Judges 15–16

CHAPTER 15

Samson Strikes Down the Philistines

¹Now it happened that after a while, in the time of the wheat harvest, Samson visited his wife ^awith a young goat and said, “I will go in to my wife in her room.” But her father did not let him enter.

²And her father said, “I really thought that you hated her intensely; so I ^agave her to your companion. Is not her younger sister better than she? Please let her be yours ¹instead.”

³Samson then said to them, “This time I shall be innocent in regard to the Philistines when I do them harm.”

⁴So Samson went and caught 300 foxes and took torches and turned the foxes tail to tail and put one torch in the middle between two tails.

⁵Then he set fire to the torches and sent ¹the foxes into the standing grain of the Philistines. So he caused both the shocks and the standing grain, along with the vineyards and groves, to burn.

⁶Then the Philistines said, “Who did this?” And they said, “Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because ¹he took his wife and gave her to his companion.” So the Philistines came up and ^aburned her and her father with fire.

⁷Then Samson said to them, “If you act like this, then I will surely take revenge on you, but after that I will cease.”

⁸And he struck them ¹ruthlessly with a great slaughter; and he went down and lived in the cleft of the rock of Etam.

⁹Then the Philistines went up and camped in Judah and spread out in Lehi.

¹⁰So the men of Judah said, “Why have you come up against us?” And they said, “We have come up to bind Samson in order to do to him as he did to us.”

¹¹Then 3,000 men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam and said to Samson, “Do you not know ^athat the Philistines are rulers over us? What then is this that you have done to us?” And he said to them, “As they did to me, so I have done to them.”

¹²And they said to him, “We have come down to bind you so that we may give you into the hand of the Philistines.” And Samson said to them, “Swear to me that you yourselves will not ¹kill me.”

¹³So they said to ¹him, “No, but we will bind you fast and give you into their hands; yet surely we will not put you to death.” Then they bound him with two new ropes and brought him up from the rock.

¹⁴When he came to Lehi, the Philistines shouted as they met him. And ^athe Spirit of Yahweh ¹came upon him mightily so that the ropes that were on his arms were as flax that is burned with fire, and his bonds ²dropped from his hands.

¹⁵And he found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, so he sent forth his hand and took it and struck down ^a1,000 men with it.

¹⁶Then Samson said,

“With the jawbone of a donkey,

¹Heaps upon heaps,

With the jawbone of a donkey

I have struck down 1,000 men.”

¹⁷Now it happened that when he had finished speaking, he threw the jawbone from his hand; and he named that place ¹Ramath-lehi.

¹⁸Then he became very thirsty, and he ^acalled to Yahweh and said, “You have given this great salvation by the hand of Your slave, but now ¹shall I die of thirst ²and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?”

¹⁹So God split the hollow place that is in Lehi and water came out of it. Then he drank, ^aand his spirit returned, and he revived. Therefore he named it ¹En-hakkore, which is in Lehi to this day.

²⁰And ^ahe judged Israel twenty years in ^bthe days of the Philistines.

CHAPTER 16

Samson and Delilah

¹Then Samson went to ^aGaza and saw a harlot there and went in to her.

²And it was told to the Gazites, saying, “Samson has come here,” so they ^asurrounded the place and lay in wait for him all night at the gate of the city. And they kept silent all night, saying, “Let us wait until the morning light; then we will kill him.”

³But Samson lay until midnight, and at midnight he arose and seized the doors of the city gate and the two posts and pulled them up along with the bars; then he put them on his shoulders and brought them up to the top of the mountain which is opposite Hebron.

⁴Now it happened afterwards that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, and her name was Delilah.

⁵And the ^alords of the Philistines came up to her and said to her, “^bEntice him, and see where his great strength lies and ¹how we may overpower him that we may bind him to afflict him. Then we will each give you 1,100 pieces of silver.”

⁶So Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me where your great strength is and ¹how you may be bound to afflict you.”

⁷Samson said to her, “If they bind me with seven fresh cords that have not been dried, then I will become weak and be like any other man.”

⁸Then the lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven fresh cords that had not been dried, and she bound him with them.

⁹Now she had men lying in wait, sitting in an inner room. And she said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” But he snapped the cords as a string of tinder snaps when it ¹touches fire. So his strength was still not known.

¹⁰Then Delilah said to Samson, “Behold, you have deceived me and told me lies; now please tell me ¹how you may be bound.”

¹¹And he said to her, “If they bind me tightly with new ropes ¹which have not been used for work, then I will become weak and be like any other man.”

¹²So Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them and said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” Now the men lying in wait were sitting in the inner room. But he snapped ¹the ropes from his arms like a thread.

¹³Then Delilah said to Samson, “Up to now you have deceived me and told me lies; tell me ¹how you may be bound.” And he said to her, “If you weave the seven locks of my head with the web ²[and fasten it with a pin, then I will become weak and be like any other man.”

¹⁴So while he slept, Delilah took the seven locks of his ¹hair and wove them into the web]. And she fastened it with the pin and said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” But he awoke from his sleep and pulled out the pin of the loom and the web.

¹⁵Then she said to him, “^aHow can you say, ‘I love you,’ when your heart is not with me? You have deceived me these three times and have not told me where your great strength is.”

¹⁶Now it happened when she pressed him daily with her words and urged him, that his soul was ¹annoyed to death.

¹⁷So he told her all that was in his heart and said to her, “A razor has never come on my head, for I have been a ^aNazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If I am shaved, then my strength will leave me and I will become weak and be like every other man.”

¹⁸And Delilah saw that he had told her all that was in his heart, so she sent and called the lords of the Philistines, saying, “Come up once more, for he has told me all that is in his heart.” Then the lords of the Philistines came up to her and brought up the silver in their hands.

¹⁹Then she made him sleep on her knees and called for a man and had him shave off the seven locks of his head. Then she began to afflict him, and his strength left him.

²⁰And she said, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” And he awoke from his sleep and said, “I will go out as at other times and shake myself free.” But he did not know that ^aYahweh had left him.

²¹Then the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes; and they brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze chains, and he was a grinder in the prison.

²²However, the hair of his head began to grow again after it was shaved off.

²³Now the lords of the Philistines assembled to offer a great sacrifice to ^aDagon their god and to be glad; and they said,

“Our god has given Samson our enemy into our hands.”

²⁴Then the people saw him and ^apraised their god, for they said,

“Our god has given our enemy into our hands,

Even the destroyer of our country,

Who has slain many of us.”

²⁵So it happened when their hearts were merry, that they said, “Call for Samson, that he may amuse us.” So they called for Samson from the prison, and he ¹entertained them. And they made him stand between the pillars.

²⁶Then Samson said to the boy who was holding his hand, “Let me feel the pillars on which the house is established, that I may lean against them.”

²⁷Now the house was full of men and women, and all the lords of the Philistines were there. And about 3,000 men and women were on the roof looking on while Samson was amusing them.

Samson’s Revenge

^28aThen Samson called to Yahweh and said, “O Lord Yahweh, please remember me and please strengthen me just this time, O God, that I may at once ^bbe avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes.”

²⁹Samson grasped the two middle pillars on which the house was established and supported himself against them, the one with his right hand and the other with his left.

³⁰And Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines!” And he bent with his strength so that the house fell on the lords and all the people who were in it. So the dead whom he put to death by his death were more than those whom he put to death in his life.

³¹Then his brothers and all his father’s household came down, carried him, brought him up, and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol, in the tomb of Manoah his father. ^aThus he had judged Israel twenty years.