Judges 15
1 But it happened after a while, in the time of wheat harvest, that Samson visited his wife with a young goat. He said, “I will go in to my wife into the room.” But her father wouldn’t allow him to go in. 2 Her father said, “I most certainly thought that you utterly hated her; therefore I gave her to your companion. Isn’t her younger sister more beautiful than she? Please take her instead.”
3 Samson said to them, “This time I will be blameless in regard to the Philistines, when I harm them.” 4 Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took torches, and turned tail to tail, and put a torch in the middle between every two tails. 5 When he had set the torches on fire, he let them go into the standing grain of the Philistines, and burned up both the shocks and the standing grain, and also the olive groves.
6 Then the Philistines said, “Who has done this?” They said, “Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he has taken his wife, and given her to his companion.” The Philistines came up, and burned her and her father with fire. 7 Samson said to them, “If you do this, surely I will be avenged of you, and after that I will cease.” 8 He struck them hip and thigh with a great slaughter; and he went down and lived in the cleft of the rock of Etam.
9 Then the Philistines went up, and encamped in Judah, and spread themselves in Lehi. 10 The men of Judah said, “Why have you come up against us?” They said, “To bind Samson we have come up, to do to him as he has done to us.” 11 Then three thousand men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam, and said to Samson, “Don’t you know that the Philistines are rulers over us? What then is this that you have done to us?” He said to them, “As they did to me, so have I done to them.”
12 They said to him, “We have come down to bind you, that we may deliver you into the hand of the Philistines.” Samson said to them, “Swear to me that you will not fall on me yourselves.” 13 They spoke to him, saying, “No, but we will bind you fast, and deliver you into their hand; but surely we will not kill you.” They bound him with two new ropes, and brought him up from the rock.
14 When he came to Lehi, the Philistines shouted as they met him. Yahweh’s Spirit came mightily on him, and the ropes that were on his arms became as flax that was burned with fire, and his bands dropped from off his hands. 15 He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, and put out his hand, and took it, and struck a thousand men with it. 16 Samson said, “With the jawbone of a donkey, heaps on heaps; with the jawbone of a donkey have I struck a thousand men.”
17 It happened, when he had finished speaking, that he cast away the jawbone out of his hand; and that place was called Ramath Lehi. 18 He was very thirsty, and called on Yahweh, and said, “You have given this great deliverance by the hand of your servant; and now shall I die for thirst, and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised?” 19 But God split the hollow place that is in Lehi, and water came out of it. When he drank, his spirit came again, and he revived. Therefore its name was called En Hakkore, which is in Lehi, to this day.
20 He judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.
Judges 15 Commentary
Chapter Overview
Judges 15 continues the conflict that began with Samson’s marriage feast in Judges 14. Later, Samson returns during the wheat harvest with a young goat, expecting to resume life with his wife. Her father refuses him entrance because he has already given her to Samson’s companion. He offers the younger sister instead, but Samson treats the offense as justification for retaliation against the wider Philistine community.
Samson captures three hundred foxes or jackals, ties them in pairs with torches between their tails, and releases them into the Philistines’ grain, vineyards, and olive groves. The Philistines answer by burning Samson’s wife and her father—the very fate with which she had been threatened at the wedding. Samson then carries out another deadly revenge and withdraws to the rock of Etam. Each response answers a previous wrong while enlarging the suffering.
The Philistines invade Judah to seize Samson, and three thousand men of Judah bind their own deliverer rather than resist their rulers. At Lehi, Yahweh’s Spirit comes upon Samson; the ropes fall away, and he kills a thousand Philistines with a fresh donkey’s jawbone. His victory song emphasizes what he has done, but severe thirst quickly exposes his dependence. Samson calls to Yahweh, God supplies water, and the chapter closes by saying that Samson judged Israel for twenty years during Philistine domination.
Key Themes
Personal revenge drives the chapter’s outward action. Samson says he will harm the Philistines because of what has been done to him, and later summarizes his conduct with the words, “As they did to me, so have I done to them.” The Philistines use the same logic when they come to do to Samson as he has done to them. Everyone answers an injury, so no one accepts responsibility for ending the violence.
God can advance deliverance through motives that are less than holy. Samson’s conflict weakens Philistine power, which serves the calling announced before his birth. Yet the text does not turn his anger into a model of righteous leadership. Human sin cannot defeat God’s purpose, but that does not mean every motive receives his approval.
Philistine rule is maintained through terror. Samson’s wife had betrayed his riddle because the men threatened to burn her household. In this chapter, the Philistines carry out that same horror after blaming her family for Samson’s retaliation. Their action reveals a society that brutally punishes the vulnerable when its interests are threatened.
Israel has become accustomed to bondage. The men of Judah do not ask how they can join Samson against the oppressor. They ask why he has disturbed the arrangement: “Don’t you know that the Philistines are rulers over us?” Foreign domination has become so normal that resistance appears to be the problem.
The deliverer is rejected by the people he is meant to help. Three thousand Judahites go to Etam, not to form an army around Samson, but to hand him over. Samson must receive their promise not to kill him themselves. One tribe cooperates with the enemy to preserve temporary peace.
Yahweh’s Spirit, not Samson’s weapon, wins the battle. The fresh jawbone is unlikely, and Samson is bound when the enemy approaches. The decisive change occurs when Yahweh’s Spirit comes mightily upon him. The ropes become powerless, and an ordinary object becomes sufficient in the hand of the empowered deliverer.
