---
title: "Judges 15 – Catholic Bible (CPDV) & Latin Vulgate · Bless"
url: https://blessbible.app/bible/judges/15/
description: "Samson is denied his wife. He burns the corn of the Philistines, and kills many… Judges 15 in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin Vulgate."
---

# Judges 15

Judges 15 is chapter 15 of 21 in the Book of Judges. Here are all 20 verses in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin of the Clementine Vulgate beside them.

> Samson is denied his wife. He burns the corn of the Philistines, and kills many of them.
>
> — Bp. Richard Challoner, chapter summary

## Judges 15 (Catholic Public Domain Version)

1. Then, after some time, when the days of the wheat harvest were near, Samson arrived, intending to visit his wife, and he brought her a kid from the goats. And when he wanted to enter her bedroom, as usual, her father prohibited him, saying:
2. “I thought that you would hate her, and therefore I gave her to your friend. But she has a sister, who is younger and more beautiful than she is. And she may be a wife for you, instead of her.”
3. And Samson answered him: “From this day, there shall be no guilt for me against the Philistines. For I will do harm to you all.”
4. And he went out and caught three hundred foxes. And he joined them tail to tail. And he tied torches between the tails.
5. And setting these on fire, he released them, so that they might rush from place to place. And immediately they went into the grain fields of the Philistines, setting these on fire, both the grain that was already bound for carrying, and what was still standing on the stalk. These were completely burned up, so much so that the flame also consumed even the vineyards and the olive groves.
6. And the Philistines said, “Who has done this thing?” And it was said: “Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he took away his wife, and gave her to another. He has done these things.” And the Philistines went up and burned the woman as well as her father.
7. And Samson said to them, “Even though you have done this, I will still fulfill vengeance against you, and then I will be quieted.”
8. And he struck them with a tremendous slaughter, so much so that, out of astonishment, they laid the calf of the leg upon the thigh. And descending, he lived in a cave of the rock at Etam.
9. And so the Philistines, ascending into the land of Judah, made camp at the place which was later called Lehi, that is, the Jawbone, where their army spread out.
10. And some from the tribe of Judah said to them, “Why have you ascended against us?” And they responded, “We have come to bind Samson, and to repay him for what he has done to us.”
11. Then three thousand men of Judah descended to the cave of the rock at Etam. And they said to Samson: “Do you not know that the Philistines rule over us? Why would you want to do this?” And he said to them, “As they have done to me, so I have done to them.”
12. And they said to him, “We have come to bind you, and to deliver you into the hands of the Philistines.” And Samson said to them, “Swear and promise to me that you will not kill me.”
13. They said: “We will not kill you. But we will deliver you tied.” And they bound him with two new cords. And they took him from the rock at Etam.
14. And when he had arrived at the place of the Jawbone, and the Philistines, shouting aloud, had met him, the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him. And just as flax is usually consumed by a hint of fire, so were the ties with which he was bound broken and released.
15. And finding a jawbone which was laying there, that is, the jawbone of a donkey, snatching it up, he put to death a thousand men with it.
16. And he said, “With the jawbone of a donkey, with the jaw of the colt of a donkey, I have destroyed them, and I have struck down a thousand men.”
17. And when he had completed these words, singing, he threw the jawbone from his hand. And called the name of that place Ramath-Lehi, which is translated as ‘the elevation of the jawbone.’
18. And being very thirsty, he cried out to the Lord, and he said: “You have given, to the hand of your servant, this very great salvation and victory. But see that I am dying of thirst, and so I will fall into the hands of the uncircumcised.”
19. And so the Lord opened a large tooth in the jawbone of the donkey, and water went out from it. And having drank it, his spirit was revived, and he recovered his strength. For this reason, the name of that place was called ‘the Spring called forth from the jawbone,’ even to the present day.
20. And he judged Israel, in the days of the Philistines, for twenty years.

