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Matthew Henry |
J U D G E S
CHAP. XV.
Samson, when he courted an alliance with the Philistines, did but seek
an occasion against them,
Now here we have a further account of the occasions he took to weaken
them, and to avenge, not his own, but Israel’s quarrels, upon them.
Everything here is surprising; if any thing be thought incredible,
because impossible, it must be remembered that with God nothing is
impossible, and it was by the Spirit of the Lord coming upon him that
he was both directed to and strengthened for those unusual ways of
making war.
I. From the perfidiousness of his wife and her father, he took occasion
to burn their corn,
II. From the Philistines’ barbarous cruelty to his wife and her father,
he took occasion to smite them with a great slaughter,
III. From the treachery of his countrymen, who delivered him bound to
the Philistines, he took occasion to kill 1000 of them with the
jaw-bone of an ass,
IV. From the distress he was then in for want of water, God took
occasion to show him favour in a seasonable supply,
| Samson’s Firebrands. | B. C. 1141. |
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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.
2 And her father said, I verily thought that thou hadst utterly
hated her; therefore I gave her to thy companion: is not her
younger sister fairer than she? take her, I pray thee, instead of
her.
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 them hip and thigh with a great slaughter: and
he went down and dwelt in the top of the rock Etam.
Here is,
I. Samson’s return to his wife, whom he had left in displeasure; not
hearing perhaps that she was given to another, when time had a little
cooled his resentments, he came back to her, visited her with a
kid,
v. 1.
The value of the present was inconsiderable, but it was intended as a
token of reconciliation, and perhaps was then so used, when those that
had been at variance were brought together again; he sent this, that he
might sup with her in her apartments, and she with him, on his
provision, and so they might be friends again. It was generously done
of Samson, though he was the party offended and the superior relation,
to whom therefore she was bound in duty to sue for peace and to make
the first motion of reconciliation. When differences happen between
near relations, let hose be ever reckoned the wisest and the best that
are most forward to forgive and forget injuries and most willing to
stoop and yield for peace’ sake.
II. The repulse he met with. Her father forbade him to come near her;
for truly he had married her to another,
v. 2.
He endeavours,
1. To justify himself in this wrong: I verily thought that thou
hadst utterly hated her. A very ill opinion he had of Samson,
measuring that Nazarite by the common temper of the Philistines; could
he think worse of him than to suspect that, because he was justly angry
with his wife, he utterly hated her, and, because he had seen cause to
return to his father’s house for a while, therefore he had abandoned
her for ever? Yet this is all he had to say in excuse of this injury.
Thus he made the worst of jealousies to patronize the worst of
robberies. But it will never bear us out in doing ill to say, “We
thought others designed ill.”
2. He endeavours to pacify Samson by offering him his younger daughter,
whom, because the handsomer, he thought Samson might accept, in full
recompence for the wrong. See what confusions those did admit and bring
their families to that were not governed by the fear and law of God,
marrying a daughter this week to one and next week to another, giving a
man one daughter first and then another. Samson scorned his proposal;
he knew better things than to take a wife to her sister,
Lev. xviii. 18.
III. The revenge Samson took upon the Philistines for this abuse. Had
he designed herein only to plead his own cause he would have challenged
his rival, and would have chastised him and his father-in-law only. But
he looks upon himself as a public person, and the affront as done to
the whole nation of Israel, for probably they put this slight upon him
because he was of that nation, and pleased themselves with it, that
they had put such an abuse upon an Israelite; and therefore he resolves
to do the Philistines a displeasure, and does not doubt but this
treatment which he had met with among them would justify him in it
(v. 3):
Now shall I be more blameless than the Philistines. He had done
what became him in offering to be reconciled to his wife, but, she
having rendered it impracticable, now they could not blame him if he
showed his just resentment. Note, When differences arise we ought to do
our duty in order to the ending of them, and then, whatever the ill
consequences of them may be, we shall be blameless. Now the way Samson
took to be revenged on them was by setting their corn-fields on fire,
which would be a great weakening and impoverishing to the country,
1. The method he took to do it was very strange. He sent 150 couple of
foxes, tied tail to tail, into the corn-fields; every couple had a
stick of fire between their tails, with which, being terrified, they
ran into the corn for shelter, and so set fire to it; thus the fire
would break out in many places at the same time, and therefore could
not be conquered, especially if this was done, as it is probable it
was, in the night. He might have employed men to do it, but perhaps he
could not find Israelites enough that had courage to do it, and he
himself could do it but in one place at a time, which would not effect
his purpose. We never find Samson, in any of his exploits, making use
of any person whatsoever, either servant or soldier, therefore, in this
project, he chose to make use of foxes as his incendiaries. They had
injured Samson by their subtlety and malice, and now Samson returns the
injury by subtle foxes and mischievous fire-brands. By the meanness and
weakness of the animals he employed, he designed to put contempt upon
the enemies he fought against. This stratagem is often alluded to to
show how the church’s adversaries, that are of different interests and
designs among themselves, that look and draw contrary ways in other
things, yet have often united in a fire-brand, some cursed project or
other, to waste the church of God, and particularly to kindle the fire
of division in it.
