Samson’s Revenge
1 Later on, during the wheat harvest, b Samson took a young goat as a gift and visited his wife. “I want to go to my wife in her room,” he said. But her father would not let him enter.
2 “I was sure you hated her,” her father said, “so I gave her to one of the men who accompanied you. Isn’t her younger sister more beautiful than she is? Why not take her instead? ”
3 Samson said to them, “This time I will be blameless c when I harm the Philistines.” 4 So he went out and caught three hundred foxes. d He took torches, turned the foxes tail-to-tail, and put a torch between each pair of tails. 5 Then he ignited the torches and released the foxes into the standing grain of the Philistines. He burned the piles of grain and the standing grain as well as the vineyards and olive groves. e
6 Then the Philistines asked, “Who did this? ”
They were told, “It was Samson, the Timnite’s son-in-law, because he took Samson’s wife and gave her to his companion.” So the Philistines went to her and her father and burned them to death.
7 Then Samson told them, “Because you did this, I swear that I won’t rest until I have taken vengeance on you.” 8 He tore them limb from limb and then went down and stayed in the cave at the rock of Etam.
9 The Philistines went up, camped in Judah, and raided Lehi. 10 So the men of Judah said, “Why have you attacked us? ”
They replied, “We have come to tie Samson up and pay him back for what he did to us.”
11 Then three thousand men of Judah went to the cave at the rock of Etam, and they asked Samson, “Don’t you realize that the Philistines rule us? f What have you done to us? ”
“I have done to them what they did to me,” he answered.
12 They said to him, “We’ve come to tie you up and hand you over to the Philistines.”
Then Samson told them, “Swear to me that you yourselves won’t kill me.”
13 “No,” they said, “we won’t kill you, but we will tie you up securely and hand you over to them.” So they tied him up with two new ropes g and led him away from the rock.
14 When he came to Lehi, the Philistines came to meet him shouting. The Spirit of the LORD came powerfully on him, and the ropes that were on his arms and wrists became like burnt flax and fell off. 15 He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, reached out his hand, took it, and killed a thousand men with it. 16 Then Samson said:
With the jawbone of a donkey
I have piled them in heaps.
With the jawbone of a donkey
I have killed a thousand men.
17 When he finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone and named that place Ramath-lehi. 18 He became very thirsty and called out to the LORD: “You have accomplished this great victory through your servant. Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised? ” 19 So God split a hollow place in the ground at Lehi, and water came out of it. After Samson drank, his strength returned, and he revived. h That is why he named it En-hakkore, which is still in Lehi today. 20 And he judged Israel twenty years in the days of the Philistines.
15:1–2. The narrative unit in chapter 15 recounts the series of events that takes place in the aftermath of the failed marriage. Having had time to calm down, Samson returns to the house of his would-be wife with a gift, apparently wanting to continue the relationship from where he has left off (15:1). Although the mention of the wife’s room does not necessarily imply physical intimacy, the response of the father-in-law, first refusing to let him in, then explaining that the woman has already been given to another, and finally offering the supposedly more beautiful younger daughter as replacement, suggests an understanding that Samson wants to consummate the marriage (15:2).
15:3–8. Having been rebuffed, Samson angrily promises revenge on the Philistines and then sets on fire their entire harvest (15:3–5). This is particularly devastating as it is the time of the harvest (cf. 15:1), which means that the Philistines’ months of hard work are now in vain. When the Philistines discover that Samson was behind the deed, they take it out on the would-be wife and her father by burning them to death (15:6). This prompts an angry Samson to seek further revenge by slaughtering many Philistines (15:7–8).
15:9–11. This causes the Philistines to demand more revenge, as they go up to Judah and set up camp (15:9). Sensing trouble, representatives from Judah inquire about the reason for the Philistines’ military presence (15:10). Having discovered that it is related to Samson, three thousand men from Judah go to Samson’s hiding place to confront him (15:11). From their words, it is clear that by then, these Israelites from Judah have become content to be ruled by the Philistines, such that they prefer keeping the status quo peacefully rather than upsetting their overlords for any reason. Can this be why no report is made of the people crying out to the Lord when the Philistine oppression is introduced in 13:1? Thus, another stage of the cyclical structure that characterizes the narratives of the major judges has quietly broken down.
15:12. Not only are these men from Judah content to live under Philistine rule, they are even ready to side with their oppressors, as they inform Samson that they will tie him up and hand him over to the Philistines. In this, the theme of Israelites refusing to stand with their judges, which first emerged with Deborah and Barak (Jdg 5) and continued with Gideon (8:4–17) and Jephthah (12:1–7), has reached its nadir.
15:13–17. Having made them promise not to kill him, Samson allows himself to be tied up (15:13). But as he is about to be handed over to the Philistines, the Spirit of the Lord comes upon him, such that the ropes that tie him melt away (15:14). Finding the jawbone of a donkey, Samson uses it to kill a thousand Philistines (15:15–16). This results in the place being named Ramath-lehi, meaning “Jawbone Hill” (15:17).
15:18. But no sooner has he experienced this great deliverance than Samson prays a prayer that betrays a lack of faith. Interestingly, the circumstances of this prayer seem calculated to remind one of the prayers by Gideon (6:33–40) and Jephthah (11:29–31). For all three prayers are preceded by the coming of the Spirit of the Lord upon the judges, prompting them to take concrete action against the enemy. All three prayers also represent the first utterance the respective judges made to the Lord after the coming of the Spirit. While one would naturally expect these to be prayers of faith, they are, unfortunately, just the opposite.
15:19–20. In spite of Samson’s lack of faith, the Lord answers his prayer by opening up a hollow from which water comes, and the spring comes to be known as En-hakkore, meaning “Spring of the Caller” (15:19).