English Standard Version

Judges 15:6-13 English Standard Version (ESV)

6. Then the Philistines said, “Who has done this?” And they said, “Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he has taken his wife and given her to his companion.” And the Philistines came up and burned her and her father with fire.

7. And Samson said to them, “If this is what you do, I swear I will be avenged on you, and after that I will quit.”

8. And he struck them hip and thigh with a great blow, and he went down and stayed in the cleft of the rock of Etam.

9. Then the Philistines came up and encamped in Judah and made a raid on Lehi.

10. And the men of Judah said, “Why have you come up against us?” They said, “We have come up to bind Samson, to do to him as he did to us.”

11. Then 3,000 men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam, and said to Samson, “Do you not know that the Philistines are rulers over us? What then is this that you have 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 have come down to bind you, that we may give you into the hands of the Philistines.” And Samson said to them, “Swear to me that you will not attack me yourselves.”

13. They said to him, “No; we will only bind you and give you into their hands. We will surely not kill you.” So they bound him with two new ropes and brought him up from the rock.