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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "//www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="//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 CEV</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="/chapnew2.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /></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="//biblehub.com">Bible</a> > <a href="../">CEV</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">Contemporary English Version</div><div class="chap"><p class="par"><span class="v7_15_1"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.15.1" class="v7_15_1">1</span>Later, during the wheat harvest, Samson went to visit the young woman he thought was still his wife.<a href="#fn" id="link_Judg.15.1!f.1" class="notelink f-link"><span>+</span></a> He brought along a young goat as a gift and said to her father, “I want to go into my wife's bedroom.”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v7_15_1">“You can't do that,” he replied. </span><span class="v7_15_2"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.15.2" class="v7_15_2">2</span>“When you left the way you did, I thought you were divorcing<a href="#fn" id="link_Judg.15.2!f.1" class="notelink f-link"><span>+</span></a> her. So I arranged for her to marry one of the young men who were at your party. But my younger daughter is even prettier, and you can have her as your wife.”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v7_15_3"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.15.3" class="v7_15_3">3</span>“This time,” Samson answered, “I have a good reason for really hurting some Philistines.”</span></p><h3 class="s1">Samson Takes Revenge</h3><p class="par"><span class="v7_15_4"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.15.4" class="v7_15_4">4</span>Samson went out and caught 300 foxes and tied them together in pairs with oil-soaked rags around their tails. </span><span class="v7_15_5"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.15.5" class="v7_15_5">5</span>Then Samson took the foxes into the Philistine wheat fields that were ready to be harvested. He set the rags on fire and let the foxes go. The wheat fields went up in flames, and so did the stacks of wheat that had already been cut. Even the Philistine vineyards and olive orchards burned.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v7_15_6"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.15.6" class="v7_15_6">6</span>Some of the Philistines started asking around, “Who could have done such a thing?”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v7_15_6">“It was Samson,” someone told them. “He married the daughter of that man in Timnah, but then the man gave Samson's wife to one of the men at the wedding.”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v7_15_6">The Philistine leaders went to Timnah and burned to death Samson's wife and her father.<a href="#fn" id="link_Judg.15.6!f.1" class="notelink f-link"><span>+</span></a> </span></p><p class="par"><span class="v7_15_7"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.15.7" class="v7_15_7">7</span>When Samson found out what they had done, he went to them and said, “You killed them! And I won't rest until I get even with you.” </span><span class="v7_15_8"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.15.8" class="v7_15_8">8</span>Then Samson started hacking them to pieces with his sword.<a href="#fn" id="link_Judg.15.8!f.1" class="notelink f-link"><span>+</span></a> </span></p><p class="par"><span class="v7_15_8">Samson left Philistia and went to live in the cave at Etam Rock. </span><span class="v7_15_9"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.15.9" class="v7_15_9">9</span>But it wasn't long before the Philistines invaded Judah<a href="#fn" id="link_Judg.15.9!f.1" class="notelink f-link"><span>+</span></a> and set up a huge army camp at Jawbone.<a href="#fn" id="link_Judg.15.9!f.2" class="notelink f-link"><span>+</span></a> </span></p><p class="par"><span class="v7_15_10"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.15.10" class="v7_15_10">10</span>The people of Judah asked, “Why have you invaded our land?”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v7_15_10">The Philistines answered, “We've come to get Samson. We're going to do the same things to him that he did to our people.”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v7_15_11"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.15.11" class="v7_15_11">11</span>Three thousand men from Judah went to the cave at Etam Rock and said to Samson, “Don't you know that the Philistines rule us, and they will punish us for what you did?”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v7_15_11">“I was only getting even with them,” Samson replied. “They did the same things to me first.”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v7_15_12"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.15.12" class="v7_15_12">12</span>“We came here to tie you up and turn you over to them,” said the men of Judah.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v7_15_12">“I won't put up a fight,” Samson answered, “but you have to promise not to hurt me yourselves.”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v7_15_13"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.15.13-Judg.15.14" class="v7_15_13">13-14</span>“We promise,” the men said. “We will only tie you up and turn you over to the Philistines. We won't kill you.” Then they tied up his hands and arms with two brand-new ropes and led him away from Etam Rock.