| [1]And it cometh to pass, after [some] days, in the days of  wheat-harvest, that Samson looketh after his wife, with a kid  of the goats, and saith, `I go in unto my wife, to the inner  chamber;' and her father hath not permitted him to go in,
          [2]and her father saith, I certainly said, that thou didst  certainly hate her, and I give her to thy companion; is not her  sister -- the young one -- better than she? Let her be, I pray  thee, to thee, instead of her.'
          [3]And Samson saith of them, `I am more innocent this time  than the Philistines, though I am doing with them evil.'
          [4]And Samson goeth and catcheth three hundred foxes, and  taketh torches, and turneth tail unto tail, and putteth a torch  between the two tails, in the midst,
          [5]and kindleth fire in the torches, and sendeth [them] out  into the standing corn of the Philistines, and burneth [it]  from heap even unto standing corn, even unto  vineyard -- olive-yard.
          [6]And the Philistines say, `Who hath done this?' And they  say, `Samson, son-in-law of the Timnite, because he hath taken  away his wife, and giveth her to his companion;' and the  Philistines go up, and burn her and her father with fire.
          [7]And Samson saith to them, `Though ye do thus, nevertheless  I am avenged on you, and afterwards I cease!'
          [8]And he smiteth them hip and thigh -- a great smiting, and  goeth down and dwelleth in the cleft of the rock Etam.
          [9]And the Philistines go up, and encamp in Judah, and are  spread out in Lehi,
          [10]and the men of Judah say, `Why have ye come up against  us?' and they say, `To bind Samson we have come up, to do to  him as he hath done to us.'
          [11]And three thousand men of Judah go down unto the cleft of  the rock Etam, and say to Samson, `Hast thou now known that the  Philistines are rulers over us? and what [is] this thou hast  done to us?' And he saith to them, `As they did to me, so I did  to them.'
          [12]And they say to him, `To bind thee we have come down -- to  give thee into the hand of the Philistines.' And Samson saith  to them, `Swear to me, lest ye fall upon me yourselves.'
          [13]And they speak to him, saying, No, but we certainly bind  thee, and have given thee into their hand, and we certainly do  not put thee to death;' and they bind him with two thick bands,  new ones, and bring him up from the rock.
          [14]He hath come unto Lehi -- and the Philistines have shouted  at meeting him -- and the Spirit of Jehovah prospereth over him,  and the thick bands which [are] on his arms are as flax which  they burn with fire, and his bands are wasted from off his  hands,
          [15]and he findeth a fresh jaw-bone of an ass, and putteth  forth his hand and taketh it, and smiteth with it -- a thousand  men.
          [16]And Samson saith, `With a jaw-bone of the ass -- an ass  upon asses -- with a jaw-bone of the ass I have smitten a  thousand men.'
          [17]And it cometh to pass when he finisheth speaking, that he  casteth away the jaw-bone out of his hand, and calleth that  place Ramath-Lehi;
          [18]and he thirsteth exceedingly, and calleth unto Jehovah,  and saith, `Thou -- Thou hast given by the hand of Thy servant  this great salvation; and now, I die with thirst, and have  fallen into the hand of the uncircumcised.'
          [19]And God cleaveth the hollow place which [is] in Lehi, and  waters come out of it, and he drinketh, and his spirit cometh  back, and he reviveth; therefore hath [one] called its name  `The fountain of him who is calling,' which [is] in Lehi unto  this day.
          [20]And he judgeth Israel in the days of the Philistines  twenty years. |