Juges 15
1 Quelque temps après, à l’époque de la moisson des blés, Samson alla voir sa femme, et lui porta un chevreau. Il dit: Je veux entrer vers ma femme dans sa chambre. Mais le père de sa femme ne lui permit pas d’entrer.
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 J’ai pensé dit-il, que tu avais pour elle de la haine, et je l’ai donnée à ton compagnon. Est-ce que sa jeune sœur n’est pas plus belle qu’elle? Prends-la donc à sa place.
“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 Samson leur dit: Cette fois je ne serai pas coupable envers les Philistins, si je leur fais du mal.
Samson said to them, “This time I will be blameless in doing harm to the Philistines.”
4 Samson s’en alla. Il attrapa trois cents renards, et prit des flambeaux; puis il tourna queue contre queue, et mit un flambeau entre deux queues, au milieu.
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 Il alluma les flambeaux, lâcha les renards dans les blés des Philistins, et embrasa les tas de gerbes, le blé sur pied, et jusqu’aux plantations d’oliviers.
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 Les Philistins dirent: Qui a fait cela? On répondit: Samson, le gendre du Thimnien, parce que celui-ci lui a pris sa femme et l’a donnée à son compagnon. Et les Philistins montèrent, et ils la brûlèrent, elle et son père.
“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 Samson leur dit: Est-ce ainsi que vous agissez? Je ne cesserai qu’après m’être vengé de vous.
And Samson told them, “Because you have done this, I will not rest until I have taken vengeance upon you.”
8 Il les battit rudement, dos et ventre; puis il descendit, et se retira dans la caverne du rocher d’Étam.
And he struck them ruthlessly with a great slaughter, and then went down and stayed in the cave at the rock of Etam.
9 Alors les Philistins se mirent en marche, campèrent en Juda, et s’étendirent jusqu’à Léchi.
Then the Philistines went up, camped in Judah, and deployed themselves near the town of Lehi.
10 Les hommes de Juda dirent: Pourquoi êtes-vous montés contre nous? Ils répondirent: Nous sommes montés pour lier Samson, afin de le traiter comme il nous a traités.
“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 Sur quoi trois mille hommes de Juda descendirent à la caverne du rocher d’Étam, et dirent à Samson: Ne sais-tu pas que les Philistins dominent sur nous? Que nous as-tu donc fait? Il leur répondit: Je les ai traités comme ils m’ont traité.
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 Ils lui dirent: Nous sommes descendus pour te lier, afin de te livrer entre les mains des Philistins. Samson leur dit: Jurez-moi que vous ne me tuerez pas.
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 Ils lui répondirent: Non; nous voulons seulement te lier et te livrer entre leurs mains, mais nous ne te ferons pas mourir. Et ils le lièrent avec deux cordes neuves, et le firent sortir du rocher.
“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 Lorsqu’il arriva à Léchi, les Philistins poussèrent des cris à sa rencontre. Alors l’esprit de l’Éternel le saisit. Les cordes qu’il avait aux bras devinrent comme du lin brûlé par le feu, et ses liens tombèrent de ses mains.
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 Il trouva une mâchoire d’âne fraîche, il étendit sa main pour la prendre, et il en tua mille hommes.
He found the fresh jawbone of a donkey, reached out his hand and took it, and struck down a thousand men.
16 Et Samson dit: Avec une mâchoire d’âne, un monceau, deux monceaux; Avec une mâchoire d’âne, j’ai tué mille hommes.
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 Quand il eut achevé de parler, il jeta de sa main la mâchoire. Et l’on appela ce lieu Ramath-Léchi.
And when Samson had finished speaking, he cast the jawbone from his hand; and he named that place Ramath-lehi.
18 Pressé par la soif, il invoqua l’Éternel, et dit: C’est toi qui as permis par la main de ton serviteur cette grande délivrance; et maintenant mourrais-je de soif, et tomberais-je entre les mains des incirconcis?
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 Dieu fendit la cavité du rocher qui est à Léchi, et il en sortit de l’eau. Samson but, son esprit se ranima, et il reprit vie. C’est de là qu’on a appelé cette source En-Hakkoré; elle existe encore aujourd’hui à Léchi.
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 Samson fut juge en Israël, au temps des Philistins, pendant vingt ans.
And Samson judged Israel for twenty years in the days of the Philistines.
