1 After several days, at the time of the wheat harvest, Samson came to see his wife {ishto: covenant partner}, bringing a young goat. He said, “I will go into my wife’s inner chamber {hechadra: private room},” but her father would not let him enter.
2 Her father said, “I truly said {amor: emphatic expression}, ‘I was sure you hated {sano: strong aversion} her,’ so I gave her to your companion. Is her younger sister not preferable to her? Please let her be yours instead.”
3 And Samson said to them, “This time I am blameless {niqqē-tî: morally clear} toward the Philistines, even if I inflict harm {rāʿāh: malicious act} upon them.”
4 Samson {Shimshon: Strong One} went out, captured three hundred foxes, and took torches. He tied them tail to tail and set one torch between the two tails, in the middle {batavekh: central position}.
5 He lit the torches, then sent them into the Philistines’ standing grain, and he burned both the shocks {gaddish: grain bundles} and the standing grain, as well as the vineyards and olive groves {zayit: olive trees}.
6 The Philistines said, “Who has done this?” And they said, “Samson, the Timnite’s son-in-law, because he took his wife {ishah: covenant partner} and gave her to his companion.” Then the Philistines went up and burned her and her father {av: family head} with fire.
7 Samson {Shimshon: strong deliverer} said to them, “If you act like this, surely I will take vengeance {nikkamti: acted with just retribution} on you; and afterward, I will cease.”
8 He struck them down, thigh upon hip, with a great blow {makkah: decisive strike}. Then he went down and stayed in the cleft {seif: narrow opening} of the rock of Etam.
9 The Philistines {pelishtim: foreign invaders} went up, camped in Judah, and spread themselves out at Lehi {lechi: jawbone site}.
10 And the men {ish: tribal combatants} of Judah said, "Why have you come up against us?" They said, "We have come to bind {leesor: secure captivity} Samson and to do to him just as he did to us."
11 Then three thousand men from Judah went down to the cleft {seif: narrow opening} of the rock at Etam and said to Samson, “Do you not know that the Philistines are ruling {moshlim: exercising authority} over us? What is this that you have done to us?” And he said to them, “As they did to me, so I have done to them.”
12 And they said to him, “We have come down to bind{le’esar-kha: restrain forcibly} you and hand you over to the Philistines.” And Samson said to them, “Swear to me that you will not attack{tifge’un: strike violently} me yourselves.”
13 They said to him, “No; we will bind you securely {asor: secure restraint} and deliver you into their hand, but we will not kill you.” So they bound him with two new ropes {avotim: sturdy cords} and brought him up from the rock.
14 When he came to Lehi, the Philistines shouted {heriu: war cry} as they met him. Then the Spirit of the LORD {YHWH, Empowering Deliverer} rushed mightily upon him, and the ropes on his arms became like flax burned by fire, and his bonds melted away from his hands.
15 He found a fresh donkey’s jawbone, stretched out his hand {yad: instrument of power} and took it, and with it he struck down a thousand men {ish: individual warriors}.
16 Samson said, “With the jawbone {bilchi: curved bone} of a donkey—heaps upon heaps {chamoratayim: massive piles}; with the jawbone of a donkey I struck down a thousand men.”
17 And it came to pass {vayehi: transitional event}, when he finished speaking, that he threw the jawbone from his hand; and he called that place Ramath {ramat: summit height} Lehi.
18 He became very thirsty, and he cried out to the LORD {YHWH, Deliverance Giver} and said, “You have placed this great deliverance {teshuʾah: rescue and salvation} in the hand of your servant; and now shall I die of thirst and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised?”
19 And God {Elohim, Restorer of Life} split open the hollow place {makhtesh: natural cavity} at Lehi, and water issued from it. He drank, his spirit returned, and he revived. Therefore he named it Spring of the Caller, which remains in Lehi to this day.
20 He judged Israel {Yisrael: God-Struggler} for twenty years, in the days of the Philistines {Pelishtim: Sea Invaders}.