Judges 13–16

Samson’s Parents

13And again, the Israelites^a did evil in the eyes of Yahweh, and Yahweh gave them into the hand of the Philistines forty years.

²There was a certain man from Zorah, from the tribe of the Danites, and his name was Manoah; his wife was infertile and did not bear children. ³And an angel of Yahweh appeared to the woman, and he said to her, “Behold, you are infertile and have not borne children, but you will conceive and bear a son. ⁴So then, be careful and do not drink wine or strong drink, and do not eat anything unclean, ⁵because you will conceive and bear a son. No razor will touch^b his head, because the boy will be a Nazirite of God^c from birth.^d And it is he who will begin to deliver Israel from the hand of the Philistines.” ⁶And the woman came and told her husband, saying, “A man of God came to me, and his appearance was like the appearance of an angel of God, very awesome. I did not ask him from where he came, and he did not tell me his name. ⁷And he said to me, ‘Look, you will conceive and bear a son, so then, do not drink wine or strong drink, and do not eat anything unclean, for the boy will be a Nazirite of God from birth^e until the day of his death.’ ”

⁸Then Manoah prayed to Yahweh and said, “Excuse me, my Lord, please let the man of God whom you sent again come to us and teach us what we should do concerning the boy who will be born.” ⁹And God listened to the voice of Manoah, and an angel of God came again to the woman; she was sitting in the field, but Manoah her husband was not with her. ¹⁰The woman quickly ran and told her husband, and she said to him, “Look! The man who came to me the other day appeared to me.” ¹¹So Manoah got up and went after his wife, and he came to the man and said to him, “Are you the man that spoke to the woman?” And he said, “I am.” ¹²And Manoah said to him, “Now when your words come true,^f what will be the boy’s manner of life^g and work?” ¹³And the angel of Yahweh said to Manoah, “Let the woman be attentive to all that I said. ¹⁴She should not eat of anything that comes from the vine, or drink wine or strong drink, or eat anything unclean; she should keep all that I commanded.”

¹⁵And Manoah said to the angel of Yahweh, “Please stay,^h and let us prepare a young goatⁱ for you.” ¹⁶The angel of Yahweh said to Manoah, “If you keep me, I will not eat your food, but if you prepare a burnt offering for Yahweh, you can offer it (for Manoah did not know that he was an angel of Yahweh).” ¹⁷And Manoah said to the angel of Yahweh, “What is your name so that when your words come true we may honor you?” ¹⁸But the angel of Yahweh said to him, “Why do you ask my name? It is too wonderful.”

¹⁹And Manoah took the young goat^j and the grain offering, and he offered it to Yahweh on the rock, to the one who performs miracles.^k And Manoah and his wife were watching. ²⁰And when the flame went up toward the heaven from the altar, the angel of Yahweh went up in the flame of the altar to heaven while Manoah and his wife were watching. And they fell on their faces to the ground. ²¹The angel of Yahweh did not appear again to Manoah and his wife, and then Manoah knew that he was a messenger^l of Yahweh. ²²And Manoah said to his wife, “We will certainly die because we have seen God.” ²³But his wife said to him, “If Yahweh wanted to kill us he would not have taken^m from our hand the burnt offering and the grain offering, or shown us all these things, or now announced to us things such as these.”

²⁴The woman bore a son, and she called him Samson; the boy grew big, and Yahweh blessed him. ²⁵And the Spirit of Yahweh began to stir him in the camp of Dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.

Samson Marries

14And Samson went down to Timnah, and he saw a woman in Timnah from the daughters of the Philistines. ²He went up and told his father and mother, and he said, “I saw a woman in Timnah from the daughters of the Philistines; so then, take her for me as a wife.” ³But his father and mother said to him, “Is there not a wife among the daughters of your relatives, or among all our^a people, that you must take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?” But Samson said to his father, “Take her for me because she pleases me.”^{b 4}His father and mother did not know that this was from Yahweh; he was seeking for an occasion against the Philistines. Now at that time the Philistines were ruling^c in Israel.

⁵And Samson and his father and mother went down to Timnah, and they came to the vineyards of Timnah, and suddenly a young lion came roaring to meet him. ⁶And the Spirit of Yahweh rushed upon him, and he tore the lion apart as one might tear apart a male kid goat (he was bare-handed).^d But he did not tell his father and mother what he had done. ⁷Then he went down and talked to the woman, and she pleased Samson.^{e 8}And he returned after awhile to marry her,^f and he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion, and there was a swarm of wild honey bees in the body of the lion, and honey. ⁹He scraped it out into his hands, and he went on, eating it as he went. And he went to his father and mother and gave some to them, and they ate it. But he did not tell them that he had scraped the honey from the body of the lion.

