Judges 15:12-20 ▼

12 And they said to him, “We have come down to bind you, that we may deliver you into the hand of the Philistines.” And Samson said to them, “Swear to me that you⁺ will not kill me yourselves.”

13 And they spoke to him, saying, “No, but we will securely bind you and deliver you into their hands. And surely we will not put you to death.” And they bound him with two new ropes and brought him up from the rock.

14 He came to Lehi, and the Philistines came out shouting against him, and the Spirit of YHWH rushed mightily upon him, and the ropes that were on his arms became like flax that is burned with the fire, and his bonds broke loose from his hands.

15 And He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, and he stretched out his hand and took it, and killed with it a thousand men.

16 And Samson said, “With the jawbone of a donkey—a heap upon heaps—with the jawbone of a donkey I have struck down a thousand men.”

17 And so it was, when he had finished speaking, that he threw the jawbone from his hand, and called that place Ramath-lehi.

18 And he became exceedingly thirsty, and he cried out to YHWH and said, “You have given by the hand of Your servant this great deliverance, and shall I die of thirst and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised?”

19 And God split the hollow place that is in Lehi, and water came out, and he drank, and his spirit returned, and he revived. Upon thus he called its name En-hakkore, which is in Lehi to this day.

20 And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.