3
Samson said, "This time I'm not going to be responsible for what I do to the Philistines!"
4
So he went and caught three hundred foxes. Two at a time, he tied their tails together and put torches in the knots.
5
Then he set fire to the torches and turned the foxes loose in the Philistine wheat fields. In this way he burned up not only the wheat that had been harvested but also the wheat that was still in the fields. The olive orchards were also burned.
6
When the Philistines asked who had done this, they learned that Samson had done it because his father-in-law, a man from Timnah, had given Samson's wife to a friend of Samson's. So the Philistines went and burned the woman to death and burned down her father's house.
7
Samson told them, "So this is how you act! I swear that I won't stop until I pay you back!"
8
He attacked them fiercely and killed many of them. Then he went and stayed in the cave in the cliff at Etam.
9
The Philistines came and camped in Judah, and attacked the town of Lehi.
10
The men of Judah asked them, "Why are you attacking us?" They answered, "We came to take Samson prisoner and to treat him as he treated us."
11
So these three thousand men of Judah went to the cave in the cliff at Etam and said to Samson, "Don't you know that the Philistines are our rulers? What have you done to us?" He answered, "I did to them just what they did to me."
12
They told him, "We have come here to tie you up, so we can hand you over to them." Samson said, "Give me your word that you won't kill me yourselves."
13
"All right," they said, "we are only going to tie you up and hand you over to them. We won't kill you." So they tied him up with two new ropes and brought him back from the cliff.