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 21:19

21:19 However, there is an annual festival to the Lord in Shiloh, which is north of Bethel ⁵  (east of the main road that goes up from Bethel to Shechem) and south of Lebonah.”

[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”).

[21:19]  ⁵ map For location see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.