Judges 15:3

_AND SAMSON SAID CONCERNING THEM, NOW SHALL I BE MORE BLAMELESS THAN THE PHILISTINES, THOUGH I DO THEM A DISPLEASURE._ Now shall I be more blameless than the Philistines. This nefarious conduct provoked the hero's just indignation, and he resolved to take signal vengeance....

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....

See the margin. Before, when the Philistines injured him he was in covenant with the Timnathites through his marriage and by the rites of hospitality, for which reason he went off to Ashkelon to take his revenge Judges 14:19. But now the Philistines themselves had broken this bond, and so he was free to take his revenge on the spot....

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).

AND SAMSON SAID CONCERNING THEM,.... His wife's father, and other relations, and the citizens of Timnath; this, which is what follows, he said either within himself respecting them, or he said it to them openly and publicly before them all: NOW SHALL I BE MORE BLAMELESS THAN THE PHILISTINES, THOUGH I DO THEM A DISPLEASURE; signifying, that if he did them an ill thing, or what might be reckoned an injury to their persons or properties, and which would be disagreeable and displeasing to them, they could not justly blame him for it, since they had given him such a provocation as to dispose of his wife to another man; though Samson did not mean to act, nor did he act in the following instances as a private person taking private revenge, but as a public person, and judge of Israel; and took occasion, from the private injuries done him, to avenge the public ones of the children of Israel upon...

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....

CONCERNING. to. NOW. this once....

_unto them_ Cf. Judges 15:7. The family and friends were no doubt discussing the situation with oriental excitement. _shall I be blameless in regard of_ i.e. I am resolved to have my revenge on the Philistines, and no one will be able to blame me for it (cf. Numbers 32:22; 2 Samuel 3:28); Samson's words express a resolve in a tone of exultation. _When I do_should be FOR I AM GOING TO DO....

_Samson Burns the Philistines-' Corn Judges 15:3-13_ 3 And Samson said concerning them, Now shall I be more blameless than the Philistines, though I do them a displeasure. 4 And Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took firebrands, and turned tail to tail, and put a firebrand in the midst between two tails. 5 And when he had set the brands on fire, he let them go into the standing corn of the Philistines, and burnt up both the shocks, and also the standing corn, with the vineyards and olives. 6 Then the Philistines said, Who hath done this? And they answered, Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he had taken his wife, and given her to his companion. And the Philistines came up, and burnt her and her father with fire. 7 And Samson said unto them, Though ye have done this, yet will I be avenged of you, and after that I will cease. 8 And he smote the