Judges 15 :: New International Version (NIV)

Samson’s Vengeance on the Philistines

Jdg 15:1Later on, at the time of wheat harvest, Samson took a young goat and went to visit his wife. He said, “I’m going to my wife’s room.” But her father would not let him go in.

Jdg 15:2

Jdg 15:2“I was so sure you hated her,” he said, “that I gave her to your companion. Isn’t her younger sister more attractive? Take her instead.”

Jdg 15:3

Jdg 15:3Samson said to them, “This time I have a right to get even with the Philistines; I will really harm them.”

Jdg 15:4

Jdg 15:4So he went out and caught three hundred foxes and tied them tail to tail in pairs. He then fastened a torch to every pair of tails,

Jdg 15:5

Jdg 15:5lit the torches and let the foxes loose in the standing grain of the Philistines. He burned up the shocks and standing grain, together with the vineyards and olive groves.

Jdg 15:6

Jdg 15:6When the Philistines asked, “Who did this?” they were told, “Samson, the Timnite’s son-in-law, because his wife was given to his companion.” So the Philistines went up and burned her and her father to death.

Jdg 15:7

Jdg 15:7Samson said to them, “Since you’ve acted like this, I swear that I won’t stop until I get my revenge on you.”

Jdg 15:8

Jdg 15:8He attacked them viciously and slaughtered many of them. Then he went down and stayed in a cave in the rock of Etam.

Jdg 15:9

Jdg 15:9The Philistines went up and camped in Judah, spreading out near Lehi.

Jdg 15:10

Jdg 15:10The people of Judah asked, “Why have you come to fight us?” “We have come to take Samson prisoner,” they answered, “to do to him as he did to us.”

Jdg 15:11

Jdg 15:11Then three thousand men from Judah went down to the cave in the rock of Etam and said to Samson, “Don’t you realize that the Philistines are rulers over us? What have you done to us?” He answered, “I merely did to them what they did to me.”

Jdg 15:12

Jdg 15:12They said to him, “We’ve come to tie you up and hand you over to the Philistines.” Samson said, “Swear to me that you won’t kill me yourselves.”

Jdg 15:13

Jdg 15:13“Agreed,” they answered. “We will only tie you up and hand you over to them. We will not kill you.” So they bound him with two new ropes and led him up from the rock.

Jdg 15:14

Jdg 15:14As he approached Lehi, the Philistines came toward him shouting. The Spirit of the LORD came powerfully upon him. The ropes on his arms became like charred flax, and the bindings dropped from his hands.

Jdg 15:15

Jdg 15:15Finding a fresh jawbone of a donkey, he grabbed it and struck down a thousand men.

Jdg 15:16

Jdg 15:16Then Samson said, “With a donkey’s jawbone I have made donkeys of them.[fn] With a donkey’s jawbone I have killed a thousand men.”

Jdg 15:17

Jdg 15:17When he finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone; and the place was called Ramath Lehi.[fn]

Jdg 15:18

Jdg 15:18Because he was very thirsty, he cried out to the LORD, “You have given your servant this great victory. Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?”

Jdg 15:19

Jdg 15:19Then God opened up the hollow place in Lehi, and water came out of it. When Samson drank, his strength returned and he revived. So the spring was called En Hakkore,[fn] and it is still there in Lehi.

Jdg 15:20

Jdg 15:20Samson led[fn] Israel for twenty years in the days of the Philistines.

See the NIV Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).

NIV Footnotes

(15:16)

Or made a heap or two; the Hebrew for donkey sounds like the Hebrew for heap.

(15:17)

Ramath Lehi means jawbone hill.

(15:19)

En Hakkore means caller’s spring.

(15:20)

Traditionally judged

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