Judges 13:24–16:30
24 Then the woman gave birth to a son and named him Samson; and the achild grew up and the Lord blessed him.
25 And athe Spirit of the Lord began to stir him in 1bMahaneh-dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.
1 Then Samson went down to Timnah and saw a woman in Timnah, one of the daughters of the Philistines.
2 So he came 1back and told his father and 2mother, “I saw a woman in Timnah, one of the daughters of the Philistines; now therefore, get her for me as a wife.”
3 Then his father and his mother said to him, “Is there no woman among the daughters of your 1arelatives, or among all 2our people, that you go to btake a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?” But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, for she 3looks good to me.”
4 However, his father and mother did not know that ait was of the Lord, for He was seeking an occasion against the Philistines. Now at that time the Philistines were ruling over Israel.
5 Then Samson went down to Timnah with his father and mother, and came as far as the vineyards of Timnah; and behold, a young lion came roaring toward him.
6 aThe Spirit of the Lord 1came upon him mightily, so that bhe tore him as one tears a young goat though he had nothing in his hand; but he did not tell his father or mother what he had done.
7 So he went down and talked to the woman; and she 1looked good to Samson.
8 When he returned later to take her, he turned aside to look at the carcass of the lion; and behold, a swarm of bees and honey were in the body of the lion.
9 So he scraped 1the honey into his 2hands and went on, eating as he went. When he came to his father and mother, he gave some to them and they ate it; but he did not tell them that he had scraped the honey out of the body of the lion.
10 Then his father went down to the woman; and Samson made a feast there, for the young men customarily did this.
11 When they saw him, they brought thirty companions to be with him.
12 Then Samson said to them, “Let me now apropound a riddle to you; if you will indeed tell it to me within the seven days of the feast, and find it out, then I will give you thirty linen wraps and thirty bchanges of clothes.
13 “But if you are unable to tell me, then you shall give me thirty linen wraps and thirty changes of clothes.” And they said to him, “Propound your riddle, that we may hear it.”
“Out of the eater came something to eat,
And out of the strong came something sweet.”
But they could not tell the riddle in three days.
15 Then it came about on the 1fourth day that they said to Samson’s wife, “aEntice your husband, so that he will tell us the riddle, bor we will burn you and your father’s house with fire. Have you invited us to impoverish us? Is this not so?”
16 Samson’s wife wept before him and said, “aYou only hate me, and you do not love me; you have propounded a riddle to the sons of my people, and have not told it to me.” And he said to her, “Behold, I have not told it to my father or mother; so should I tell you?”
17 However she wept before him seven days while their feast lasted. And on the seventh day he told her because she pressed him so hard. She then told the riddle to the sons of her people.
18 So the men of the city said to him on the seventh day before the sun went down,
“What is sweeter than honey?
And 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.”
19 Then athe Spirit of the Lord 1came upon him mightily, and he went down to Ashkelon and killed thirty of them and took their spoil and gave the changes of clothes to those who told the riddle. And his anger burned, and he went up to his father’s house.
20 But Samson’s wife was agiven to his companion who had been his 1friend.
1 But after a while, in the time of 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.
2 Her father said, “I really thought that you hated her intensely; so I agave her to your companion. Is not her younger sister 1more beautiful than she? Please let her be yours 2instead.”
3 Samson then said to them, “This time I shall be blameless in regard to the Philistines when I do them harm.”
4 Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took torches, and turned the foxes tail to tail and put one torch in the middle between two tails.
5 When he had set fire to the torches, he released 1the foxes into the standing grain of the Philistines, thus burning up both the shocks and the standing grain, along with the vineyards and groves.
6 Then 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.
7 Samson said to them, “Since you act like this, I will surely take revenge on you, but after that I will quit.”
8 He struck them 1ruthlessly with a great slaughter; and he went down and lived in the cleft of the rock of Etam.
9 Then the Philistines went up and camped in Judah, and spread out in Lehi.
10 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.”
11 Then 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.”
12 They said to him, “We have come down to bind you so that we may give you into the hands of the Philistines.” And Samson said to them, “Swear to me that you will not 1kill me.”
13 So they said to 1him, “No, but we will bind you fast and give you into their hands; yet surely we will not kill you.” Then they bound him with two new ropes and brought him up from the rock.
14 When he came to Lehi, the Philistines shouted as they met him. And athe Spirit of the Lord 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.
15 He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, so he 1reached out and took it and 2killed aa thousand men with it.
“With the jawbone of a donkey,
1Heaps upon heaps,
With the jawbone of a donkey
I have 2killed a thousand men.”
17 When he had finished speaking, he threw the jawbone from his hand; and he named that place 1Ramath-lehi.
18 Then he became very thirsty, and he acalled to the Lord and said, “You have given this great deliverance by the hand of Your servant, and now 1shall I die of thirst 2and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?”
19 But God split the hollow place that is in Lehi so that water came out of it. When he drank, ahis 1strength returned and he revived. Therefore he named it 2En-hakkore, which is in Lehi to this day.
20 So ahe judged Israel twenty years in bthe days of the Philistines.
1 Now Samson went to aGaza and saw a harlot there, and went in to her.
2 When it was told to the Gazites, saying, “Samson has come here,” 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.”
3 Now Samson lay until midnight, and at midnight he arose and took hold of 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 carried them up to the top of the mountain which is opposite Hebron.
4 After this it came about that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah.
5 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 eleven hundred pieces of silver.”
6 So Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me where your great strength is and 1how you may be bound to afflict you.”
7 Samson 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.”
8 Then the lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven fresh cords that had not been dried, and she bound him with them.
9 Now she had men lying in wait in an inner room. And she said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” But he snapped the cords as a string of tow snaps when it 1touches fire. So his strength was not discovered.
10 Then Delilah said to Samson, “Behold, you have deceived me and told me lies; now please tell me 1how you may be bound.”
11 He said to her, “If they bind me tightly with new ropes 1which have not been used, then I will become weak and be like any other man.”
12 So Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them and said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” For the men were lying in wait in the inner room. But he snapped 1the ropes from his arms like a thread.
13 Then 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 2hair with the web 3[and fasten it with a pin, then I will become weak and be like any other man.”
14 So 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.
15 Then 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.”
16 It came about when she pressed him daily with her words and urged him, that his soul was 1annoyed to death.
17 So 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