Judges 15

NEW JERUSALEM	NEW AMERICAN BIBLE
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 After some time, in the season of the wheat harvest, Samson visited his wife, bringing a kid. But when he said, "Let me be with my wife in private," her father would not let him enter,
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 saying, "I thought it certain you wished to repudiate her; so I gave her to your best man. Her younger sister is more beautiful than she; you may have her instead."
3 But Samson answered them, 'I can get my revenge on the Philistines now only by doing them somedamage.'	3 Samson said to them, "This time the Philistines cannot blame me if I harm them."
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 So Samson left and caught three hundred foxes. Turning them tail to tail, he tied between each pair of tails one of the torches he had at hand.
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 He then kindled the torches and set the foxes loose in the standing grain of the Philistines, thus burning both the shocks and the standing grain, and the vineyards and olive orchards as well.
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 When the Philistines asked who had done this, they were told, "Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because his wife was taken and given to his best man." So the Philistines went up and destroyed her and her family by fire.
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 Samson said to them, "If this is how you act, I will not stop until I have taken revenge on you."
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 with repeated blows, he inflicted a great slaughter on them. Then he went down and remained in a cavern of the cliff of Etam.
9 The Philistines came up and encamped in Judah and made a foray against Lehi.	9 The Philistines went up and, from a camp in Judah, deployed against Lehi.
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 When the men of Judah asked, "Why have you come up against us?" they answered, "To take Samson prisoner; to do to him as he has done to 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 Three thousand men of Judah went down to the cavern in the cliff of Etam and said to Samson, "Do you not know that the Philistines are our rulers? Why, then, have you done this to us?" He answered them, "As they have done 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 They said to him, "We have come to take you prisoner, to deliver you over to the Philistines." Samson said to them, "Swear to me that you will not kill me yourselves."
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 "No," they replied,"we will certainly not kill you but will only bind you and deliver you over to them." So they bound him with two new ropes and brought him up from the cliff.
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 When he reached Lehi, and the Philistines came shouting to meet him, the spirit of the LORD came upon him: the ropes around his arms became as flax that is consumed by fire and his bonds melted away from his hands.
15 Coming across the fresh jawbone of a donkey, he reached out and snatched it up; and with it heslaughtered a thousand men.	15 Near him was the fresh jawbone of an ass; he reached out, grasped it, and with it killed 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 Then Samson said,
17 And with that he hurled the jawbone away; and that is why the place was cal ed Ramath-Lehi.	17 As he finished speaking he threw the jawbone from him; and so that place was named Ramath-lehi.
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 Being very thirsty, he cried to the LORD and said, "You have granted this great victory by the hand of your servant. Must I now die of thirst or 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 God split the cavity in Lehi, and water issued from it, which Samson drank till his spirit returned and he revived. Hence that spring in Lehi is called En-hakkore to this day.
20 Samson was judge in Israel in the days of the Philistines for twenty years.	20 Samson judged Israel for twenty years in the days of the Philistines.