But it came to pass after a while, 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.
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.
And Samson said unto them, This time {Or, shall I be quits with}shall I be blameless in regard of the Philistines, when I do them a mischief.
And Samson went and caught three hundred {Or, jackels}foxes, and took {Or, torches}firebrands, and turned tail to tail, and put a firebrand in the midst between every two tails.
And when he had set the brands on fire, he let them go into the standing grain of the Philistines, and burnt up both the shocks and the standing grain, and also the oliveyards.
Then the Philistines said, Who hath done this? And they said, Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he hath taken his wife, and given her to his companion. And the Philistines came up, and burnt her and her father with fire.
And Samson said unto them, If ye do after this manner, surely I will be avenged of you, and after that I will cease.
And he smote them hip and thigh with a great slaughter: and he went down and dwelt in the cleft of the rock of Etam.
Then the Philistines went up, and encamped in Judah, and spread themselves in Lehi.
And the men of Judah said, Why are ye come up against us? And they said, To bind Samson are we come up, to do to him as he hath done to us.
Then three thousand men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam, and said to Samson, Knowest thou not that the Philistines are rulers over us? what then is this that thou hast done unto us? And he said unto them, As they did unto me, so have I done unto them.
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.
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 ropes, and brought him up from the rock.
When he came unto Lehi, the Philistines shouted as they met him: and the Spirit of Jehovah came mightily upon him, and the ropes that were upon his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire, and his bands {Hebrew: were melted.}dropped from off his hands.
And he found a fresh jawbone of an ass, and put forth his hand, and took it, and smote a thousand men therewith.
And Samson said,
With the jawbone of an ass, {Hebrew: heap, two heaps.}heaps upon heaps,
With the jawbone of an ass have I smitten a thousand men.
And it came to pass, when he had made an end of speaking, that he cast away the jawbone out of his hand; and {Or, he called that place}that place was called {That is, The hill of the jawbone.}Ramath-lehi.
And he was sore athirst, and called on Jehovah, and said, Thou hast given this great deliverance by the hand of thy servant; and now shall I die for thirst, and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised.
But God clave the hollow place that is in {Or, the jawbone}Lehi, and there came water thereout; and when he had drunk, his spirit came again, and he revived: wherefore {Or, he called the name thereof}the name thereof was called {That is, The spring of him that called.}En-hakkore, which is in Lehi, unto this day.
And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.
Querverweise zu Richter 15,14 Ri 15,14
Have they not found, have they not divided the spoil?A damsel, two damsels to every man;To Sisera a spoil of dyed garments,A spoil of dyed garments embroidered,Of dyed garments embroidered on both sides, on the necks of the spoil?
And the Spirit of Jehovah came upon him, and he judged Israel; and he went out to war, and Jehovah delivered Cushan-rishathaim king of {Hebrew: Aram.}Mesopotamia into his hand: and his hand prevailed against Cushan-rishathaim.
Now she had liers-in-wait abiding in the inner chamber. And she said unto him, The Philistines are upon thee, Samson. And he brake the withes, as a string of tow is broken when it {Hebrew: smelleth.}toucheth the fire. So his strength was not known.
And when the people saw him, they praised their god; for they said, Our god hath delivered into our hand our enemy, and the destroyer of our country, who hath slain many of us.
And the Spirit of Jehovah came mightily upon him, and he rent him as he would have rent a kid; and he had nothing in his hand: but he told not his father or his mother what he had done.
So Delilah took new ropes, and bound him therewith, and said unto him, The Philistines are upon thee, Samson. And the liers-in-wait were abiding in the inner chamber. And he brake them off his arms like a thread.
And Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, They are entangled in the land, the wilderness hath shut them in.
And the Spirit of Jehovah came mightily upon him, and he went down to Ashkelon, and smote thirty men of them, and took their {Or, apparel}spoil, and gave the changes of raiment unto them that declared the riddle. And his anger was kindled, and he went up to his father's house.
I went out after him, and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth; and when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew him.
And it was told the king of Egypt that the people were fled: and the heart of Pharaoh and of his servants was changed towards the people, and they said, What is this we have done, that we have let Israel go from serving us?
Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of Jehovah unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by {Or, an army}might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith Jehovah of hosts.
He teacheth my hands to war;So that mine arms do bend a bow of brass.
And when the ark of the covenant of Jehovah came into the camp, all Israel shouted with a great shout, so that the earth rang again.
They compassed me about; yea, they compassed me about:In the name of Jehovah I will cut them off.
That the triumphing of the wicked is short,And the joy of the godless but for a moment?
Yea, I beseech thee also, true yokefellow, help these women, for they labored with me in the {Greek: good tidings. See chapter 1:5.}gospel, with Clement also, and the rest of my fellow-workers, whose names are in the book of life.
Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, Jehovah will be a light unto me.