Judges

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Judges 15 – Skeptic's Annotated Bible answered

A response and reply to the notes on Judges 15 in the Skeptic's Annotated Bible (SAB).

King James Version

SAB comment

My comment


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.

(15:1) "Samson visited his wife with a kid."
The New Oxford Annotated Bible says that a young goat was "the usual gift for sexual intercourse." (Gen.38:17)
OK, that may have been true for prostitutes, but did you have to give your wife a goat every time you had sex?
I think the author of the SAB justifiably scorns the interpretation of the New Oxford Annotated Bible. Clearly what happened here is that Samson returned to his bride to-be, and didn't come empty-handed, but brought dinner. She was not his wife in the technical sense, i.e. the marriage had not been consumed.

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.

(15:4-8) "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. And when he had set the brands on fire, he let them go."
Samson catches 300 foxes, ties their tails together, and sets them on fire; the Philistines burn to death Samson's' ex-wife and father-in-law; and Samson smites the Philistines "hip and thigh with a great slaughter" -- all in five action-packed verses! Don't you just love the Bible?
It's not that the Philistines and Israel were at war... Oops, they were (Jg. 13:1)!

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.

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.

(15:14-15) "The spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him ... And he found a new jawbone of an ass and slew a thousand men therewith."
"The spirit of the Lord came mightily upon" Samson and "he found a new jawbone of an ass ... and took it, and slew 1000 men therewith."
God's 54th Killing
It appears to me that Samson here is engaged in self-defence. Israel and the Philistines were at war, remember (Jg. 13:1)?

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.

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?

(15:17-19) "God clave an hollow place that was in the jaw, and there came water thereout."
After Samson killed 1000 men with the jawbone of an ass, he was thirsty. So God created and filled a hollow in the very same jawbone and put water in it for Samson to drink.
After this slaughter, Samson became very proud, see verse 16. God showed him that if He hadn't helped him, he could not have done a thing. God did that by making the most basic element unavailable to him.
Samson realises that when he says “Thou hast given this great deliverance into the hand of thy servant” and asks God for more mercies, which God graciously provides.

19 But God clave an 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.