New Century Version NCV
The Complete Jewish Bible CJB
1 At the time of the wheat harvest, Samson went to visit his wife, tak- ing a young goat with him. He said, "I'm going to my wife's room," but her father would not let him go in.
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But after a while, during the wheat-harvest season, Shimshon went to see his wife. He brought a young goat for her and said to her father, "I want to go to my wife in her room." But he wouldn't let him.
2 He said to Samson, "I thought you really hated your wife, so I gave her to your best man. Her younger sister is more beautiful. Take her instead."
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Her father said, "I really thought you hated her altogether, so I gave her to your best man. But her younger sister - isn't she even prettier? Why not take her instead?"
3 But Samson said to them, "This time no one will blame me for hurting you Philistines!"
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Shimshon said to them, "This time I'm through with the P'lishtim! I'm going to do something terrible to them!"
4 So Samson went out and caught three hundred foxes. He took two foxes at a time, tied their tails together, and then tied a torch to the tails of each pair of foxes.
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So Shimshon went and caught three hundred foxes. Then he took torches, tied pairs of foxes to each other by their tails, and put a torch in the knot of every pair of tails.
5 After he lit the torches, he let the foxes loose in the grainfields of the Philistines so that he burned up their standing grain, the piles of grain, their vineyards, and their olive trees.
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Then he set the torches on fire and let the foxes loose in wheat fields of the P'lishtim. In this way he burned up the harvested wheat along with the grain waiting to be harvested, and the olive orchards as well.
6 The Philistines asked, "Who did this?" Someone told them, "Samson, the son-in-law of the man from Timnah, did because his father-in-law gave his wife to his best man." So the Philistines burned Samson's wife and her father to death.
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The P'lishtim asked, "Who did this?" They answered, "Shimshon the son-in-law of the man from Timnah, because he took Shimshon's wife and gave her to his best man." Then the P'lishtim came up and burned both her and her father to death.
7 Then Samson said to the Philistines, "Since you did this, I won't stop until I pay you back!"
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Shimshon said to them, "I will certainly have my revenge on you for doing such a thing; but after I do, I'll stop."
8 Samson attacked the Philistines and killed many of them. Then he went down and stayed in a cave in the rock of Etam.
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Infuriated, he began killing them right and left; it was a massacre. Then he went down and stayed in the cave at the 'Eitam Rock.
9 The Philistines went up and camped in the land of Judah, near a place named Lehi.
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The P'lishtim went up, pitched camp in Y'hudah and attacked Lechi.
10 The men of Judah asked them, "Why have you come here to fight us?" They answered, "We have come to make Samson our prisoner, to pay him back for what he did to our people."
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The men of Y'hudah said, "Why are you attacking us?" They replied, "To arrest Shimshon, that's why - to treat him the way he treated us."
11 Then three thousand men of Judah went to the cave in the rock of Etam and said to Samson, "What have you done to us? Don't you know that the Philistines rule over us?" Samson answered, "I only paid them back for what they did to me."
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Then 3,000 men from Y'hudah went down to the cave at the Eitam Rock and said to Shimshon, "Don't you know that the P'lishtim are our rulers? What are you doing to us?" He answered, "I've only treated them the way they treated me."
12 Then they said to him, "We have come to tie you up and to hand you over to the Philistines." Samson said to them, "Promise me you will not hurt me yourselves."
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They said to him, "We've come down to arrest you and hand you over to the P'lishtim." Shimshon replied, "Swear to me that you won't fall on me yourselves."
13 The men from Judah said, "We agree. We will just tie you up and give you to the Philistines. We will not kill you." So they tied Samson with two new ropes and led him up from the cave in the rock.
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They said to him, "No, but we will tie you up and hand you over to them. However, we promise not to kill you." So they tied him up with two new ropes and brought him up from the rock.
14 When Samson came to the place named Lehi, the Philistines came to meet him, shouting for joy. Then the Spirit of the Lord entered Samson and gave him great power. The ropes on him weakened like burned strings and fell off his hands!
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When he got to Lechi, the P'lishtim came running and shouting at him; and the Spirit of ADONAI came on him powerfully. The ropes on his arms became as weak as burnt flax and fell from his arms.
15 Samson found the jawbone of a dead donkey, took it, and killed a thousand men with it!
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He found a fresh donkey jawbone, took it in his hand, and with it he struck down a thousand men.
16 Then Samson said, "With a donkey's jawbone I made donkeys out of them. With a donkey's jawbone I killed a thousand men!"
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Shimshon said, "With the jawbone of a donkey I left heaps piled on heaps! With the jawbone of a donkey I killed a thousand men!"
17 When he finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone. So that place was named Ramath Lehi.
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After he finished speaking he threw the jawbone away, and the place came to be called Ramat-Lechi [jawbone heights].
18 Samson was very thirsty, so he cried out to the Lord, "You gave me, your servant, this great victory. Do I have to die of thirst now? Do I have to be captured by people who are not circumcised?"
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Then he felt very thirsty, so he called on ADONAI, saying, "You accomplished this great rescue through your servant. But am I now to die from thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?"
19 Then God opened up a hole in the ground at Lehi, and water came out. When Samson drank, he felt better; he felt strong again. So he named that spring Caller's Spring, which is still in Lehi.
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Then God made a gash in the crater at Lechi, and water came out. When he had drunk, his spirit came back; and he revived. This is why the place was called 'Ein-HaKorei [the spring of him who called], and it is there in Lechi until now.
20 Samson judged Israel for twenty years in the days of the Philistines.
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He judged Isra'el in the period of the P'lishtim for twenty years.
Scripture taken from the New Century Version. Copyright © 1987, 1988, 1991 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Complete Jewish Bible Copyright 1998 by David H. Stern. Published by Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.