Judges 15

Judges 15:1

Later on, at the time of the wheat harvest, Samson took a young goat and went to visit his wife. “I want to go to my wife in her room,” he said. But her father would not let him enter.

Judges 15:1 · BSB

Judges 15:2

“I was sure that you thoroughly hated her,” said her father, “so I gave her to one of the men who accompanied you. Is not her younger sister more beautiful than she? Please take her instead.”

Judges 15:2 · BSB

take her Heb. let her be thine

Judges 15:3

Samson said to them, “This time I will be blameless in doing harm to the Philistines.”

Judges 15:3 · BSB

Now shall etc. or , Now shall I be blameless from the Philistines

Judges 15:4

Then Samson went out and caught three hundred foxes. And he took torches, turned the foxes tail-to-tail, and fastened a torch between each pair of tails.

Judges 15:4 · BSB

caught three Dr. Kennicott and others contend , that for shualim , "foxes ," we should read shoalim , "handfuls ," or sheaves of corn. But .

firebrands or , torches

Judges 15:5

Then he lit the torches and released the foxes into the standing grain of the Philistines, burning up the piles of grain and the standing grain, as well as the vineyards and olive groves.

Judges 15:5 · BSB

Judges 15:6

“Who did this?” the Philistines demanded. “It was Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite,” they were told. “For his wife was given to his companion.” So the Philistines went up and burned her and her father to death.

Judges 15:6 · BSB

Judges 15:7

And Samson told them, “Because you have done this, I will not rest until I have taken vengeance upon you.”

Judges 15:7 · BSB

Judges 15:8

And he struck them ruthlessly with a great slaughter, and then went down and stayed in the cave at the rock of Etam.

Judges 15:8 · BSB

Judges 15:9

Then the Philistines went up, camped in Judah, and deployed themselves near the town of Lehi.

Judges 15:9 · BSB

Judges 15:11

In response, three thousand men of Judah went to the cave at the rock of Etam, and they asked Samson, “Do you not realize that the Philistines rule over us? What have you done to us?” “I have done to them what they did to me,” he replied.

Judges 15:11 · BSB

went Heb. went down

Judges 15:12

But they said to him, “We have come down to arrest you and hand you over to the Philistines.” Samson replied, “Swear to me that you will not kill me yourselves.”

Judges 15:12 · BSB

Judges 15:13

“No,” they answered, “we will not kill you, but we will tie you up securely and hand you over to them.” So they bound him with two new ropes and led him up from the rock.

Judges 15:13 · BSB

Judges 15:14

When Samson arrived in Lehi, the Philistines came out shouting against him. And the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him. The ropes on his arms became like burnt flax, and the bonds broke loose from his hands.

Judges 15:14 · BSB

loosed Heb. were melted

Judges 15:15

He found the fresh jawbone of a donkey, reached out his hand and took it, and struck down a thousand men.

Judges 15:15 · BSB

new jawbone Heb. moist

a thousand Some would render the words aileph ish , "a chief;" but it is alluph , and not aileph , which signifies a chief; besides which , the Hebrew idiom would , even in that case , require it to be ish alluph , "a man , a chief ," and not alluph ish , "a chief , a man." Add to which , that every version renders it "a thousand men."

Judges 15:16

Then Samson said: “With the jawbone of a donkey I have piled them into heaps. With the jawbone of a donkey I have slain a thousand men.”

Judges 15:16 · BSB

with the jawbone There is here a fine paronomasia upon the word chamor , "an ass ," which also signifies "a heap;" bilchee hachamor , chamor chamorathayim , "With the jaw-bone of an ass , a heap upon two heaps."

Judges 15:17

And when Samson had finished speaking, he cast the jawbone from his hand; and he named that place Ramath-lehi.

Judges 15:17 · BSB

Judges 15:18

And being very thirsty, Samson cried out to the LORD, “You have accomplished this great deliverance through Your servant. Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?”

Judges 15:18 · BSB

Judges 15:19

So God opened up the hollow place in Lehi, and water came out of it. When Samson drank, his strength returned, and he was revived. That is why he named it En-hakkore, and it remains in Lehi to this day.

Judges 15:19 · BSB

the jaw or , Lehi , This reading is certainly preferable . it was in the place called Lehi where a spring was supernaturally opened.

Judges 15:20

And Samson judged Israel for twenty years in the days of the Philistines.

Judges 15:20 · BSB