¹ And it came to pass, after a time, in the days of wheat-harvest, that Samson went to visit his wife, with a kid, and he said—I will go in unto my wife, in the chamber. But her father would not suffer him to go in.

² And her father said—I, thought, that thou didst, hate, her, so I gave her to thy companion,—Is not, her younger sister, fairer than she? Pray let her be thine, in her stead.

³ And Samson said of them, I shall be more blameless, this time, than the Philistines,—though I should do them a mischief.

⁴ So Samson went, and caught three hundred jackals,—and took torches, and turned tail to tail, and put one torch between the two tails, in the midst.

⁵ And, when he had set fire to the torches, he let them go into the standing corn of the Philistines,—and set fire, both to the stack of sheaves and to the standing corn, and besides to the olive plantation.

⁶ Then said the Philistines—Who hath done this? And they said—Samson, son-in-law of the Timnite, because he hath taken his wife, and given her to his companion. So the Philistines went up and burned her and her father, with fire.

⁷ And Samson said to them, Though ye do the like of this, yet will I be avenged upon you, and, afterwards, will I cease.

⁸ So he smote them, leg on thigh, with a great smiting,—and went down and dwelt in a cleft of the crag Etam.

⁹ Then went up the Philistines, and encamped in Judah,—and were spread abroad in Lehi.

¹⁰ And the men of Judah said, Wherefore have ye come up against us? And they said—To bind Samson, are we come up, to do unto him as he hath done unto us.

¹¹ Then went down three thousand men out of Judah, unto the cleft of the crag Etam, and said unto Samson—Knowest thou not that the Philistines are lording it over us? What, then, is this thou hast done to us? And he said unto them, As they have done to me, so, have I done to them.

¹² And they said to him—To bind thee, are we come down, to 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 answered him, saying—Nay; but we will, bind, thee, and deliver thee into their hand, but we will not, put thee to death. So they bound him with two new ropes, and took him up from the crag.

¹⁴ He, was coming in as far as Lehi, and, the Philistines, came shouting to meet him,—when the Spirit of Yahweh came suddenly over him, and the ropes that were upon his arms became as threads of flax which have been ignited with fire, so that his bonds melted from off his hands.

¹⁵ Then found he the jawbone of an ass newly-slain,—so he thrust forth his hand, and took it, and smote therewith, a thousand men.

¹⁶ And Samson said, With the jawbone of an ass,—have I piled them up in heaps! With the jawbone of an ass, have I smitten a thousand men!

¹⁷ And it came to pass, when he had made an end of speaking, that he cast away the jawbone out of his hand,—and called the name of that place, Ramath-lehi.

¹⁸ And he was sore athirst, so he cried unto Yahweh, and said, Thou thyself, hast given, into the hand of thy servant, this great salvation,—and, now, must I die of thirst, and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised?

¹⁹ So then God clave open the hollow that is in Lehi, and there came therefrom water, and he drank, and his spirit came back, and he revived,—for this cause, called he the name thereof—Ain-hakkore, which is in Lehi, until this day.

²⁰ And he judged Israel, in the days of the Philistines, twenty years.