Great strength does not remove ordinary dependence. Samson can defeat a thousand armed enemies but cannot manufacture water for himself. Immediately after the triumph, thirst brings him near death. His weakness reveals the true source of life and victory.
Samson’s story contains both self-glory and genuine prayer. His song after the battle repeatedly says, “I have struck a thousand men.” Moments later he acknowledges, “You have given this great deliverance by the hand of your servant.” His prayer correctly recognizes that the victory belongs to Yahweh and that he depends on divine mercy.
Important Verses and Questions
Why did Samson bring a young goat to his wife? A young goat could be a customary gift or food for a visit. Samson appears to assume that the marriage still stands despite his angry departure at the end of the feast. Her father interprets that departure differently and says he believed Samson utterly hated her, so he gave her to the companion who had served as Samson’s friend.
Why does the father offer the younger sister? He tries to settle the conflict by substituting another daughter and appealing to her beauty. The offer treats the women as interchangeable solutions. It also fails to address the actual wrong of giving Samson’s wife to someone else without resolving the marriage.
Was Samson really “blameless” when he attacked the Philistines? Samson is expressing his own claim to justification: after this offense, he believes no one can fault him for retaliation. The narrator does not endorse that verdict. Burning a region’s food supply harms far more people than the father who wronged Samson, so the scale of his response should caution readers against accepting his self-assessment uncritically.
Were the animals foxes or jackals? The Hebrew term can refer to fox-like animals and is often understood as jackals. Jackals gather in groups and would likely have been easier to capture in large numbers than solitary foxes. The precise species does not change the point: Samson uses an extraordinary and destructive method to spread fire across Philistine agriculture.
How could Samson catch three hundred animals? The text does not describe the process or say that he accomplished it in a single afternoon. He may have used traps, assistance, or time. The narrative focuses on the result, so reconstructions should remain modest.
Why attack grain, vineyards, and olive groves? The event occurs during wheat harvest, when dry fields and gathered shocks could burn rapidly. Grain, grapes, and olives represented food, trade, and economic security. Samson’s action is therefore not a minor act of vandalism; it is a severe blow against the resources of the Philistine community.
What does “struck them hip and thigh” mean? The expression describes a crushing defeat, though its origin is uncertain. It should not be pressed into a detailed description of Samson’s technique. The verse plainly communicates that he inflicted a great slaughter before retreating to the cleft at Etam.
Why did three thousand men of Judah surrender Samson? They feared Philistine retaliation and accepted Philistine rule as the practical reality. Delivering one disruptive man seemed safer than risking war. Judah has enough manpower to confront Samson, yet not enough faith to confront the oppressor.
Why did Samson allow himself to be bound? Samson does not want to fight his fellow Israelites, so he obtains their oath that they will not kill him and permits them to tie him. He appears confident that the Philistines cannot hold him. The scene also exposes the shame of Israel presenting its own God-appointed deliverer to the enemy.
Did using a donkey’s jawbone violate Samson’s Nazirite calling? Numbers 6 prohibits a Nazirite from approaching a dead human body. A donkey carcass could make an Israelite ceremonially unclean under other laws, but the specific Nazirite corpse rule concerns human death. Judges 15 gives no verdict, so the jawbone alone does not prove a Nazirite violation.
What is the meaning of Samson’s jawbone song? The line contains Hebrew wordplay between the term for a donkey and a term sounding like heaps. The sense is approximately, “With the jawbone of a donkey, heap upon heaps.” The boast celebrates the unlikely weapon and enormous defeat, though Samson first emphasizes his own achievement.
Did the water come from the jawbone? Some older interpretations connect the hollow place with the jawbone, but the text locates the spring at Lehi, a place whose name also means “jawbone.” Most likely, God split a hollow in the ground, not the discarded bone. The miracle recalls God’s provision of water in Exodus 17: the servant survives because God provides what the landscape cannot.
What does it mean that Samson judged Israel for twenty years? “Judged” can include delivering, defending, and leading, not merely deciding cases. The phrase “in the days of the Philistines” is important. Samson’s victories did not completely end Philistine control; he began the deliverance foretold in Judges 13, but the larger struggle continued beyond his lifetime.
Practical Applications
Refuse the logic of endless repayment. “As they did to me, so have I done to them” sounds fair to wounded people, but in Judges 15 it produces expanding destruction. Christians are called to leave vengeance with God and overcome evil with good, as Romans 12 teaches. Justice matters, but personal retaliation is a poor master.
Do not mistake accommodation for peace. Judah avoids immediate conflict by surrendering Samson, yet Philistine rule remains. People and churches can grow comfortable with wrong patterns because resistance seems costly. Faithful peace is not merely the absence of disturbance; it is life ordered under God’s truth.
Evaluate motives as well as outcomes. God used Samson’s actions to strike Israel’s oppressors, but successful results do not automatically prove that every attitude or method was righteous. Useful results may still require repentance for pride, anger, or harm.
Remember dependence immediately after success. Samson’s greatest battlefield achievement is followed by desperate thirst. Strength can tempt self-congratulation, but every gift and result still depends on God. Gratitude and prayer should follow victory before pride rewrites the story.
Bring weakness honestly to God. Samson’s prayer is not polished, and it includes fear of humiliation before the Philistines. Nevertheless, he calls on Yahweh and acknowledges divine deliverance. God’s response shows that flawed servants may still cry out for mercy. Honest dependence is better than pretending strength that cannot sustain itself.