Judges 15
1 And it came to pass, after a time, in the days of wheat-harvest, that Samson went to visit his wife, with a kid, and he said—I will go in unto my wife, in the chamber. But her father would not suffer 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 said—I, thought, that thou didst, hate, her, so I gave her to thy companion, —Is not, her younger sister, fairer than she? Pray let her be thine, in her stead.
“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 said of them, I shall be more blameless, this time, than the Philistines, —though I should do them a mischief.
“This time I can't be blamed for the trouble I'm going to cause the Philistines,” Samson declared.
4 So Samson went, and caught three hundred jackals, —and took torches, and turned tail to tail, and put one 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, when he had set fire to the torches, he let them go into the standing corn of the Philistines, —and set fire, both to the stack of sheaves and to the standing corn, and besides to the olive plantation.
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 Then said the Philistines—Who hath done this? And they said—Samson, son-in-law of the Timnite, because he hath taken his wife, and given her to his companion. So the Philistines went up and burned 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 said to them, Though ye do the like of this, yet will I be avenged upon you, and, afterwards, will 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 So he smote them, leg on thigh, with a great smiting, —and went down and dwelt in a cleft of the crag Etam.
He attacked them violently, killing them, and then left to go and live in a cave at the rock of Etam.
9 Then went up the Philistines, and encamped in Judah, —and were spread abroad in Lehi.
So the Philistine army came and camped in Judah, drawn up for battle near Lehi.
10 And the men of Judah said, Wherefore have ye come up against us? And they said—To bind Samson, are we come up, to do unto him as he hath done unto 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 Then went down three thousand men out of Judah, unto the cleft of the crag Etam, and said unto Samson—Knowest thou not that the Philistines are lording it over us? What, then, is this thou hast done to us? And he said unto them, As they have done to me, so, have I done 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 said to him—To bind thee, are we come down, to deliver thee into the hand of the Philistines. And Samson said to them, Swear to me, that ye will not 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 answered him, saying—Nay; but we will, bind, thee, and deliver thee into their hand, but we will not, put thee to death. So they bound him with two new ropes, and took him up from the crag.
“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, was coming in as far as Lehi, and, the Philistines, came shouting to meet him, —when the Spirit of Yahweh came suddenly over him, and the ropes that were upon his arms became as threads of flax which have been ignited with fire, so that his bonds melted 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 Then found he the jawbone of an ass newly-slain, —so he thrust forth his hand, and took it, and smote therewith, a thousand men.
He grabbed the fresh jawbone of a donkey, using it to kill a thousand Philistines.
16 And Samson said, With the jawbone of an ass, —have I piled them up in heaps! With the jawbone of an ass, have I 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 came to pass, when he had made an end of speaking, that he cast away the jawbone out of his hand, —and called the name of 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 was sore athirst, so he cried unto Yahweh, and said, Thou thyself, hast given, into the hand of thy servant, this great salvation, —and, now, must I die of thirst, and fall 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 So then God clave open the hollow that is in Lehi, and there came therefrom water, and he drank, and his spirit came back, and he revived, —for this cause, called he the name thereof—Ain-hakkore, which is in Lehi, until 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 judged Israel, in the days of the Philistines, twenty years.
Samson led Israel as judge for twenty years during the time of the Philistines.