2. The mischief he hereby did to the Philistines was very great. It was
in the time of wheat harvest
(v. 1),
so that the straw being dry it soon burnt the shocks of corn that were
cut, and the standing corn, and the vineyards and olives. This
was a waste of the good creatures, but where other acts of hostility
are lawful destroying the forage is justly reckoned to be so: if he
might take away their lives, he might take away their livelihood. And
God was righteous in it: the corn, and the wine, and the oil,
which they had prepared for Dagon, to be a meat-offering to him, were
thus, in the season thereof, made a burnt-offering to God’s
justice.
IV. The Philistines’ outrage against Samson’s treacherous wife and her
father. Understanding that they had provoked Samson to do this mischief
to the country, the rabble set upon them and burnt them with fire,
perhaps in their own house,
v. 6.
Samson himself they durst not attack, and therefore, with more justice
than perhaps they themselves designed in it, they wreak their vengeance
upon those who, they could not but own, had given him cause to be
angry. Instead of taking vengeance upon Samson, they took vengeance for
him, when he, out of respect to the relation he had stood in to them,
was not willing to do it for himself. See his hand in it to whom
vengeance belongs. Those that deal treacherously shall be spoiled
and dealt treacherously with; and the Lord is known by these
judgments which he executes, especially when, as here, he makes use
of his people’s enemies as instruments for revenging one upon another
his people’s quarrels. When a barbarous Philistine sets fire to a
treacherous one, the righteous may rejoice to see the
vengeance,
Ps. lviii. 10, 11.
Thus shall the wrath of man praise God,
Ps. lxxvi. 10.
The Philistines had threatened Samson’s wife, that, if she would not
get the riddle out of him, they would burn her and her father’s
house with fire,
ch. xiv. 15.
She, to save herself and oblige her countrymen, betrayed her husband;
and what came of it? The very thing that she feared, and sought by sin
to avoid, came upon her; she and her father’s house were burnt with
fire, and her countrymen, whom she sought to oblige by the wrong she
did to her husband, brought this evil upon her. The mischief we seek to
escape by any unlawful practices we often pull upon our own heads.
He that will thus save his life shall lose it.
V. The occasion Samson took hence to do them a yet greater mischief,
which touched their bone and their flesh,
“Though you have done this to them, and thereby shown what you
would do to me if you could, yet that shall not deter me from being
further vexatious to you.” Or, “Though you think, by doing this, you
have made me satisfaction for the affront I received among you, yet I
have Israel’s cause to plead as a public person, and for the wrongs
done to them I will be avenged on you, and, if you will then
forbear your insults, I will cease, aiming at no more than the
deliverance of Israel.” So he smote them hip and thigh with a great
stroke, so the word is. We suppose the wounds he gave them to have
been mortal, as wounds in the hip or thigh often prove, and therefore
translate it, with a great slaughter. Some think he only lamed
them, disabled them for service, as horses were houghed or ham-strung.
It seems to be a phrase used to express a desperate attack; he killed
them pell-mell, or routed them horse and foot. He smote them with his
hip upon thigh, that is, with the strength he had, not in his arms and
hands, but in his hips and thighs, for he kicked and spurned at them,
and so mortified them, trod them in his anger, and trampled
them in his fury,
Isa. lxiii. 3.
And, when he had done, he retired to a natural fortress in the top of
the rock Etam, where he waited to see whether the Philistines would be
tamed by the correction he had given them.
| Samson Bound by the Men of Judah. | B. C. 1140. |
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9 Then the Philistines went up, and pitched in Judah, and
spread themselves in Lehi.
10 And the men of Judah said, Why are ye come up against us?
And they answered, To bind Samson are we come up, to do to him as
he hath done to us.
11 Then three thousand men of Judah went to the top of the rock
Etam, and said to Samson, Knowest thou not that the Philistines
are rulers over us? what is this that thou hast done unto
us? And he said unto them, As they did unto me, so have I done
unto them.
