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The Book of Judges

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- Chapter 15 -

1
During the time that they were harvesting the wheat, Samson took a young goat to Timnah as a present for his wife. He wanted to sleep with his wife, but her father would not let him go into her room.
2
He said to Samson, “I really thought that you hated her. So I gave her to the man who was your best friend at the wedding, and she has married him. But look, her younger sister is more beautiful than she is. Take her instead.”
3
Samson replied, “No! And this time I have a right to get revenge on you Philistines!”
4
Then he went out into the fields and caught three hundred foxes. He tied their tails together, two by two. He fastened torches to each pair of tails.
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 stacked in bundles. The fire also burned down their grapevines and their olive trees.
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 friend 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.
7
Samson found out about that and said to them, “Because you have done this, I will get revenge on you, and then I will be happy!”
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.
9
The Philistines did not know where he was, so they went up to where the descendants of Judah lived, and they arranged themselves for battle at the town of Lehi.
10
The men there asked the Philistines, “Why do you want to attack us?” The Philistines replied, “We have come to capture Samson. We have come to get revenge on him for what he did to us.”
11
Someone there knew where Samson was hiding. So three thousand 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.”
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!”
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.
14
When they arrived at Lehi, the Philistines came toward him, shouting triumphantly. But Yahweh’s Spirit powerfully came on Samson. He snapped the ropes on his arms as easily as if they had been stalks of burned flax, and they fell off his wrists.
15
Then he saw a donkey’s jawbone lying on the ground. It was new, so it was hard. He picked it up and killed about a thousand Philistine men with it.
16
Then Samson sang: “With the jawbone of a donkey I have made them like a heap of dead donkeys. With the jawbone of a donkey I have killed a thousand men.”
17
When he finished, he threw the jawbone away, but later that place was called Ramath Lehi (or Jawbone Hill).
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, uncircumcised Philistines will capture me?”
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 En Hakkore (or “The spring of the one who called out”). That spring can still be found at Lehi, even today.
20
Samson was the leader and judge over Israel for twenty years, but during that time the Philistines were in control of the entire land.
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1
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
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
Samson said to them, “This time I will be blameless in the case of the Philistines when I harm them.”
4
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
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
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
Samson said to them, “If you behave like this, surely I will take revenge on you, and after that I will cease.”
8
He struck them hip and thigh with a great slaughter; and he went down and lived in the cave in Etam’s rock.
9
Then the Philistines went up, encamped in Judah, and spread themselves in Lehi.
10
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
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
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
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
When he came to Lehi, the Philistines shouted as they met him. Then the LORD’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
He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, put out his hand, took it, and struck a thousand men with it.
16
Samson said, “With the jawbone of a donkey, heaps on heaps; with the jawbone of a donkey I have struck a thousand men.”
17
When he had finished speaking, he threw the jawbone out of his hand; and that place was called Ramath Lehi.(a)
18
He was very thirsty, and called on the LORD 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
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
He judged Israel twenty years in the days of the Philistines.

Footnotes

(a)15:17 “Ramath” means “hill” and “Lehi” means “jawbone”.
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