Samson’s Revenge

15 Later on, during the wheat harvest,^(A) Samson took a young goat as a gift and visited his wife. “I want to go to my wife in her room,” he said. But her father would not let him enter.

² “I was sure you hated her,” her father said, “so I gave her to one of the men who accompanied you. Isn’t her younger sister more beautiful than she is? Why not take her instead?”

³ Samson said to them, “This time I won’t be responsible^(B) when I harm the Philistines.” ⁴ So he went out and caught 300 foxes.^(C) He took torches, turned the foxes tail-to-tail, and put a torch between each pair of tails. ⁵ Then he ignited the torches and released the foxes into the standing grain of the Philistines. He burned up the piles of grain and the standing grain as well as the vineyards and olive groves.^(D)

⁶ Then the Philistines asked, “Who did this?”

They were told, “It was Samson, the Timnite’s son-in-law, because he has taken Samson’s wife and given her to another man.” So the Philistines went to her and her father and burned them to death.

⁷ Then Samson told them, “Because you did this, I swear that I won’t rest until I have taken vengeance on you.” ⁸ He tore them limb from limb^[a] with a great slaughter, and he went down and stayed in the cave at the rock of Etam.