Judges 15:1–11

Samson’s Revenge

15Later on, during the wheat harvest, ^lSamson took a young goat as a gift and visited his wife. “I want to go to my wife in her room,” he said. But her father would not let him enter.

²“I was sure you hated her,” her father said, “so I gave her to one of the men who accompanied you. Isn’t her younger sister more beautiful than she is? Why not take her instead?”

³Samson said to them, “This time I won’t be responsible ^mwhen I harm the Philistines.” ⁴So he went out and caught 300 foxes. ⁿHe took torches, turned the foxes tail-to-tail, and put a torch between each pair of tails. ⁵Then he ignited the torches and released the foxes into the standing grain of the Philistines. He burned up the piles of grain and the standing grain as well as the vineyards and olive groves. ^o

⁶Then the Philistines asked, “Who did this?”

They were told, “It was Samson, the Timnite’s son-in-law, because he has taken Samson’s wife and given her to another man.” So the Philistines went to her and her father and burned them to death.

⁷Then Samson told them, “Because you did this, I swear that I won’t rest until I have taken vengeance on you.” ⁸He tore them limb from limb ^pwith a great slaughter, and he went down and stayed in the cave at the rock of Etam.

⁹The Philistines went up, camped in Judah, and raided Lehi. ¹⁰So the men of Judah said, “Why have you attacked us?”

They replied, “We have come to arrest Samson and pay him back for what he did to us.”

¹¹Then 3,000 men of Judah went to the cave at the rock of Etam, and they asked Samson, “Don’t you realize that the Philistines rule over us? ^qWhat have you done to us?”

“I have done to them what they did to me,” he answered. ^r