Judges 15:4
New International Version
So he went out and caught three hundred foxes and tied them tail to tail in pairs. He then fastened a torch to every pair of tails,

New Living Translation
Then he went out and caught 300 foxes. He tied their tails together in pairs, and he fastened a torch to each pair of tails.

English Standard Version
So Samson went and caught 300 foxes and took torches. And he turned them tail to tail and put a torch between each pair of tails.

Berean Standard Bible
Then Samson went out and caught three hundred foxes. And he took torches, turned the foxes tail-to-tail, and fastened a torch between each pair of tails.

King James Bible
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.

New King James Version
Then Samson went and caught three hundred foxes; and he took torches, turned the foxes tail to tail, and put a torch between each pair of tails.

New American Standard Bible
And Samson went and caught three hundred jackals, and took torches, and turned the jackals tail to tail and put one torch in the middle between two tails.

NASB 1995
Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took torches, and turned the foxes tail to tail and put one torch in the middle between two tails.

NASB 1977
And Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took torches, and turned the foxes tail to tail, and put one torch in the middle between two tails.

Legacy Standard Bible
So Samson went and caught 300 foxes and took torches and turned the foxes tail to tail and put one torch in the middle between two tails.

Amplified Bible
So Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took torches and turning the foxes tail to tail, he put a torch between each pair of tails.

Christian Standard Bible
So he went out and caught three hundred foxes. He took torches, turned the foxes tail-to-tail, and put a torch between each pair of tails.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
So he went out and caught 300 foxes. He took torches, turned the foxes tail-to-tail, and put a torch between each pair of tails.

American Standard Version
And Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took firebrands, and turned tail to tail, and put a firebrand in the midst between every two tails.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
And went on Samson and he caught three hundred foxes and he took torches and tied on their tails two foxes as one and he tied one torch between two foxes, between two of their tails

Brenton Septuagint Translation
And Sampson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took torches, and turned tail to tail, and put a torch between two tails, and fastened it.

Contemporary English Version
Samson went out and caught 300 foxes and tied them together in pairs with oil-soaked rags around their tails.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And he went and caught three hundred foxes, and coupled them tail to tail, and fastened torches between the tails.

English Revised Version
And Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took firebrands, and turned tail to tail, and put a firebrand in the midst between every two tails.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
So Samson caught 300 foxes. He tied them together in pairs by their tails. Then he fastened a torch between their tails.

Good News Translation
So he went and caught three hundred foxes. Two at a time, he tied their tails together and put torches in the knots.

International Standard Version
So Samson went out, caught 300 foxes, grabbed some torches, tied the foxes together in pairs at their tails, and fastened a torch between each pair of tails.

JPS Tanakh 1917
And Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took torches, and turned tail to tail, and put a torch in the midst between every two tails.

Literal Standard Version
And Samson goes and catches three hundred foxes, and takes torches, and turns tail to tail, and puts a torch between the two tails, in the midst,

Majority Standard Bible
Then Samson went out and caught three hundred foxes. And he took torches, turned the foxes tail-to-tail, and fastened a torch between each pair of tails.

New American Bible
So Samson went and caught three hundred jackals, and turning them tail to tail, he took some torches and tied one between each pair of tails.

NET Bible
Samson went and captured three hundred jackals and got some torches. He tied the jackals in pairs by their tails and then tied a torch to each pair.

New Revised Standard Version
So Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took some torches; and he turned the foxes tail to tail, and put a torch between each pair of tails.

New Heart English Bible
Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took torches, and turned tail to tail, and put a torch in the midst between every two tails.

Webster's Bible Translation
And Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took fire-brands, and turned tail to tail, and put a fire-brand in the midst between two tails.

World English Bible
Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took torches, and turned tail to tail, and put a torch in the middle between every two tails.

Young's Literal Translation
And Samson goeth and catcheth three hundred foxes, and taketh torches, and turneth tail unto tail, and putteth a torch between the two tails, in the midst,

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Samson's Revenge
3Samson said to them, “This time I will be blameless in doing harm to the Philistines.” 4Then Samson went out and caught three hundred foxes. And he took torches, turned the foxes tail-to-tail, and fastened a torch between each pair of tails. 5Then he lit the torches and released the foxes into the standing grain of the Philistines, burning up the piles of grain and the standing grain, as well as the vineyards and olive groves.…

Cross References
Judges 15:3
Samson said to them, "This time I will be blameless in doing harm to the Philistines."

Judges 15:5
Then he lit the torches and released the foxes into the standing grain of the Philistines, burning up the piles of grain and the standing grain, as well as the vineyards and olive groves.

Proverbs 26:18
Like a madman shooting firebrands and deadly arrows,

Isaiah 7:4
and say to him: Calm down and be quiet. Do not be afraid or disheartened over these two smoldering stubs of firewood--over the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram and of the son of Remaliah.


Treasury of Scripture

And Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took firebrands, and turned tail to tail, and put a firebrand in the middle between two tails.

caught three.

Judges 20:10
And we will take ten men of an hundred throughout all the tribes of Israel, and an hundred of a thousand, and a thousand out of ten thousand, to fetch victual for the people, that they may do, when they come to Gibeah of Benjamin, according to all the folly that they have wrought in Israel.

Ezekiel 13:9
And mine hand shall be upon the prophets that see vanity, and that divine lies: they shall not be in the assembly of my people, neither shall they be written in the writing of the house of Israel, neither shall they enter into the land of Israel; and ye shall know that I am the Lord GOD.

