Judges 15:7–17

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.