And Samson judged Israel for twenty years in the days of the Philistines.
Parallel translations
- WEB He judged Israel twenty years in the days of the Philistines.
- KJV And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.
- NKJV And he judged Israel twenty years in the days of the Philistines.
- NASB So he judged Israel for twenty years in the days of the Philistines.
- NLT Samson judged Israel for twenty years during the period when the Philistines dominated the land.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Samson judged Israel twenty years during Philistine domination. This summary marks a stage in his career.
Overview
This judgeship notice (repeated at 16:31) frames Samson's leadership as spanning two decades amid ongoing Philistine oppression. Unlike earlier judges, Samson never frees Israel fully; he only begins to deliver them (13:5). The partial, flawed deliverance leaves the reader longing for a greater and complete Deliverer.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 4
- Judg 13:1Again the Israelites did evil in the sight of the LORD, so He delivered them into the hand of the Philistines for forty years.
- Judg 16:31Then Samson’s brothers and his father’s family came down, carried him back, and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of his father Manoah. And he had judged Israel twenty years.
- Judg 13:5For behold, you will conceive and give birth to a son. And no razor shall come over his head, because the boy will be a Nazirite to God from the womb, and he will begin the deliverance of Israel from the hand of the Philistines.”
- Heb 11:32And what more shall I say? Time will not allow me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets,
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Israel's cycle of sin and rescue through flawed deliverers cries out for a Savior who never fails — the true and final Judge and Deliverer who saves his people not for a season but forever.
How Judges 15:20 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.