And the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and he went down to Ashkelon, and smote thirty men of them, and took their spoil, and gave the changes of raiment unto them that declared the riddle. And his anger was kindled, and he went up to his father's house.

[{175}]

How Samson Burned the Cornfield and Slew His Enemies.

At another time, Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took firebrands, and turned tail to tail, and put a firebrand in the midst between every two tails. And when he had set the brands on fire, he let them go into the standing corn of the Philistines, and burnt up both the shocks and the standing corn, and also the oliveyards.

Then the Philistines went up, and camped in Judah, and spread themselves in Lehi. And the men of Judah said, "Why are ye come up against us?"

And they said, "To bind Samson are we come up, to do to him as he hath done to us."

Then three thousand men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam, and said to Samson, "Knowest thou not that the Philistines are rulers over us? what then is this that thou hast done to us?"

And he said to them, "As they did to me, so have I done to them."

And they said to him, "We are come down to bind thee, that we may deliver thee into the hand of the Philistines."

And Samson said unto them, "Swear unto me, that ye will not fall upon me yourselves."