15 4 Samson tieth firebrands to the foxes’ tails. 6 The Philistines burnt his father-in-law and his wife. 15 With the jawbone of an ass he killeth a thousand men. 19 Out of a great tooth in the jaw God gave him water.
1 But within a while after, in the time of wheat harvest, Samson visited his wife with a kid, saying, I will [a]go in to my wife into the chamber: but her father would not suffer him to go in.
2 And her father said, I thought that thou hadst hated her: therefore gave I her to thy companion. Is not her younger sister fairer than she? take her, I pray thee, instead of the other.
3 Then Samson said unto them, Now am I more [b]blameless than the Philistines: therefore will I do them displeasure.
4 ¶ And Samson went out, and took three hundred foxes, and took firebrands, and turned them tail to tail, and put a firebrand in the midst between two tails.
5 And when he had set the brands on fire, he sent them out into the standing corn of the Philistines, and burnt up both the [c]ricks and 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 [d]Timnite, because he had taken his wife, and given her to his companion. Then the Philistines came up and [e]burnt her and her father with fire.
7 And Samson said unto them, Though ye have done this, yet will I be avenged of you, and then I will cease.
8 So he smote them [f]hip and thigh with a mighty plague: then he went and dwelt in the top of the rock Etam.
9 ¶ Then the Philistines came up, and pitched in Judah, and [g]were spread abroad in Lehi.
10 And the men of Judah said, Why are ye come up unto us? And they answered, To [h]bind Samson are we come up, and 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? [i]Wherefore then hast thou done thus unto us? And he answered them, As they did unto me, so have I done unto them.
12 Again they said unto him, We are come to bind thee, and to deliver thee into the hand of the Philistines. And Samson said unto them, Swear unto me, that ye will not fall upon me yourselves.
13 And they answered him, saying, No, but we will bind thee and [j]deliver thee unto their hand, but we will not kill thee. And they bound him with two new cords, and brought him from the rock.
14 When he came to Lehi, the Philistines shouted against him, and the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and the cords that were upon his arms, became as flax that was burnt with fire: for the bands loosed from his hands.
15 And he found a [k]new jawbone of an ass, and put forth his hands, and caught it, and slew a thousand men therewith.
16 Then Samson said, With the jaw of an ass are heaps upon heaps: with the jaw of an ass have I slain a thousand men.
17 And when he had left speaking, he cast away the jawbone out of his hand, and called that place, [l]Ramath Lehi.
18 And he was sore athirst, and [m]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?
19 Then God brake the cheek tooth, that was in the jaw, and water came there out: and when he had drunk, his spirit came again, and he was revived: wherefore the name thereof is called, [n]En Hakkore, which is in Lehi unto this day.
20 And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.
Footnotes
- Judges 15:1 That is, I will use her as my wife.
- Judges 15:3 For through his father-in-law’s occasion, he was moved again to take vengeance of the Philistines.
- Judges 15:5 Or, that which was reaped and gathered.
- Judges 15:6 Or, the citizen of Timnath.
- Judges 15:6 So the wicked punish not vice for love of justice, but for fear of danger, which else might come to them.
- Judges 15:8 Or, horsemen and footmen.
- Judges 15:9 Or, camped.
- Judges 15:10 And so being our prisoner to punish him.
- Judges 15:11 Such was their gross ignorance, that they judged God’s great benefits to be a plague unto them.
- Judges 15:13 Thus they had rather betray their brother, than use the means that God had given for their deliverance.
- Judges 15:15 That is, of an ass lately slain.
- Judges 15:17 Or, the lifting up of the jaw.
- Judges 15:18 Whereby appeareth that he did these things in faith, and so with a true zeal to glorify God, and deliver his country.
- Judges 15:19 Or, the fountain of him that prayed.