Samson’s Philistine Wife

14 Now Samson went down ato Timnah, and bsaw a woman in Timnah of the daughters of the Philistines. 2 So he went up and told his father and mother, saying, “I have seen a woman in Timnah of the daughters of the Philistines; now therefore, cget her for me as a wife.”

3 Then his father and mother said to him, “Is there no woman among the daughters of dyour brethren, or among all my people, that you must go and get a wife from the euncircumcised Philistines?”

And Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, for 1she pleases me well.”

4 But his father and mother did not know that it was fof the Lord—that He was seeking an occasion to move against the Philistines. For at that time gthe Philistines had dominion over Israel.

5 So Samson went down to Timnah with his father and mother, and came to the vineyards of Timnah.

Now to his surprise, a young lion came roaring against him. 6 And hthe Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and he tore the lion apart as one would have torn apart a young goat, though he had nothing in his hand. But he did not tell his father or his mother what he had done.

7 Then he went down and talked with the woman; and she pleased Samson well. 8 After some time, when he returned to get her, he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion. And behold, a swarm of bees and honey were in the carcass of the lion. 9 He took some of it in his hands and went along, eating. When he came to his father and mother, he gave some to them, and they also ate. But he did not tell them that he had taken the honey out of the icarcass of the lion.

10 So his father went down to the woman. And Samson gave a feast there, for young men used to do so. 11 And it happened, when they saw him, that they brought thirty companions to be with him.

12 Then Samson said to them, “Let me jpose a riddle to you. If you can correctly solve and explain it to me kwithin the seven days of the feast, then I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty lchanges of clothing. 13 But if you cannot explain it to me, then you shall give me thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothing.”

And they said to him, m“Pose your riddle, that we may hear it.”

14 So he said to them:

“Out of the eater came something to eat,

And out of the strong came something sweet.”

Now for three days they could not explain the riddle.

15 But it came to pass on the 2seventh day that they said to Samson’s wife, n“Entice your husband, that he may explain the riddle to us, oor else we will burn you and your father’s house with fire. Have you invited us in order to take what is ours? Is that not so?”

16 Then Samson’s wife wept on him, and said, p“You only hate me! You do not love me! You have posed a riddle to the sons of my people, but you have not explained it to me.”

And he said to her, “Look, I have not explained it to my father or my mother; so should I explain it to you?” 17 Now she had wept on him the seven days while their feast lasted. And it happened on the seventh day that he told her, because she pressed him so much. Then she explained 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 solved my riddle!”

19 Then qthe Spirit of the Lord came upon him mightily, and he went down to Ashkelon and killed thirty of their men, took their apparel, and gave the changes of clothing to those who had explained the riddle. So his anger was aroused, and he went back up to his father’s house. 20 And Samson’s wife rwas given to his companion, who had been shis best man.

Samson Defeats the Philistines

15 After a while, in the time of wheat harvest, it happened that Samson visited his wife with a ayoung goat. And he said, “Let me go in to my wife, into her room.” But her father would not permit him to go in.

2 Her father said, “I really thought that you thoroughly bhated her; therefore I gave her to your companion. Is not her younger sister better than she? Please, take her instead.”

3 And Samson said to them, “This time I shall be blameless regarding the Philistines if I harm them!” 4 Then Samson went and caught three hundred foxes; and he took torches, turned the foxes tail to tail, and put a torch between each pair of tails. 5 When he had set the torches on fire, he let the foxes go into the standing grain of the Philistines, and burned up both the shocks and the standing grain, as well as the vineyards and olive groves.

6 Then the Philistines said, “Who has done this?”

And they answered, “Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he has taken his wife and given her to his companion.” cSo the Philistines came up and burned her and her father with fire.

7 Samson said to them, “Since you would do a thing like this, I will surely take revenge on you, and after that I will cease.” 8 So he attacked them hip and thigh with a great slaughter; then he went down and dwelt in the cleft of the rock of dEtam.

