1. At the time of the wheat harvest, Samson went to visit his wife. He took a young goat with him as a gift. He said, “I am going to my wife’s room.” But her father would not let Samson go in.
2. He said, “I thought you hated her, so I let her marry the best man at the wedding. Her younger sister is more beautiful. Take her younger sister.”
3. But Samson said to him, “Now I have a good reason to hurt you Philistines. No one will blame me now.”
4. So Samson went out and caught 300 foxes. He took two foxes at a time and tied their tails together to make pairs. Then he tied a torch between the tails of each pair of foxes.
5. He lit the torches that were between the foxes’ tails and let them run through the grain fields of the Philistines. In this way he burned up the plants growing in their fields and the stacks of grain they had cut. He also burned up their vineyards and their olive trees.
6. The Philistines asked, “Who did this?” Someone told them, “Samson, the son-in-law of the man from Timnah, did this. He did this because his father-in-law gave Samson’s wife to the best man at his wedding.” So the Philistines burned Samson’s wife and her father to death.
7. Then Samson said to the Philistines, “You did this bad thing to me, so now I will do bad things to you. Then I will be finished with you!”
8. Samson attacked the Philistines and killed many of them. Then he went and stayed in a cave in a place named the Rock of Etam.
9. The Philistines went to the land of Judah and stopped near a place named Lehi. Their army camped there.