Ruth 2:15,16
And when she was risen up to glean, Boaz commanded his young men, saying, Let her glean even among the sheaves, and reproach her not: …

Psalm 63:10
They shall fall by the sword: they shall be a portion for foxes.

Song of Solomon 2:15
Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes.

Lamentations 5:18
Because of the mountain of Zion, which is desolate, the foxes walk upon it.

firebrands or touches

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Catcheth Caught Hundred Middle Midst Pair Pairs Putteth Samson Stick Sticks Tail Tails Three Tied Torch Torches Turned Turneth
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Catcheth Caught Hundred Middle Midst Pair Pairs Putteth Samson Stick Sticks Tail Tails Three Tied Torch Torches Turned Turneth
Judges 15
1. Samson is denied his wife
3. He burns the Philistines' corn with foxes and firebrands
6. His wife and her father are burnt by the Philistines
8. Samson smites them hip and thigh
9. He is bound by the men of Judah, and delivered to the Philistines
14. He kills them with a jawbone
18. God makes the fountain En-hakkore for him in Lehi














(4) Caught three hundred foxes.--Rather, three hundred jackals. The word Shualim is used for both; but it would be difficult to catch three hundred foxes, whereas the jackals are still heard howling in herds about these very regions at night. They must have been still more common in Palestine in ancient days, and hence we find such names as "the land of Shual" (1Samuel 13:17), Hazar-shual ("jackal's enclosure," Joshua 15:28), Shalim (1Samuel 11:4), Shaalabbin ("place of foxes or jackals," Joshua 19:42). There would be no difficulty in trapping them; nor is it said that they were all let loose at once.

Turned tail to tail.--This implies that he tied the tails together (LXX., suned?sen; Vulag.,junxit).

Put a firebrand in the midst.--The firebrands were pieces of resinous wood, like Gideon's torches (Judges 7:20), which were loosely trailed between the tails of the jackals. The object of tying two together was to impede their motion a little, so that they might not dart away so violently as to extinguish the torch. . . .

Verse 4. - Foxes. The word here rendered fox (shu'al, in Persian shagal, which is etymologically the same word as jackal) includes the jackal, which is as common in Palestine as the fox. Here, and in Psalm 63:10, the gregarious jackals, the canis aureus, are undoubtedly meant. Caught. The Hebrew word means especially caught in nets or snares. See Amos 3:5 (have taken nothing at all); Psalm 35:8 (let his net catch himself); Jeremiah 18:22; Isaiah 8:14 (taken), etc. And it is in this sense that the A.V. uses the word caught. A clever sportsman, as no doubt Samson was, would have no difficulty whatever in netting or snaring 300 jackals, which always move in packs, and would be attracted by the vineyards of Thimnathah, for which their partiality is well known (see Judges 14:5, note). The writer of the additional article Fox in Smith's 'Dictionary of the Bible,' states that he had tried the experiment of throwing grapes to the foxes, jackals, and wolves in the Zoological Gardens. The wolves would not touch them, the others ate them with avidity. Took firebrands, etc. Many cavils have been directed against the truth of this account, but without the slightest reason. The terrified animals, with the burning torches and the blazing straw behind them, would necessarily run forwards. Samson would, of course, start the couples at numerous different points, and no doubt have a number of Hebrews to assist him. To the present day the corn-fields in that part of the Shephelah extend continuously for twenty or thirty miles.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
Then Samson
שִׁמְשׁ֔וֹן (šim·šō·wn)
Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 8123: Samson -- a deliverer of Israel

went out
וַיֵּ֣לֶךְ (way·yê·leḵ)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 1980: To go, come, walk

and caught
וַיִּלְכֹּ֖ד (way·yil·kōḏ)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 3920: To catch, to capture, occupy, to choose, to cohere

three
שְׁלֹשׁ־ (šə·lōš-)
Number - feminine singular construct
Strong's 7969: Three, third, thrice

hundred
מֵא֣וֹת (mê·’ō·wṯ)
Number - feminine plural
Strong's 3967: A hundred

foxes.
שׁוּעָלִ֑ים (šū·‘ā·lîm)
Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 7776: Fox, perhaps jackal

And he took
וַיִּקַּ֣ח (way·yiq·qaḥ)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 3947: To take

torches,
לַפִּדִ֗ים (lap·pi·ḏîm)
Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 3940: A flambeau, lamp, flame

turned
וַיֶּ֤פֶן (way·ye·p̄en)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Hifil - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 6437: To turn, to face, appear, look

the foxes tail-to-tail,
זָנָב֙ (zā·nāḇ)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 2180: Tail, end, stump

and fastened
וַיָּ֨שֶׂם (way·yā·śem)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 7760: Put -- to put, place, set

a
אֶחָ֛ד (’e·ḥāḏ)
Number - masculine singular
Strong's 259: United, one, first

torch
לַפִּ֥יד (lap·pîḏ)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 3940: A flambeau, lamp, flame

between
בֵּין־ (bên-)
Preposition
Strong's 996: An interval, space between

each pair
שְׁנֵ֥י (šə·nê)
Number - mdc
Strong's 8147: Two (a cardinal number)

of tails.
הַזְּנָב֖וֹת (haz·zə·nā·ḇō·wṯ)
Article | Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 2180: Tail, end, stump


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OT History: Judges 15:4 Samson went and caught three hundred foxes (Jd Judg. Jdg)
Judges 15:3
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