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v7_15_13">When the Philistines saw that Samson was being brought to their camp at Jawbone, they started shouting and ran toward him. But the <span class="nd">Lord</span>'s Spirit took control of Samson, and Samson broke the ropes, as though they were pieces of burnt cloth. </span><span class="v7_15_15"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.15.15" class="v7_15_15">15</span>Samson glanced around and spotted the jawbone of a donkey. The jawbone had not yet dried out, so it was still hard and heavy. Samson grabbed it and started hitting Philistines—he killed 1,000 of them! </span><span class="v7_15_16"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.15.16" class="v7_15_16">16</span>After the fighting was over, he made up this poem about what he had done to the Philistines:</span></p><p class="b"></p><p class="q1"><span class="v7_15_16">I used a donkey's jawbone</span></p><p class="q2"><span class="v7_15_16">to kill a thousand men;</span></p><p class="q1"><span class="v7_15_16">I beat them with this jawbone</span></p><p class="q2"><span class="v7_15_16">over and over again.<a href="#fn" id="link_Judg.15.16!f.1" class="notelink f-link"><span>+</span></a> </span></p><p class="b"></p><p class="par"><span class="v7_15_17"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.15.17" class="v7_15_17">17</span>Samson tossed the jawbone on the ground and decided to call the place Jawbone Hill.<a href="#fn" id="link_Judg.15.17!f.1" class="notelink f-link"><span>+</span></a> It is still called that today.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v7_15_18"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.15.18" class="v7_15_18">18</span>Samson was so thirsty that he prayed, “Our <span class="nd">Lord</span>, you helped me win a battle against a whole army. Please don't let me die of thirst now. Those heathen Philistines will carry off my dead body.”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v7_15_19"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.15.19" class="v7_15_19">19</span>Samson was tired and weary, but God sent water gushing from a rock.<a href="#fn" id="link_Judg.15.19!f.1" class="notelink f-link"><span>+</span></a> Samson drank some and felt strong again.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v7_15_19">Samson named the place Caller Spring,<a href="#fn" id="link_Judg.15.19!f.2" class="notelink f-link"><span>+</span></a> because he had called out to God for help. The spring is still there at Jawbone.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v7_15_20"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.15.20" class="v7_15_20">20</span>Samson was a leader<a href="#fn" id="link_Judg.15.20!f.1" class="notelink f-link"><span>+</span></a> of Israel for 20 years, but the Philistines were still the rulers of Israel.</span></p> <a name="fn"></a><br /><br /><br /><b>Footnotes:<br /><br /><note caller="+" style="f"><char style="fr" closed="false">15.1 </char><char style="fq" closed="false">Samson went to visit … his wife: </char><char style="ft" closed="false">See the note at 8.31.</char></note><br /><note caller="+" style="f"><char style="fr" closed="false">15.2 </char><char style="fq" closed="false">divorcing: </char><char style="ft" closed="false">It was often very easy for a husband to divorce his wife.</char></note><br /><note caller="+" style="f"><char style="fr" closed="false">15.6 </char><char style="fq" closed="false">and her father: </char><char style="ft" closed="false">Most Hebrew manuscripts; many Hebrew manuscripts and two ancient translations “and her family.”</char></note><br /><note caller="+" style="f"><char style="fr" closed="false">15.8 </char><char style="fq" closed="false">hacking … sword: </char><char style="ft" closed="false">One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.</char></note><br /><note caller="+" style="f"><char style="fr" closed="false">15.9 </char><char style="fq" closed="false">Judah: </char><char style="ft" closed="false">Samson belonged to the Dan tribe, but his hideout in the cave at Etam Rock was in Judah, a few kilometers southwest of Bethlehem.</char></note><br /><note caller="+" style="f"><char style="fr" closed="false">15.9 </char><char style="fq" closed="false">Jawbone: </char><char style="ft" closed="false">Or “Lehi” (see verse 17).</char></note><br /><note caller="+" style="f"><char style="fr" closed="false">15.16 </char><char style="fq" closed="false">I beat … again: </char><char style="ft" closed="false">One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.</char></note><br /><note caller="+" style="f"><char style="fr" closed="false">15.17 </char><char style="fq" closed="false">Jawbone Hill: </char><char style="ft" closed="false">Or “Ramath-Lehi.”</char></note><br /><note caller="+" style="f"><char style="fr" closed="false">15.19 </char><char style="fq" closed="false">God sent … a rock: </char><char style="ft" closed="false">One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.</char></note><br /><note caller="+" style="f"><char style="fr" closed="false">15.19 </char><char style="fq" closed="false">Caller Spring: </char><char style="ft" closed="false">Or “Enhakkore.”</char></note><br /><note caller="+" style="f"><char style="fr" closed="false">15.20 </char><char style="fq" closed="false">leader: </char><char style="ft" closed="false">See 2.16 and the note there.</char></note></div></div><span class="p"><br /><br /></span><div align="center"><p><span style="font-size:11pt;">Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt;">© 2006 American Bible Society. 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