Juízes 15

ARC · Chapter 15/21

¹E aconteceu, depois d'alguns dias, que na sega do trigo Sansão visitou a sua mulher com um cabrito, e disse: Entrarei na camara a minha mulher. Porém o pae d'ella não o deixou entrar.

²Porque disse seu pae: Por certo dizia eu que de todo a aborrecias: de sorte que a dei ao teu companheiro: porém não é sua irmã mais nova, mais formosa do que ella? toma-a pois em seu logar.

³Então Sansão disse ácerca d'elles: Innocente sou esta vez para com os philisteos, quando lhes fizer algum mal.

⁴E foi Sansão, e tomou trezentas raposas: e, tomando tições, as virou cauda a cauda, e lhes poz um tição no meio de cada duas caudas.

⁵E chegou fogo aos tições, e largou-as na seara dos philisteos: e assim abrazou os molhos com a sega do trigo, e as vinhas com os olivaes.

⁶Então disseram os philisteos: Quem fez isto? E disseram: Sansão, o genro do Timnatha, porque lhe tomou a sua mulher, e a deu a seu companheiro. Então subiram os philisteos, e queimaram a fogo a ella e a seu pae.

⁷Então lhes disse Sansão: Assim o haveis de fazer? pois havendo-me vingado eu de vós então cessarei.

⁸E feriu-os com grande ferimento, perna juntamente com côxa: e desceu, e habitou no cume da rocha d'Etam.

⁹Então os philisteos subiram, e acamparam-se contra Judah, e estenderam-se por Lechi,

¹⁰E disseram os homens de Judah: Porque subistes contra nós? E elles disseram: Subimos para amarrar a Sansão, para lhe fazer a elle como elle nos fez a nós.

¹¹Então tres mil homens de Judah desceram até á cova da rocha d'Etam, e disseram a Sansão: Não sabias tu que os philisteos dominam sobre nós? porque pois nos fizeste isto? E elle lhes disse: Assim como elles me fizeram a mim, eu lhes fiz a elles

¹²E disseram-lhe: Descemos para te amarrar, para te entregar nas mãos dos philisteos. Então Sansão lhes disse: Jurae-me que vós mesmos me não accommettereis.

¹³E elles lhe fallaram, dizendo: Não, mas fortemente te amarraremos, e te entregaremos na sua mão; porém de maneira nenhuma te mataremos. E amarraram-n'o com duas cordas novas e fizeram-n'o subir da rocha.

¹⁴E, vindo elle a Lechi, os philisteos lhe sairam ao encontro, jubilando: porém o espirito do Senhor possantemente se apossou d'elle, e as cordas que elle tinha nos braços se tornaram como fios de linho que se queimaram no fogo, e as suas amarraduras se desfizeram das suas mãos.

¹⁵E achou uma queixada fresca d'um jumento, e estendeu a sua mão, e tomou-a, e feriu com ella mil homens,

¹⁶Então disse Sansão: Com uma queixada de jumento um montão, dois montões; com uma queixada de jumento feri a mil homens.

¹⁷E aconteceu que, acabando elle de fallar, lançou a queixada da sua mão: e chamou áquelle logar Ramath-lechi.

¹⁸E como tivesse grande sede, clamou ao Senhor, e disse: Pela mão do teu servo tu déste esta grande salvação: morrerei eu pois agora de sede, e cairei na mão d'estes incircumcisos?

¹⁹Então o Senhor fendeu a caverna que estava em Lechi; e saiu d'ella agua, e bebeu; e o seu espirito tornou, e reviveu: pelo que chamou o seu nome: A fonte do que clama, que está em Lechi até ao dia d'hoje.

²⁰E julgou a Israel, nos dias dos philisteos, vinte annos.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

Samson takes revenge on the Philistines by burning their crops with foxes, kills many with the jawbone of a donkey, and is saved from thirst by a spring that God miraculously opens.

