Juízes 15

BLIVRE · Chapter 15/21

¹E aconteceu depois de dias, que no tempo da colheita do trigo, Sansão visitou à sua mulher com um cabrito, dizendo: Entrarei à minha mulher à câmara. Mas o pai dela não o deixou entrar.

²E disse o pai dela: Persuadi-me que a aborrecias, e dei-a a teu companheiro. Mas sua irmã menor, não é mais bela que ela? Toma-a, pois, em seu lugar.

³E Sansão lhes respondeu: Eu serei sem culpa esta vez para com os filisteus, se mal lhes fizer.

⁴E foi Sansão e agarrou trezentas raposas, e tomando tochas, e segurando aquelas pelas caudas, pôs entre cada duas caudas uma tocha.

⁵Depois, acendendo as tochas, lançou as raposas nas plantações dos filisteus, e queimou pilhas de cereais e cereais nos pés, e vinhas e olivais.

⁶E disseram os filisteus: Quem fez isto? E foi-lhes dito: Sansão, o genro do timnateu, porque lhe tirou sua mulher e a deu a seu companheiro. E vieram os filisteus, e queimaram a fogo a ela e a seu pai.

⁷Então Sansão lhes disse: Assim o havíeis de fazer? Mas eu me vingarei de vós, e depois cessarei.

⁸E feriu-os perna e coxa com grande mortandade; e desceu, e ficou na caverna da penha de Etã.

⁹E os filisteus subiram e puseram acampamento em Judá, e estenderam-se por Leí.

¹⁰E os homens de Judá lhes disseram: Por que subistes contra nós? E eles responderam: A prender a Sansão subimos, para fazer-lhe como ele nos fez.

¹¹E vieram três mil homens de Judá à caverna da penha de Etã, e disseram a Sansão: Não sabes tu que os filisteus dominam sobre nós? Por que nos fizeste isto? E ele lhes respondeu: Eu lhes fiz como eles me fizeram.

¹²Eles então lhe disseram: Nós viemos para prender-te, e entregar-te em mão dos filisteus. E Sansão lhes respondeu: Jurai-me que vós não me matareis.

¹³E eles lhe responderam, dizendo: Não, somente te prenderemos, e te entregaremos em suas mãos; mas não te mataremos. Então lhe ataram com duas cordas novas, e fizeram-lhe vir da penha.

¹⁴E assim que veio até Leí, os filisteus lhe saíram a receber com gritos de vitória: e o espírito do SENHOR caiu sobre ele, e as cordas que estavam em seus braços se tornaram como linho queimado com fogo, e as amarras se caíram de suas mãos.

¹⁵E achando uma queixada de asno fresca, estendeu a mão e tomou-a, e feriu com ela a mil homens.

¹⁶Então Sansão disse: Com a queixada de um asno, um amontoado, dois amontoados; Com a queixada de um asno feri mil homens.

¹⁷E acabando de falar, lançou de sua mão a queixada, e chamou a aquele lugar Ramate-Leí.

¹⁸E tendo grande sede, clamou logo ao SENHOR, e disse: Tu deste esta grande salvação por meio de teu servo: e morrerei eu agora de sede, e cairei em mão dos incircuncisos?

¹⁹Então quebrou Deus uma cavidade em Leí, e saíram dali águas, e bebeu, e recuperou seu espírito, e reanimou-se. Portanto chamou seu nome daquele lugar, En-Hacoré, o qual é em Leí, até hoje.

²⁰E julgou a Israel nos dias dos filisteus vinte anos.

📖 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.