Judges 15:1

Samson Versus the Philistines

15:1 Sometime later, during the wheat harvest, ¹  Samson took a young goat as a gift and went to visit his bride. ²  He said to her father, ³  “I want to have sex with my bride in her bedroom!” ⁴  But her father would not let him enter.

Judges 19:9

19:9 When the man got ready to leave ⁵  with his concubine and his servant, ⁶  his father-in-law, the girl’s father, said to him, “Look! The day is almost over! ⁷  Stay another night! Since the day is over, ⁸  stay another night here and have a good time. You can get up early tomorrow and start your trip home.” ⁹ 

[15:1]  ¹ sn The wheat harvest took place during the month of May. See O. Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 37, 88.

[15:1]  ² tn Heb “Samson visited his wife with a young goat.”

[15:1]  ³ tn The words “to her father” are supplied in the translation (see the end of the verse).

[15:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “I will go to my wife in the bedroom.” The Hebrew idiom בּוֹא אֶל (bo’ ’el, “to go to”) often has sexual connotations. The cohortative form used by Samson can be translated as indicating resolve (“I want to go”) or request (“let me go”).

[19:9]  ⁵ tn Heb “the man arose to go.”

[19:9]  ⁶ tn Or “young man.”

[19:9]  ⁷ tn Heb “the day is sinking to become evening.”

[19:9]  ⁸ tn Or “declining.”

[19:9]  ⁹ tn Heb “for your way and go to your tent.”