Judges 15:1

Samson Versus the Philistines

15:1 Sometime later, during the wheat harvest,¹ Samson took a young goat as a gift and went to visit his bride.² He said to her father,³ “I want to have sex with my bride in her bedroom!”⁴ But her father would not let him enter.

Judges 16:9

16:9 They hid⁵ in the bedroom and then she said to him, “The Philistines are here,⁶ Samson!” He snapped the bowstrings as easily as a thread of yarn snaps when it is put close to fire.⁷ The secret of his strength was not discovered.⁸

Judges 16:12

16:12 So Delilah took new ropes and tied him with them and said to him, “The Philistines are here,⁹ Samson!” (The Philistines were hiding in the bedroom.)¹⁰ But he tore the ropes¹¹ from his arms as if they were a piece of thread.

¹sn The wheat harvest took place during the month of May. See O. Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 37, 88.

²tn Heb “Samson visited his wife with a young goat.”

³tn The words “to her father” are supplied in the translation (see the end of the verse).

⁴tn Heb “I will go to my wife in the bedroom.” The Hebrew idiom בּוֹא אֶל (bo’ ’el, “to go to”) often has sexual connotations. The cohortative form used by Samson can be translated as indicating resolve (“I want to go”) or request (“let me go”).

⁵tn Heb “And the ones lying in wait were sitting for her.” The grammatically singular form וְהָאֹרֵב (vÿha’orev) is collective here, referring to the rulers as a group (so also in v. 16).

⁶tn Heb “are upon you.”

⁷tn Heb “when it smells fire.”

⁸tn Heb “His strength was not known.”

⁹tn Heb “are upon you.”

¹⁰tn Heb “And the ones lying in wait were sitting in the bedroom.”

¹¹tn Heb “them”; the referent (the ropes) has been specified in the translation for clarity.