12 And they said unto him, We are come down to bind thee, that
we may deliver thee into the hand of the Philistines. And Samson
said unto them, Swear unto me, that ye will not fall upon me
yourselves.
13 And they spake unto him, saying, No; but we will bind thee
fast, and deliver thee into their hand: but surely we will not
kill thee. And they bound him with two new cords, and brought him
up from the rock.
14 And when he came unto Lehi, the Philistines shouted
against him: and the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him,
and the cords that were upon his arms became as flax that was
burnt with fire, and his bands loosed from off his hands.
15 And he found a new jawbone of an ass, and put forth his
hand, and took it, and slew a thousand men therewith.
16 And Samson said, With the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon
heaps, with the jaw of an ass have I slain a thousand men.
17 And it came to pass, when he had made an end of speaking,
that he cast away the jawbone out of his hand, and called that
place Ramath-lehi.
Here is,
I. Samson violently pursued by the Philistine. They went up in a body,
a more formidable force than they had together when Samson smote them
hip and thigh; and they pitched in Judah, and spread themselves up and
down the country, to find out Samson, who they heard had come this way,
v. 9.
When the men of Judah, who had tamely submitted to their yoke, pleaded
that they had paid their tribute, and that none of their tribe had
given them any offence, they freely own they designed nothing in this
invasion but to seize Samson; they would fight neither against small
nor great, but only that judge of Israel
(v. 10),
to do to him as he has done to us, that is, to smite his hip and
thigh, as he did ours–an eye for an eye. Here was an army sent
against one man, for indeed he was himself an army. Thus a whole band
of men was sent to seize our Lord Jesus, that blessed Samson, though a
tenth part would have served now that his hour had come, and ten times
as many would have done nothing if he had not yielded.
II. Samson basely betrayed and delivered up by the men of Judah,
Of Judah were they? Degenerate branches of that valiant tribe! Utterly
unworthy to carry in their standard the lion of the tribe of
Judah. Perhaps they were disaffected to Samson because he was not
of their tribe. Out of a foolish fondness for their forfeited
precedency, they would rather be oppressed by Philistines than rescued
by a Danite. Often has the church’s deliverance been obstructed by such
jealousies and pretended points of honour. Rather it was because they
stood in awe of the Philistines, and were willing, at any rate, to get
them out of their country. If their spirits had not been perfectly
cowed and broken by their sins and troubles, and they had not been
given up to a spirit of slumber, they would have taken this fair
opportunity to shake off the Philistine’s yoke. If they had had the
least spark of ingenuousness and courage remaining in them, having so
brave a man as Samson was to head them, they would now have made one
bold struggle for the recovery of their liberty; but no marvel if those
that had debased themselves to hell in the worship of their dung-hill
gods
thus debased themselves to the dust, in submission to their insulting
oppressors. Sin dispirits men, nay, it infatuates them, and hides from
their eyes the things that belong to their peace. Probably Samson went
into the border of that country to offer his service, supposing his
brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver
them, as Moses did,
But they thrust him from them, and very disingenuously,
1. Blamed him for what he had done against the Philistines, as if he
had done them a great injury. Such ungrateful returns have those often
received that have done the best service imaginable to their country.
Thus our Lord Jesus did many good works, and for these they were ready
to stone him.
2. They begged of him that he would suffer them to bind him, and
deliver him up to the Philistines. Cowardly unthankful wretches! Fond
of their fetters and in love with servitude! Thus the Jews delivered up
our Saviour, under pretence of a fear lest the Romans should come and
take away their place and nation. With what a sordid servile spirit do
they argue, Knowest thou not that the Philistines rule over us?
And whose fault was that? They knew they had no right to rule over
them, nor would they have been sold into their hands if they had not
first sold themselves to work wickedness.
III. Samson tamely yielding to be bound by his countrymen, and
delivered into the hands of his enraged enemies,
Now easily could he have beaten them off, and kept the top of his rock
against these 3000 men, and none of them all could, or durst, have laid
hands on him; but he patiently submitted,
1. That he might give an example of great meekness, mixed with great
strength and courage; as one that had rule over his own spirit, he knew
how to yield as well as how to conquer.
2. That, by being delivered up to the Philistine, he might have an
opportunity of making a slaughter among them.
