Judges 15

But it came to pass within a while after, 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.

1Later, at wheat harvest time, Samson went to see his wife. He brought a young goat as a gift. He said, "I am going into my wife's room." But her father would not let him in.

2And 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.

2Her father said, "I really thought you hated her for good. So I gave her to your friend. Her younger sister is prettier. Please take her instead."

3And Samson said concerning them, Now shall I be more blameless than the Philistines, though I do them a displeasure.

3Samson said about them, "This time no one can blame me for hurting the Philistines."

4And Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took firebrands, and turned tail to tail, and put a firebrand in the midst between two tails.

4Samson went out and caught three hundred foxes. He tied them together in pairs, tail to tail. He put a burning torch between each pair of tails.

5And 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.

5He lit the torches and let the foxes loose in the Philistines' grain fields. The cut piles of grain burned. The standing grain burned too. So did the grape vines and the olive trees.

NoteThe KJV says "corn" here. In 1611 that word meant grain of any kind, like wheat or barley. It does not mean corn on the cob.

6Then 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.

6The Philistines asked, "Who did this?" People told them, "Samson did. He married the Timnite's daughter. Then her father gave her to Samson's friend." So the Philistines came and burned the woman and her father to death.

7And Samson said unto them, Though ye have done this, yet will I be avenged of you, and after that I will cease.

7Samson said to them, "Since you did this, I will pay you back. After that I will stop."

8And he smote them hip and thigh with a great slaughter: and he went down and dwelt in the top of the rock Etam.

8He attacked them hard and killed many of them. Then he went down and stayed at the rock of Etam.

NoteThe KJV says Samson hit them "hip and thigh." That was an old way of saying he beat them completely.

9Then the Philistines went up, and pitched in Judah, and spread themselves in Lehi.

9Then the Philistines came up and camped in the land of Judah. They spread out near a place called Lehi.

10And the men of Judah said, Why are ye come up against us? And they answered, To bind Samson are we come up, to do to him as he hath done to us.

10The men of Judah asked, "Why have you come to fight us?" They answered, "We came to tie up Samson. We will do to him what he did to us."

11Then 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 unto us? And he said unto them, As they did unto me, so have I done unto them.

11So three thousand men of Judah went up to the rock of Etam. They said to Samson, "Don't you know the Philistines rule over us? Look what you have done to us!" He said, "I only did to them what they did to me."

12And they said unto him, We are come down to bind thee, that we may deliver thee into the hand of the Philistines. And Samson said unto them, Swear unto me, that ye will not fall upon me yourselves.

12They said, "We came to tie you up and hand you to the Philistines." Samson said, "Promise me that you yourselves will not kill me."

13And they spake unto 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.

13They said, "No. We will only tie you up tight and hand you over. We will not kill you." So they tied him with two new ropes and led him up from the rock.

14And when he came unto 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 hands.

14When Samson came to Lehi, the Philistines came out shouting at him. Then the Spirit of the LORD came on him with great power. The ropes on his arms burned away like thread in a fire. They fell right off his hands.

15And he found a new jawbone of an ass, and put forth his hand, and took it, and slew a thousand men therewith.

15He found a fresh jawbone from a donkey. He reached down, picked it up, and killed a thousand men with it.

16And Samson said, With the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, with the jaw of an ass have I slain a thousand men.

16Then Samson said, "With a donkey's jawbone I piled them up in heaps. With a donkey's jawbone I killed a thousand men."

17And it came to pass, when he had made an end of speaking, that he cast away the jawbone out of his hand, and called that place Ramathlehi.

17When he finished speaking, he threw the jawbone away. He named that place Ramath-lehi, which means "jawbone hill."

18And he was sore athirst, and called on the LORD, and said, Thou hast given this great deliverance into the hand of thy servant: and now shall I die for thirst, and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised?

18Samson was very thirsty. He called out to the LORD, "You gave your servant this great victory. Must I now die of thirst? Will these Philistines catch me?"

NoteThe KJV calls the Philistines "the uncircumcised." That was a word Israel used for people who were not part of Israel.

19But God clave an hollow place that was in the jaw, and there came water thereout; and when he had drunk, his spirit came again, and he revived: wherefore he called the name thereof Enhakkore, which is in Lehi unto this day.

19So God opened up a low, hollow spot at Lehi, and water came out. Samson drank, and his strength came back. He felt well again. He named that spring En-hakkore, and it is still in Lehi today.

20And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.

20Samson was a judge in Israel for twenty years. A judge was a leader who ruled the people and rescued them. This happened while the Philistines ruled the land.