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Chapter 15 |
| 1 | But it came to
pass within a while after, in the time of wheat harvest, that Samson visited
his wife with a kid; and he said, I will go in to my wife into the chamber. But
her father would not suffer him to go in. |
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2 | And her father said, I
verily thought that thou hadst utterly hated her; therefore I gave her to thy
companion: is not her younger sister fairer than she? take her, I pray thee,
instead of her. |
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3 | And Samson said concerning them, Now shall I be more
blameless than the Philistines, though I do them a displeasure. |
| 4 | And
Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took firebrands, and turned
tail to tail, and put a firebrand in the midst between two tails. |
| 5 |
And when he had set the brands on fire, he let them go into the standing corn
of the Philistines, and burnt up both the shocks, and also the standing corn,
with the vineyards and olives. |
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6 | Then the Philistines said, Who hath
done this? And they answered, Samson, the son in law of the Timnite, because he
had taken his wife, and given her to his companion. And the Philistines came
up, and burnt her and her father with fire. |
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7 | And Samson said unto
them, Though ye have done this, yet will I be avenged of you, and after that I
will cease. |
| 8
| And he smote them hip and thigh with a great slaughter:
and he went down and dwelt in the top of the rock Etam. |
| 9 | Then the
Philistines went up, and pitched in Judah, and spread themselves in Lehi.
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| 10 | And the men of Judah said, Why are ye come up against us? And they
answered, To bind Samson are we come up, to do to him as he hath done to
us. |
| 11 |
Then three thousand men of Judah went to the top of the rock
Etam, and said to Samson, Knowest thou not that the Philistines are rulers over
us? what is this that thou hast done unto us? And he said unto them, As they
did unto me, so have I done unto them. |
| 12 | And they said unto him, We
are come down to bind thee, that we may deliver thee into the hand of the
Philistines. And Samson said unto them, Swear unto me, that ye will not fall
upon me yourselves. |
| 13 | And they spake unto him, saying, No; but we
will bind thee fast, and deliver thee into their hand: but surely we will not
kill thee. And they bound him with two new cords, and brought him up from the
rock. |
| 14 |
And when he came unto Lehi, the Philistines shouted against
him: and the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him, and the cords that were
upon his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire, and his bands loosed
from off his hands. |
| 15 | And he found a new jawbone of an ass, and
put forth his hand, and took it, and slew a thousand men therewith. |
| 16 |
And Samson said, With the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, with the jaw of
an ass have I slain 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 that place Ramathlehi. |
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18 | And he was sore athirst, and called on
the LORD, and said, Thou hast given this great deliverance into the hand of thy
servant: and now shall I die for thirst, and fall into the hand of the
uncircumcised? |
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19 | But God clave an hollow place that was in the jaw,
and there came water thereout; and when he had drunk, his spirit came again,
and he revived: wherefore he called the name thereof Enhakkore, which is in
Lehi unto this day. |
| 20 | And he judged Israel in the days of the
Philistines twenty years. |
