Judges, Chapter 15:

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Verses from Judges, Chapter 15 of the book of Judges in the Bible.

Samson's revenge on the Philistines

1. At a certain point, during the wheat harvest season, Samson decided to visit his wife and took a goat as a gift. He said, “I’m going to my wife’s room.” However, her father did not allow him to enter.
2. “I was sure you hated it,” said the father, “so I gave it to your friend. Isn't your younger sister prettier? Keep her instead of your sister.”
3. Samson replied, “This time no one will be able to blame me when I take revenge on the Philistines!”
4. Then he went out, captured three hundred foxes and tied them in pairs by their tails. Then he attached a torch to each pair of tails.
5. Samson lit the torches and released the foxes into the Philistines' fields. He burned the sheaves of wheat, the grain they were harvesting, the vineyards and the olive groves.
6. The Philistines asked, “Who did this?” And they answered, “It was Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because his wife was given to his friend.” Then the Philistines went and burned the woman and her father.
7. Samson said, “Since you have done this, I will not rest until I have revenged myself on you.”
8. He attacked them mercilessly and caused great slaughter. Then he went down and took refuge in a cave in the rock of Ethan.
9. The Philistines went to Judah and camped there, spreading out around Lehi.
10. The men of Judah asked, “Why did you come to fight against us?” They replied, “We came to take Samson tied up to treat him as he treated us.”
11. Three thousand men of Judah went to the cave in the rock of Ethan and said to Samson, “Do you not realize that the Philistines are ruling over us? Did you see what you did to us?” He replied, “I did to them just what they did to me.”
12. They said, “We have come to bind him to hand him over to the Philistines.” Samson asked: “Swear that you yourselves will not kill me.”
13. “And we certainly won’t kill him!” they replied. “We’ll just tie him up and hand him over to them. We will not kill him.” Then they tied Samson with two new ropes and made him leave the cave.
14. When they reached Lehi, the Philistines came shouting toward them. But the Spirit of the Lord came upon Samson. The ropes on his arms became like burnt linen, and the bonds fell from his hands.
15. Samson found the jawbone of a donkey and killed a thousand men with it.
16. And he said, “With the jaw of an ass I piled them up like heaps. With the jaw of a donkey I killed a thousand men.”
17. When he had finished speaking, he threw away the jaw, and that place was called Ramath-Lehi.
18. Samson was very thirsty and cried out to the Lord, “You have given your servant this great victory. Now shall I die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?”
19. Then God opened the rock in Lehi, and water came out of it. Samson drank, and his strength returned. He regained his spirits. For this reason, that spring was called En-Hacorah and is still there, in Lehi.
20. Samson led Israel for twenty years during the rule of the Philistines.