Judges 15:11–20

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

¹²They said to him, “We’ve come to arrest you and hand you over to the Philistines.”

Then Samson told them, “Swear to me that you yourselves won’t kill me.”

¹³“No,” they said, ^s“we won’t kill you, but we will tie you up securely and hand you over to them.” So they tied him up with two new ropes ^tand led him away from the rock.

¹⁴When he came to Lehi, the Philistines came to meet him shouting. The Spirit of the Lord took control of ^uhim, and the ropes that were on his arms became like burnt flax and his bonds fell off his wrists. ¹⁵He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, reached out his hand, took it, and killed 1,000 men with it. ¹⁶Then Samson said:

With the jawbone of a donkey

I have piled them in a heap.

With the jawbone of a donkey

I have killed 1,000 men.

¹⁷When he finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone and named that place Ramath-lehi. ^v18He became very thirsty and called out to the Lord: “You have accomplished this great victory through ^wYour servant. Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?” ¹⁹So God split a hollow place in the ground at Lehi, and water came out of it. After Samson drank, his strength returned, and he revived. ^xThat is why he named it En-hakkore, ^ywhich is in Lehi to this day. ²⁰And he judged Israel 20 years in the days of the Philistines.