let them go into the standing grain of the Philistines, and burnt up both the shocks, and also the standing grain, with the vineyards and olives.
6 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 And Samson said to them, Though ye have done this, yet will I be avenged of you, and after that I will cease.
8 And he smote them hip and thigh with a great slaughter: and he went down and dwelt in the top of the rock Etam.
9 Then the Philistines went up, and encamped in Judah, and spread themselves in Lehi.
10 And the men of Judah said, Why have ye come up against us? And they answered, We have come to bind Samson, to do to him as he hath done to us.
11 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 to us? And he said to them, As they did to me, so have I done to them. [1]
12 And they said to him, We have come down to bind thee, that we may deliver thee into the hand of the Philistines. And Samson said to them, Swear to me, that ye will not fall upon me yourselves.
13 And they spoke to him, saying, No; but we will bind thee securely, 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 And when he came to 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. [2]
15 And he found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, and put forth his hand, and took it, and slew a thousand men with it. [3]
16 And Samson said, With the jawbone of a donkey, heaps upon heaps, with the jaw of a donkey have I slain a thousand men. [4]
17 And it came to pass, when he had finished speaking, that he cast away the jawbone out of his hand, and called that place Ramathlehi. [5]
18 And he was very thirsty, and called on the LORD, and said, Thou hast given this great deliverance into the hand of thy servant: and now shall I die by thirst, and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised?
19 But God opened an hollow place that was in the jaw, and there came water out of it; and when he had drunk, his spirit came again, and he revived: therefore he called the name of it Enhakkore, which is in Lehi to this day. [6] [7]
20 And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.
CHAP. 16.
1 Then went Samson to Gaza, and saw there an harlot, and went in to her. [8]
2 And it was told the Gazites, saying, Samson is come here. And they surrounded him, and laid wait for him all night in the gate of the city, and were quiet all the night, saying, In the morning, when it is day, we shall kill him. [9]
3 And Samson lay till midnight, and arose at midnight, and took the doors of the gate of the city, and the two posts, and went away with them, bar and all, and put them upon his shoulders, and carried them up to the top of an hill that is before Hebron. [10]
4 And it came to pass afterward, that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. [11]
5 And the lords of the Philistines came to her, and said to her, Entice him, and see where his great strength lieth, and by what means we may prevail against him, that we may bind him to afflict him: and we will give thee every one of us eleven hundred pieces of silver. [12]
6 And Delilah said to Samson, Tell me, I pray thee, where thy great strength lieth, and how thou mayest be bound to afflict thee.
7 And Samson said to her, If they bind me with seven new cords that were never dried, then shall I be weak, and be as another man. [13] [14]
8 Then the lords of the Philistines brought to her seven new cords which had not been dried, and she bound him with them. [15]
9 Now there were men lying in wait, abiding with her in the chamber. And she said to him, The Philistines are upon thee, Samson. And he broke the cords, as a string of a wick is broken when it toucheth the fire. So his strength was not known. [16]
10 And Delilah said to Samson, Behold, thou hast mocked me, and told me lies: now tell me, I pray thee, how thou mayest be bound.
11 And he said to her, If they bind me securely with new ropes that never were used, then shall I be weak, and be as another man. [17]
12 Delilah therefore took new ropes, and bound him with them,
- ↑ went: Heb. went down
- ↑ loosed: Heb. were melted
- ↑ new: Heb. moist
- ↑ heaps upon...: Heb. an heap, two heaps
- ↑ Ramathlehi: that is, the lifting up of the jawbone, or, casting away of the jawbone
- ↑ Enhakkore: that is, the well of him that called or, cried
- ↑ the jaw: or, Lehi, as called in this chapter
- ↑ harlot: Heb. a woman an harlot
- ↑ quiet: Heb. silence
- ↑ bar...: Heb. with the bar
- ↑ in...: or, by the brook
- ↑ afflict: or, humble
- ↑ green...: or, new cords: Heb. moist
- ↑ another: Heb. one
- ↑ green...: or, new cords: Heb. moist
- ↑ toucheth: Heb. smelleth
- ↑ that never...: Heb. wherewith work hath not been done
