Judges 15
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Samson Defeats the Philistines
15 After a while, at the time of the wheat harvest, Samson went to visit his wife, bringing along a kid. He said, “I want to go into my wife’s room.” But her father would not allow him to go in. 2 Her father said, “I was sure that you had rejected her, so I gave her to your companion. Is not her younger sister prettier than she? Why not take her instead?”(A) 3 Samson said to them, “This time, when I do mischief to the Philistines, I will be without blame.” 4 So Samson went and caught three hundred foxes and took some torches, and he turned the foxes[a] tail to tail and put a torch between each pair of tails. 5 When he had set fire to the torches, he let the foxes go into the standing grain of the Philistines and burned up the shocks and the standing grain, as well as the vineyards and[b] olive groves. 6 Then the Philistines asked, “Who has done this?” And they said, “Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he has taken Samson’s wife and given her to his companion.” So the Philistines came up and burned her and her father.(B) 7 Samson said to them, “If this is what you do, I swear I will not stop until I have taken revenge on you.” 8 He struck them down hip and thigh with a massive defeat, and he went down and stayed in the cleft of the rock of Etam.
9 Then the Philistines came up and encamped in Judah and made a raid on Lehi.(C) 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 did to us.” 11 Then three thousand men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam, and they said to Samson, “Do you not know that the Philistines are rulers over us? What then have you done to us?” He replied, “As they did to me, so I have done to them.”(D) 12 They said to him, “We have come down to bind you, so that we may give you into the hands of the Philistines.” Samson answered them, “Swear to me that you yourselves will not attack me.” 13 They said to him, “No, we will only bind you and give you into their hands; we will not kill you.” So they bound him with two new ropes and brought him up from the rock.
14 When he came to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting to meet him, and the spirit of the Lord rushed on him, and the ropes that were on his arms became like flax that has caught fire, and his bonds melted off his hands.(E) 15 Then he found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, reached down and took it, and with it he killed a thousand men.(F) 16 And Samson said,
“With the jawbone of a donkey,
heaps upon heaps,
with the jawbone of a donkey
I have slain a thousand men.”
17 When he had finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone, and that place was called Ramath-lehi.[c]
18 By then he was very thirsty, and he called on the Lord, saying, “You have granted this great victory by the hand of your servant. Am I now to die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?”(G) 19 So God split open the hollow place that is at Lehi, and water came from it. When he drank, his spirit returned, and he revived. Therefore it was named En-hakkore,[d] which is at Lehi to this day.(H) 20 And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.(I)
Judges 15
International Standard Version
Samson Burns the Philistine Harvest
15 A while later during the wheat harvest, Samson visited his wife, bringing along a young goat, and told his father-in-law,[a] “I’m going into my wife’s room.” But her father wouldn’t give permission for him[b] to go.
2 Her father said, “Because I honestly thought that you hated her deeply, I gave her in marriage to your best man.[c] Isn’t her younger sister better than she? Please then, let her be yours instead.”
3 Samson replied to them, “This time I’ll be blameless when I do something evil to the Philistines.” 4 So Samson went out, caught 300 foxes, grabbed some torches,[d] tied[e] the foxes together in pairs at their tails,[f] and fastened a torch[g] between each pair of tails. 5 Then he ignited the torches, set the foxes loose into the Philistines’ unharvested grain, and burned up both the harvested shocks and the standing grain, along with their vineyards and olive groves.
6 Then the Philistines demanded, “Who did this?”
Someone said, “Samson, son-in-law of the Timnite, because his father-in-law[h] took Samson’s[i] wife and gave her to the best man at Samson’s wedding.”[j] In retaliation, the Philistines came up and burned her and her father to death.
7 Samson replied to them, “Because you did this, I’m not going to stop until I get my revenge against you!” 8 So he attacked them ruthlessly[k] in a massive slaughter, then left to live in the caves of Etam. 9 In response, the Philistines went up, encamped in the territory of[l] Judah, and raided[m] Lehi.
10 The leading[n] men of Judah asked, “Why have you invaded us?”
They replied, “We’re here to arrest Samson. Then we’re going to do to him what he did to us.”
11 In response, 3,000 soldiers from the tribe of Judah went down to the caves of the rock of Etam and asked Samson, “Don’t you know that the Philistines have us in their control? What have you done to us?”
“I did to them what they did to me,” he answered.
12 They responded, “We’ve come here to arrest you and transfer you to the custody of the Philistines.”
Samson told them, “Promise me that you won’t kill me.”
13 So they said, “No, we won’t. But we’re going to tie you up securely and transfer you to their custody. But we won’t kill you.” Then they bound him with two ropes and brought him up from the caves.[o]
Samson Kills 1,000 Philistines
14 When Samson[p] arrived at Lehi, the Philistines came shouting to meet him. Then the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him, so that the ropes that bound him were like flax that’s been burned by fire, and his bonds dissolved. 15 He happened upon a jawbone from a putrefying donkey, reached out to grab it, and killed 1,000 men with it. 16 Then Samson declared,
“With a jawbone from the donkey—
here a heap, there a pair of heaps—[q]
with the jawbone of the donkey
I’ve killed 1,000 men.”
17 When he finally finished bragging, he discarded the jawbone and named that place “Jawbone Heights.”[r]
18 Aferward, he became thirsty, called out to the Lord, and told him, “So, you provided this great deliverance at the hands[s] of your servant, but now I’m to die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?” 19 So God split a hollow place that’s in Lehi, and water sprang out of it. After he had taken a drink, his strength returned, and he revived. That’s why it was named “En-hakkore,”[t] which is in Lehi to this day. 20 Samson[u] governed Israel for twenty years during the Philistine domination.
Footnotes
- Judges 15:1 The Heb. lacks to his father-in-law
- Judges 15:1 The Heb. lacks permission for him
- Judges 15:2 Lit. your acquaintance; cf. Judg 14:20; 15:7
- Judges 15:4 Or firebrands
- Judges 15:4 Lit. turned
- Judges 15:4 Lit. foxes tail to tail
- Judges 15:4 Or firebrand
- Judges 15:6 Lit. because he
- Judges 15:6 Lit. his
- Judges 15:6 Lit. to his acquaintance; cf. Judg 14:20, 15:2
- Judges 15:8 Lit. them hip and thigh
- Judges 15:9 The Heb. lacks the territory of
- Judges 15:9 Or and spread out in
- Judges 15:10 The Heb. lacks leading
- Judges 15:13 Lit. rock
- Judges 15:14 Lit. he
- Judges 15:16 I.e. multiple encounters with the Philistines; MT word heap is a word play on the identically spelled Heb. word donkey
- Judges 15:17 Lit. Ramath-lehi
- Judges 15:18 Lit. hand
- Judges 15:19 MT word En-hakkore means The Spring of the One Who Calls Out
- Judges 15:20 Lit. He
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