Samson Burns Philistine Crops

15 But after a while, in the time of wheat harvest, Samson visited his wife (A)with a young goat, and said, “I will go in to my wife in her room.” But her father did not let him enter. Her father said, “I really thought that you hated her intensely; so I (B)gave her to your companion. Is her younger sister not [a]more beautiful than she? Please let her be yours [b]instead.” Samson then said to them, “This time I will have been blameless regarding the Philistines when I do them harm.” 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. 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. Then the Philistines said, “Who did this?” And some said, “Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because [c]he took his wife and gave her to his companion.” So the Philistines came up and (C)burned her and her father to death with fire. 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.” So he struck them [d]ruthlessly with a great slaughter; and afterward he went down and lived in the cleft of the rock of Etam.

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Footnotes

  1. Judges 15:2 Lit better
  2. Judges 15:2 Lit instead of her
  3. Judges 15:6 I.e., the Timnite
  4. Judges 15:8 Lit thigh on loin

Samson Defeats the Philistines

15 After a while, at the time of the wheat harvest, Samson visited his wife with a young goat.[a] He said, “I want to go to my wife’s private room.” But her father would not allow him to enter. Her father said, “I really thought that you hated her, so I gave her to your companion. Is not her younger sister more beautiful than she? Please, take her instead.”[b] And Samson said to them, “This time, as far as the Philistines are concerned, when I do something evil I am without blame.” And Samson went and captured three hundred foxes, and he took torches. He turned them tail to tail, and he put one torch between two tails. He set fire to the torches and let the foxes go into the standing grain of the Philistines, and he burned both the stacks[c] of sheaves and the standing grain, up to the vineyards[d] of olive groves. And the Philistines said, “Who has done this?” And they said, “Samson the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he took his wife and gave her to his companion.” And the Philistines went up and burned her and her father with fire. Samson said to them, “If you want to behave like this, I swear I will not rest unless I have taken revenge on you.” And he gave them a thorough beating,[e] and he went down and stayed in the cleft of the rock of Etam.

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Footnotes

  1. Judges 15:1 Literally “kid of goat”
  2. Judges 15:2 Literally “let her be in the place of her”
  3. Judges 15:5 Hebrew “stack”
  4. Judges 15:5 Hebrew “vineyard”
  5. Judges 15:8 Literally “he struck them hip and thigh with a great blow”