The Philistine plain at wheat harvest in the last evening light: golden fields, some cut and stacked in sheaves, olive groves and low vines beyond, a small mud-brick town on a mound far off.

The Book of

Judges 15

A visit with a young goat ends in burning fields, a manhunt, and a donkey’s jawbone.

20 verses≈ 5 min2 peopleBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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In this chapter

Where we are

1–2Not finishedThe land left half-taken
3–5The cycleSin, oppression, a deliverer
6–10Gideon and afterA weak man, a strong God
11–16Jephthah and SamsonFlawed deliverersChapter 15
17–21No king in IsraelEveryone did as he saw fit

Samson’s Revenge

Later on, at the time of the wheat harvest, Samson took a young goat and went to visit his wife.

Samson

“I want to go to my wife in her room,” he said.

But her father would not let him enter.

Her father

“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.”

Samson

Samson said to them, “This time I will be blameless in doing harm to the Philistines.”

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Night over the Philistine plain seen from a far hill: long uneven lines of orange fire run through the grain fields, stacks of sheaves glowing and olive groves lit from below.

Then 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. Then 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.

0:19

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

“Who did this?” the Philistines demanded. “It was Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite,” they were told. “For his wife was given to his companion.” So the Philistines went up and burned her and her father to death.

And Samson told them, “Because you have done this, I will not rest until I have taken vengeance upon you.”

And he struck them ruthlessly with a great slaughter, and then went down and stayed in the cave at the rock of Etam.

Reflect

What they did to me

Every blow in this chapter answers the one before. Samson says, “I have done to them what they did to me,” and the Philistines come to “pay him back for what he has done to us.” Where are you caught in a cycle of paying someone back? Write down what it would take, and whom you would need to trust, to let it stop with you.

Then the Philistines went up, camped in Judah, and deployed themselves near the town of Lehi.

The men of Judah

“Why have you attacked us?” said the men of Judah.

The Philistines

The Philistines replied, “We have come to arrest Samson and pay him back for what he has done to us.”

The men of Judah

In 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?”

Samson

“I have done to them what they did to me,” he replied.

The men of Judah

But they said to him, “We have come down to arrest you and hand you over to the Philistines.”

Samson

Samson replied, “Swear to me that you will not kill me yourselves.”

The men of Judah

“No,” they answered, “we will not kill you, but we will tie you up securely and hand you over to them.”

Do you not realize that the Philistines rule over us?

Judges 15:11

So they bound him with two new ropes and led him up from the rock.

Question

Quick question

The men of Judah came to the cave in force, not to fight the Philistines but to hand Samson over.

How many men of Judah went to the rock of Etam to bind Samson?

Samson

Judges 15:18

So 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.

And Samson judged Israel for twenty years in the days of the Philistines.

Pray

Water in a dry place

After the great victory Samson was worn out and very thirsty, and he cried out to the LORD, “You have accomplished this great deliverance through Your servant.” God heard, and “water came out of it.” Thank God that He hears the cry of the weary and gives water in dry places. Ask Him for grace to give Him the credit for every victory, and to trust Him in the empty hour after it. Amen.

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Judges 15

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A verse to carry with you

And being very thirsty, Samson cried out to the LORD, “You have accomplished this great deliverance through Your servant.

Judges 15:18

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