1 ARST During the time that they were harvesting the wheat, Samson took a young goat to Timnah as a present for his wife. He wanted to sleep with his wife, but her father would not let him go into her room. BSB BSB: 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.
2 ARST He said to Samson,“I really thought that you hated her. So I gave her to the man who was your best friend at the wedding, and she has married him. But look, her younger sister is more beautiful than she is. Take her instead.” BSB BSB: “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.”
3 ARST Samson replied,“No! And this time I have a right to get revenge on you Philistines!” BSB BSB: Samson said to them, “This time I will be blameless in doing harm to the Philistines.”
4 ARST Then he went out into the fields and caught three hundred foxes. He tied their tails together, two by two. He fastened torches to each pair of tails. BSB BSB: 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.
5 ARST Then he lit the torches and let the foxes run through the fields of the Philistines. The fire from the torches burned all the grain to the ground, including the grain that had been cut and stacked in bundles. The fire also burned down their grapevines and their olive trees. BSB BSB: 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.
6 ARST The Philistines asked,“Who did this?” Someone told them,“Samson did it. He married a woman from Timnah, but then his father- in- law gave her to the man who was Samson’ s best friend at the wedding, and she married him.” So the Philistines went to Timnah and got the woman and her father, and burned them to death. BSB BSB: “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.
7 ARST Samson found out about that and said to them,“Because you have done this, I will get revenge on you, and then I will be happy!” BSB BSB: And Samson told them, “Because you have done this, I will not rest until I have taken vengeance upon you.”
8 ARST So he attacked the Philistines furiously and killed many of them. Then he went to hide in a cave in the large rock at a place called Etam. BSB BSB: And he struck them ruthlessly with a great slaughter, and then went down and stayed in the cave at the rock of Etam.
9 ARST The Philistines did not know where he was, so they went up to where the descendants of Judah lived, and they arranged themselves for battle at the town of Lehi. BSB BSB: Then the Philistines went up, camped in Judah, and deployed themselves near the town of Lehi.
10 ARST The men there asked the Philistines,“Why do you want to attack us?” The Philistines replied,“We have come to capture Samson. We have come to get revenge on him for what he did to us.” BSB BSB: “Why have you attacked us?” said the men of Judah. The Philistines replied, “We have come to arrest Samson and pay him back for what he has done to us.”
11 ARST Someone there knew where Samson was hiding. So three thousand men from Judah went down to get Samson at the cave in the rock where he was hiding. They said to Samson,“Do you not realize that the people of Philistia are ruling over us? Do you not realize what they will do to us?” Samson replied,“The only thing I did was that I got revenge on them for what they did to me.” BSB BSB: 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.
12 ARST But the men from Judah said to him,“We have come to tie you up and put you in the hands of the Philistines.” Samson said,“All right, but promise me that you yourselves will not kill me!” BSB BSB: 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.”
13 ARST They replied,“We will just tie you up and take you to the Philistines. We will not kill you.” So they tied him with two new ropes and led him away from the cave. BSB BSB: “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.
14 ARST When they arrived at Lehi, the Philistines came toward him, shouting triumphantly. But Yahweh’ s Spirit powerfully came on Samson. He snapped the ropes on his arms as easily as if they had been stalks of burned flax, and they fell off his wrists. BSB BSB: 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.
15 ARST Then he saw a donkey’ s jawbone lying on the ground. It was new, so it was hard. He picked it up and killed about a thousand Philistine men with it. BSB BSB: He found the fresh jawbone of a donkey, reached out his hand and took it, and struck down a thousand men.
16 ARST Then Samson wrote this poem:“With the jawbone of a donkey I have made them like a heap of dead donkeys. With the jawbone of a donkey I have killed a thousand men.” BSB BSB: 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.”
17 ARST When he finished, he threw the jawbone away, but later that place was called Ramath Lehi(or Jawbone Hill). BSB BSB: And when Samson had finished speaking, he cast the jawbone from his hand; and he named that place Ramath-lehi.
18 ARST Then Samson was very thirsty, so he called out to Yahweh,“You have given me strength to win a great victory. So now must I die because of being thirsty, with the result that those heathen, uncircumcised Philistines will capture me?” BSB BSB: 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?”
19 ARST So God caused water to gush out of a depression in the ground at Lehi. Samson drank from it and soon felt strong again. He named that place En Hakkore(or“The spring of the one who called out”). That spring can still be found at Lehi, even today. BSB BSB: 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.
20 ARST Samson was the leader and judge over Israel for twenty years, but during that time the Philistines were in control of the entire land. BSB BSB: And Samson judged Israel for twenty years in the days of the Philistines.
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