Samson Burns the Philistine Fields
Study note
When Samson returned to visit his wife during the wheat harvest, he found that her father had given her to another man. Her father offered her younger sister instead, but Samson refused. In revenge, Samson caught three hundred foxes, tied their tails together in pairs with torches, and released them into the Philistine grain fields, vineyards, and olive groves, destroying their harvest. When the Philistines learned the cause, they burned Samson's wife and her father alive. Samson then attacked the Philistines in a fierce slaughter and retreated to a cave in the rock of Etam.
1 A while later, during the wheat harvest season, Samson went to visit his wife and brought along a young goat as a gift. He said, "Let me go see my wife in her room." But her father blocked him from going in. But it came to pass within a while after, in the time of wheat harvest, that Samson visited his wife with a kid; and he said, I will go in to my wife into the chamber. But her father would not suffer him to go in.
2 Her father explained, "I honestly believed you completely hated her, so I gave her to your friend instead. But look, her younger sister is even prettier. Why not take her instead?" And her father said, I verily thought that thou hadst utterly hated her; therefore I gave her to thy companion: is not her younger sister fairer than she? take her, I pray thee, instead of her.
3 Samson replied, "This time nobody can blame me for what I am about to do to the Philistines. They have it coming." And Samson said concerning them, Now shall I be more blameless than the Philistines, though I do them a displeasure.
4 Samson went out and captured three hundred foxes. He tied them together in pairs by their tails and attached a lit torch between each pair. And Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took firebrands, and turned tail to tail, and put a firebrand in the midst between two tails.
5 Then he set the torches on fire and turned the foxes loose in the Philistine grain fields. The fire burned up everything: the harvested grain piles, the crops still standing in the fields, the vineyards, and the olive orchards. And when he had set the brands on fire, he let them go into the standing corn of the Philistines, and burnt up both the shocks, and also the standing corn, with the vineyards and olives.
6 The Philistines demanded, "Who did this?" Someone told them, "Samson did it. His father-in-law from Timnah gave his wife to another man." So the Philistines went and burned the woman and her father alive. Then the Philistines said, Who hath done this? And they answered, Samson, the son in law of the Timnite, because he had taken his wife, and given her to his companion. And the Philistines came up, and burnt her and her father with fire.
7 Samson told them, "If that is how you are going to act, then I will not rest until I have gotten my revenge on you." And Samson said unto them, Though ye have done this, yet will I be avenged of you, and after that I will cease.
8 He attacked them brutally and left many of them dead. Then he went off and made his camp in a cave at the rock of Etam. And he smote them hip and thigh with a great slaughter: and he went down and dwelt in the top of the rock Etam.
Samson Defeats a Thousand with a Jawbone
Study note
The Philistines invaded Judah looking for Samson. The men of Judah, more afraid of the Philistines than loyal to Samson, sent three thousand men to hand him over. Samson let them tie him with new ropes on the condition they would not kill him themselves. When the Philistines shouted in triumph, the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon Samson. The ropes burned off his arms like thread. He grabbed a fresh donkey jawbone and killed a thousand men. God then miraculously provided water from the ground when Samson was dying of thirst.
9 The Philistines marched their army into the territory of Judah and set up camp near the town of Lehi. Then the Philistines went up, and pitched in Judah, and spread themselves in Lehi.
10 The men of Judah asked them, "Why are you attacking us?" The Philistines said, "We came to capture Samson and pay him back for what he did to us." And the men of Judah said, Why are ye come up against us? And they answered, To bind Samson are we come up, to do to him as he hath done to us.
11 So three thousand men from the tribe of Judah went down to the cave at Etam. They said to Samson, "Do you not realize the Philistines are our rulers? What have you gotten us into?" Samson answered, "I did to them what they did to me first." Then three thousand men of Judah went to the top of the rock Etam, and said to Samson, Knowest thou not that the Philistines are rulers over us? what is this that thou hast done unto us? And he said unto them, As they did unto me, so have I done unto them.
12 They said, "We came here to tie you up and hand you over to the Philistines." Samson said, "Give me your word that you will not kill me yourselves." And they said unto him, We are come down to bind thee, that we may deliver thee into the hand of the Philistines. And Samson said unto them, Swear unto me, that ye will not fall upon me yourselves.
13 "We promise," they said. "We will tie you up and hand you over. We will not hurt you." So they bound him tightly with two new ropes and brought him up from the cave. And they spake unto him, saying, No; but we will bind thee fast, and deliver thee into their hand: but surely we will not kill thee. And they bound him with two new cords, and brought him up from the rock.
14 As Samson reached Lehi, the Philistines saw him and charged at him with a war cry. Then, the Spirit of the Lord flooded over him with power. The ropes around his arms turned soft like burned strings and fell right off his hands. And when he came unto Lehi, the Philistines shouted against him: and the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him, and the cords that were upon his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire, and his bands loosed from off his hands.
15 He spotted the jawbone of a donkey lying on the ground. It was still fresh. He grabbed it and used it to kill a thousand men. And he found a new jawbone of an ass, and put forth his hand, and took it, and slew a thousand men therewith.
16 Samson declared, "With the jawbone of a donkey, I piled them up in heaps. With the jawbone of a donkey, I struck down a thousand men." And Samson said, With the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, with the jaw of an ass have I slain a thousand men.
17 After saying this, he tossed the jawbone aside. The place got the name Ramath-lehi, which means "jawbone hill." And it came to pass, when he had made an end of speaking, that he cast away the jawbone out of his hand, and called that place Ramath-lehi.
18 By now Samson was extremely thirsty. He called out to the Lord, "You gave your servant this incredible victory. Am I truly going to die of thirst now and be captured by these people who do not know you?" And he was sore athirst, and called on the LORD, and said, Thou hast given this great deliverance into the hand of thy servant: and now shall I die for thirst, and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised?
19 God split open a hole in the ground there at Lehi, and fresh water came bubbling up. Samson took a long drink, and his energy came flooding back. Therefore the spring is called En-hakkore, meaning "the spring of the one who cried out." It is still at Lehi today. But God clave an hollow place that was in the jaw, and there came water thereout; and when he had drunk, his spirit came again, and he revived: wherefore he called the name thereof En-hakkore, which is in Lehi unto this day.
20 Samson served as Israel's leader for twenty years during the time the Philistines were in power. And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.