Judges 15:1-5

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.

 

This would have been approximately one year after the events in chapter 14.  The wheat harvest began at the time of Pentecost also known as the Feast of Weeks.  And thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the year's end.  (Exodus 34:22, KJV)  At this time Samson had decided to go see his wife and he brought her a kid.  His anger no doubt subsided over the issue of her telling the Philistines the solution to the riddle.  It seems she was not yet married to the other man since she was still at her father’s house.  Her father had forbidden Samson to go into her chambers since she was now betrothed to another.

 

Judges 15:2

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.

 

When Samson left in disgust, her father had completely thought that he had abandoned her which resulted in him giving her to Samson’s companion or the one who stood with him at his wedding.  Then the father tries to make amends by offering him her younger sister whom he claimed was more attractive than his wife.  He asked Samson if he would take her, in fact, he pleads with Samson to take her.  It might have been because of what he knew Samson could do to them with his immense strength.

 

Judges 15:3

And Samson said concerning them, Now shall I be more blameless than the Philistines, though I do them a displeasure.

 

Now once again the ire of Samson was kindled and claimed that he will be more blameless than those who took his wife and gave her to another.  This was a provocation which Samson was not going to let pass without some type of retribution toward them.  The word “displeasure” may also be understood as “adversity, affliction or distress.”  They knew they were in for some kind of payback for his wife.

 

Judges 15:4

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.

 

It is a hard feat to catch just one fox let alone three hundred even though that area had many foxes.  Samson caught three hundred foxes and took firebrands which were torches that would not burn out easily.  He then took the foxes two by two and tied their tails together and then with a strong cord he took the firebrands and tied them to the entwined tails. 

 

Judges 15:5

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.

 

Then once he had tied all the firebrands to the tails of the foxes, he then let them go into the fields but for maximum effect, he would have taken the foxes and let them go in different places to completely burn the fields.  The standing corn would have been ripe and ready for picking which means it would have been at its most flammable point.  The shocks which were piles of grain stacked against each other anywhere from 12 to 16 stalks of grain per bundle.  The vineyards with their trellises which would have been made of wood would have burned easily thus destroying the grapes which were on them.  The olive trees would have dry trunks causing them to burn easily.  So Samson would have caused major damage to their crops.

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