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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" /><title>Judges 15 NIV</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="/chapnew2.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /></head><body><div id="fx"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx2"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="30" scrolling="no" src="../cmenus/judges/15.htm" align="left" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div><div id="blnk"></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable"><tr><td><div id="fx5"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx6"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="245" scrolling="no" src="../topmenuchap/judges/15-1.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable3"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" id="announce"><tr><td><div id="l1"><div id="breadcrumbs"><a href="http://biblehub.com">Bible</a> > <a href="../">NIV</a> > Judges 15</div><div id="anc"><iframe src="/anc.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div id="anc2"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><iframe src="/anc2.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></td></tr></table><div id="movebox2"><table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../judges/14.htm" title="Judges 14">◄</a> Judges 15 <a href="../judges/16.htm" title="Judges 16">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="vheading"><table width="100%"><tr><td width="99%" valign="top">New International Version</td><td width="1%" valign="top"><a href="/p/niv/esv/judges/15.shtml" style="color:#001320" title="Parallel Chapters"> Par ▾ </a></tr></table></div><div class="chap"><p class="sectionhead">Samson’s Vengeance on the Philistines</p><p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/15-1.htm"><b>1</b></a></span>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.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/15-2.htm"><b>2</b></a></span>“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.”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/15-3.htm"><b>3</b></a></span>Samson said to them, “This time I have a right to get even with the Philistines; I will really harm them.” <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/15-4.htm"><b>4</b></a></span>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, <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/15-5.htm"><b>5</b></a></span>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.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/15-6.htm"><b>6</b></a></span>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.”</p><p class="reg">So the Philistines went up and burned her and her father to death. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/15-7.htm"><b>7</b></a></span>Samson said to them, “Since you’ve acted like this, I swear that I won’t stop until I get my revenge on you.” <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/15-8.htm"><b>8</b></a></span>He attacked them viciously and slaughtered many of them. Then he went down and stayed in a cave in the rock of Etam.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/15-9.htm"><b>9</b></a></span>The Philistines went up and camped in Judah, spreading out near Lehi. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/15-10.htm"><b>10</b></a></span>The people of Judah asked, “Why have you come to fight us?”</p><p class="reg">“We have come to take Samson prisoner,” they answered, “to do to him as he did to us.”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/15-11.htm"><b>11</b></a></span>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?”</p><p class="reg">He answered, “I merely did to them what they did to me.”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/15-12.htm"><b>12</b></a></span>They said to him, “We’ve come to tie you up and hand you over to the Philistines.”</p><p class="reg">Samson said, “Swear to me that you won’t kill me yourselves.”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/15-13.htm"><b>13</b></a></span>“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. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/15-14.htm"><b>14</b></a></span>As he approached Lehi, the Philistines came toward him shouting. The Spirit of the <span class="name">Lord</span> came powerfully upon him. The ropes on his arms became like charred flax, and the bindings dropped from his hands. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/15-15.htm"><b>15</b></a></span>Finding a fresh jawbone of a donkey, he grabbed it and struck down a thousand men.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/15-16.htm"><b>16</b></a></span>Then Samson said,</p><div class="stanza"><p class="line1">“With a donkey’s jawbone</p><p class="line2">I have made donkeys of them. <span class="nivfootnote"><sup><a href="#footnotes" title="Or made a heap or two; the Hebrew for donkey sounds like the Hebrew for heap.">a</a></sup></span> </p><p class="line1">With a donkey’s jawbone</p><p class="line2">I have killed a thousand men.”</p></div> <p class="pcontinued"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/15-17.htm"><b>17</b></a></span>When he finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone; and the place was called Ramath Lehi. <span class="nivfootnote"><sup><a href="#footnotes" title="Ramath Lehi means jawbone hill.">b</a></sup></span> </p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/15-18.htm"><b>18</b></a></span>Because he was very thirsty, he cried out to the <span class="name">Lord</span>, “You have given your servant this great victory. Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?” <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/15-19.htm"><b>19</b></a></span>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, <span class="nivfootnote"><sup><a href="#footnotes" title="En Hakkore means caller's spring.">c</a></sup></span> and it is still there in Lehi.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/15-20.htm"><b>20</b></a></span>Samson led <span class="nivfootnote"><sup><a href="#footnotes" title="Traditionally judged">d</a></sup></span> Israel for twenty years in the days of the Philistines.</p><hr size="1" color="DDEEFF"><span class="mainfootnotes"><A name="footnotes"></a><span class="mainfootnoteshdg">Footnotes:</span><br><span class="nivfootnotesbot">a</span> <span class="fnverse">16</span> <span class="footnotebot">Or <i>made a heap or two</i>; the Hebrew for <i>donkey</i> sounds like the Hebrew for <i>heap.</i></span><br><span class="nivfootnotesbot">b</span> <span class="fnverse">17</span> <span class="footnotebot"><i>Ramath Lehi</i> means <i>jawbone hill.</i></span><br><span class="nivfootnotesbot">c</span> <span class="fnverse">19</span> <span class="footnotebot"><i>En Hakkore</i> means <i>caller’s spring.</i></span><br><span class="nivfootnotesbot">d</span> <span class="fnverse">20</span> <span class="footnotebot">Traditionally <i>judged</i></span><br><hr size="1" color="DDEEFF"></div></div><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center"><p class="ntext"><a href="http://niv.scripturetext.com/version.htm">New International Version</a> (NIV)</p><p class="ntext2">Holy Bible, New International Version&reg, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by <a href="http://biblica.com">Biblica, Inc.</a>® Used by permission. 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