Samson the fourteenth Judge of Israel, Judges 14:1-16:31

Samson’s Marriage
14:1 A while later, Samson went down to Timnah and observed a woman in Timnah who was of Philistine origin. 2 Then he returned and told his father and mother, “In Timnah I saw a woman of Philistine origin.” He ordered them, “Get her for me as a wife. Now!”

3 His father and mother asked him, “Isn’t there a woman suitable among the daughters of your relatives or among all of our people, since you’re going to get your wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?”

But Samson retorted to his father, “Get her for me, since she looks fine to me.” 4 Meanwhile, his father and mother did not know that she was from the LORD, because he had been seeking a favorable opportunity concerning the Philistines, since the Philistines were dominating Israel at that time.

5 Then Samson went down in the direction of Timnah with his father and mother and arrived as far as the vineyards of Timnah. And—surprise!—a young lion came roaring at him! 6 The Spirit of the LORD rushed upon him, and he ripped the lion apart as one might dissect a young goat, even though he carried nothing in his hand. But he didn’t tell his father and mother what he had done. 7 Then he went down and talked to the woman, and she looked fine to Samson. 8 When he came back later to marry her, he turned aside to observe the lion’s carcass. Amazingly, there was a swarm of bees in the body of the lion, complete with honey. 9 So he scraped some out into his hands and went on his way, eating all the while. When he met his father and mother, he gave some to them, and they ate it, too. But he didn’t inform them that he had scraped the honey from the carcass of the lion.

Samson’s Riddle
10 Later on, when his father went down to visit the woman, Samson threw a party there, since young men customarily did this. 11 When they saw him, they brought 30 companions to accompany him. 12 “Let me tell you a riddle,” Samson told them. “If you can solve it during this week-long festival, I’ll give you 30 linen garments and 30 formal garments. 13 But if you don’t solve it,l then you’ll give me 30 linen garments and 30 formal garments.”

“Tell us your riddle and we’ll solve it,” they responded.

14 So he told them:

From the eater came something edible;

from the strong something sweet.

For three days they couldn’t solve the riddle.

15 The next day, they told Samson’s wife, “Coax your husband to explain the riddle or we’ll set fire to your father’s house—with you in it! You’ve invited us here to make us paupers, haven’t you?”

16 So Samson’s wife cried in front of him and accused him, “You only hate me. You don’t love me. You’ve told a riddle to my relatives, but you haven’t told the solution to me.”

Samson responded, “Look, I haven’t told my parents, either. Why should I tell you?”


18 Then the men of the city answered him just before sunset on the seventh day:

“What’s sweeter than honey?

What’s stronger than lions?”

Samson responded,

“If you hadn’t plowed with my heifer

you wouldn’t have solved my riddle.”

19 Then the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon him, and he went down to Ashkelon, killed 30 men, took their belongings, and gave the garments to those who had told him the solution to the riddle. He remained furious, left for his father’s house, 20 and Samson’s wife went to the best man at his wedding.

Samson burns the Philistine Harvest
15:1 A while later during the wheat harvest, Samson visited his wife, bringing along a young goat, and told his father-in-law, “I’m going into my wife’s room.” But her father wouldn’t give permission for him to go.

2 Her father said, “Because I honestly thought that you hated her deeply, I gave her in marriage to your best man. Isn’t her younger sister better than she? Please then, let her be yours instead.”

3 Samson replied to them, “This time I’ll be blameless when I do something evil to the Philistines.” 4 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. 5 Then he ignited the torches, set the foxes loose into the Philistines’ unharvested grain, and burned up both the harvested shocks and the standing grain, along with their vineyards and olive groves.

6 Then the Philistines demanded, “Who did this?”

Someone said, “Samson, son-in-law of the Timnite, because his father-in-law took Samson’s wife and gave her to the best man at Samson’s wedding.” In retaliation, the Philistines came up and burned her and her father to death.

7 Samson replied to them, “Because you did this, I’m not going to stop until I get my revenge against you!” 8 So he attacked them ruthlessly in a massive slaughter, then left to live in the caves of Etam. 9 In response, the Philistines went up, encamped in the territory of Judah, and raided Lehi.

10 The leading men of Judah asked, “Why have you invaded us?”

They replied, “We’re here to arrest Samson. Then we’re going to do to him what he did to us.”

11 In response, 3,000 soldiers from the tribe of Judah went down to the caves of the rock of Etam and asked Samson, “Don’t you know that the Philistines have us in their control? What have you done to us?”

“I did to them what they did to me,” he answered.

12 They responded, “We’ve come here to arrest you and transfer you to the custody of the Philistines.”

Samson told them, “Promise me that you won’t kill me.”

13 So they said, “No, we won’t. But we’re going to tie you up securely and transfer you to their custody. But we won’t kill you.” Then they bound him with two ropes and brought him up from the caves.

Samson Kills 1,000 Philistines
14 When Samson arrived at Lehi, the Philistines came shouting to meet him. Then the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon him, so that the ropes that bound him were like flax that’s been burned by fire, and his bonds dissolved. 15 He happened upon a jawbone from a putrefying donkey, reached out to grab it, and killed 1,000 men with it. 16 Then Samson declared,

“With a jawbone from the donkey—

here a heap, there a pair of heaps—

with the jawbone of the donkey

I’ve killed 1,000 men.”

