Judges 13:24–16:31

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 into the hand of your servant, but now I must die of thirst and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised?” ¹⁹So God split the hollow place that is at Lehi, and water came out from it; and he drank, and his spirit returned, and he was revived. Thus he called its name The Spring of Ha-Qore,^g which is at Lehi to this day. ²⁰And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.

Samson and Delilah

16Samson went down to Gaza; there he saw a prostitute and had sex with her.^{a 2}The Gazites were told, “Samson has come here,” so they surrounded the place and lay in ambush for him all night at the city gate. They kept silent all night, saying, “We will wait until the morning light, and then we will kill him.” ³But Samson lay until the middle of the night; he got up in the middle of the night and took hold of the doors of the city gate and the two door posts, tore them loose with the bar, put them on his shoulders, and carried them up to the top of the hill that is in front of^b Hebron.

⁴After this he fell in love with a woman in the wadi^c of Sorek, and her name was Delilah. ⁵And the rulers of the Philistines came up to her and said, “Entice him and find out what makes his strength so great, and how we can overpower him, so that we may bind him up in order to subdue him; each of us will give you eleven hundred pieces of silver. ⁶So Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me what makes your strength so great, and with what can you be tied up to subdue you?” ⁷Samson said to her, “If you tie me up with seven fresh bowstrings that are not dried up, I will become weak like everyone else.” ⁸So the rulers of the Philistines brought up to her seven fresh bowstrings that were not dried up, and she tied him up with them. ⁹The ambush was sitting in wait for her in an inner room. And she said to him, “The Philistines are upon you Samson!” And he snapped the bowstrings just as flax fiber snaps when it comes close to fire. And the secret of his strength remained unknown. ¹⁰Delilah said to Samson, “Look, you have mocked me and told me lies. Please tell me how you can be bound.” ¹¹He said to her, “If they tie me tightly with new ropes that have not been used, I will become weak and be like everyone else.” ¹²So Delilah took new ropes and tied him up with them, and she said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” (The ambush was sitting in an inner room.) But he snapped them from his arms like thread.

¹³And Delilah said to Samson, “Until now you have mocked me and told lies to me. Tell me how you can be bound.” And he said to her, “If you weave seven locks of my head with warp-threads.”^{d 14}She fastened it with the pin and said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” And Samson woke up from his sleep and tore loose the loom pin of the web and the warp-threads.^e

¹⁵And she said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when your heart is not with me? You have mocked me these three times, and you have not told me how your strength is so great.” ¹⁶And because she nagged him day after day with her words, and pestered him, his soul grew impatient to the point of death.^{f 17}So he confided everything to her,^g and he said to her, “A razor has never touched^h my head, for I am a Nazirite of Godⁱ from birth.^j If I am shaved my strength will leave me, and I will become weak, like everyone else.

¹⁸Delilah realized that he had confided in her,^k so she sent and called the rulers of the Philistines, saying, “Come up one more time, for he has confided…