Judges 15

NEW JERUSALEM	DOUAI-RHEIMS
1 Not long after this, at the time of the wheat harvest, Samson visited his wife, with a kid; he said, 'I wishto go to my wife in her room.' But her father would not let him enter.	1 And a while after, when the days of the wheat harvest were at hand, Samson came, meaning to visit his wife, and he brought her a kid of the flock. And when he would have gone into her chamber as usual, her father would not suffer him, saying:
2 'I felt sure', he said, 'that you had taken a real dislike to her, so I gave her to your companion. Butwould not her younger sister suit you better? Have her instead.'	2 I thought thou hadst hated her, and therefore I gave her to thy friend: but she hath a sister, who is younger and fairer than she, take her to wife instead of her.
3 But Samson answered them, 'I can get my revenge on the Philistines now only by doing them somedamage.'	3 And Samson answered him: From this day I shall be blameless in what I do against the Philistines: for I will do you evils.
4 So Samson went off and caught three hundred foxes, then took torches and, turning the foxes tail totail, put a torch between each pair of tails.	4 And he went and caught three hundred foxes, and coupled them tail to tail, and fastened torches between the tails.
5 He lit the torches and set the foxes free in the Philistines' cornfields. In this way he burned bothsheaves and standing corn, and the vines and olive trees as wel .	5 And setting them on fire he let the foxes go, that they might run about hither and thither. And they presently went into the standing corn of the Philistines. Which being set on fire, both the corn that was already carried together, and that which was yet standing, was all burnt, insomuch, that the flame consumed also the vineyards and the oliveyards.
6 The Philistines asked, 'Who has done this?' and received the answer, 'Samson, who married theTimnite's daughter; his father-in-law took the wife back again and gave her to his companion instead.' ThePhilistines then went and burned the woman and her father's family to death.	6 Then the Philistines said: Who hath done this thing? And it was answered: Samson the son in law of the Thamnathite, because he took away his wife, and gave her to another, hath done these things. And the Philistines went up and burnt both the woman and her father.
7 Samson said to them, 'If that is how you behave, I swear I wil not rest till I have had my revenge onyou.'	7 But Samson said to them: Although you have done this, yet will I be revenged of you, and then I will be quiet.
8 And he fel on them systematical y and caused great havoc. Then he went down to the cave in theRock of Etham and lived there.	8 And he made a great slaughter of them, so that in astonishment they laid the calf of the leg upon the thigh. And going down he dwelt in a cavern of the rock Etam.
9 The Philistines came up and encamped in Judah and made a foray against Lehi.	9 Then the Philistines going up into the land of Juda, camped in the place which afterwards was called Lechi, that is, the Jawbone, where their army was spread.
10 The men of Judah said to them, 'Why are you attacking us?' They replied, 'We have come to seizeSamson and to treat him as he has treated us.'	10 And the men of the tribe of Juda said to them: Why are you come up against us? They answered: We are come to bind Samson, and to pay him for what he hath done against us.
11 Three thousand men of Judah then went down to the cave of the Rock of Etham and said to him,'Don't you know that the Philistines have us in their power? Now what have you done to us?' He replied, 'I havetreated them only as they treated me.'	11 Wherefore three thousand men of Juda, went down to the cave of the rock Etam, and said to Samson: Knowest thou not that the Philistines rule over us? Why wouldst thou do thus? And he said to them: As they did to me, so have I done to them.
12 They then said, 'We have come down to take you, to hand you over to the Philistines.' He said,'Swear to me not to kill me yourselves.'	12 And they said to him, We are come to bind thee and to deliver thee into the hands of the Philistines. And Samson said to them: Swear to me, and promise me, that you will not kill me.
13 They replied, 'No; we only want to bind you and hand you over to them; we certainly do not want tokil you.' They then bound him with two new ropes and brought him up from the Rock.	13 They said: We will not kill thee: but we will deliver thee up bound. And they bound him with two new cords, and brought him from the rock Etam.
14 As he was approaching Lehi, and the Philistines came running towards him with triumphant shouts,the spirit of Yahweh was on him; the ropes on his arms became like burnt strands of flax and the cords round hishands came untied.	14 Now when he was come to the place of the Jawbone, and the Philistines shouting went to meet him, the spirit of the Lord came strongly upon him: and as the flax is wont to be consumed at the approach of fire, so the bands with which he was bound were broken and loosed.
15 Coming across the fresh jawbone of a donkey, he reached out and snatched it up; and with it heslaughtered a thousand men.	15 And finding a jawbone, even the jawbone of an ass which lay there, catching it up, be slew therewith a thousand men.
16 And Samson said: With the jawbone of a donkey I have laid them in heaps, with the jawbone of adonkey I have fel ed a thousand men.	16 And he said: With the jawbone of an ass, with the jaw of the colt of asses I have destroyed them, and have slain a thousand men.
17 And with that he hurled the jawbone away; and that is why the place was cal ed Ramath-Lehi.	17 And when he had ended these words singing, he threw the jawbone out of his hand, and called the name of that place Ramathlechi, which is interpreted the lifting up of the jawbone.
18 And as he was very thirsty, he cal ed on Yahweh and said, 'You yourself have worked this greatdeliverance by the hand of your servant; and now must I die of thirst and fal into the hands of theuncircumcised?'	18 Arid being very thirsty, he cried to the Lord, and said: Thou hast given this very great deliverance and victory into the hand of thy servant: and behold I die for thirst, and shall fall into the hands of the uncircumcised.
19 Then God opened a hol ow in the ground, the hol ow there is at Lehi, and water gushed out of it.Samson drank; his vigour returned and he revived. And therefore this spring was called En-ha-Kore; it is still atLehi today.	19 Then the Lord opened a great tooth in the jaw of the ass, and waters issued out of it. And when he had drank them he refreshed his spirit, and recovered his strength. Therefore the name of that place was called, The Spring of him that invoked from the jawbone, until this present day.
20 Samson was judge in Israel in the days of the Philistines for twenty years.	20 And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.