THE BOOK OF
JUDGES
Judges 15 ©
Samson desires to visit his wife, but she is denied him, v. 1, etc. Therefore he sets the Philistines’ wheat on fire; by foxes with fire-brands tied to their tails, 4. For which the Philistines burn Samson’s wife with her father, 7. Which act of theirs Samson again revenges, 8. The Philistines go forth, to revenge themselves on Samson, to whom the men of Judah (he being sent unto them) deliver, 9. But he breaks his bonds, and slays a thousand Philistines with the jaw-bone of an ass, 14. Out of which being weary and thirsty, he obtains of God by prayer a fountain, drinks, and is revived, 18.
BUT it came to pass within a while after, in the time of wheat harvest, that Samson 1visited his wife with a kid; and he said, I will 2go in to my wife into the chamber. But her father would not suffer him to go in.
And her father said, I 3verily thought that thou hadst utterly hated her; therefore I 4gave her to thy companion: is not her 5younger sister 6fairer than she? take her, I pray thee, instead of her.
¶And Samson said concerning 7them, Now shall 8I be more blameless than the Philistines, though I do them a displeasure.
And Samson went and 9caught three hundred 10foxes, and took firebrands, and turned tail to tail, and put a firebrand in the midst between two tails.
And when he had 11set the brands on fire, he let them go into the standing corn of the Philistines, and burnt up both 12the shocks, and also the standing corn, with the vineyards and olives.
¶Then the Philistines said, Who hath done this? And they answered, Samson, the son in law of the Timnite, because 13he had taken 14his wife, and given her to his companion. And the Philistines came up, and burnt 15her and her father with fire.
¶And Samson said unto them, 16Though ye have done this, yet will I be avenged of you, and after that I will cease.
And he smote them hip 17and thigh with a great slaughter: and he went 18down and dwelt in the top 19of the rock 20Etam.
¶Then the Philistines went up, and pitched in Judah, and spread themselves in 21Lehi.
And the men of Judah said, Why are ye come up against us? And they answered, To bind Samson are we come up, to do to him as he hath done to us.
Then three thousand men of Judah went to the top of the rock Etam, and said to Samson, Knowest thou not that the Philistines are rulers over us? what is this that thou hast done unto us? And he said unto them, As they did unto me, so have I done unto them.
And they said unto him, We are come down to bind thee, that we may deliver thee into the hand of the Philistines. And Samson said unto them, Swear unto me, that ye will not 22fall upon me yourselves.
And they spake unto him, saying, No; but we will bind thee 23fast, and deliver thee into their hand: but 24surely we will not kill thee. And they bound him with two new cords, and brought him 25up from the rock.
¶And when he came unto Lehi, the Philistines 26shouted against him: and the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him, and the cords that were upon his arms became 27as flax that was burnt with fire, and his bands 28loosed from off his hands.
And he found a 29new jawbone of an ass, and put forth his hand, and took it, and slew a thousand men therewith.
And Samson said, With the jawbone of an ass, heaps 30upon heaps, with the jaw of an ass have I slain a thousand men.
And it came to pass, when he had made an end of speaking, that he cast away the jawbone out of his hand, and called that place 31Ramath-lehi.
¶And he was sore athirst, and called on the LORD, and said, Thou hast given this great deliverance into the hand of thy servant: and now shall I die for thirst, and fall into the hand of the 32uncircumcised?a
But God clave an 33hollow place that was in the jaw, and there came water thereout; and when he had drunk, his 34spirit came again, and he 35revived: wherefore 36he 37called the name thereof 38En-hakkore, which is in Lehi unto this day.
And he 39judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.