1   And after a certaine time, when the dayes of wheate haruest were at hand, Samson came, meaning to visite his wife, and he brought her a kidde of goates. And when he would enter into her chamber as he was wont, her father prohibited him, saying:

2   I thought that thou hadst hated her, and therfore I deliuered her to thy freind: but she hath a sister, which is yonger & fayrer then she, let this be thy wife in steade of her.

3   To whom Samson answered: From this day there shal be no fault in me against the Philisthimes: for I wil doe you euils.

4   And he went, and ^note caught three hundred foxes, and he coupled them tayle to tayle, and tyed fyrebrandes in the middes:

5   which kindling with fyre, he let them goe, that they might runne abroade hither and thither. Who immediately went on into the corne of the Philisthimes.

Samson. Which being sette on fire, both the corne now caried together, and that which yet stoode in the stalke, was al burnt, in so much, that the flame consumed the vineyardes also and the oliuetes.

6   And the Philisthijmes said: Who hath done this thing? To whom it was said: Samson the sonne in law of the Thamnathate: because he tooke his wife, and gaue her to an other, he hath wrought these thinges. And the Philisthims went vp, and burnt both the woman and her father.

7   To whom Samson said: Although you haue done these thinges, notwithstanding yet wil I require reuenge of you, and then I wil rest.

8   And he stroke them with a great plague, so that astonied they laid the calfe of the leg vpon the thigh. And going downe he dwelt in the caue of the rocke Etam.

9   Therfore the Philisthijms going vp into the Land of Iuda camped in the place, which afterward was called Lechi, that is, the iaw bone, where their armie was spred abrode.

10   And they of the tribe of Iuda said to them: Why are you come vp against vs? Who answered: That we may bind Samson, we are come, and may repay him the thinges that he hath wrought against vs.

11   There went downe therfore three thousand men of Iuda, to the caue of the flint Etam, and said to Samson: knowest not thou that the Philisthijms reigne ouer vs? Why wouldest thou doe this thing? To whom he said: As they did to me so haue I done to them.

12   To bind thee, quoth they, we are come, and to deliuer thee into the handes of the Philisthijms. To whom Samson: Sweare, quoth he, & promise me that you kil me not.

13   They said: We wil not kil thee, but wil deliuer the bound. And they bound him with two new cordes, and tooke him from the rocke Etam.

14   Who when he was come to the place of the Iawebone and the Philisthijms shouting were come against him, the Spirit of our Lord fel vpon him: and as flax is wont to be consumed at the sauour of fyre, so the bandes wherwith he was bound, were dissipated and loosed.

15   And finding a iawe bone, to witte, the iawe bone of an asse, which lay there, catching it, ^note he slewe therwith a thousand men,

16   and said: In the iawe bone of an asse, in the iawe of the colt of the asses haue I destroyed them, and haue strooke a thousand men.

17   And when he had ended these wordes singing, he threw the iaw bone out of his hand, and called the name of that place Ramathlechi, which is interpreted the

Samson. lifting vp of the iawbone.

18   And being very thirstie, he cried to our Lord, and said: Thou hast geuen in the hand of thy seruant this very great saluation and victorie: and behold I die for thirst, and shal fal into the handes of the vncircumcised.

19   Our Lord therfore ^note opened a great tooth in the iawe of the asse, & there issued out of it waters. which being drunke, he refreshed his spirit, and receiued strength againe. Therfore the name of that place was called: The fountaine of him that inuocated from the iawbone, vntil this present day.

20   And he iudged Israel in the daies of the Philisthijms twentie yeares.

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