1
But it came to pass after a while, in the time of wheat-harvest , that Samson visited his wife with a kid; and he said , I will go in to my wife into the chamber. But her father would not suffer him to go in.
2
And her father said , I verily thought that thou hadst utterly hated her; therefore I gave her to thy companion: is not her younger sister fairer than she? take her, I pray thee, instead of her.
3
And Samson said concerning them, Now shall I be more blameless than the Philistines , though I do them a displeasure.
4
And Samson went and caught three hundred foxes , and took fire-brands, and turned tail to tail , and put a fire-brand in the midst between two tails .
5
And when he had set the brands on fire , he let them go into the standing corn of the Philistines , and burnt up both the shocks and also the standing corn, with the vineyards and olives .
6
Then the Philistines said , Who hath done this? And they answered, Samson , the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he had taken his wife , and given her to his companion. And the Philistines came up, and burnt her and her father with fire .
7
And Samson said to them, Though ye have done this, yet will I be avenged of you, and after that I will cease.
8
And he smote them hip and thigh with a great slaughter . And he went down and dwelt in the top of the rock Etam.
9
Then the Philistines went up, and encamped in Judah , and spread themselves in Lehi.
10
And the men of Judah said , Why have ye come up against us ? And they answered, We have come to bind Samson , to do to him as he hath done to us .
11
Then three thousand men of Judah went to the top of the rock Etam, and said to Samson , Knowest thou not that the Philistines are rulers over us ? what is this that thou hast done to us ? And he said to them, As they did to me, so have I done to them.
12
And they said to him, We have come down to bind thee, that we may deliver thee into the hand of the Philistines . And Samson said to them, Swear to me, that ye will not fall upon me yourselves.
13
And they spoke to him, saying, No; but we will bind thee fast, and deliver thee into their hand : but surely we will not kill thee. And they bound him with two new cords, and brought him up from the rock .
14
And when he came to Lehi, the Philistines shouted against him: and the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him, and the cords that were upon his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire , and his bands loosed from off his the hands .
15
And he found a fresh jaw-bone of an ass , and put forth his hand , and took it, and slew a thousand men with it.
16
And Samson said , With the jaw-bone of an ass , heaps upon heaps, with the jaw of an ass have I slain a thousand men .
17
And it came to pass when he had made an end of speaking, that he cast away the jaw-bone out of his hand , and called that place Ramath-lehi.
18
And he was very thirsty , and called on the LORD , and said , Thou hast given this great deliverance into the hand of thy servant : and now shall I die by thirst , and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised ?
19
But God cleaved a hollow place that was in the jaw, and there came water out of it; and when he had drank , his spirit came again, and he revived. Wherefore he called the name of it En-hakkore, which is in Lehi to this day .
20
And he judged Israel , in the days of the Philistines , twenty years.