Judges 13:24–16:31

²⁴And the woman bore a son, and called his name Samson. And the child grew, and Jehovah blessed him. ²⁵And the Spirit of Jehovah began to move him at Mahaneh-Dan, between Zoreah and Eshtaol.

Chapter 14

¹And Samson went down to Timnathah, and saw a woman in Timnathah of the daughters of the Philistines. ²And he went up, and told his father and his mother, and said, I have seen a woman in Timnathah of the daughters of the Philistines; and now take her for me as wife. ³And his father and his mother said to him, Is there no woman among the daughters of thy brethren, and among all my people, that thou goest to take a wife of the Philistines, the uncircumcised? And Samson said to his father, Take her for me, for she pleases me well. ⁴And his father and his mother did not know that it was of Jehovah, that he was seeking an occasion against the Philistines. Now at that time the Philistines were ruling over Israel. ⁵And Samson went down, and his father and his mother, to Timnathah; and they came to the vineyards of Timnathah. And behold, a young lion roared against him; ⁶and the Spirit of Jehovah came upon him, and he rent it as one rends a kid, and nothing was in his hand. And he did not tell his father or his mother what he had done. ⁷And he went down and talked with the woman; and she pleased Samson well. ⁸And he returned after a time to take her, and he turned aside to see the carcase of the lion; and behold, there was a swarm of bees in the carcase of the lion, and honey; ⁹and he took it out in his hands, and went on, and ate as he went. And he came to his father and to his mother, and gave them, and they ate; but he did not tell them that he had taken the honey out of the carcase of the lion.

¹⁰And his father went down to the woman, and Samson made there a feast; for so used the young men to do. ¹¹And it came to pass when they saw him, that they brought thirty companions, and they were with him. ¹²And Samson said to them, Let me now propound a riddle to you; if ye clearly explain it to me within the seven days of the feast, and find it out, then I will give you thirty shirts, and thirty changes of garments. ¹³But if ye cannot explain it to me, then shall ye give me thirty shirts, and thirty changes of garments. And they said to him, Propound thy riddle, that we may hear it. ¹⁴And he said to them, Out of the eater came forth food, And out of the strong came forth sweetness. And they could not in three days explain the riddle. ¹⁵And it came to pass on the seventh day, that they said to Samson’s wife, Persuade thy husband, that he may explain to us the riddle, lest we burn thee and thy father’s house with fire. Have ye invited us to impoverish us, —is it not so? ¹⁶And Samson’s wife wept before him, and said, Thou dost but hate me, and lovest me not. Thou hast propounded the riddle to the children of my people, and hast not explained it to me. And he said to her, Behold, I have not explained it to my father nor my mother, and shall I explain it to thee? ¹⁷And she wept before him the seven days, while they had the feast. And it came to pass on the seventh day, that he explained it to her, for she pressed him. And she explained the riddle to the children of her people. ¹⁸And the men of the city said to him on the seventh day before the sun went down, What is sweeter than honey, And what stronger than a lion? And he said to them, If ye had not ploughed with my heifer, Ye had not found out my riddle. ¹⁹And the Spirit of Jehovah came upon him, and he went down to Ashkelon, and slew of them thirty men, and took their spoil, and gave the changes of garments unto them that explained the riddle. And his anger was kindled, and he went up to his father’s house. ²⁰And Samson’s wife was given to his companion, whom he had made his friend.

Chapter 15

¹And it came to pass after a time, in the days of the wheat-harvest, that Samson visited his wife with a kid of the goats. And he said, I will go in to my wife into the chamber; but her father would not suffer him to go in. ²And her father said, I verily thought that thou didst utterly hate her; therefore I gave her to thy companion. Is not her younger sister fairer than she? Let her, I pray thee, be thine instead of her. ³And Samson said to them, This time I am blameless toward the Philistines, though I do them harm. ⁴And Samson went and caught three hundred jackals, and took torches, and turned tail to tail, and put a torch in the midst between the two tails. ⁵And he set the torches on fire, and let them run into the standing corn of the Philistines, and burnt up both the shocks, and also the standing corn, and the olive gardens. ⁶And the Philistines said, Who has done this? And they answered, Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he took his wife and gave her to his companion. And the Philistines came up, and burned her and her father with fire. ⁷And Samson said to them, If ye act thus, for a certainty I will avenge myself on you, and then I will cease. ⁸And he smote them hip and thigh with a great slaughter. And he went down and dwelt in the cleft of the cliff Etam.

