1 And it came to pass after a time, in the days of the wheat-harvest, that Samson visited his wife with a kid of the goats. And he said, I will go in to my wife into the chamber; but her father would not suffer him to go in.2 And her father said, I verily thought that thou didst utterly hate her; therefore I gave her to thy companion. Is not her younger sister fairer than she? Let her, I pray thee, be thine instead of her.3 And Samson said to them, This time I am blameless toward the Philistines, though I do them harm.4 And Samson went and caught three hundred jackals, and took torches, and turned tail to tail, and put a torch in the midst between the two tails.5 And he set the torches on fire, and let {them} run into the standing corn of the Philistines, and burnt up both the shocks, and also the standing corn, and the olive gardens.6 And the Philistines said, Who has done this? And they answered, Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he took his wife and gave her to his companion. And the Philistines came up, and burned her and her father with fire.7 And Samson said to them, If ye act thus, for a certainty I will avenge myself on you, and then I will cease.8 And he smote them hip and thigh with a great slaughter. And he went down and dwelt in the cleft of the cliff Etam.9 And the Philistines went up, and encamped in Judah, and spread themselves in Lehi.10 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 has done to us.11 Then three thousand men of Judah went down to the cleft of the cliff Etam, and said to Samson, Knowest thou not that the Philistines rule over us? And what is this that thou hast done to us? And he said to them, As they did to me, so have I done to them.12 And they said to him, We are come down to bind thee, that we may give thee into the hand of the Philistines. And Samson said to them, Swear to me that ye will not fall on me yourselves.13 And they spoke to him, saying, No; but we will bind thee fast, and deliver thee into their hand; but we certainly shall not put thee to death. And they bound him with two new cords, and brought him up from the cliff.14 When he came to Lehi, the Philistines shouted against him. And the Spirit of Jehovah came upon him, and the cords that were on his arms became as threads of flax that are burned with fire, and his bands loosed from off his hands.15 And he found a fresh jawbone of an ass, and put forth his hand and took it, and slew with it a thousand men.16 And Samson said, With the jawbone of an ass, a heap, two heaps, With the jawbone of an ass have I slain a thousand men.17 And it came to pass when he had ended speaking, that he cast away the jawbone out of his hand, and called that place Ramath-Lehi.18 And he was very thirsty, and called on Jehovah, and said, Thou hast given by the hand of thy servant this great deliverance, and now shall I die for thirst, and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised?19 And God clave the hallow rock which was in Lehi, and water came out of it. And he drank, and his spirit came again, and he revived. Therefore its name was called En-hakkore, which is in Lehi to this day.20 And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.

1 Maar 'n tyd daarna het Simson in die dae van die koringoes sy vrou besoek met 'n bokkie en gesê: Laat ek na my vrou in die kamer ingaan; maar haar vader het hom nie toegelaat om in te gaan nie.2 En haar vader het gesê: Ek het vir seker gedink dat jy niks om haar gee nie; daarom het ek haar aan jou metgesel gegee; is haar jonger suster nie mooier as sy nie? Laat sy tog joue word in haar plek.3 Maar Simson het vir hulle gesê: Hierdie keer is ek onskuldig teenoor die Filistyne as ek hulle kwaad aandoen.4 Toe gaan Simson weg en vang drie honderd jakkalse; en hy neem fakkels en draai stert teen stert, en sit 'n fakkel in die middel tussen elke twee sterte in;5 en hy steek die fakkels aan die brand en los hulle in die ongesnyde graan van die Filistyne; en hy het die miede sowel as die ongesnyde graan en die wingerde en olyfbome aan die brand gesteek.6 Toe vra die Filistyne: Wie het dit gedoen? En hulle sê: Simson, die skoonseun van die Timniet, omdat die sy vrou geneem en haar aan sy metgesel gegee het. En die Filistyne het opgetrek en haar en haar vader se huis met vuur verbrand.7 Daarop sê Simson vir hulle: As julle so maak, sal ek sekerlik nie rus voordat ek my op julle gewreek het nie.8 En hy het hulle lendelam geslaan, 'n groot slag. En hy het afgegaan en gebly in die rotskloof van Etam.9 Toe trek die Filistyne nader en slaan laer op in Juda en sprei hulleself uit by Legi.10 En die manne van Juda vra: Waarom het julle teen ons opgetrek? En hulle sê: Ons het opgetrek om Simson te bind, om aan hom te doen soos hy aan ons gedoen het.11 Daarop trek drie duisend man uit Juda af na die rotskloof van Etam en vra vir Simson: Weet jy nie dat die Filistyne oor ons heers nie, en wat het jy ons nou aangedoen? En hy sê aan hulle: Soos hulle aan my gedoen het, so het ek aan hulle gedoen.12 Toe sê hulle vir hom: Ons het afgekom om jou te bind, om jou oor te gee in die hand van die Filistyne. En Simson sê aan hulle: Sweer vir my dat julle nie self op my sal aanval nie.13 En hulle antwoord hom: Nee, ons sal jou net vasbind en oorgee in hulle hand, maar doodmaak sal ons jou stellig nie. Daarop bind hulle hom vas met twee nuwe toue en bring hom op uit die rots.14 Toe hy tot by Legi kom, juig die Filistyne hom tegemoet; maar die Gees van die HERE het oor hom vaardig geword, en die toue wat aan sy arms was, het geword soos linnedrade wat in die vuur brand, en sy bande het versmelt van sy hande af.15 En hy het 'n vars eselskakebeen gevind en sy hand uitgesteek en dit geneem en daar duisend man mee verslaan.16 En Simson het gesê: Met 'n eselskakebeen het ek een klomp, twee klompe, met 'n eselskakebeen het ek duisend man verslaan.17 En toe hy klaar gespreek het, gooi hy die kakebeen uit sy hand en noem die plek Kakebeenshoogte.18 Daarop kry hy baie dors en roep die HERE aan en sê: U het deur die hand van u kneg hierdie groot verlossing gegee, en moet ek nou van dors sterwe en in die hand van die onbesnedenes val?19 Toe kloof God die holte wat by Legi is, en daar kom water uit; en hy het gedrink, en sy gees het teruggekom, en hy het weer opgelewe. Daarom noem hulle dit Roepersfontein, wat vandag nog by Legi is.20 En hy het Israel gerig in die dae van die Filistyne, twintig jaar lank.