Samson’s Revenge
Later on, at the time of the wheat harvest, Samson took a young goat and went to visit his wife. “I want to go to my wife in her room,” he said. But her father would not let him enter. Gen 38:17Gen 29:21Luk 15:29Gen 6:4
“I was sure that you thoroughly hated her,” said her father, “so I gave her to one of the men who accompanied you. Is not her younger sister more beautiful than she? Please take her instead.” Jdg 14:20Gen 38:14Jdg 14:16Act 26:9
Samson said to them, “This time I will be blameless in doing harm to the Philistines.” Jdg 14:15
Then Samson went out and caught three hundred foxes. And he took torches, turned the foxes tail-to-tail, and fastened a torch between each pair of tails. Lam 5:18Psa 63:10Sng 2:15 Then he lit the torches and released the foxes into the standing grain of the Philistines, burning up the piles of grain and the standing grain, as well as the vineyards and olive groves. 2Sa 14:30Exo 22:6
“Who did this?” the Philistines demanded. Jdg 14:151Th 4:6Pro 22:8Jdg 12:1
“It was Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite,” they were told. “For his wife was given to his companion.”
So the Philistines went up and burned her and her father to death.
And Samson told them, “Because you have done this, I will not rest until I have taken vengeance upon you.” Rom 12:19Jdg 14:19Jdg 14:4 And he struck them ruthlessly 1with a great slaughter, and then went down and stayed in the cave at the rock of Etam. Isa 25:10Isa 63:3Isa 63:6
Then the Philistines went up, camped in Judah, and deployed themselves near the town of Lehi. 2 Jdg 15:17Jdg 15:19Jdg 15:14
“Why have you attacked us?” said the men of Judah.
The Philistines replied, “We have come to arrest Samson and pay him back for what he has done to us.”
In response, three thousand men of Judah went to the cave at the rock of Etam, and they asked Samson, “Do you not realize that the Philistines rule over us? What have you done to us?” Jdg 13:1Jdg 14:4Psa 106:40-42Deu 28:13Deu 28:47-48
“I have done to them what they did to me,” he replied.
But they said to him, “We have come down to arrest you and hand you over to the Philistines.” Mat 27:21Ki 2:251Ki 2:34Act 7:25Jdg 8:21
Samson replied, “Swear to me that you will not kill me yourselves.”
“No,” they answered, “we will not kill you, but we will tie you up securely and hand you over to them.” So they bound him with two new ropes and led him up from the rock.
When Samson arrived in Lehi, the Philistines came out shouting against him. And the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him. The ropes on his arms became like burnt flax, and the bonds broke loose from his hands. Jdg 14:19Psa 118:111Sa 11:61Sa 17:35Jdg 14:6Jdg 3:101Sa 4:5Exo 14:3 He found the fresh jawbone of a donkey, reached out his hand and took it, and struck down a thousand men. Jos 23:10Lev 26:8Jdg 3:311Sa 17:49-501Co 1:27-28Jdg 4:211Sa 14:141Sa 14:6 Then Samson said:
“With the jawbone of a donkey
I have piled them into heaps. 3
With the jawbone of a donkey
I have slain a thousand men.”
And when Samson had finished speaking, he cast the jawbone from his hand; and he named that place Ramath-lehi. 4
And being very thirsty, Samson cried out to the LORD, “You have accomplished this great deliverance through Your servant. Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?” 2Co 12:7-8Psa 22:14-15Psa 3:7-81Sa 17:261Sa 17:361Sa 27:12Co 1:8-92Co 4:8-9
So God opened up the hollow place in Lehi, and water came out of it. When Samson drank, his strength returned, and he was revived. That is why he named it En-hakkore, 5 and it remains in Lehi to this day. Gen 45:27Isa 44:3Psa 34:6Gen 16:13Isa 40:291Sa 30:12Exo 17:15Gen 28:19
And Samson judged Israel for twenty years in the days of the Philistines. Jdg 13:1Jdg 16:31Jdg 13:5Heb 11:32