¶ But it chanced within a while after, even in the time of wheat harvest, that Samson visited his wife with a Kid. And when he supposed to have gone in unto his wife into the chamber, her father would not suffer him to go in:
But said: I thought that thou hadst hated her, and therefore gave I her unto one of thy companions. Howbeit her younger sister is fairer than she. Take her instead of the other.
Then said Samson unto them: Now I am blameless concerning the Philistines though I do them evil.
And Samson went out and caught three hundredth foxes, and took firebrands, and fastened tail to tail, and put a firebrand in the midst between two tails.
And he set the firebrands on fire, and put them into the corn of the Philistines, and burnt up both the reaped corn and also the stonding, with vine and olives.
Then the Philistines asked, who had done that? And it was told them that Samson the son-in-law of the Thamnite, because he had taken his wife and given her to one of his companions. And the Philistines came and burnt her and her father with fire.
And Samson said unto them: should ye do so? for I will surely be avenged of you, and then I will cease.
And he smote them leg and thigh with a mighty plague. And then he went and dwelt in the cave of the rock Etam.
¶ Then the Philistines came up and pitched against Iuda, and lay in Lehi.
And the men of Iuda said; Why are ye come against us? And they answered to bind Samson are we come, even to do him as he hath done to us.
Then three thousand men of Iuda went down to the cave of the rock Etam, and said to Samson: wotest thou not that the Philistines are rulers over us? Wherefore then hast thou served us thus? And he answered them, as they served me, so have I served them.
And they said unto him, we are come to bind thee and to deliver thee into the hands of the Philistines. And Samson said unto them: sware unto me, that ye shall not hurt me yourselves.
And they said, we will not hurt thee, save only bind thee and deliver thee unto their hands: But we will not kill thee. And so they bound him with two new cords and brought him up from the rock.
And when he come to Lehi, the Philistines shouted against him. And the spirit of the LORD came upon him, and the cords that were upon his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire and the bands lowsed from his hands.
And he found a Iaw bone of a ratten ass, and put forth his hand and caught it, and slew a thousand men therewith.
And Samson said: with the Iaw of an ass, have I made heaps: with the Iaw of an ass have I slain a thousand men.
And when he had left speaking he cast away the Iaw out of his hand and called the place Ramath Lehi.
¶ And he was sore a thirst, and called on the LORD and said. Thou LORD hath given this great victory, thorow the hand of thy servant. And now I must die for thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised.
But God brake a great tooth that was in the Iaw, and there came water thereout. And when he had drunk his spirit came again, and he was refreshed, wherefore the name thereof was called the well of the caller on, which is in Lehi unto this day.
And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.
Chapter:
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
[6]
[7]
[8]
[9]
[10]
[11]
[12]
[13]
[14]
[15]
[16]
[17]
[18]
[19]
[20]
[21]
Praise the Everlasting Lord for His Faithful Word.