Discovery BoxJudges 15:7-14 
Context15:7 Samson said to them, “Because you did this, 1 I will get revenge against you before I quit fighting.” 2 15:8 He struck them down and defeated them. 3 Then he went down and lived for a time in the cave in the cliff of Etam.
15:9 The Philistines went up and invaded 4 Judah. They arrayed themselves for battle 5 in Lehi. 15:10 The men of Judah said, “Why are you attacking 6 us?” The Philistines 7 said, “We have come up to take Samson prisoner so we can do to him what he has done to us.” 15:11 Three thousand men of Judah went down to the cave in the cliff of Etam and said to Samson, “Do you not know that the Philistines rule over us? Why have you done this to us?” He said to them, “I have only done to them what they have done to me.” 15:12 They said to him, “We have come down to take you prisoner so we can hand you over to the Philistines.” Samson said to them, “Promise me 8 you will not kill 9 me.” 15:13 They said to him, “We promise! 10 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. 15:14 When he arrived in Lehi, the Philistines shouted as they approached him. But the Lord’s spirit empowered 11 him. The ropes around his arms were like flax dissolving in 12 fire, and they 13 melted away from his hands.
1 tn The Niphal of נָקָם (naqam, “to avenge, to take vengeance”) followed by the preposition ב (bet) has the force “to get revenge against.” See 1 Sam 18:25; Jer 50:15; Ezek 25:12.
2 tn Heb “and afterward I will stop.”
3 tn Heb “He struck them, calf on thigh, [with] a great slaughter.” The precise meaning of the phrase “calf on thigh” is uncertain.
4 tn Or “camped in.”
5 tn Or “spread out.” The Niphal of נָטָשׁ (natash) has this same sense in 2 Sam 5:18, 22.
6 tn Or “come up against.”
7 tn Heb “they”; the referent (the Philistines) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
8 tn Or “swear to me.”
9 tn Heb “meet [with hostility]”; “harm.” In light of v. 13, “kill” is an appropriate translation.
10 tn Heb “No,” meaning that they will not harm him.
11 tn Heb “rushed on.”
12 tn Heb “burned with.”
13 tn Heb “his bonds.”
