Samson’s Marriage

14 Then Samson went down to Timnah, and he saw a woman in Timnah, one of the daughters of the Philistines. ² So he came ^[a]back and told his father and ^[b]mother, “I saw a woman in Timnah, one of the daughters of the Philistines; so now, get her for me as a wife.” ³ But his father and his mother said to him, “Is there no woman among the daughters of your ^(A)relatives, or among all ^[c]our people, that you go to ^(B)take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?” Yet Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, because she is right ^[d]for me.” ⁴ However, his father and mother did not know that ^(C)this was of the Lord, for He was seeking an occasion against the Philistines. And at that time the Philistines were ruling over Israel.

⁵ Then Samson went down to Timnah with his father and mother, and came as far as the vineyards of Timnah; and behold, a young lion came roaring toward him. ⁶ And ^(D)the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him, so that ^(E)he tore it apart as one tears apart a young goat, though he had nothing in his hand; but he did not tell his father or mother what he had done. ⁷ So he went down and talked to the woman; and she ^[e]looked pleasing to Samson. ⁸ When he returned later to take her, he turned aside to look at the carcass of the lion; and behold, a swarm of bees and honey were in the body of the lion. ⁹ So he took out ^[f]the honey on his ^[g]hands and went on, eating as he went. When he came to his father and mother, he gave some to them and they ate it; but he did not tell them that he had took the honey out of the body of the lion.

¹⁰ Then his father went down to the woman; and Samson held a feast there, for the young men customarily did this. ¹¹ When they saw him, they brought thirty companions to be with him.

Samson’s Riddle

¹² Then Samson said to them, “Let me now ^(F)propose a riddle for you; if you actually tell me ^[h]the answer within the seven days of the feast, and solve it, then I will give you thirty linen wraps and thirty ^(G)outfits of clothes. ¹³ But if you are unable to tell me, then you shall give me thirty linen wraps and thirty outfits of clothes.” And they said to him, “Propose your riddle, so that we may hear it.” ¹⁴ So he said to them,

But they could not tell the answer to the riddle in three days.

¹⁵ Then it came about on the ^[i]fourth day that they said to Samson’s wife, “^(H)Entice your husband, so that he will tell us the riddle, ^(I)or we will burn you and your father’s house with fire. Have you invited us to impoverish us? Is this not so?” ¹⁶ So Samson’s wife wept in front of him and said, “^(J)You only hate me, and you do not love me; you have proposed a riddle to the sons of my people, and have not told it to me.” And he said to her, “Behold, I have not told it to my father or mother; so should I tell you?” ¹⁷ However she wept before him for seven days while their feast lasted. And on the seventh day he told her because she pressed him so hard. She then told the riddle to the sons of her people. ¹⁸ So the men of the city said to him on the seventh day before the sun went down,

And he said to them,

¹⁹ Then ^(K)the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him, and he went down to Ashkelon and killed thirty men of them and took what they were wearing and gave the outfits of clothes to those who told the riddle. And his anger burned, and he went up to his father’s house. ²⁰ But Samson’s wife was ^(L)given to his companion who had been his ^[j]friend.

Samson Burns Philistine Crops

15 But after a while, in the time of wheat harvest, Samson visited his wife ^(M)with a young goat, and said, “I will go in to my wife in her room.” But her father did not let him enter. ² Her father said, “I really thought that you hated her intensely; so I ^(N)gave her to your companion. Is her younger sister not ^[k]more beautiful than she? Please let her be yours ^[l]instead.” ³ Samson then said to them, “This time I will have been blameless regarding the Philistines when I do them harm.” ⁴ And Samson went and caught three hundred jackals, and took torches, and turned the jackals tail to tail and put one torch in the middle between two tails. ⁵ When he had set fire to the torches, he released the jackals into the standing grain of the Philistines and set fire to both the bundled heaps and the standing grain, along with the vineyards and olive groves. ⁶ Then the Philistines said, “Who did this?” And some said, “Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because ^[m]he took his wife and gave her to his companion.” So the Philistines came up and ^(O)burned her and her father to death with fire. ⁷ Then Samson said to them, “If this is how you act, I will certainly take revenge on you, and only after that will I stop.” ⁸ So he struck them ^[n]ruthlessly with a great slaughter; and afterward he went down and lived in the cleft of the rock of Etam.

⁹ Then the Philistines went up and camped in Judah, and spread out in Lehi. ¹⁰ So the men of Judah said, “Why have you come up against us?” And they said, “We have come up to bind Samson in order to do to him as he did to us.” ¹¹ Then three thousand men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam and said to Samson, “Do you not know ^(P)that the Philistines are rulers over us? What then is this that you have done to us?” And he said to them, “Just as they did to me, so I have done to them.” ¹² Then they said to him, “We have come down to bind you so that we may hand you over to the Philistines.” And Samson said to them, “Swear to me that you will not ^[o]kill me.” ¹³ So they said to ^[p]him, “No, but we will bind you tightly and give you into their hands; but we certainly will not kill you.” Then 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 ^(Q)the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him so that the ropes that were on his arms were like flax that has burned with fire, and his restraints ^[q]dropped from his hands. ¹⁵ Then he found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, so he reached out with his hand and took it, and ^[r]killed ^(R)a thousand men with it. ¹⁶ And Samson said,

¹⁷ When he had finished speaking, he threw the jawbone from his hand; and he named that place ^[u]Ramath-lehi. ¹⁸ Then he became very thirsty, and he ^(S)called to the Lord and said, “You have ^[v]handed this great ^[w]victory over to Your servant, and now ^[x]am I to die of thirst ^[y]and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?” ¹⁹ But God split the hollow place that is in Lehi so that water came out of it. When he drank, ^(T)his ^[z]strength returned and he revived. Therefore he named it ^[aa]En-hakkore, which is in Lehi to this day. ²⁰ So ^(U)he judged Israel for twenty years in ^(V)the days of the Philistines.