| New King James Version | Christian Standard Bible |
| 1After a while, in the time of wheat harvest, it happened that Samson visited his wife with a young goat. And he said, “Let me go in to my wife, into her room.” But her father would not permit him to go in. | 1Later on, during the wheat harvest, Samson took a young goat as a gift and visited his wife. "I want to go to my wife in her room," he said. But her father would not let him enter. |
| 2Her father said, “I really thought that you thoroughly hated her; therefore I gave her to your companion. Is not her younger sister better than she? Please, take her instead.” | 2"I was sure you hated her," her father said, "so I gave her to one of the men who accompanied you. Isn't her younger sister more beautiful than she is? Why not take her instead?" |
| 3And Samson said to them, “This time I shall be blameless regarding the Philistines if I harm them!” | 3Samson said to them, "This time I will be blameless when I harm the Philistines." |
| 4Then 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. | 4So 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. |
| 5When he had set the torches on fire, he let the foxes go into the standing grain of the Philistines, and burned up both the shocks and the standing grain, as well as the vineyards and olive groves. | 5Then he ignited the torches and released the foxes into the standing grain of the Philistines. He burned the piles of grain and the standing grain as well as the vineyards and olive groves. |
| 6Then the Philistines said, “Who has done this?” And they answered, “Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he has taken his wife and given her to his companion.” So the Philistines came up and burned her and her father with fire. | 6Then the Philistines asked, "Who did this?" They were told, "It was Samson, the Timnite's son-in-law, because he took Samson's wife and gave her to his companion." So the Philistines went to her and her father and burned them to death. |
| 7Samson said to them, “Since you would do a thing like this, I will surely take revenge on you, and after that I will cease.” | 7Then Samson told them, "Because you did this, I swear that I won't rest until I have taken vengeance on you." |
| 8So he attacked them hip and thigh with a great slaughter; then he went down and dwelt in the cleft of the rock of Etam. | 8He tore them limb from limb and then went down and stayed in the cave at the rock of Etam. |
| 9Now the Philistines went up, encamped in Judah, and deployed themselves against Lehi. | 9The Philistines went up, camped in Judah, and raided Lehi. |
| 10And the men of Judah said, “Why have you come up against us?” So they answered, “We have come up to arrest Samson, to do to him as he has done to us.” | 10So the men of Judah said, "Why have you attacked us?" They replied, "We have come to tie Samson up and pay him back for what he did to us." |
| 11Then three thousand men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam, and said to Samson, “Do you not know that the Philistines rule over us? What is this you have done to us?” And he said to them, “As they did to me, so I have done to them.” | 11Then three thousand men of Judah went to the cave at the rock of Etam, and they asked Samson, "Don't you realize that the Philistines rule us? What have you done to us?" "I have done to them what they did to me," he answered. |
| 12But they said to him, “We have come down to arrest you, that we may deliver you into the hand of the Philistines.” Then Samson said to them, “Swear to me that you will not kill me yourselves.” | 12They said to him, "We've come to tie you up and hand you over to the Philistines." Then Samson told them, "Swear to me that you yourselves won't kill me." |
| 13So they spoke to him, saying, “No, but we will tie you securely and deliver you into their hand; but we will surely not kill you.” And they bound him with two new ropes and brought him up from the rock. | 13"No," they said, "we won't kill you, but we will tie you up securely and hand you over to them." So they tied him up with two new ropes and led him away from the rock. |
| 14When he came to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting against him. Then the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him; and the ropes that were on his arms became like flax that is burned with fire, and his bonds broke loose from his hands. | 14When he came to Lehi, the Philistines came to meet him shouting. The Spirit of the LORD came powerfully on him, and the ropes that were on his arms and wrists became like burnt flax and fell off. |
| 15He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, reached out his hand and took it, and killed a thousand men with it. | 15He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, reached out his hand, took it, and killed a thousand men with it. |
| 16Then Samson said: “With the jawbone of a donkey, Heaps upon heaps, With the jawbone of a donkey I have slain a thousand men!” | 16Then Samson said: With the jawbone of a donkey I have piled them in heaps. With the jawbone of a donkey I have killed a thousand men. |
| 17And so it was, when he had finished speaking, that he threw the jawbone from his hand, and called that place Ramath Lehi. | 17When he finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone and named that place Ramath-lehi. |
| 18Then he became very thirsty; so he cried out to the LORD and said, “You have given this great deliverance by the hand of Your servant; and now shall I die of thirst and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised?” | 18He became very thirsty and called out to the LORD: "You have accomplished this great victory through your servant. Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?" |
| 19So God split the hollow place that is in Lehi, and water came out, and he drank; and his spirit returned, and he revived. Therefore he called its name En Hakkore, which is in Lehi to this day. | 19So God split a hollow place in the ground at Lehi, and water came out of it. After Samson drank, his strength returned, and he revived. That is why he named it En-hakkore, which is still in Lehi today. |
| 20And he judged Israel twenty years in the days of the Philistines. | 20And he judged Israel twenty years in the days of the Philistines. |
| The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Copyright © 1982 Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved. | The Christian Standard Bible. Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. |
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