17 When he finally finished bragging, he discarded the jawbone and named that place “Jawbone Heights.”

18 Aferward, he became thirsty, called out to the LORD, and told him, “So, you provided this great deliverance at the hands of your servant, but now I’m to die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?” 19 So God split a hollow place that’s in Lehi, and water sprang out of it. After he had taken a drink, his strength returned, and he revived. That’s why it was named “En-hakkore,” which is in Lehi to this day. 20 Samsonu governed Israel for twenty years during the Philistine domination.

One night stand-Samson’s Troubles in Gaza
16:1 Sometime later, Samson went to Gaza, saw a prostitute there, and went in to have sex with her. 2 When the Gazites were informed, “Samson has come here!” they surrounded him, intending to lay in wait for him at the city gate throughout the entire night. They kept quiet all night, telling each other, “At first light, let’s kill him!”

3 Meanwhile, Samson had sex until midnight, then at midnight he got up, grabbed the doors, the two door posts, and the bars of the city gate, and uprooted them. He put them on his shoulders and carried them to the top of the mountain opposite Hebron.

Samson Meets Delilah – Judges 16:4-20
4 After this incident, he loved a woman in Sorek Valley whose name was Delilah. 5 The Philistine officials approached her and told her, “Entice him to discover where his great strength is, and how we can overpower him. We intend to tie him up and torture him. We’ll each pay you 1,100 silver coins.”

6 So Delilah asked Samson, “Please tell me the secret to your great strength and how you may be tied up and tortured.”

7 Samson replied, “If I’m tied up with seven green cords that have never been dried out, then I’ll become weak and just like any other human being.”

8 Then the Philistine leaders brought her seven green cords that had never been dried, and she tied him up with them. 9 Meanwhile, some kidnappers were hiding inside an inner room, waiting for her signal. So she told him, “The Philistines are attacking you!” But he snapped the cords as one might break a burned candle wick. So his secret remained undiscovered.

10 Some time later, Delilah told Samson, “Look here! You’ve been mocking me and lying to me. Now please tell me how you can be tied up.”

11 He told her, “If I’m tied up securely with new ropes that have never been used, then I’ll become weak and just like any other human being.”

12 So Delilah grabbed some new ropes and tied him up. Then she told him, “The Philistines are attacking you, Samson!” because some kidnappers were hiding inside an inner room. But he snapped the ropes from his arms like thread.

13 Later on, Delilah told Samson, “You’re still mocking me and telling me lies! Tell me how to tie you up!”

He answered her, “If you weave the seven locks on my head into a loom and fasten it with a peg, then I will become weak and just like any other human being.”

14 So Delilah took the seven locks on his head and wove them into the loom while he slept. She fastened his hair with a peg and then told him, “The Philistines are attacking you, Samson!” But he woke up from his nap and pulled the pin from the loom and the weaving.

Samson Tells Delilah His Secret
15 Some time later, she asked him, “How can you keep saying ‘I love you!’ when your heart isn’t with me? These three times you’ve lied to me and haven’t told me where your great strength lies.” 16 She nagged him every day with this speech, pestering him until hen was annoyed nearly to death.

17 So he finally disclosed everything. He told her, “A razor has never touched my head, because I’ve been a Nazirite for God before I was born. If I am shaved, then my strength will abandon me and I will become weak like every human being.”

18 When Delilah realized that he had disclosed everything to her, she sent for the Philistine officials and told them, “Hurry up and come here at once, because he has told me everything.” So the Philistine officials went to her and brought their money with them. 19 So she enticed him to fall asleep on her lap, called for a man to shave off his seven locks of hair from his head, and so began to humiliate him. Then his strength abandoned him.

20 When she cried out, “The Philistines are attacking you, Samson!” he woke from his sleep and told himself, “I’ll go out like I did at other times like this and shake myself free.” But he didn’t know that the LORD had abandoned him.

Samson is Imprisoned by the Philistines
21 Then the Philistines grabbed him, gouged out his eyes, brought him down to Gaza, tied him up in bronze chains,v and made him grind grain in their prison.w 22 But the hair on his head began to grow again after it had been shaved off.

23 Some time later, the Philistine officials got together to present a magnificent sacrifice to their god Dagon, and to throw a party, because they were claiming, “Our god has given Samson into our control!”

24 When the people saw Samson, they praised their god, claiming:

Our god has given our enemy into our control;

the one who was destroying our land,

and who has killed many of us.

25 Because they all got good and drunk, they ordered, “Go get Samson, so he can entertain us.” So they called for Samson from the prison, and he entertained them while they made him stand between the pillars.

Samson Kills Himself and 3,000 Philistines
26 Then Samson told the young man who had been leading him around by the hand, “Let me touch and feel the pillars on which this building rests, and I’ll support myself against them.” 27 Now the building was full of men, women, and all the Philistine officials, with about 3,000 men and women on the roof watching Samson while he was entertaining them.

28 Then Samson cried out to the LORD, “Lord GOD, please remember me. And please strengthen me this one time, God, so that I can repay the Philistines right now for my two eyes.” 29 Then Samson grabbed the two middle pillars upon which the house rested and braced himself against them with one pillar in his right hand and the other in his left.

30 Then Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines!” He strained with all his strength until the building collapsed on the officials and every person in it. As a result, the dead whom he killed at his death were more than those whom he killed during his lifetime. 31 Afterwards, his brothers and his father’s household servants came down, took him, brought him back, and buried him in his father Manoah’s tomb between Zorah and Eshtaol. He had governed Israel for 20 years.

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