Samson Defeats the Philistines

Judges 15

1 After a while, in the time of wheat harvest, it happened that Samson visited his wife with a a young goat. And he said, "Let me go in to my wife, into her room." But her father would not permit him to go in. 2 Her father said, "I really thought that you thoroughly b hated her; therefore I gave her to your companion. Is not her younger sister better than she? Please, take her instead." 3 And Samson said to them, "This time I shall be blameless regarding the Philistines if I harm them!" 4 Then Samson went and caught three hundred foxes; and he took torches, turned the foxes tail to tail, and put a torch between each pair of tails. 5 When he had set the torches on fire, he let the foxes go into the standing grain of the Philistines, and burned up both the shocks and the standing grain, as well as the vineyards and olive groves. 6 Then the Philistines said, "Who has done this?" And they answered, "Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he has taken his wife and given her to his companion." c So the Philistines came up and burned her and her father with fire. 7 Samson said to them, "Since you would do a thing like this, I will surely take revenge on you, and after that I will cease." 8 So he attacked them hip and thigh with a great slaughter; then he went down and dwelt in the cleft of the rock of d Etam.

9 Now the Philistines went up, encamped in Judah, and deployed themselves e against Lehi. 10 And the men of Judah said, "Why have you come up against us?" So they answered, "We have come up to 1 arrest Samson, to do to him as he has done to us." 11 Then three thousand men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam, and said to Samson, "Do you not know that the Philistines f rule over us? What is this you have done to us?" And he said to them, "As they did to me, so I have done to them." 12 But they said to him, "We have come down to arrest you, that we may deliver you into the hand of the Philistines." Then Samson said to them, "Swear to me that you will not kill me yourselves." 13 So they spoke to him, saying, "No, but we will tie you securely and deliver you into their hand; but we will surely not kill you." And they bound him with two g new ropes and brought him up from the rock.

14 When he came to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting against him. Then h the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him; and the ropes that were on his arms became like flax that is burned with fire, and his bonds 2 broke loose from his hands. 15 He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, reached out his hand and took it, and i killed a thousand men with it.

16 Then Samson said:
"With the jawbone of a donkey,
Heaps upon heaps,
With the jawbone of a donkey
I have slain 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 3 Ramath Lehi. 4

18 Then he became very thirsty; so he cried out to the LORD and said, j "You have given this great deliverance by the hand of Your servant; and now shall I die of thirst and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised?" 19 So God split the hollow place that is in 5 Lehi, 6 and water came out, and he drank; and k his spirit returned, and he revived. Therefore he called its name 7 En Hakkore, 8 which is in Lehi to this day. 20 And l he judged Israel m twenty years n in the days of the Philistines.

  1. Cross References
    Genesis 38:17
    And he said, "I will send a young goat from the flock." So she said, "Will you give me a pledge till you send it?
  2. Cross References
    Judges 14:20
    And Samson's wife was given to his companion, who had been his best man.
  3. Cross References
    Judges 14:15
    But it came to pass on the seventh day that they said to Samson's wife, "Entice your husband, that he may explain the riddle to us, or else we will burn you and your father's house with fire. Have you invited us in order to take what is ours? Is that not so?
  4. Cross References
    2 Chronicles 11:6
    And he built Bethlehem, Etam, Tekoa.
  5. Cross References
    Judges 15:19
    So God split the hollow place that is in Lehi, and water came out, and he drank; and his spirit returned, and he revived. Therefore he called its name En Hakkore, which is in Lehi to this day.
  6. Cross References
    Leviticus 26:25
    And I will bring a sword against you that will execute the vengeance of the covenant; when you are gathered together within your cities I will send pestilence among you; and you shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy.
    Deuteronomy 28:43
    The alien who is among you shall rise higher and higher above you, and you shall come down lower and lower.
    Judges 13:1
    Again the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and the LORD delivered them into the hand of the Philistines for forty years.
    Judges 14:4
    But his father and mother did not know that it was of the LORD - that He was seeking an occasion to move against the Philistines. For at that time the Philistines had dominion over Israel.
    Psalms 106:40 - 42
    Therefore the wrath of the LORD was kindled against His people, So that He abhorred His own inheritance.
  7. Cross References
    Judges 16:11
    So he said to her, "If they bind me securely with new ropes that have never been used, then I shall become weak, and be like any other man.
    Judges 16:12
    Therefore Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them, and said to him, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson!" And men were lying in wait, staying in the room. But he broke them off his arms like a thread.
  8. Cross References
    Judges 3:10
    The Spirit of the LORD came upon him, and he judged Israel. He went out to war, and the LORD delivered CushanRishatha'im king of Mesopotamia into his hand; and his hand prevailed over CushanRishatha'im.
    Judges 14:6
    And the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him, and he tore the lion apart as one would have torn apart a young goat, though he had nothing in his hand. But he did not tell his father or his mother what he had done.
  9. Cross References
    Leviticus 26:8
    Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight; your enemies shall fall by the sword before you.
    Joshua 23:10
    One man of you shall chase a thousand, for the LORD your God is He who fights for you, as He promised you.
    Judges 3:31
    After him was Shamgar the son of Anath, who killed six hundred men of the Philistines with an ox goad; and he also delivered Israel.
  10. Cross References
    Psalms 3:7
    Arise, O LORD; Save me, O my God! For You have struck all my enemies on the cheekbone; You have broken the teeth of the ungodly.
  11. Cross References
    Genesis 45:27
    But when they told him all the words which Joseph had said to them, and when he saw the carts which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob their father revived.
    Isaiah 40:29
    He gives power to the weak, And to those who have no might He increases strength.
  12. Cross References
    Judges 10:2
    He judged Israel twenty-three years; and he died and was buried in Shamir.
    Judges 12:7 - 14
    And Jephthah judged Israel six years. Then Jephthah the Gileadite died and was buried in among the cities of Gilead.
  13. Cross References
    Judges 16:31
    And his brothers and all his father's household came down and took him, and brought him up and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of his father Manoah. He had judged Israel twenty years.
  14. Cross References
    Judges 13:1
    Again the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and the LORD delivered them into the hand of the Philistines for forty years.
New King James Version (NKJV) Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.
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