Judges 15:1-8

Lexham English Bible

Samson Defeats the Philistines

15 After a while, at the time of the wheat harvest, Samson visited his wife with a young goat.^[a] He said, “I want to go to my wife’s private room.” But her father would not allow him to enter. ² Her father said, “I really thought that you hated her, so I gave her to your companion. Is not her younger sister more beautiful than she? Please, take her instead.”^{[b] 3} And Samson said to them, “This time, as far as the Philistines are concerned, when I do something evil I am without blame.” ⁴ And Samson went and captured three hundred foxes, and he took torches. He turned them tail to tail, and he put one torch between two tails. ⁵ He set fire to the torches and let the foxes go into the standing grain of the Philistines, and he burned both the stacks^[c] of sheaves and the standing grain, up to the vineyards^[d] of olive groves. ⁶ And the Philistines said, “Who has done this?” And they said, “Samson the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he took his wife and gave her to his companion.” And the Philistines went up and burned her and her father with fire. ⁷ Samson said to them, “If you want to behave like this, I swear I will not rest unless I have taken revenge on you.” ⁸ And he gave them a thorough beating,^[e] and he went down and stayed in the cleft of the rock of Etam.