¹⁰His father went down to the woman, and Samson prepared there a feast, as young men were accustomed to doing this. ¹¹When they saw him, they took thirty companions, and they were with him. ¹²And Samson said to them, “Let me tell you a riddle. If you can fully explain it to me within the seven days of the feast, and find it out, I will give to you thirty linen garments and thirty festal garments. ¹³But if you are unable to explain it to me, you must give me thirty linen garments and thirty festal garments.” So they said to him, “Tell your riddle; let us hear it.” ¹⁴He said to them,

“From the eater came out food,

From the strong came out sweet.”

But they were unable to explain the riddle for three days.

¹⁵When it was the fourth^g day, they said to Samson’s wife, “Entice your husband and tell us the riddle, or we will burn you and your father’s house with fire. Have you invited us to rob us?” ¹⁶And Samson’s wife wept before him, and she said, “You must hate me; you do not love me. You told the riddle to my people,^h but you have not explained it to me.” He said to her, “I have not explained it to my father and mother. Why should I explain it to you?” ¹⁷She wept before him the seven days of their feast; and it happened, because she nagged him, on the seventh day he explained it to her, and she told the riddle to her people.^{i 18}The men of the city said to him on the seventh day before the sun went down,

“What is sweeter than honey?

What is stronger than a lion?”

And he said to them,

“If you had not plowed with my heifer,

you would not have found out my riddle.”

¹⁹And the Spirit of Yahweh rushed on him, and he went down to Ashkelon. He killed thirty men from them, and he took their belongings, and he gave festal garments to the ones that explained the riddle. He was angry,^j and he went up to his father’s house. ²⁰And Samson’s wife was given to his companion who was his best man.^k

Samson Defeats the Philistines

15After a while, at the time of the wheat harvest, Samson visited his wife with a young goat.^a He said, “I want to go to my wife’s private room.” But her father would not allow him to enter. ²Her father said, “I really thought that you hated her, so I gave her to your companion. Is not her younger sister more beautiful than she? Please, take her instead.”^{b 3}And Samson said to them, “This time, as far as the Philistines are concerned, when I do something evil I am without blame.” ⁴And Samson went and captured three hundred foxes, and he took torches. He turned them tail to tail, and he put one torch between two tails. ⁵He set fire to the torches and let the foxes go into the standing grain of the Philistines, and he burned both the stacks^c of sheaves and the standing grain, up to the vineyards^d of olive groves. ⁶And the Philistines said, “Who has done this?” And they said, “Samson the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he took his wife and gave her to his companion.” And the Philistines went up and burned her and her father with fire. ⁷Samson said to them, “If you want to behave like this, I swear I will not rest unless I have taken revenge on you.” ⁸And he gave them a thorough beating,^e and he went down and stayed in the cleft of the rock of Etam.

⁹Then the Philistines came up and encamped in Judah, and they overran Lehi. ¹⁰And the men of Judah said, “Why have you come up against us?” And they said, “To bind Samson; to do to him just as he did to us.” ¹¹Then three thousand men from Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam, and they said to Samson, “Do you not know that the Philistines are ruling over us? What is this that you have done to us?” And he said to them, “Just as they did to me, so I have done to them.” ¹²They said to him, “We have come down to bind you and give you over into the hand of the Philistines.” And Samson said to them, “Swear to me that you will not attack me yourselves.” ¹³They said to him, “No, we will only bind you and give you into their hand; we will certainly not kill you.” So they bound him with two new ropes, and they brought him up from the rock.

¹⁴As he came up to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting to meet him; and the Spirit of Yahweh rushed on him, and the ropes that were on his arms became like flax that has burned with fire, and his bindings melted from his hands. ¹⁵And he found a fresh jawbone of a donkey; he reached down and took it and killed one thousand men with it. ¹⁶And Samson said,

“With the jawbone of the donkey,

heap upon heap;

with the jawbone of the donkey,

I struck dead one thousand men.”

¹⁷And it happened, when he finished speaking he threw the jawbone from his hand; and he called that place Ramath Lehi.^f

¹⁸And he was very thirsty, and he called to Yahweh and said, “You gave this great victory…