Explanation

The cycle of personal revenge between Samson and the Philistines escalates progressively: they burn his wife and father-in-law, he responds with a massacre, they attack Judah, and Judah's own people hand Samson over to avoid greater trouble - showing how violence breeds more violence when driven by personal honor rather than a clear divine mission. Even in the midst of this troubled cycle, God intervenes supernaturally, breaking the ropes that bound Samson and then opening a spring of water when he is about to die of thirst after the victory - a reminder that God can use and sustain imperfect people amid the consequences of their own questionable choices.

Fun facts

The place where Samson killed a thousand Philistines with a donkey's jawbone was called 'Ramath-lehi' (jawbone hill), and the spring that followed was called 'En-hakkore' (spring of him who cried out), preserving the memory of the event in the very name of the place.
The use of foxes tied in pairs with lit torches was an incendiary war tactic also documented in other ancient Near Eastern sources as a method of destroying enemy farmland.

Verse-by-verse explanation

Juízes 15:1After a while, at the time of the wheat harvest, Samson comes back to visit his wife bringing a young goat, but her father does not let him into her room.
Juízes 15:2Her father explains that, thinking Samson truly hated her, he had already given the girl to his companion; he offers her younger, prettier sister in her place.
Juízes 15:3Samson declares that this time he is free of blame before the Philistines for any harm he does them, since it was they who provoked him first.
Juízes 15:4Samson ties lit torches between the tails of three hundred foxes and releases them into the Philistines' fields, a calculated act of revenge meant to destroy crops, vineyards, and olive groves all at once, without any direct confrontation.
Juízes 15:5Samson lets the foxes loose with the torches burning through the Philistines' fields, setting fire to both the standing grain and the shocks already cut, as well as the vineyards and olive groves.
Juízes 15:6The Philistines find out it was Samson and, learning the reason (his wife given to another man), go up and burn the woman and her father alive, a revenge that only escalates the violence.
Juízes 15:7Samson vows that he will only stop after he has avenged himself on the Philistines for this act, making clear the violence is only going to keep escalating.
Juízes 15:8Samson attacks the Philistines with great violence, striking them hip and thigh, and then goes down to live in the cleft of the rock of Etam, hiding from the enemy.
Juízes 15:9The Philistines go up, camp against Judah, and spread out through Lehi, searching for Samson.
Juízes 15:10The men of Judah ask why the Philistines have come to attack, and they answer that it is to capture Samson and pay him back for what he did.
Juízes 15:11Three thousand men of Judah go down to the rock of Etam and complain to Samson for putting them in this position under Philistine rule; he answers that he only did to the Philistines what they had done to him.
Juízes 15:12The men of Judah tell him they have come to bind him and hand him over to the Philistines; Samson only asks that they themselves not kill him.
Juízes 15:13They promise only to bind him and hand him over, without killing him, and they tie him with two new ropes to take him to the Philistines.
Juízes 15:14When he arrives at Lehi, the Philistines come out shouting to meet him, but the Spirit of the Lord comes upon Samson with power and the ropes fall apart like burnt thread, freeing his hands.
Juízes 15:15Samson finds a fresh jawbone of a donkey, picks it up, and kills a thousand Philistine men with this improvised weapon.
Juízes 15:16After the slaughter, Samson declares in a tone of triumph that with a simple donkey's jawbone he has piled up heaps of enemies.
Juízes 15:17When he finishes speaking, he throws the jawbone away and names that place Ramath-lehi, a name that recalls the weapon used in the victory.
Juízes 15:18Very thirsty after the effort, Samson cries out to the Lord, asking if he is going to die of thirst right after such a great victory given by God.
Juízes 15:19God opens a spring in the rock at Lehi, Samson drinks and regains his strength; that is why the place is named En-hakkore, the spring of him who cried out, which still existed at the time the book was written.
Juízes 15:20Samson judges Israel for twenty years, even with the Philistines still ruling the region in those days.