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THE EXPLOITS OF SAMSON

(Judges xiii: 24-xvi: 31)

And the woman bare a son, and called his name Samson and the child grew, and Jehovah blessed him. And the Spirit of Jehovah began to move him in Mahanehdan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.

And Samson went down to Timnah, and saw a woman in Timnah of the daughters of the Philistines. And he came up, and told his father and his mother, and said, "I have seen a woman in Timnah of the daughters of the Philistines: : now therefore get her for me to wife." Then his father and his mother said unto him, "Is there never a woman among the daughters of thy brethren, or among all my people, that thou goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines?" And Samson said unto his father, "Get her for me; for she pleaseth me well." But his father and his mother knew not that it was of Jehovah; for he sought an occasion against the Philistines. Now at that time the Philistines had rule over Israel. Then went Samson down, and his father and his mother, to Timnah, and came to the vineyards of Timnah: and, behold, a young lion roared against him. And the Spirit of Jehovah came mightily upon him, and he rent him as he would have rent a kid; and he had nothing in his hand: but he told not his father or his mother what he had done. And he went down, and talked with the woman; and she pleased Samson well. And after a while he returned to take her; and he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion: and, behold, there was a swarm of bees in the body of the lion, and honey. And he took it into his hands, and went on, eating as he went; and he

came to his father and mother, and gave unto them, and they did eat: but he told them not that he had taken the honey out of the body of the lion.

And his father went down unto the woman: and Samson made there a feast; for so used the young men to do. And it came to pass, when they saw him, that they brought thirty companions to be with him. And Samson said unto them, "Let me now put forth a riddle unto you: if ye can declare it unto me within the seven days of the feast, and find it out, then I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty changes of raiment; but if ye cannot declare it unto me, then shall ye give me thirty linen garments and thirty changes of raiment." And they said unto him, "Put forth thy riddle, that we may hear it." And he said unto them,

"Out of the eater came forth food,

And out of the strong came forth sweetness."

And they could not in three days declare the riddle.

And it came to pass on the seventh day, that they said unto Samson's wife, "Entice thy husband, that he may declare unto us the riddle, lest we burn thee and thy father's house with fire: have ye called us to impoverish us? is it not so?" And Samson's wife wept before him, and said, "Thou dost but hate me, and lovest me not: thou hast put forth a riddle unto the children of my people, and hast not told it to me." And he said unto her, "Behold, I have not told it my father nor my mother, and shall I tell thee?" And she wept before him the seven days, while their feast lasted: and it came to pass on the seventh day, that he told her, because she pressed him sore and she told the riddle to the children of her people. And the men of the city said unto him on the seventh day before the sun went down, "What is sweeter

than honey? and what is stronger than a lion?" And he said unto them,

"If ye had not plowed with my heifer,

Ye had not found out my riddle."

And the Spirit of Jehovah came mightily upon him, and he went down to Ashkelon, and smote thirty men of them, and took their spoil,1 and gave the changes of raiment unto them that declared the riddle. And his anger was kindled, and he went up to his father's house. But Samson's wife was given to his companion, whom he had used as his friend.

But it came to pass after a while, 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. And 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." And Samson said unto them, "This time shall I be blameless in regard of the Philistines, when I do them a mischief." And Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took firebrands, and turned tail to tail, and put a firebrand in the midst between every two tails. And when he had set the brands on fire, he let them go into the standing grain of the Philistines, and burnt up both the shocks and the standing grain, and also the oliveyards. Then the Philistines said, "Who hath done this?" And they said, "Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he hath taken his wife, and given her to his companion." And the Philistines came up, and burnt her and her father with fire. And Samson said unto them, "If ye do after this manner, surely I will be

1. Apparel.

avenged of you and after that I will cease." And he smote them hip and thigh with a great slaughter: and he went down and dwelt in the cleft of the rock of Etam.

Then the Philistines went up, and encamped in Judah, and spread themselves in Lehi. And the men of Judah said, "Why are ye come up against us?" And they said, "To bind Samson are we come up, to do to him as he hath done to us." Then three thousand men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam, and said to Samson, "Knowest thou not that the Philistines are rulers over us? what then is this that thou hast done unto us?" And he said unto them, "As they did unto me, so have I done unto them." 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." 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 ropes, and brought him up from the rock.

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When he came unto Lehi, the Philistines shouted as they met him: and the Spirit of Jehovah came mightily upon him, and the ropes that were upon his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire, and his bands dropped from off his hands. And he found a fresh jawbone of an ass, and put forth his hand, and took it, and smote a thousand men therewith. And Samson said,

"With the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, With the jawbone of an ass have I smitten a thousand men."

And it came to pass, when he had made an end of speaking, that he cast away the jawbone out of his hand; and that place was called Ramath-lehi. And he was

sore athirst, and called on Jehovah, and said, "Thou hast given this great deliverance by the hand of thy servant; and now shall I die for thirst, and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised." But God clave the hollow place that is in Lehi, and there came water thereout; and when he had drunk, his spirit came again, and he revived: wherefore the name thereof was called En-hakkore, which is in Lehi, unto this day. And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.

And Samson went to Gaza, and saw there a harlot, and went in unto her. And it was told the Gazites, saying, "Samson is come hither." And they compassed him in, and laid wait for him all night in the gate of the city, and were quiet all the night, saying, "Let be till morning light, then we will kill him." And Samson lay till midnight, and arose at midnight, and laid hold of the doors of the gate of the city, and the two posts, and plucked them up, bar and all, and put them upon his shoulders, and carried them up to the top of the mountain that is before Hebron.

And it came to pass afterward, that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. And the lords of the Philistines came up unto her, and said unto her, "Entice him, and see wherein his great strength lieth, and by what means we may prevail against him, that we may bind him to afflict him: and we will give thee every one of us eleven hundred pieces of silver.” 2 And Delilah said to Samson, "Tell me, I pray thee, wherein thy great strength lieth, and wherewith thou mightest be bound to afflict thee." And Samson said unto her, “If they bind me with seven green withes3 that

1. "The spring of him that called."

2. A piece of silver was worth about fifty-six cents.

3. New bowstrings.