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Judges 15:9-20
New English Translation

9 The Philistines went up and invaded[a] Judah. They arrayed themselves for battle[b] in Lehi. 10 The men of Judah said, “Why are you attacking[c] us?” The Philistines[d] said, “We have come up to take Samson prisoner so we can do to him what he has done to us.” 11 So 3,000 men of Judah went down to the cave in the cliff of Etam and said to Samson, “Do you not know that the Philistines rule over us? Why have you done this to us?” He said to them, “I have only done to them what they have done to me.” 12 They said to him, “We have come down to take you prisoner so we can hand you over to the Philistines.” Samson said to them, “Promise me[e] you will not kill[f] me.” 13 They said to him, “We promise![g] We will only take you prisoner and hand you over to them. We promise not to kill you.” They tied him up with two brand new ropes and led him up from the cliff. 14 When he arrived in Lehi, the Philistines shouted as they approached him. But the Lord’s Spirit empowered[h] him. The ropes around his arms were like flax dissolving in[i] fire, and they[j] melted away from his hands. 15 He happened to see[k] a solid[l] jawbone of a donkey. He grabbed it[m] and struck down[n] 1,000 men. 16 Samson then said,

“With the jawbone of a donkey
I have left them in heaps;[o]
with the jawbone of a donkey
I have struck down a thousand men!”

17 When he finished speaking, he threw the jawbone down[p] and named that place Ramath Lehi.[q]

18 He was very thirsty, so he cried out to the Lord and said, “You have given your servant[r] this great victory. But now must I die of thirst and fall into the hands of these uncircumcised Philistines?”[s] 19 So God split open the basin[t] at Lehi and water flowed out from it. When he took a drink, his strength[u] was restored and he revived. For this reason he named the spring[v] En Hakkore.[w] It remains in Lehi to this very day. 20 Samson led[x] Israel for twenty years during the days of Philistine prominence.[y]

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Footnotes

  1. Judges 15:9 tn Or “camped in.”
  2. Judges 15:9 tn Or “spread out.” The Niphal of נָטָשׁ (natash) has this same sense in 2 Sam 5:18, 22.
  3. Judges 15:10 tn Or “come up against.”
  4. Judges 15:10 tn Heb “they”; the referent (the Philistines) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  5. Judges 15:12 tn Or “swear to me.”
  6. Judges 15:12 tn Heb “meet [with hostility]”; “harm.” In light of v. 13, “kill” is an appropriate translation.
  7. Judges 15:13 tn Heb “No,” meaning that they will not harm him.
  8. Judges 15:14 tn Heb “rushed on.”
  9. Judges 15:14 tn Heb “burned with.”
  10. Judges 15:14 tn Heb “his bonds.”
  11. Judges 15:15 tn Heb “he found.”
  12. Judges 15:15 tn Heb “fresh,” i.e., not decayed and brittle.
  13. Judges 15:15 tn Heb “he reached out his hand and took it.”
  14. Judges 15:15 tn The Hebrew text adds “with it.” This has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.
  15. Judges 15:16 tn The precise meaning of the second half of the line (חֲמוֹר חֲמֹרָתָיִם, khamor khamoratayim) is uncertain. The present translation assumes that the phrase means, “a heap, two heaps” and refers to the heaps of corpses littering the battlefield. Other options include: (a) “I have made donkeys of them” (cf. NIV; see C. F. Burney, Judges, 373, for a discussion of this view, which understands a denominative verb from the noun “donkey”); (b) “I have thoroughly skinned them” (see HALOT 330 s.v. IV cj. חמר, which appeals to an Arabic cognate for support); (c) “I have stormed mightily against them,” which assumes the verb חָמַר (khamar, “to ferment; to foam; to boil up”).
  16. Judges 15:17 tn Heb “from his hand.”
  17. Judges 15:17 sn The name Ramath Lehi means “Height of the Jawbone.”
  18. Judges 15:18 tn Heb “you have placed into the hand of your servant.”
  19. Judges 15:18 tn Heb “the hand of uncircumcised.” “Hand” often represents power or control. “The uncircumcised [ones]” is used as a pejorative and in the context refers to the Philistines.
  20. Judges 15:19 tn The word translated “basin” refers to a circular-shaped depression in the land’s surface.
  21. Judges 15:19 tn Heb “spirit.”
  22. Judges 15:19 tn Heb “named it”; the referent (the spring) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  23. Judges 15:19 sn The name En Hakkore means “Spring of the one who cries out.”
  24. Judges 15:20 tn Traditionally, “judged.”
  25. Judges 15:20 tn Heb “in the days of the Philistines.”
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