Samson Defeats the Philistines

15 After a while, in the time of wheat harvest, it happened that Samson visited his wife with a ^(A)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 ^(B)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.” ^(C)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 ^(D)Etam.

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

So they answered, “We have come up to ^[a]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 ^(F)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 ^(G)new ropes and brought him up from the rock.

¹⁴ When he came to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting against him. Then ^(H)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 ^[b]broke loose from his hands. ¹⁵ He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, reached out his hand and took it, and ^(I)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 ^[c]Ramath Lehi.

¹⁸ Then he became very thirsty; so he cried out to the Lord and said, ^(J)“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 ^[d]Lehi, and water came out, and he drank; and ^(K)his spirit returned, and he revived. Therefore he called its name ^[e]En Hakkore, which is in Lehi to this day. ²⁰ And ^(L)he judged Israel ^(M)twenty years ^(N)in the days of the Philistines.

Paul and Silas Imprisoned

¹⁶ Now it happened, as we went to prayer, that a certain slave girl ^(A)possessed with a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters ^(B)much profit by fortune-telling. ¹⁷ This girl followed Paul and us, and cried out, saying, “These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation.” ¹⁸ And this she did for many days.

But Paul, ^(C)greatly ^[a]annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” ^(D)And he came out that very hour. ¹⁹ But ^(E)when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and ^(F)dragged them into the marketplace to the authorities.

²⁰ And they brought them to the magistrates, and said, “These men, being Jews, ^(G)exceedingly trouble our city; ²¹ and they teach customs which are not lawful for us, being Romans, to receive or observe.” ²² Then the multitude rose up together against them; and the magistrates tore off their clothes ^(H)and commanded them to be beaten with rods. ²³ And when they had laid many stripes on them, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to keep them securely. ²⁴ Having received such a charge, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.

The Philippian Jailer Saved

²⁵ But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. ^26 (I)Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately ^(J)all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were loosed. ²⁷ And the keeper of the prison, awaking from sleep and seeing the prison doors open, supposing the prisoners had fled, drew his sword and was about to kill himself. ²⁸ But Paul called with a loud voice, saying, “Do yourself no harm, for we are all here.”

²⁹ Then he called for a light, ran in, and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. ³⁰ And he brought them out and said, ^(K)“Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

³¹ So they said, ^(L)“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.” ³² Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. ³³ And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes. And immediately he and all his family were baptized. ³⁴ Now when he had brought them into his house, ^(M)he set food before them; and he rejoiced, having believed in God with all his household.

Paul Refuses to Depart Secretly

³⁵ And when it was day, the magistrates sent the ^[b]officers, saying, “Let those men go.”

³⁶ So the keeper of the prison reported these words to Paul, saying, “The magistrates have sent to let you go. Now therefore depart, and go in peace.”

³⁷ But Paul said to them, “They have beaten us openly, uncondemned ^(N)Romans, and have thrown us into prison. And now do they put us out secretly? No indeed! Let them come themselves and get us out.”

³⁸ And the officers told these words to the magistrates, and they were afraid when they heard that they were Romans. ³⁹ Then they came and pleaded with them and brought them out, and ^(O)asked them to depart from the city. ⁴⁰ So they went out of the prison ^(P)and entered the house of Lydia; and when they had seen the brethren, they encouraged them and departed.