9 Now the Philistines went up, encamped in Judah, and deployed themselves eagainst Lehi. 10 And the men of Judah said, “Why have you come up against us?”

So they answered, “We have come up to 1arrest Samson, to do to him as he has done to us.”

11 Then three thousand men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam, and said to Samson, “Do you not know that the Philistines frule over us? What is this you have done to us?”

And he said to them, “As they did to me, so I have done to them.”

12 But they said to him, “We have come down to arrest you, that we may deliver you into the hand of the Philistines.”

Then Samson said to them, “Swear to me that you will not kill me yourselves.”

13 So they spoke to him, saying, “No, but we will tie you securely and deliver you into their hand; but we will surely not kill you.” And they bound him with two gnew ropes and brought him up from the rock.

14 When he came to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting against him. Then hthe Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him; and the ropes that were on his arms became like flax that is burned with fire, and his bonds 2broke loose from his hands. 15 He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, reached out his hand and took it, and ikilled a thousand men with it. 16 Then Samson said:

“With the jawbone of a donkey,

Heaps upon heaps,

With the jawbone of a donkey

I have slain a thousand men!”

17 And so it was, when he had finished speaking, that he threw the jawbone from his hand, and called that place 3Ramath Lehi.

18 Then he became very thirsty; so he cried out to the Lord and said, j“You have given this great deliverance by the hand of Your servant; and now shall I die of thirst and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised?” 19 So God split the hollow place that is in 4Lehi, and water came out, and he drank; and khis spirit returned, and he revived. Therefore he called its name 5En Hakkore, which is in Lehi to this day. 20 And lhe judged Israel mtwenty years nin the days of the Philistines.

Samson and Delilah

16 Now Samson went to aGaza and saw a harlot there, and went in to her. 2 When the Gazites were told, “Samson has come here!” they bsurrounded the place and lay in wait for him all night at the gate of the city. They were quiet all night, saying, “In the morning, when it is daylight, we will kill him.” 3 And Samson lay low till midnight; then he arose at midnight, took hold of the doors of the gate of the city and the two gateposts, pulled them up, bar and all, put them on his shoulders, and carried them to the top of the hill that faces Hebron.

4 Afterward it happened that he loved a woman in the Valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. 5 And the clords of the Philistines came up to her and said to her, d“Entice him, and find out where his great strength lies, and by what means we may overpower him, that we may bind him to afflict him; and every one of us will give you eleven hundred pieces of silver.”

6 So Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me where your great strength lies, and with what you may be bound to afflict you.”

7 And Samson said to her, “If they bind me with seven fresh bowstrings, not yet dried, then I shall become weak, and be like any other man.”

8 So the lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven fresh bowstrings, not yet dried, and she bound him with them. 9 Now men were lying in wait, staying with her in the room. And she said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” But he broke the bowstrings as a strand of yarn breaks when it touches fire. So the secret of his strength was not known.

10 Then Delilah said to Samson, “Look, you have mocked me and told me lies. Now, please tell me what you may be bound with.”

11 So he said to her, “If they bind me securely with enew ropes 1that have never been used, then I shall become weak, and be like any other man.”

12 Therefore Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them, and said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” And men were lying in wait, staying in the room. But he broke them off his arms like a thread.

13 Delilah said to Samson, “Until now you have mocked me and told me lies. Tell me what you may be bound with.”

And he said to her, “If you weave the seven locks of my head into the web of the loom”—

14 So she wove it tightly with the batten of the loom, and said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” But he awoke from his sleep, and pulled out the batten and the web from the loom.

15 Then she said to him, f“How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when your heart is not with me? You have mocked me these three times, and have not told me where your great strength lies.” 16 And it came to pass, when she pestered him daily with her words and pressed him, so that his soul was 2vexed to death, 17 that he gtold her all his heart, and said to her, h“No razor has ever come upon my head, for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If I am shaven, then my strength will leave me, and I shall become weak, and be like any