Samson’s Revenge
Samson comes back to claim his wife, learns she has been given to another man, and answers with a plan that burns the Philistines’ harvest. The conflict widens immediately beyond the household into the land itself.
L1ater on, at the time of the wheat harvest, Samson took a young goat and went to visit 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 that you thoroughly hated her,” said her father, “so I gave her to one of the men who accompanied you. Is not her younger sister more beautiful than she? Please take her instead.” 3Samson said to them, “This time I will be blameless in doing harm to the Philistines.” 4Then Samson went out and caught three hundred foxes. And he took torches, turned the foxes tail-to-tail, and fastened a torch between each pair of tails. 5Then he lit the torches and released the foxes into the standing grain of the Philistines, burning up the piles of grain and the standing grain, as well as the vineyards and olive groves. 6“Who did this?” the Philistines demanded.
Samson answers the Philistines’ act with a vow of vengeance, then strikes them hard and withdraws to the rock of Etam. The violence intensifies, but he ends the moment apart and alone.
7And Samson told them, “Because you have done this, I will not rest until I have taken vengeance upon you.” 8And he struck them ruthlessly with a great slaughter, and then went down and stayed in the cave at the rock of Etam.
When the Philistines press into Judah, the men of Judah confront Samson not as a rescuer but as a threat to their uneasy peace. They bind him and hand him over, revealing how fully Philistine rule has settled over them.
9Then the Philistines went up, camped in Judah, and deployed themselves near the town of Lehi. 10“Why have you attacked us?” said the men of Judah. 11In response, three thousand men of Judah went to the cave at the rock of Etam, and they asked Samson, “Do you not realize that the Philistines rule over us? What have you done to us?” 12But they said to him, “We have come down to arrest you and hand you over to the Philistines.” 13“No,” they answered, “we will not kill you, but we will tie you up securely and hand you over to them.” So they bound him with two new ropes and led him up from the rock.
At Lehi the Spirit of the LORD comes upon Samson, his bonds fall away, and he uses a donkey’s jawbone to strike down a thousand men. His victory is marked with a fierce saying and with the naming of the place.
14When Samson arrived in Lehi, the Philistines came out shouting against him. And the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him. The ropes on his arms became like burnt flax, and the bonds broke loose from his hands. 15He found the fresh jawbone of a donkey, reached out his hand and took it, and struck down a thousand men. 16Then Samson said: 17And when Samson had finished speaking, he cast the jawbone from his hand; and he named that place Ramath-lehi.
After the battle, Samson’s strength gives way to thirst, and he cries to the LORD for help. God gives him water, revives him, and the chapter closes by placing his long judgeship within the days of Philistine rule.
18And being very thirsty, Samson cried out to the LORD, “You have accomplished this great deliverance through Your servant. Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?” 19So God opened up the hollow place in Lehi, and water came out of it. When Samson drank, his strength returned, and he was revived. That is why he named it En-hakkore, and it remains in Lehi to this day. 20And Samson judged Israel for twenty years in the days of the Philistines.