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.

“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?”

Samson said to them, “This time I will be blameless(B) when I harm the Philistines.” So he went out and caught three hundred foxes.(C) He took torches, turned the foxes tail-to-tail, and put a torch between each pair of tails. Then he ignited the torches and released the foxes into the standing grain of the Philistines. He burned the piles of grain and the standing grain as well as the vineyards and olive groves.(D)

Then the Philistines asked, “Who did this?”

They were told, “It was Samson, the Timnite’s son-in-law, because he took Samson’s wife and gave her to his companion.” So the Philistines went to her and her father and burned them to death.

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

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Footnotes

  1. 15:8 Lit He struck them hip and thigh with a great slaughter

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