rock of Etam.
9
Then the Philistines went up, and encamped in Judah, and spread themselves in Lehi.
10
And the men of Judah said, Why are you come up against us? And they said, To bind
Samson are we come up, to do to him as he has done to us.
11
Then three thousand men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam, and said
to Samson, Know you not that the Philistines are rulers over us? what then is this
that you have done to us? And he said to them, As they did to me, so have I done to
them.
12
And they said to him, We are come down to bind you, that we may deliver you into the
hand of the Philistines. And Samson said to them, Swear to me, that you will not fall
upon me yourselves.
13
And they spoke to him, saying, No; but we will bind you fast, and deliver you into
their hand: but surely we will not kill you. And they bound him with two new ropes,
and brought him up from the rock.
14
When he came to Lehi, the Philistines shouted as they met him: and the Spirit of YHWH
came mightily upon him, and the ropes that were upon his arms became as flax that
was burnt with fire, and his bands dropped from off his hands.
15
And he found a fresh jawbone of an ass, and put forth his hand, and took it, and smote
a thousand men therewith.
16
And Samson said, With the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, With the jawbone of
an ass have I smitten a thousand men.
17
And it came to pass, when he had made an end of speaking, that he cast away the jawbone
out of his hand; and that place was called Ramath-lehi.
18
And he was sore athirst, and called on YHWH, and said, You have given this great deliverance
by the hand of your servant; and now shall I die for thirst, and fall into the hand
of the uncircumcised.
19
But God clave the hollow place that is in Lehi, and there came water thereout; and
when he had drunk, his spirit came again, and he revived: wherefore its name
was called En-hakkore, which is in Lehi, to this day.
20
And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.