Reflections on Judges 15

Judges 15 (Contemporary English Version)

1. Later, during the wheat harvest, Samson went to visit the young woman he thought was still his wife. He brought along a young goat as a gift and said to her father, "I want to go into my wife's bedroom." "You can't do that," he replied.
   
2. "When you left the way you did, I thought you were divorcing her. So I arranged for her to marry one of the young men who were at your party. But my younger daughter is even prettier, and you can have her as your wife."
   
3. "This time," Samson answered, "I have a good reason for really hurting some Philistines."
   
4. Samson went out and caught three hundred foxes and tied them together in pairs with oil-soaked rags around their tails.
   
5. Then Samson took the foxes into the Philistine wheat fields that were ready to be harvested. He set the rags on fire and let the foxes go. The wheat fields went up in flames, and so did the stacks of wheat that had already been cut. Even the Philistine vineyards and olive orchards burned.
   
6. Some of the Philistines started asking around, "Who could have done such a thing?" "It was Samson," someone told them. "He married the daughter of that man in Timnah, but then the man gave Samson's wife to one of the men at the wedding." The Philistine leaders went to Timnah and burned to death Samson's wife and her father.
   
7. When Samson found out what they had done, he went to them and said, "You killed them! And I won't rest until I get even with you."
   
8. Then Samson started hacking them to pieces with his sword. Samson left Philistia and went to live in the cave at Etam Rock.
   
9. But it wasn't long before the Philistines invaded Judah and set up a huge army camp at Jawbone.
   
10. The people of Judah asked, "Why have you invaded our land?" The Philistines answered, "We've come to get Samson. We're going to do the same things to him that he did to our people."
    
11. Three thousand men from Judah went to the cave at Etam Rock and said to Samson, "Don't you know that the Philistines rule us, and they will punish us for what you did?" "I was only getting even with them," Samson replied. "They did the same things to me first."
    
12. "We came here to tie you up and turn you over to them," said the men of Judah. "I won't put up a fight," Samson answered, "but you have to promise not to hurt me yourselves."
    
13. "We promise," the men said. "We will only tie you up and turn you over to the Philistines. We won't kill you." Then they tied up his hands and arms with two brand-new ropes and led him away from Etam Rock. When the Philistines saw that Samson was being brought to their camp at Jawbone, they started shouting and ran toward him. But the LORD's Spirit took control of Samson, and Samson broke the ropes, as though they were pieces of burnt cloth.
    
14. (SEE 15:13)
    
15. Samson glanced around and spotted the jawbone of a donkey. The jawbone had not yet dried out, so it was still hard and heavy. Samson grabbed it and started hitting Philistines--he killed a thousand of them!
    
16. After the fighting was over, he made up this poem about what he had done to the Philistines: I used a donkey's jawbone to kill a thousand men; I beat them with this jawbone over and over again.
    
17. Samson tossed the jawbone on the ground and decided to call the place Jawbone Hill. It is still called that today.
    
18. Samson was so thirsty that he prayed, "Our LORD, you helped me win a battle against a whole army. Please don't let me die of thirst now. Those heathen Philistines will carry off my dead body."
    
19. Samson was tired and weary, but God sent water gushing from a rock. Samson drank some and felt strong again. Samson named the place Caller Spring, because he had called out to God for help. The spring is still there at Jawbone.
    
20. Samson was a leader of Israel for twenty years, but the Philistines were still the rulers of Israel.
    

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    It becomes clear in this portion of the account of Samson's judgeship that God in His mercy was acting on Israel's behalf to free them from the oppression of the Philistines even though Israel had not called out for His help and seemed resigned to their fate.
    
    Some time had passed since Samson had angrily left his bride after discovering her complicity with the 30 groomsmen to aid them in solving Samson's riddle. He obviously had not learned that the woman's father had given her to another man assuming Samson no longer wanted her. Some suggest it was a year that had passed since Samson had left his bride. Now he evidently returned for a conjugal visit to his wife. The Bible Knowledge Commentary states that, "Samson’s marriage was apparently the ?adi^qa type in which the bride remained with her parents and was visited periodically by her husband." Whatever the arrangement it was a bit presumptious on Samson's part to show up some time later assuming nothing had changed after he left her in anger several months before. When he learned that his wife's father had given her to another man he felt completely justified in taking revenge saying, "This time I won't be responsible when I harm the Philistines." (15:3)
    
    Samson's revenge on the Philistines was to capture 300 foxes, tie them together in pairs by the tail and also tie a lighted torch to their tails. The foxes ran throughout the land igniting the grain, both harvested and unharvested, along with the vineyards and olive groves. He effectively demolished the Philistine economy by destroying their three main crops. As might be expected, the Philistines felt justified to exercise their own revenge which was to kill Samson's wife and her family. This led Samson to retaliate by slaughtering a number of Philistines to which the Philistines responded by setting up camp in Judah and raiding the area.
    
    Now, apparently for the first time, other Israelites besides Samson became involved. The men of Judah went to the encamped Philistines to ask why they had attacked them and learned it was because of Samson. It would seem that the men of Judah viewed Samson only as a trouble-maker rather than as God's instrument to deliver them from the Philistines. Rather than joining Samson against the Philistines they went in force (3,000 men) to capture Samson and turn him over to the Philistines.  When they found him, the men of Judah asked Samson, "Don't you realize that the Philistines rule over us? What have you done to us?" (15:11) They were evidently content to remain slaves and not "rock the boat." Though Samson could probably have done great harm to this force of Judeans, he willingly submitted to them upon their promise that they would not kill him themselves.
    
    The men of Judah securely tied Samson and took him to the Philistines. When he was brought to them, the Philistines met him shouting. The Spirit of the Lord then took control of Samson and he broke free and killed 1,000 of them with just the jawbone of a donkey, thus defeating the Philistines.  Following these events it is said that Samson judged Israel 20 years.
    
    Through Samson God used rather "unorthodox" methods to free Israel from the Philistines. But, as with His deliverance of them from Egypt, it was evident that God had done it.