⁹And the Philistines went up, and encamped in Judah, and spread themselves in Lehi. ¹⁰And the men of Judah said, Why are ye come up against us? And they said, To bind Samson are we come up, to do to him as he has done to us. ¹¹Then three thousand men of Judah went down to the cleft of the cliff Etam, and said to Samson, Knowest thou not that the Philistines rule over us? And what is this that thou hast done to us? And he said to them, As they did to me, so have I done to them. ¹²And they said to him, We are come down to bind thee, that we may give thee into the hand of the Philistines. And Samson said to them, Swear to me that ye will not fall on me yourselves. ¹³And they spoke to him, saying, No; but we will bind thee fast, and deliver thee into their hand; but we certainly shall not put thee to death. And they bound him with two new cords, and brought him up from the cliff. ¹⁴When he came to Lehi, the Philistines shouted against him. And the Spirit of Jehovah came upon him, and the cords that were on his arms became as threads of flax that are burned with fire, and his bands loosed from off his hands. ¹⁵And he found a fresh jawbone of an ass, and put forth his hand and took it, and slew with it a thousand men. ¹⁶And Samson said, With the jawbone of an ass, a heap, two heaps, With the jawbone of an ass have I slain a thousand men. ¹⁷And it came to pass when he had ended speaking, that he cast away the jawbone out of his hand, and called that place Ramath-Lehi.

¹⁸And he was very thirsty, and called on Jehovah, and said, Thou hast given by the hand of thy servant this great deliverance, and now shall I die for thirst, and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised? ¹⁹And God clave the hallow rock which was in Lehi, and water came out of it. And he drank, and his spirit came again, and he revived. Therefore its name was called En-hakkore, which is in Lehi to this day. ²⁰And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.

Chapter 16

¹And Samson went to Gazah, and saw there a harlot, and went in to her. ²And it was told the Gazathites, saying, Samson is come hither. And they surrounded him, and laid wait for him all night at the gate of the city, and were quiet all the night, saying, In the morning light we will kill him. ³And Samson lay till midnight; and he arose at midnight, and seized the doors of the gate of the city, and the two posts, and tore them up with the bar, and put them upon his shoulders, and carried them up to the top of the mountain that is before Hebron.

⁴And it came to pass afterwards that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. ⁵And the lords of the Philistines came up to her, and said to her, Persuade him, and see in what his great strength is, and with what we may prevail against him, that we may bind him to overpower him; and we will each give thee eleven hundred silver-pieces. ⁶Then Delilah said to Samson, Tell me, I pray thee, in what is thy great strength, and with what thou mightest be bound to overpower thee. ⁷And Samson said to her, If they should bind me with seven fresh cords which have not been dried, then should I be weak, and be as another man. ⁸Then the lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven fresh cords which had not been dried, and she bound him with them. ⁹Now she had liers in wait abiding in the chamber; and she said to him, The Philistines are upon thee, Samson! And he broke the cords, as a thread of tow is broken when it touches the fire; and his strength was not known. ¹⁰And Delilah said to Samson, Behold, thou hast mocked me and told me lies. Now tell me, I pray thee, with what thou mightest be bound. ¹¹And he said to her, If they should bind me fast with new ropes, with which no work has been done, then should I be weak, and be as another man. ¹²And Delilah took new ropes, and bound him with them, and said to him, The Philistines are upon thee, Samson! Now there were liers in wait abiding in the chamber. And he broke them from off his arms like a thread. ¹³And Delilah said to Samson, Hitherto thou hast mocked me and told me lies. Tell me with what thou mightest be bound. And he said to her, If thou shouldest weave the seven locks of my head with the web. ¹⁴And she fastened it with the pin, and said to him, The Philistines are upon thee, Samson! And he awoke out of his sleep, and tore out the pin of the beam, and the web. ¹⁵Then she said to him, How canst thou say, I love thee, when thy heart is not with me? these three times hast thou mocked me, and hast not told me in what is thy great strength. ¹⁶And it came to pass when she pressed him daily with her words and urged him, that his soul was vexed unto death; ¹⁷and he told her all his heart, and said to her, There has not come a razor upon my head; for I am a Nazarite of God from my mother’s womb; if I should be shaven,…