Judges 15

All 20 verses in the Clear Bible Translation. Tap a verse to compare the KJV and read what it means.

Read Judges 15 in the Bible reader, with audio →

1. 1Some time later, during the wheat harvest, Samson went to visit his wife and brought a young goat as a gift. He said, "I'm going to my wife's room." But her father wouldn't let him in.
2. 2Her father said, "I was sure you completely hated her, so I gave her to your best man. But look — her younger sister is even more beautiful. Take her instead, please."
3. 3Samson replied, "This time no one can blame me for what I'm about to do to the Philistines."
4. 4Samson went out and caught 300 foxes. He tied them together in pairs by their tails and fastened a torch between each pair of tails.
5. 5Then he lit the torches and released the foxes into the Philistines' grain fields. The fire destroyed everything — the harvested bundles, the standing grain, and even the vineyards and olive groves.
6. 6The Philistines demanded, "Who did this?" They were told, "Samson, the son-in-law of the man from Timnah — because the man gave Samson's wife to his best man." So the Philistines went and burned her and her father to death.
7. 7Samson said to them, 'Even though you have done this, I will take my revenge on you, and after that, I will stop.'
8. 8He struck them hip and thigh with a great slaughter, and then he went down and lived at the top of the rock Etam.
9. 9The Philistines marched up and set up camp in Judah, spreading out near Lehi.
10. 10The men of Judah asked, "Why have you come to attack us?" They answered, "We've come to capture Samson and pay him back for what he did to us."
11. 11Then 3,000 men of Judah went to the top of the rock Etam and said to Samson, "Don't you know that the Philistines rule over us? What have you done to us?" He replied, "I did to them what they did to me."
12. 12They told 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."
13. 13"We won't kill you," they promised. "We'll just tie you up tight and hand you over to them." So they bound him with 2 new ropes and led him up from the rock.
14. 14When he arrived at Lehi, the Philistines shouted against him. Then the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him, and the ropes on his arms became like flax burned with fire, and his bindings fell off his hands.
15. 15He spotted a fresh jawbone of a donkey lying on the ground, grabbed it, and killed 1,000 men with it.
16. 16Then Samson declared, "With the jawbone of a donkey, I've piled them in heaps. With the jawbone of a donkey, I've killed 1,000 men."
17. 17When he finished speaking, he threw the jawbone aside. That place was named Ramath Lehi.
18. 18Samson was desperately thirsty, so he cried out to the LORD, "You have given this great deliverance into the hand of your servant, and now shall I die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?"
19. 19But God split open a hollow place in the jaw, and water came out of it. When he drank, his spirit returned, and he revived. Therefore, he called it Enhakkore, which is in Lehi to this day.
20. 20Samson led Israel as judge for 20 years during the time of the Philistines.