Judges 15

Samson Turns All the Way Up

1 Later on, during harvest time, Samson went back to see his wife. He brought a young goat with him and said, “I am tryna go see my wife in her room.” But her daddy would not let him in.

2 Her daddy said, “I thought you hated her, so I gave her to your homeboy. But her little sister finer than her anyway, take her instead.”

3 Samson said, “Man, this time I am really bout to do damage to you all Philistines, and I will not feel bad about it.”

Samson Uses Foxes to Burn Crops

4 Samson caught 300 foxes, tied them together in pairs by their tails, and put a torch between each pair.

5 He lit the torches and let the foxes loose in the Philistines’ grain fields. They burned up everything, the standing grain, the harvested grain, vineyards, and olive groves.

The Philistines Get Revenge

6 The Philistines asked, “Who did this?” Somebody told them, “Samson, cause his father-in-law gave his wife to his boy.” So they went and burned the wife and her daddy alive.

7 Samson said, “Oh, you all want to play like that, Bet. I am not stopping till I get mine back.”

8 Samson ran through them, tore them up viciously, then went and posted up in a cave at the rock of Etam.

Judah Gets Pressured

9 The Philistines rolled out and camped in Judah, spreading through Lehi.

10 The men of Judah asked, “Why are y’all here?” The Philistines said, “We came to get Samson, payback time.”

11 3,000 men from Judah went to the cave where Samson was hiding and said, “Bro, you know the Philistines run us. What are you doing starting trouble?”

12 Samson said, “I just did to them what they did to me.” They said, “We came to tie you up and hand you over.” He said, “Cool, just promise you all will not kill me yourselves.”

13 They said, “We will not, we will just tie you up and hand you over.” So they tied him up with two new ropes and brought him from the cave.

Samson Breaks Loose and Goes Off

14 When he got to Lehi, the Philistines came out yelling. But the Spirit of the Lord came on him heavy, he snapped the ropes like burnt thread.

15 He found a fresh jawbone from a donkey, picked it up, and laid out 1,000 Philistines with it.

16 Samson said, “With a donkey’s jawbone I made a straight graveyard, a thousand men laid down.”

Samson Cries Out to God

17 After that, Samson tossed the jawbone away. They named that spot Ramath-lehi (Jawbone Hill).

18 Samson was mad thirsty and cried out to God, “You gave me this win, but now I am about to die of thirst and get caught by these uncircumcised fools?”

19 God split open a hollow place at Lehi, and water flowed out. Samson drank, got his strength back, and revived. That is why the spot is called En-hakkore (The Caller’s Spring), still there today.

Samson Judges Israel

20 Samson ran Israel for 20 years during the Philistine oppression.