3. That he might be a type of Christ, who, when he had shown what he
could do, in striking those down that came to seize him, yielded to be
bound and led as a lamb to the slaughter. Samson justified
himself in what he had done against the Philistines: “As they did to
me, so I did to them; it was a piece of necessary justice, and they
ought not to retaliate it upon me, for they began.” He covenants with
the men of Judah that, if he put himself into their hands, they should
not fall upon him themselves, because then he should be tempted to fall
upon them, which he was very loth to do. This they promised him
(v. 13),
and then he surrendered. The men of Judah, being his betrayers, were in
effect his murderers; they would not kill him themselves, but they did
that which was worse, they delivered him into the hands of the
uncircumcised Philistines, who they knew would do worse than kill him,
would abuse and torment him to death. Perhaps they thought, as some
think Judas did when he betrayed Christ, that he would by his great
strength deliver himself out of their hands; but no thanks to them if
he had delivered himself, and, if they thought he would do so, they
might of themselves have thought this again, that he could and would
deliver them too if they would adhere to him and make him their head.
Justly is their misery prolonged who, to oblige their worst enemies,
thus abuse their best friend. Never were men so infatuated except those
who thus treated our blessed Saviour.
IV. Samson making his part good against the Philistines, even when he
was delivered into their hands, fast pinioned with two new cords. The
Philistines, when they had him among them, shouted against him
(v. 14),
so triumphing in their success, and insulting over him. If God had not
tied their hands faster than the men of Judah had tied his, they would
have shot at him (as their archers did at Saul) to dispatch him
immediately, rather than have shouted at him, and given him time to
help himself. But their security and joy were a presage of their ruin.
When they shouted against him as a man run down, confident that all was
their own, then the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, came
mightily upon him, inspired him with more than ordinary strength and
resolution. Thus fired,
1. He presently got clear of his bonds. The two new cords, upon the
first struggle he gave, broke, and were melted (as the original
word is) from off his hands, no doubt to the great amazement and terror
of those that shouted against him, whose shouts were hereby turned into
shrieks. Observe, When the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, his
cords were loosed. Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is
liberty, and those are free indeed who are thus freed. This
typified the resurrection of Christ by the power of the Spirit of
holiness. In it he loosed the bands of death, and its cords, the
grave-clothes, fell from his hands without being loosed, as Lazarus’s
were, because it was impossible that the mighty Saviour should be
holden of them; and thus he triumphed over the powers of darkness that
shouted against him, as if they had him sure.
2. He made a great destruction among the Philistines, who all gathered
about him to make sport with him,
See how poorly he was armed: he had no better weapon than the jaw-bone
of an ass, and yet what execution he did with it! he never laid it out
of his hand till he had with it laid 1000 Philistines dead upon the
spot; and thus that promise was more than accomplished. One of you
shall chase a thousand,
Josh. xxiii. 10.
A jaw-bone was an inconvenient thing to grasp, and, one would think,
might easily be wrested out of his hand, and a few such blows as he
gave with it might have crushed and broken it, and yet it held good to
the last. Had it been the jaw-bone of a lion, especially that which he
himself had slain, it might have helped to heighten his fancy and to
make him think himself the more formidable; but to take the bone of
that despicable animal was to do wonders by the foolish things of
the world, that the excellency of the power might be of God and
not of man. One of David’s worthies slew 300 Philistines at once,
but it was with a spear,
1 Chron. xi. 11.
Another slew of them till his hand was weary and stuck to his sword,
But they all came short of Samson. What could be thought too hard, too
much, for him to do, on whom the Spirit of the Lord came mightily!
Through God we shall do valiantly. It was strange the men of
Judah did not now come in to his aid: cowards can strike a falling
enemy. But he was to be a type of him that trod the wine-press
alone.
V. Samson celebrating his own victory, since the men of Judah would not
do even that for him. He composed a short song, which he sang to
himself, for the daughters of Israel did not meet him, as afterwards
they did Saul, to sing, with more reason, Samson hath slain his
thousands. The burden of this song was, With the jaw-bone of an
ass, heaps upon heaps, have I slain a thousand men,
v. 16.
The same word in Hebrew (chamor) signifies both an ass
and a heap, so that this is an elegant paronomasia, and
represents the Philistines falling as tamely as asses. He also gave a
name to the place, to perpetuate the Philistines’ disgrace,
Ramath-lehi, the lifting up of the jaw-bone. Yet he did
not vain-gloriously carry the bone about with him for a show, but threw
it away when he had done with it. So little were relics valued
then.
| Samson’s Thirst Relieved. | B. C. 1140. |
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18 And he was sore athirst, and called on the LORD, and said,
Thou hast given this great deliverance into the hand of thy
servant: and now shall I die for thirst, and fall into the hand
of the uncircumcised?
19 But God clave a hollow place that was in the jaw, and
there came water thereout; and when he had drunk, his spirit came
again, and he revived: wherefore he called the name thereof
En-hakkore, which is in Lehi unto this day.
