Judges 14-15

New King James Version

Samson’s Philistine Wife

14 Now Samson went down ^(A)to Timnah, and ^(B)saw a woman in Timnah of the daughters of the Philistines. ² So he went up and told his father and mother, saying, “I have seen a woman in Timnah of the daughters of the Philistines; now therefore, ^(C)get her for me as a wife.”

³ Then his father and mother said to him, “Is there no woman among the daughters of ^(D)your brethren, or among all my people, that you must go and get a wife from the ^(E)uncircumcised Philistines?”

And Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, for ^[a]she pleases me well.”

⁴ But his father and mother did not know that it was ^(F)of the Lord—that He was seeking an occasion to move against the Philistines. For at that time ^(G)the Philistines had dominion over Israel.

⁵ So Samson went down to Timnah with his father and mother, and came to the vineyards of Timnah.

Now to his surprise, a young lion came roaring against him. ⁶ And ^(H)the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and he tore the lion apart as one would have torn apart a young goat, though he had nothing in his hand. But he did not tell his father or his mother what he had done.

⁷ Then he went down and talked with the woman; and she pleased Samson well. ⁸ After some time, when he returned to get her, he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion. And behold, a swarm of bees and honey were in the carcass of the lion. ⁹ He took some of it in his hands and went along, eating. When he came to his father and mother, he gave some to them, and they also ate. But he did not tell them that he had taken the honey out of the ^(I)carcass of the lion.

¹⁰ So his father went down to the woman. And Samson gave a feast there, for young men used to do so. ¹¹ And it happened, when they saw him, that they brought thirty companions to be with him.

¹² Then Samson said to them, “Let me ^(J)pose a riddle to you. If you can correctly solve and explain it to me ^(K)within the seven days of the feast, then I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty ^(L)changes of clothing. ¹³ But if you cannot explain it to me, then you shall give me thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothing.”

And they said to him, ^(M)“Pose your riddle, that we may hear it.”

¹⁴ So he said to them:

Now for three days they could not explain the riddle.

¹⁵ But it came to pass on the ^[b]seventh day that they said to Samson’s wife, ^(N)“Entice your husband, that he may explain the riddle to us, ^(O)or else we will burn you and your father’s house with fire. Have you invited us in order to take what is ours? Is that not so?”

¹⁶ Then Samson’s wife wept on him, and said, ^(P)“You only hate me! You do not love me! You have posed a riddle to the sons of my people, but you have not explained it to me.”

And he said to her, “Look, I have not explained it to my father or my mother; so should I explain it to you?” ¹⁷ Now she had wept on him the seven days while their feast lasted. And it happened on the seventh day that he told her, because she pressed him so much. Then she explained 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 ^(Q)the Spirit of the Lord came upon him mightily, and he went down to Ashkelon and killed thirty of their men, took their apparel, and gave the changes of clothing to those who had explained the riddle. So his anger was aroused, and he went back up to his father’s house. ²⁰ And Samson’s wife ^(R)was given to his companion, who had been ^(S)his best man.

Samson Defeats the Philistines

15 After a while, in the time of wheat harvest, it happened that Samson visited his wife with a ^(T)young goat. And he said, “Let me go in to my wife, into her room.” But her father would not permit him to go in.

² Her father said, “I really thought that you thoroughly ^(U)hated her; therefore I gave her to your companion. Is not her younger sister better than she? Please, take her instead.”

³ And Samson said to them, “This time I shall be blameless regarding the Philistines if I harm them!” ⁴ Then Samson went and caught three hundred foxes; and he took torches, turned the foxes tail to tail, and put a torch between each pair of tails. ⁵ When he had set the torches on fire, he let the foxes go into the standing grain of the Philistines, and burned up both the shocks and the standing grain, as well as the vineyards and olive groves.

⁶ Then the Philistines said, “Who has done this?”

And they answered, “Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he has taken his wife and given her to his companion.” ^(V)So the Philistines came up and burned her and her father with fire.

⁷ Samson said to them, “Since you would do a thing like this, I will surely take revenge on you, and after that I will cease.” ⁸ So he attacked them hip and thigh with a great slaughter; then he went down and dwelt in the cleft of the rock of ^(W)Etam.

⁹ Now the Philistines went up, encamped in Judah, and deployed themselves ^(X)against Lehi. ¹⁰ And the men of Judah said, “Why have you come up against us?”

So they answered, “We have come up to ^[c]arrest Samson, 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, “Do you not know that the Philistines ^(Y)rule over us? What is this you have done to us?”

And he said to them, “As they did to me, so I have done to them.”

¹² But they said to him, “We have come down to arrest you, that we may deliver you into the hand of the Philistines.”

Then Samson said to them, “Swear to me that you will not kill me yourselves.”

¹³ So they spoke to him, saying, “No, but we will tie you securely and deliver you into their hand; but we will surely not kill you.” And they bound him with two ^(Z)new ropes and brought him up from the rock.

¹⁴ When he came to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting against him. Then ^(AA)the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him; and the ropes that were on his arms became like flax that is burned with fire, and his bonds ^[d]broke loose from his hands. ¹⁵ He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, reached out his hand and took it, and ^(AB)killed a thousand men with it. ¹⁶ Then Samson said:

¹⁷ And so it was, when he had finished speaking, that he threw the jawbone from his hand, and called that place ^[e]Ramath Lehi.

¹⁸ Then he became very thirsty; so he cried out to the Lord and said, ^(AC)“You have given this great deliverance by the hand of Your servant; and now shall I die of thirst and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised?” ¹⁹ So God split the hollow place that is in ^[f]Lehi, and water came out, and he drank; and ^(AD)his spirit returned, and he revived. Therefore he called its name ^[g]En Hakkore, which is in Lehi to this day. ²⁰ And ^(AE)he judged Israel ^(AF)twenty years ^(AG)in the days of the Philistines.