Samson’s Revenge

1Then, 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 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.”

3And Samson answered him: “From this day, there shall be no guilt for me against the Philistines. For I will do harm to you all.” 4And he went out and caught three hundred foxes. And he joined them tail to tail. And he tied torches between the tails. 5And 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. 6And 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. 7And Samson said to them, “Even though you have done this, I will still fulfill vengeance against you, and then I will be quieted.” 8And 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.

9And 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. 10And 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.” 11Then 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.” 12And 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.” 13They 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.

14And 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. 15And 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.

16And 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.”

17And 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.’ 18And 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.” 19And 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. 20And he judged Israel, in the days of the Philistines, for twenty years.