New English Translation

Judges 15:13-20 New English Translation (NET)

13. They said to him, “We promise! We will only take you prisoner and hand you over to them. We promise not to kill you.” They tied him up with two brand new ropes and led him up from the cliff.

14. When he arrived in Lehi, the Philistines shouted as they approached him. But the Lord’s spirit empowered him. The ropes around his arms were like flax dissolving in fire, and they melted away from his hands.

15. He happened to see a solid jawbone of a donkey. He grabbed it and struck down a thousand men.

16. Samson then said,“With the jawbone of a donkey I have left them in heaps;with the jawbone of a donkey I have struck down a thousand men!”

17. When he finished speaking, he threw the jawbone down and named that place Ramath Lehi.

18. He was very thirsty, so he cried out to the Lord and said, “You have given your servant this great victory. But now must I die of thirst and fall into hands of the Philistines?”

19. So God split open the basin at Lehi and water flowed out from it. When he took a drink, his strength was restored and he revived. For this reason he named the spring En Hakkore. It remains in Lehi to this very day.

20. Samson led Israel for twenty years during the days of Philistine prominence.