1But later, at the time of wheat harvest, Samson visited his wife with a young goat; and he thought, “I will go in to my wife’s bedroom.” But her father would not allow him to go in. 2And told him, “I was sure that you must hate her; so I gave her to your companion. Is her younger sister not fairer than she? Take her, instead.” 3And Samson said regarding them, “Now shall I be justified for what I do to these Philistines.” 4And Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and tied them tail to tail, then attached torches to them. 5And when he had lit the torches, he let them go into the standing grain of the Philistines, and burned up both the shocks, and the standing grain, along with their vineyards and olive orchards. 6Then the Philistines said, “Who has done this?” And they answered, “Samson, the son in law of the Timnite, because his father-in-law had given his daughter to his companion.” And then the Philistines went, and burned her and her father to death. 7And Samson said to them, “Since you have done this, I will not stop until I get revenge upon you.” 8And he attacked them with great fury and slaughtered many of them. Then he went down and dwelt in a cave in the rock Etam.

9Then the Philistines went and camped in Judah, and spreading out near Lehi. 10And the men of Judah asked, “Why have you come up to attack us?” And they answered, “To capture Samson and do to him as he has done to us.” 11Then three thousand men of Judah went to the cave in the rock of Etam, and said to Samson, “Do you not know that the Philistines rule over us? What have you done to us?” And he replied, “As they did to me, so have I done to them.” 12And they said to him, “We have come to tie you, so that we may hand you over to the Philistines.” And Samson said, “Swear to me, that you will not kill me yourselves.” 13And they said, “No; but we will tie you securely, and deliver you to them; but we promise we will not kill you.” And they bound him with two new ropes, and brought him up from the cave. 14And when he came to Lehi, the Philistines shouted at him; and the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon Samson, and the ropes that were on his arms became like charred flax, and his bindings dropped from his hands. 15And he found a fresh jawbone from a donkey, and he killed a thousand Philistine men with it. 16And Samson declared, “With a donkey’s jawbone I have killed a thousand men.” 17And then he threw the jawbone away; and called that place “Ramath-lehi” (meaning “casting away the jawbone”). 18And because he was very thirsty, he called out to the LORD, and said, “You have given this great victory to Your servant; and now shall I die of thirst, and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?” 19Then God split a hollow place in the ground there in Lehi, and water gushed out of it; and after he had drunk, his strength returned, and he revived. Therefore, he named that place “En-hakkore”, (meaning “The spring of one who cried out”), which is in Lehi unto this day.

20And Sampson judged Israel for twenty years in the days when the Philistines dominated the land.