1 But it came to pass within a while after, in the time of wheat harvest, that Samson visited his wife with a kid; and he said, I will go in to my wife into the chamber. But her father would not suffer him to go in.
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1 But it came to pass within a while after, in the time of wheat harvest, that Samson visited his wife with a kid; and he said, I will go in to my wife into the chamber. But her father would not suffer him to go in.
I will have sex with my wife in the bedroom.
But her father wouldn't let him go in.
2And her father said, I verily thought that thou hadst utterly hated her; therefore I gave her to thy companion: is not her younger sister fairer than she? take her, I pray thee, instead of her.
I thought you hated her, so I gave her to your best man.Isn't her sister prettier, anyway? Take her instead.
3 And Samson said concerning them, Now shall I be more blameless than the Philistines, though I do them a displeasure.
I will be more blameless than the Philistines, but they won't like what I do to them. [2]
4And 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.
5And when he had set the brands on fire, he let them go into the standing corn of the Philistines, and burnt up both the shocks, and also the standing corn, with the vineyards and olives.
6 Then the Philistines said, Who hath done this? And they answered, Samson, the son in law of the Timnite, because he had taken his wife, and given her to his companion. And the Philistines came up, and burnt her and her father with fire.
Who did this?
They were told that Samson did it.
So the Philistines burned Samson's wife and father (with fire).
7 And Samson said unto them, Though ye have done this, yet will I be avenged of you, and after that I will cease.
Because you've done this, I will take revenge. Then I'll be done.
8And he smote them hip and thigh with a great slaughter: and he went down and dwelt in the top of the rock Etam.
Then he went to live on top of a rock in Etam.
9 Then the Philistines went up, and pitched in Judah, and spread themselves in Lehi.
10 And the men of Judah said, Why are ye come up against us? And they answered, To bind Samson are we come up, to do to him as he hath done to us.
The Philistines went to the land of Judah.
And the men of Judah said to the Philistines,
Why have you come to our land?
The Philistines answered,
To capture Samson and do to him what he did to us.
11 Then three thousand men of Judah went to the top of the rock Etam, and said to Samson, Knowest thou not that the Philistines are rulers over us? what is this that thou hast done unto us? And he said unto them, As they did unto me, so have I done unto them.
Samson said, "I did to them what they did to me."
12 And they said unto him, We are come down to bind thee, that we may deliver thee into the hand of the Philistines. And Samson said unto them, Swear unto me, that ye will not fall upon me yourselves.
Samson said, "Promise me that you won't kill me instead."
13 And they spake unto him, saying, No; but we will bind thee fast, and deliver thee into their hand: but surely we will not kill thee. And they bound him with two new cords, and brought him up from the rock.
They said to Samson, "We won't kill you. We're just going to tie you up and give you to the Philistines."
So they tied him up with two new ropes.
14 And when he came unto Lehi, the Philistines shouted against him: and the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him, and the cords that were upon his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire, and his bands loosed from off his hands.
15And he found a new jawbone of an ass, and put forth his hand, and took it, and slew a thousand men therewith.
The Spirit of the Lord came upon Samson.
And he broke the ropes and killed 1000 men with the jawbone of an ass.
16And Samson said, With the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, with the jaw of an ass have I slain a thousand men.
With the jawbone of an ass I have killed 1000 men. [4]
17 And it came to pass, when he had made an end of speaking, that he cast away the jawbone out of his hand, and called that place Ramathlehi.
18And he was sore athirst, and called on the LORD, and said, Thou hast given this great deliverance into the hand of thy servant: and now shall I die for thirst, and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised?
Samson threw away the jawbone.
He was thirsty, and said to God,
You've helped me kill all these people, will you now let me die of thirst and be carried away by uncircumcised men?
19 But God clave an hollow place that was in the jaw, and there came water thereout; and when he had drunk, his spirit came again, and he revived: wherefore he called the name thereof Enhakkore, which is in Lehi unto this day.
And water came out of the hole, quenching Samson's thirst.
20 And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.
The New Oxford Annotated Bible says that a young goat was "the usual gift for sexual intercourse." (note for Gen 38:17) OK, that may have been true for prostitutes, but did you have to give your wife a goat every time you had sex?
Apparently, Samson decided to punish the Philistines because his wife's Philistine father gave her to his best man. (Or something like that.)
I'm not including this killing on God's list, since the Bible doesn't tell us that "the Spirit of the Lord came upon him" or otherwise imply that God was involved.
DWB: 56. The spirit of the Lord came upon Samson and he killed 1000 men with the jawbone of an ass