20 And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty
years.
Here is,
I. The distress which Samson was in after this great performance
(v. 18):
He was sore athirst. It was a natural effect of the great heat
he had been in, and the great pains he had taken; his zeal consumed
him, ate him up, and made him forget himself, till, when he had time to
pause a little, he found himself reduced to the last extremity for want
of water and ready to faint. Perhaps there was a special hand of God in
it, as there was in the whole transaction; and God would hereby keep
him from being proud of his great strength and great achievements, and
let him know that he was but a man, and liable to the calamities that
are common to men. And Josephus says, It was designed to chastise him
for not making mention of God and his hand in his memorial of the
victory he had obtained, but taking all the praise to himself: I
have slain a thousand men; now that he is ready to die for thirst
he is under a sensible conviction that his own arm could not have saved
him, without God’s right hand and arm. Samson had drunk largely of the
blood of the Philistines, but blood will never quench any man’s thirst.
Providence so ordered it that there was no water near him, and he was
so fatigued that he could not go far to seek it; the men of Judah, one
would think, should have met him, now that he had come off a conqueror,
with bread and wine, as Melchizedek did Abram, to atone for the
injury they had done him; but so little notice did they take of their
deliverer that he was ready to perish for want of a draught of water.
Thus are the greatest slights often put upon those that do the greatest
services. Christ on the cross, said, I thirst.
II. His prayer to God in this distress. Those that forget to attend God
with their praises may perhaps be compelled to attend him with their
prayers. Afflictions are often sent to bring unthankful people to God.
Two things he pleads with God in this prayer,
1. His having experienced the power and goodness of God in his late
success: Thou hast given this great deliverance into the hand of thy
servant. He owns himself God’s servant in what he had been doing:
“Lord, wilt thou not own a poor servant of thine, that has spent
himself in thy service? I am thine, save me.” He calls his
victory a deliverance, a great deliverance; for, if God
had not helped him, he had not only not conquered the Philistines, but
had been swallowed up by them. He owns it to come from God, and now
corrects his former error in assuming it too much to himself; and this
he pleads in his present strait. Note, Past experiences of God’s power
and goodness are excellent pleas in prayer for further mercy. “Lord,
thou hast delivered often, wilt thou not deliver still?
Thou hast begun, wilt thou not finish? Thou hast done the greater, wilt
thou not do the less?”
2. His being now exposed to his enemies: “Lest I fall into the hands
of the uncircumcised, and then they will triumph, will tell it
in Gath, and in the streets of Ashkelon; and will it not redound to
God’s dishonour of his champion become so easy a prey to the
uncircumcised?” The best pleas are those taken from God’s glory.
III. The seasonable relief God sent him. God heard his prayer, and sent
him water, either out of the bone or out of the earth through the bone,
That bone which he had made an instrument of God’s service God, to
recompense him, made an instrument of his supply. But I rather incline
to our marginal reading: God clave a hollow place that was in
Lehi: the place of this action was, from the jaw-bone, called
Lehi; even before the action we find it so called,
And there, in that field, or hill, or plain, or whatever it was, that
was so called, God caused a fountain suddenly and seasonably to open
just by him, and water to spring up out of it in abundance, which
continued a well ever after. Of this fair water he drank, and his
spirits revived. We should be more thankful for the mercy of water did
we consider how ill we can spare it. And this instance of Samson’s
relief should encourage us to trust in God, and seek to him, for, when
he pleases, he can open rivers in high places. See
IV. The memorial of this, in the name Samson gave to this upstart
fountain, En-hakkore, the well of him that cried, thereby keeping
in remembrance both his own distress, which occasioned him to cry, and
God’s favour to him, in answer to his cry. Many a spring of comfort
God opens to his people, which may fitly be called by this name; it is
the well of him that cried. Samson had given a name to the place
which denoted him great and triumphant–Ramath-lehi, the
lifting up of the jaw-bone; but here he gives it another name,
which denotes him needy and dependent.
V. The continuance of Samson’s government after these achievements,
At length Israel submitted to him whom they had betrayed. Now it was
past dispute that God was with him, so that henceforward they all owned
him and were directed by him as their judge. The stone which the
builders refused became the head-stone. It intimates the low
condition of Israel that the government was dated by the days of the
Philistines; yet it was a mercy to Israel that, though they were
oppressed by a foreign enemy, yet they had a judge that preserved order
and kept them from ruining one another. Twenty years his government
continued, according to the usages of the judges’ administration; but
of the particulars we have no account, save of the beginning of his
government in this chapter and the end of it in the next.
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