Chapter 15
Samson Destroys Philistine Harvest
15:1 After some days, at the time of wheat harvest, Samson went to visit his wife with a young goat. And he said, “I will go in to my wife in the chamber.” But her father would not allow him to go in.
Again we have a passing of an unknown period of time, we are told that Samson set out to Timnah at the time of the wheat harvest, which would place it around May or June. Bringing with him a young goat Samson was returning to be with his wife in the chamber (sexual relations). Some believe the goat was a gift for a Sadika marriage where the woman stays with her people in a long-distance or mixed-cultural marriage. However, the young goat was likely a gift to aid in reconciliation. But when he arrived, her father refused to let him go in.
15:2 And her father said, “I really thought that you utterly hated her, so I gave her to your companion. Is not her younger sister more beautiful than she? Please take her instead.” 3 And Samson said to them, “This time I shall be innocent in regard to the Philistines, when I do them harm.”
The father explains that he thought that he strongly hated her, so he gave her to his companion. He then suggests that he consider her younger sister, which apparently was an unacceptable answer. Samson then in a somewhat cryptic response says, “This time I am justified in doing the Philistines harm!” (NET) Samson proceeds to, in perhaps one of the more inventive methods and certainly the most difficult (and bizarre) way, seek vengeance.
15:4 So Samson went and caught 300 foxes and took torches. And he turned them tail to tail and put a torch between each pair of tails. 5 And when he had set fire to the torches, he let the foxes go into the standing grain of the Philistines and set fire to the stacked grain and the standing grain, as well as the olive orchards.
Overlooking the logistics of obtaining 300 foxes and 150 torches, the time to tie the foxes together, to attach torches, and then light those torches must have been significant. But through their panic of having being tied together with a torch, would have been an excellent way to burn a large field quickly. They were able to set ablaze their piles of grain, the grain still growing, and their olive tree orchards.
15:6 Then the Philistines said, “Who has done this?” And they said, “Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he has taken his wife and given her to his companion.” And the Philistines came up and burned her and her father with fire.
Of course this was not a natural phenomenon, so the Philistines suspected that someone deliberately set the fire, albeit in a unique way. Samson was identified and the reason given, because his wife was given to his companion. So the very thing that Samson’s wife tried to prevent before the marriage when she was threatened by her own people occurred anyway (see Judges 14:15), the Philistines came and burned her and her father.
15:7 And Samson said to them, “If this is what you do, I swear I will be avenged on you, and after that I will quit.” 8 And he struck them hip and thigh with a great blow, and he went down and stayed in the cleft of the rock of Etam.
Samson, now with a strong desire to avenge the death of his wife, essentially states that if this cowardly act is the way they choose to respond, he will avenge but will stop and remove himself from further action. He successfully killed those responsible for his wife’s death. The reference to striking them “hip and thigh” is considered an idiom for a vicious slaughter. He them went to and stayed in the cleft of the rock at Etam (believed to be a cave).
Philistines Seek Retribution
15:9 Then the Philistines came up and encamped in Judah and made a raid on Lehi. 10 And the men of Judah said, “Why have you come up against us?” They said, “We have come up to bind Samson, to do to him as he did to us.” 11 Then 3,000 men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam, and said to Samson, “Do you not know that the Philistines are rulers over us? What then is this that you have done to us?” And he said to them, “As they did to me, so have I done to them.”
The Philistines use a different strategy to get Samson, they attack Lehi a city approximately three miles southeast of Zorah (see Judges 13:2) in Judah’s territory. The people there question them why are they attacking, they reply that they came to bind Samson and do to him what he did to them. So they allowed the men of Judah to go and arrest Samson for them. Three-thousand men then went to the rock of Etam and sarcastically asked him, “Do you not know that the Philistines are rulers over us?” They further ask, what did he do to cause the Philistines to attack them? His reply essentially mirrors what the Philistines said as to why they were after Samson, “As they did to me, so have I done to them.”
15:12 And they said to him, “We have come down to bind you, that we may give you into the hands of the Philistines.” And Samson said to them, “Swear to me that you will not attack me yourselves.” 13 They said to him, “No; we will only bind you and give you into their hands. We will surely not kill you.” So they bound him with two new ropes and brought him up from the rock.
The men of Judah tell Samson that they came to bind him and then hand him over to the Philistines. Samson requested that they not attack him (if they were to attack him he would likely defend himself and would slaughter many fellow Israelites which he probably did not want to do) , they promised that they would not attack nor kill him. They bound him with two new ropes and brought him out from the rock.
Samson Victorious
15:14 When he came to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting to meet him. Then the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon him, and the ropes that were on his arms became as flax that has caught fire, and his bonds melted off his hands. 15 And he found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, and put out his hand and took it, and with it he struck 1,000 men.
When Samson arrived at Lehi the Philistines were waiting for him so they came out of the city to meet him while cheering and shouting. At this time the Holy Spirit came upon him and the ropes that were binding his arms became like flax and his chains and shackles dissolved, completely freeing him from any restraint. He found the remains of a recently dead donkey and used its jawbone to fight with. At that time Samson killed one thousand Philistine men.
15:16 And Samson said, “With the jawbone of a donkey, heaps upon heaps, with the jawbone of a donkey have I struck down a thousand men.” 17 As soon as he had finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone out of his hand. And that place was called Ramath-lehi.
Afterward Samson creates a saying that incorporates a play on one Hebrew word (ḥǎmōr’) that means both ‘donkey’ and ‘heap’ depending on context, “With the jawbone of a donkey, heaps upon heaps, with the jawbone of a donkey have I struck down a thousand men.” The location was called Ramath-lehi which essentially means “the hill of the jawbone.”
15:18 And he was very thirsty, and he called upon the LORD and said, “You have granted this great salvation by the hand of your servant, and shall I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?” 19 And God split open the hollow place that is at Lehi, and water came out from it. And when he drank, his spirit returned, and he revived. Therefore the name of it was called En-hakkore; it is at Lehi to this day.
Being very thirsty, Samson calls upon God for something to drink. He acknowledges that God gave him victory over the Philistines, but then asks Him if he is going to allow him to die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised (a term reserved for the Philistines in the book of Judges). God responded by splitting open a hollow place in Lehi allowing water to come up for Samson to drink. Once refreshed his spirit returned (body restored) and so this location was named En-hakkore (or “The Spring of the One Who Cried Out,” NLT)
15:20 And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.
Sampson judged the people of Israel during the period when the Philistines dominated the land for twenty years.