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Shaphatiym 15

Shaphatiym chapter 15 in the Qadmoni reader. Read the full chapter text with direct verse references and continue into the interactive reader.

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15:1

The Foxes, the Jawbone, and the Treason of Yahudah

But it came to pass within a while after, in the time of wheat harvest, that Shimshun visited his wife with a kid; and he said, "I will go in to my wife into the chamber." But her father would not suffer him to go in.
15:2
And her father said, "I verily thought that thou hadst utterly hated her; therefore I gave her to thy companion: is not her younger sister fairer than she? take her, I pray thee, instead of her."
15:3
And Shimshun said concerning them, "Now shall I be more blameless than the Philistines, though I do them a displeasure."
15:4

The Deployment of the Burning Foxes

And Shimshun went and caught three hundred foxes, and took firebrands, and turned tail to tail, and put a firebrand in the midst between two tails.
15:5
And when he had set the brands on fire, he let them go into the standing corn of the Philistines, and burnt up both the shocks, and also the standing corn, with the vineyards and olives.
15:6

The Philistine Retaliation

Then the Philistines said, "Who hath done this?" And they answered, "Shimshun, the son in law of the Timnite, because he had taken his wife, and given her to his companion." And the Philistines came up, and burnt her and her father with fire.
15:7
And Shimshun said unto them, "Though ye have done this, yet will I be avenged of you, and after that I will cease."
15:8
And he smote them hip and thigh with a great slaughter: and he went down and dwelt in the top of the rock Etam.
15:9

The Invasion of Yahudah

Then the Philistines went up, and pitched in Yahudah, and spread themselves in Lehi.
15:10
And the men of Yahudah said, "Why are ye come up against us?" And they answered, "To bind Shimshun are we come up, to do to him as he hath done to us."
15:11

The Treason of the Scepter Tribe

Then three thousand men of Yahudah went to the top of the rock Etam, and said to Shimshun, "Knowest thou not that the Philistines are rulers over us? what is this that thou hast done unto us?" And he said unto them, "As they did unto me, so have I done unto them."
15:12
And they said unto him, "We are come down to bind thee, that we may deliver thee into the hand of the Philistines." And Shimshun said unto them, "Swear unto me, that ye will not fall upon me yourselves."
15:13
And they spake unto him, saying, "No; but we will bind thee fast, and deliver thee into their hand: but surely we will not kill thee." And they bound him with two new cords, and brought him up from the rock.
15:14

The Descent of the Ruach and the Jawbone

And when he came unto Lehi, the Philistines shouted against him: and the Spirit (Ruach) of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 came mightily upon him, and the cords that were upon his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire, and his bands loosed from off his hands.
15:15
And he found a new jawbone of an ass, and put forth his hand, and took it, and slew a thousand men therewith.
15:16
And Shimshun said, "With the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, with the jawbone of an ass have I slain a thousand men."
15:17
And it came to pass, when he had made an end of speaking, that he cast away the jawbone out of his hand, and called that place Ramath-lehi.
15:18

The Spring of the Caller (En-hakkore)

And he was sore athirst, and called on 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄, and said, "Thou hast given this great deliverance into the hand of thy servant: and now shall I die for thirst, and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised?"
15:19
But Alahiym cleaved a hollow place that was in the jaw, and there came water thereout; and when he had drunk, his spirit came again, and he revived: wherefore he called the name thereof En-hakkore, which is in Lehi unto this day.
15:20

The Era of Shimshun

And he judged Yashar'al in the days of the Philistines twenty years.