## Judges 15 in Latin (Clementine Vulgate, 1592)

1. Post aliquantulum autem temporis, cum dies triticeæ messis instarent, venit Samson, invisere volens uxorem suam, et attulit ei hædum de capris. Cumque cubiculum ejus solito vellet intrare, prohibuit eum pater illius, dicens:
2. Putavi quod odisses eam, et ideo tradidi illam amico tuo: sed habet sororem, quæ junior et pulchrior illa est: sit tibi pro ea uxor.
3. Cui Samson respondit: Ab hac die non erit culpa in me contra Philisthæos: faciam enim vobis mala.
4. Perrexitque et cepit trecentas vulpes, caudasque earum junxit ad caudas, et faces ligavit in medio:
5. quas igne succendens, dimisit ut huc illucque discurrerent. Quæ statim perrexerunt in segetes Philisthinorum. Quibus succensis, et comportatæ jam fruges, et adhuc stantes in stipula, concrematæ sunt, in tantum ut vineas quoque et oliveta flamma consumeret.
6. Dixeruntque Philisthiim: Quis fecit hanc rem? Quibus dictum est: Samson gener Thamnathæi: quia tulit uxorem ejus, et alteri tradidit, hæc operatus est. Ascenderuntque Philisthiim, et combusserunt tam mulierem quam patrem ejus.
7. Quibus ait Samson: Licet hæc feceritis, tamen adhuc ex vobis expetam ultionem, et tunc quiescam.
8. Percussitque eos ingenti plaga, ita ut stupentes suram femori imponerent. Et descendens habitavit in spelunca petræ Etam.
9. Igitur ascendentes Philisthiim in terram Juda, castrametati sunt in loco, qui postea vocatus est Lechi, id est, Maxilla, ubi eorum effusus est exercitus.
10. Dixeruntque ad eos de tribu Juda: Cur ascendistis adversum nos? Qui responderunt: Ut ligemus Samson venimus, et reddamus ei quæ in nos operatus est.
11. Descenderunt ergo tria millia virorum de Juda ad specum silicis Etam, dixeruntque ad Samson: Nescis quod Philisthiim imperent nobis? quare hoc facere voluisti? Quibus ille ait: Sicut fecerunt mihi, sic feci eis.
12. Ligare, inquiunt, te venimus, et tradere in manus Philisthinorum. Quibus Samson: Jurate, ait, et spondete mihi quod non occidatis me.
13. Dixerunt: Non te occidemus, sed vinctum trademus. Ligaveruntque eum duobus novis funibus, et tulerunt eum de petra Etam.
14. Qui cum venisset ad locum Maxillæ, et Philisthiim vociferantes occurrissent ei, irruit spiritus Domini in eum: et sicut solent ad odorem ignis lina consumi, ita vincula, quibus ligatus erat, dissipata sunt et soluta.
15. Inventamque maxillam, id est, mandibulam asini, quæ jacebat, arripiens interfecit in ea mille viros,
16. et ait: In maxilla asini, in mandibula pulli asinarum, delevi eos, et percussi mille viros.
17. Cumque hæc verba canens complesset, projecit mandibulam de manu, et vocavit nomen loci illius Ramathlechi, quod interpretatur, Elevatio maxillæ.
18. Sitiensque valde, clamavit ad Dominum, et ait: Tu dedisti in manu servi tui salutem hanc maximam atque victoriam: en siti morior, incidamque in manus incircumcisorum.
19. Aperuit itaque Dominus molarem dentem in maxilla asini, et egressæ sunt ex eo aquæ. Quibus haustis, refocillavit spiritum, et vires recepit. Idcirco appellatum est nomen loci illius, Fons invocantis de maxilla, usque in præsentem diem.
20. Judicavitque Israël in diebus Philisthiim viginti annis.

## Bishop Challoner's notes

Bp. Richard Challoner, notes on the Douay-Rheims (1750); they comment on its older wording.
- Verse 4: “Foxes” … Being judge of the people he might have many to assist him to catch with nets or otherwise a number of these animals; of which there were great numbers in that country.

Source: Catholic Public Domain Version (Ronald L. Conte Jr., 2009), public domain; Latin: Clementine Vulgate (1592).