Samson’s Wife Has Been Given to His Friend |
Judges 15:1-20 The Book of Judges [in Smaller Chunks] |
[After some time during] the wheat harvest, Samson visited his wife with a kid [goat] & said [to her father,] I [want to go be intimate] with my wife in the [room,] but her father wouldn’t [allow Samson] to go in. |
Her father said, I [truly] thought you had [totally] hated her, [so] I gave her to your companion. Isn’t her younger sister [prettier] than she [is?] I pray [that] you take her instead. |
Samson said, Now, I shall be blameless, if I do [something to cause] the Philistines displeasure. Samson went [out] & caught 300 foxes & turned [the foxes] tail to tail & put [torches between each pair of] tails & set the [torches] on fire. |
[Samson] let the [foxes] go in the standing corn of the Philistines & burned up both the [corn stalks] & the standing corn [along] with the vineyards & olives. [Then,] the Philistines [asked,] Who has done this? |
They answered, Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he [took Samson’s] wife & [gave] her to [Samson’s] companion. The Philistines came up & burned her & her father with fire. |
And Samson said to them, Though you have done this, I [will still] be avenged of you & after that, I will [stop.] [Samson struck them down] hip & thigh [deep] with a [large] slaughter. |
[Samson lived] in the top of Rock Etam. Then, the Philistines went up & [camped] in Judah & spread themselves in Lehi. The men of Judah [asked the Philistines,] Why have you come up against us? |
They answered, We have come up to [tie] Samson [up] & to do to [Samson] as he had done to us. Then, 3,000 men of Judah went to the top of the Rock of Etam & said to Samson, Don’t you know the Philistines are rulers over us? |
[Why] have you done this to us? [Samson] said to them, I have done to them, [just] as they have done to me. And the [men of Judah] said to him, We have come to [tie you up] & deliver you into the hand of the Philistines. |
Samson [asked] them, Swear to me that you won’t [kill me] yourselves. They [said to Samson], No; but we will [tie you up tightly] & deliver you into the [Philistine’s hands,] but we surely won’t kill you. |
And they [tied Samson up] with 2 new cords & brought him from the rock. When [Samson] came into Lehi, the Philistines shouted against him & the Spirit of the Lord came upon [Samson] mightily & the cords on his arms came loosened from off his hands, [like] flax that was burnt with fire. |
[Samson] found a new jawbone of a [donkey] & took it [in] his hand & killed 1,000 men [there.] Samson said, With the jawbone of a [donkey,] I have slain 1,000 men, heaps upon heaps. |
When he [finished] speaking, [Samson threw] away the jawbone [from] his hand & called that place Ramath Lehi. He was [very thirsty] & called on the Lord & said, You have given this great deliverance into the hand of Your servant, [but] shall I now die [of] thirst & fall into the hands of the uncircumcised? |
But God [opened up] a hollow place that was in the [jawbone] & water came out [of it] & [after Samson drank,] his spirit [returned] & he revived. [For this reason, Samson] called [its] name En Hakkore, which is in Lehi to this day. [Samson] judged Israel for 20 years, in the days of the Philistines. |