Judges 15

NEW JERUSALEM	CATHOLIC PUBLIC DOMAIN
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 Then, after some time, when the days of the wheat harvest were near, Samson arrived, intending to visit his wife, and he brought her a kid from the goats. And when he wanted to enter her bedroom, as usual, her father prohibited 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 that you would hate her, and therefore I gave her to your friend. But she has a sister, who is younger and more beautiful than she is. And she may be a wife for you, 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, there shall be no guilt for me against the Philistines. For I will do harm to you all.”
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 out and caught three hundred foxes. And he joined them tail to tail. And he tied 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 these on fire, he released them, so that they might rush from place to place. And immediately they went into the grain fields of the Philistines, setting these on fire, both the grain that was already bound for carrying, and what was still standing on the stalk. These were completely burned up, so much so that the flame also consumed even the vineyards and the olive groves.
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 And the Philistines said, “Who has done this thing?” And it was said: “Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he took away his wife, and gave her to another. He has done these things.” And the Philistines went up and burned the woman as well as 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 And Samson said to them, “Even though you have done this, I will still fulfill vengeance against you, and then I will be quieted.”
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 struck them with a tremendous slaughter, so much so that, out of astonishment, they laid the calf of the leg upon the thigh. And descending, he lived in a cave of the rock at Etam.
9 The Philistines came up and encamped in Judah and made a foray against Lehi.	9 And so the Philistines, ascending into the land of Judah, made camp at the place which was later called Lehi, that is, the Jawbone, where their army spread out.
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 some from the tribe of Judah said to them, “Why have you ascended against us?” And they responded, “We have come to bind Samson, and to repay him for what 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 Then three thousand men of Judah descended to the cave of the rock at Etam. And they said to Samson: “Do you not know that the Philistines rule over us? Why would you want to do this?” And he said to them, “As they have done to me, so I have 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 have come to bind you, and to deliver you into the hands of the Philistines.” And Samson said to them, “Swear and promise to 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 you. But we will deliver you tied.” And they bound him with two new cords. And they took him from the rock at 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 And when he had arrived at the place of the Jawbone, and the Philistines, shouting aloud, had met him, the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him. And just as flax is usually consumed by a hint of fire, so were the ties with which he was bound broken and released.
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 which was laying there, that is, the jawbone of a donkey, snatching it up, he put to death a thousand men with it.
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 a donkey, with the jaw of the colt of a donkey, I have destroyed them, and I have struck down 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 completed these words, singing, he threw the jawbone from his hand. And called the name of that place Ramath-Lehi, which is translated as ‘the elevation 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 And being very thirsty, he cried out to the Lord, and he said: “You have given, to the hand of your servant, this very great salvation and victory. But see that I am dying of thirst, and so I will 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 And so the Lord opened a large tooth in the jawbone of the donkey, and water went out from it. And having drank it, his spirit was revived, and he recovered his strength. For this reason, the name of that place was called ‘the Spring called forth from the jawbone,’ even to the 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, for twenty years.