Daily Bread

Samson’s Vengeance on the Philistines

15 Later on, at the time of wheat harvest,^(A) Samson^(B) took a young goat^(C) and went to visit his wife. He said, “I’m going to my wife’s room.”^(D) But her father would not let him go in.

² “I was so sure you hated her,” he said, “that I gave her to your companion.^(E) Isn’t her younger sister more attractive? Take her instead.”

³ Samson said to them, “This time I have a right to get even with the Philistines; I will really harm them.” ⁴ So he went out and caught three hundred foxes^(F) and tied them tail to tail in pairs. He then fastened a torch^(G) to every pair of tails, ⁵ lit the torches^(H) and let the foxes loose in the standing grain of the Philistines. He burned up the shocks^(I) and standing grain, together with the vineyards and olive groves.

⁶ When the Philistines asked, “Who did this?” they were told, “Samson, the Timnite’s son-in-law, because his wife was given to his companion.^(J)”

So the Philistines went up and burned her^(K) and her father to death.^{(L) 7} Samson said to them, “Since you’ve acted like this, I swear that I won’t stop until I get my revenge on you.” ⁸ He attacked them viciously and slaughtered many of them. Then he went down and stayed in a cave in the rock^(M) of Etam.^(N)

⁹ The Philistines went up and camped in Judah, spreading out near Lehi.^{(O) 10} The people of Judah asked, “Why have you come to fight us?”

“We have come to take Samson prisoner,” they answered, “to do to him as he did to us.”

¹¹ Then three thousand men from Judah went down to the cave in the rock of Etam and said to Samson, “Don’t you realize that the Philistines are rulers over us?^(P) What have you done to us?”

He answered, “I merely did to them what they did to me.”

¹² They said to him, “We’ve come to tie you up and hand you over to the Philistines.”

Samson said, “Swear to me^(Q) that you won’t kill me yourselves.”

¹³ “Agreed,” they answered. “We will only tie you up and hand you over to them. We will not kill you.” So they bound him with two new ropes^(R) and led him up from the rock. ¹⁴ As he approached Lehi,^(S) the Philistines came toward him shouting. The Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him.^(T) The ropes on his arms became like charred flax,^(U) and the bindings dropped from his hands. ¹⁵ Finding a fresh jawbone of a donkey, he grabbed it and struck down a thousand men.^(V)

¹⁶ Then Samson said,

¹⁷ When he finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone; and the place was called Ramath Lehi.^[b](X)

¹⁸ Because he was very thirsty, he cried out to the Lord,^(Y) “You have given your servant this great victory.^(Z) Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?” ¹⁹ Then God opened up the hollow place in Lehi, and water came out of it. When Samson drank, his strength returned and he revived.^(AA) So the spring^(AB) was called En Hakkore,^[c] and it is still there in Lehi.

²⁰ Samson led^[d] Israel for twenty years^(AC) in the days of the Philistines.