Judges 15:1

_BUT IT CAME TO PASS WITHIN A WHILE AFTER, IN THE TIME OF WHEAT HARVEST, THAT SAMSON VISITED HIS WIFE WITH A KID; AND HE SAID, I WILL GO IN TO MY WIFE INTO THE CHAMBER. BUT HER FATHER WOULD NOT SUFFER HIM TO GO IN._ In the time of wheat harvest - i:e., about the end of our April, or the beginning of our May. The shocks of grain were then gathered into heaps, and lying on the field, or on the threshing-floors. It was the dry season-dry far beyond our experience-and the grain was in a most combustible state. SAMSON VISITED HIS WIFE WITH A KID. It is usual for a visitor in the East to carry some present. In this case it might be not only as a token of civility, but of reconciliation; and a kid was esteemed a great delicacy (cf. Genesis 38:16; Luke 15:29). HE SAID - i

1-8 When there are differences between relations, let those be reckoned the wisest and best, who are most forward to forgive or forget, and most willing to stoop and yield for the sake of peace. In the means which Samson employed, we must look at the power of God supplying them, and making them successful, to mortify the pride and punish the wickedness of the Philistines. The Philistines threatened Samson's wife that they would burn her and her father's house. She, to save herself and oblige her countrymen, betrayed her husband; and the very thing that she feared, and by sin sought to avoid, came upon her! She, and her father's house, were burnt with fire, and by her countrymen, whom she thought to oblige by the wrong she did to her husband. The mischief we seek to escape by any unlawful practices, we often pull down upon our own heads....

CHAPTER XV _Samson, going to visit his wife, finds her bestowed on another_, 1, 2. _He is incensed, vows revenge, and burns the corn of the_ _Philistines_, 3-5. _They burn Samson's wife and her father_, 6. _He is still incensed, makes a great slaughter among them_, 7, 8. _The Philistines gather together against Israel, and to appease_ _them the men of Judah bind Samson, and deliver him into their_ _hands_, 9-13. _The Spirit of the Lord comes upon him; he breaks his bonds,_ finds the jaw-bon

VISITED HIS WIFE WITH A KID - A common present (see Genesis 38:17; Luke 15:29). From Samson’s wife being still in her father’s house, it would seem that she was only betrothed, not actually married, to his companion....

EXPOSTION JUDGES 15:1 WITHIN A WHILE—the same expression as that in Judges 14:8, rendered "after a time," and in Judges 11:4, rendered "in_ _process of time." IN THE TIME OF WHEAT HARVEST—about the month of May. The harvest, as appears from Judges 11:5, had begun, some corn being already cut, and in shocks; the rest still standing, and, being ready to be cut, of course extremely dry and inflammable. WITH A KID, as a present, intended no doubt to make peace (Genesis 38:17).

BUT IT CAME TO PASS WITHIN A WHILE AFTER,.... Or "after days", a year after, the same phrase as in Judges 14:8 in the time of wheat harvest; which began at Pentecost, as barley harvest did at the passover; this circumstance is mentioned for the sake of the following piece of history: THAT SAMSON VISITED HIS WIFE WITH A KID; by this time his passion of anger subsided, and he "remembered" his wife, as the Targum expresses it, and thought proper to return to her, and attempt a reconciliation with her; and for that purpose took a kid with him to eat a meal with her in her own apartment, which in those days was reckoned an elegant entertainment, and was a present to a king, 1 Samuel 16:20. Isidore s derives the Latin word for a kid, "ab edendo", from eating, as if it was food by way of eminenc

CHAPTER 15 THE CONFLICT WITH THE PHILISTINES: BOUND YET FREE _ 1. The damage done to the Philistines (Judges 15:1)_ 2. Bound by his own brethren (Judges 15:9) 3. The deed with the jawbone (Judges 15:14) 4. His prayer and the answer (Judges 15:18) He discovered next the true character of the Philistines. His wife has been given to another. Nothing came of his alliance with the Philistines but trouble and unpleasantness for himself. Was it of the Lord when he took the 300 foxes (literally, jackals; it would have been hard work to catch 300 foxes, for they go alone, but jackals go in packs) and the fire

JUDGES 15. SAMSON AGAINST THE PHILISTINES. His anger having cooled, Samson went down to appease his betrothed and complete the marriage. When he learned how things stood, he was angrier than ever, and determined to wreak his revenge upon the Philistines. The stories of the burning of their corn and the slaughter of a thousand of them with an ass's jawbone are good examples of Heb. folklore. [For parallels, especially to a Roman ceremony at the _Cerealia,_ to the story of the foxes, see ICC and CB, also Frazer, _Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild,_ i., pp. 296 f. The corn-spirit is sometimes thought to assume the shape of a fox, but this has probably no bearing on this story. A. S. P.] Judges 15:4. Instead of foxes (which do not roam in packs) read jackals. The feud between Samson and the Philistines now became deadly....

KID. kid of the goats. I WILL GO IN. Let me come in....

Judges 15:1-8. _Samson's revenge_ 1 _.in the time of wheat harvest_ From mid-May to mid-June in this region. The harvest is mentioned to prepare the scene for Judges 15:5. Country weddings generally take place in March (Wetzstein, l.c.); a couple of months may have passed since the furious ending of the marriage feast. _a kid_ Apparently a customary present on these occasions; Genesis 38:17. The custom may have been based on the heathen idea that the goat was sacred to the goddess of love (Ashtôreth); cf. Deuteronomy 7:13 Hebr. _into the chamber_ The women's quarters. The woman is still in her fa