NIV

NIV

Click to Change

Return to Top

Return to Top

Printer Icon

Print

Copy
Copy Options
Format by: Verse Paragraph
Strong's
Red Letter
Audio Bibles
The Blue Letter Bible

Judges 15 :: New International Version (NIV)

toggle collapse
Choose a new font size and typeface
Audio Bibles

Samson’s Vengeance on the Philistines

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 15:1 - Later on, at the time of wheat harvest, Samson took a young goat and went to visit his wife. He said, “I’m going to my wife’s room.” But her father would not let him go in.
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 15:2 - “I was so sure you hated her,” he said, “that I gave her to your companion. Isn’t her younger sister more attractive? Take her instead.”
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 15:3 - Samson said to them, “This time I have a right to get even with the Philistines; I will really harm them.”
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 15:4 - 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,
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 15:5 - lit the torches and let the foxes loose in the standing grain of the Philistines. He burned up the shocks and standing grain, together with the vineyards and olive groves.
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 15:6 - When the Philistines asked, “Who did this?” they were told, “Samson, the Timnite’s son-in-law, because his wife was given to his companion.” So the Philistines went up and burned her and her father to death.
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 15:7 - Samson said to them, “Since you’ve acted like this, I swear that I won’t stop until I get my revenge on you.”
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 15:8 - He attacked them viciously and slaughtered many of them. Then he went down and stayed in a cave in the rock of Etam.
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 15:9 - The Philistines went up and camped in Judah, spreading out near Lehi.
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 15:10 - The people of Judah asked, “Why have you come to fight us?” “We have come to take Samson prisoner,” they answered, “to do to him as he did to us.”
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 15:11 - Then three thousand men from Judah went down to the cave in the rock of Etam and said to Samson, “Don’t you realize that the Philistines are rulers over us? What have you done to us?” He answered, “I merely did to them what they did to me.”
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 15:12 - They said to him, “We’ve come to tie you up and hand you over to the Philistines.” Samson said, “Swear to me that you won’t kill me yourselves.”
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 15:13 - “Agreed,” they answered. “We will only tie you up and hand you over to them. We will not kill you.” So they bound him with two new ropes and led him up from the rock.
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 15:14 - As he approached Lehi, the Philistines came toward him shouting. The Spirit of the LORD came powerfully upon him. The ropes on his arms became like charred flax, and the bindings dropped from his hands.
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 15:15 - Finding a fresh jawbone of a donkey, he grabbed it and struck down a thousand men.
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 15:16 - Then Samson said, “With a donkey’s jawbone I have made donkeys of them.[fn] With a donkey’s jawbone I have killed a thousand men.”
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 15:17 - When he finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone; and the place was called Ramath Lehi.[fn]
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 15:18 - Because he was very thirsty, he cried out to the LORD, “You have given your servant this great victory. Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?”
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 15:19 - Then God opened up the hollow place in Lehi, and water came out of it. When Samson drank, his strength returned and he revived. So the spring was called En Hakkore,[fn] and it is still there in Lehi.
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 15:20 - Samson led[fn] Israel for twenty years in the days of the Philistines.
NIV Footnotes
Or made a heap or two; the Hebrew for donkey sounds like the Hebrew for heap.
Ramath Lehi means jawbone hill.
En Hakkore means caller’s spring.
Traditionally judged
NIV

THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV®
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.®
Used by Permission of Biblica, Inc.® All rights reserved worldwide.


See detailed copyright information.

For more information on this translation, see the NIV Preface.

BLB Searches
Search the Bible
NIV
 [?]

Advanced Options

Other Searches

Multi-Verse Retrieval
x
NIV

Daily Devotionals
x

Blue Letter Bible offers several daily devotional readings in order to help you refocus on Christ and the Gospel of His peace and righteousness.

Daily Bible Reading Plans
x

Recognizing the value of consistent reflection upon the Word of God in order to refocus one's mind and heart upon Christ and His Gospel of peace, we provide several reading plans designed to cover the entire Bible in a year.

One-Year Plans

Two-Year Plan