Judges, 15

1. After some time, in the season of the wheat harvest, Samson visited his wife, bringing a kid. But when he said, "Let me be with my wife in private," her father would not let him enter,

1. Not long after this, at the time of the wheat harvest, Samson visited his wife, with a kid; he said, 'I wish to go to my wife in her room.' But her father would not let him enter.

2. saying, "I thought it certain you wished to repudiate her; so I gave her to your best man. Her younger sister is more beautiful than she; you may have her instead."

2. 'I felt sure', he said, 'that you had taken a real dislike to her, so I gave her to your companion. But would not her younger sister suit you better? Have her instead.'

3. Samson said to them, "This time the Philistines cannot blame me if I harm them."

3. But Samson answered them, 'I can get my revenge on the Philistines now only by doing them some damage.'

4. So Samson left and caught three hundred foxes. Turning them tail to tail, he tied between each pair of tails one of the torches he had at hand.

4. So Samson went off and caught three hundred foxes, then took torches and, turning the foxes tail to tail, put a torch between each pair of tails.

5. He then kindled the torches and set the foxes loose in the standing grain of the Philistines, thus burning both the shocks and the standing grain, and the vineyards and olive orchards as well.

5. He lit the torches and set the foxes free in the Philistines' cornfields. In this way he burned both sheaves and standing corn, and the vines and olive trees as well.

6. When the Philistines asked who had done this, they were told, "Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because his wife was taken and given to his best man." So the Philistines went up and destroyed her and her family by fire.

6. The Philistines asked, 'Who has done this?' and received the answer, 'Samson, who married the Timnite's daughter; his father-in-law took the wife back again and gave her to his companion instead.' The Philistines then went and burned the woman and her father's family to death.

7. Samson said to them, "If this is how you act, I will not stop until I have taken revenge on you."

7. Samson said to them, 'If that is how you behave, I swear I will not rest till I have had my revenge on you.'

8. And with repeated blows, he inflicted a great slaughter on them. Then he went down and remained in a cavern of the cliff of Etam.

8. And he fell on them systematically and caused great havoc. Then he went down to the cave in the Rock of Etham and lived there.

9. The Philistines went up and, from a camp in Judah, deployed against Lehi.

9. The Philistines came up and encamped in Judah and made a foray against Lehi.

10. When the men of Judah asked, "Why have you come up against us?" they answered, "To take Samson prisoner; to do to him as he has done to us."

10. The men of Judah said to them, 'Why are you attacking us?' They replied, 'We have come to seize Samson and to treat him as he has treated us.'

11. Three thousand men of Judah went down to the cavern in the cliff of Etam and said to Samson, "Do you not know that the Philistines are our rulers? Why, then, have you done this to us?" He answered them, "As they have done to me, so have I done to them."

11. Three thousand men of Judah then went down to the cave of the Rock of Etham and said to him, 'Don't you know that the Philistines have us in their power? Now what have you done to us?' He replied, 'I have treated them only as they treated me.'

12. They said to him, "We have come to take you prisoner, to deliver you over to the Philistines." Samson said to them, "Swear to me that you will not kill me yourselves."

12. They then said, 'We have come down to take you, to hand you over to the Philistines.' He said, 'Swear to me not to kill me yourselves.'

13. "No," they replied,"we will certainly not kill you but will only bind you and deliver you over to them." So they bound him with two new ropes and brought him up from the cliff.

13. They replied, 'No; we only want to bind you and hand you over to them; we certainly do not want to kill you.' They then bound him with two new ropes and brought him up from the Rock.

14. When he reached Lehi, and the Philistines came shouting to meet him, the spirit of the LORD came upon him: the ropes around his arms became as flax that is consumed by fire and his bonds melted away from his hands.

14. As he was approaching Lehi, and the Philistines came running towards him with triumphant shouts, the spirit of Yahweh was on him; the ropes on his arms became like burnt strands of flax and the cords round his hands came untied.

15. Near him was the fresh jawbone of an ass; he reached out, grasped it, and with it killed a thousand men.

15. Coming across the fresh jawbone of a donkey, he reached out and snatched it up; and with it he slaughtered a thousand men.

16. Then Samson said, "With the jawbone of an ass I have piled them in a heap; With the jawbone of an ass I have slain a thousand men."

16. And Samson said: With the jawbone of a donkey I have laid them in heaps, with the jawbone of a donkey I have felled a thousand men.

17. As he finished speaking he threw the jawbone from him; and so that place was named Ramath-lehi.

17. And with that he hurled the jawbone away; and that is why the place was called Ramath-Lehi.

18. Being very thirsty, he cried to the LORD and said, "You have granted this great victory by the hand of your servant. Must I now die of thirst or fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?"

18. And as he was very thirsty, he called on Yahweh and said, 'You yourself have worked this great deliverance by the hand of your servant; and now must I die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?'

19. Then God split the cavity in Lehi, and water issued from it, which Samson drank till his spirit returned and he revived. Hence that spring in Lehi is called En-hakkore to this day.

19. Then God opened a hollow in the ground, the hollow there is at Lehi, and water gushed out of it. Samson drank; his vigour returned and he revived. And therefore this spring was called En-ha-Kore; it is still at Lehi today.

20. Samson judged Israel for twenty years in the days of the Philistines.

20. Samson was judge in Israel in the days of the Philistines for twenty years.