1 But it came to pass within a while after, in the time of
wheat harvest, that Samson visited his wife with a kid; and he said, I will go
in to my wife into the chamber. But her father would not suffer him to go in.
2 And
her father said, I verily thought that thou hadst utterly hated her; therefore
I gave her to thy companion: is not her younger sister fairer than
she? take her, I pray thee, instead of her.
3 And
Samson said concerning them, Now shall I be more blameless than the
Philistines, though I do them a displeasure.
4 And
Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took firebrands, and turned
tail to tail, and put a firebrand in the midst between two tails.
5 And
when he had set the brands on fire, he let them go into the standing corn of the
Philistines, and burnt up both the shocks, and also the standing corn, with the
vineyards and olives.
6 Then
the Philistines said, Who hath done this? And they answered, Samson, the son in
law of the Timnite, because he had taken his wife, and given her to his
companion. And the Philistines came up, and burnt her and her father with fire.
7 And
Samson said unto them, Though ye have done this, yet will I be avenged of you,
and after that I will cease.
8 And
he smote them hip and thigh with a great slaughter: and he went down and dwelt
in the top of the rock Etam.
9 Then
the Philistines went up, and pitched in Judah, and spread themselves in Lehi.
10 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.
11 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.
12 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 fall upon me yourselves.
13 And
they spake unto him, saying, No; but we will bind thee fast, and deliver thee
into their hand: but surely we will not kill thee. And they bound him with two
new cords, and brought him up from the rock.
14 And when he came unto Lehi, the
Philistines shouted against him: and the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon
him, and the cords that were upon his arms became as flax that was
burnt with fire, and his bands loosed from off his hands.
15 And
he found a new jawbone of an ass, and put forth his hand, and took it, and slew
a thousand men therewith.
16 And
Samson said, With the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, with the jaw of an
ass have I slain a thousand men.
17 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 Ramathlehi.
18 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 uncircumcised?
19 But
God clave an hollow place that was in the jaw, and there came water
thereout; and when he had drunk, his spirit came again, and he revived: wherefore
he called the name thereof Enhakkore, which is in Lehi unto this day.
20 And
he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.
