Samson Versus the Philistines, 1-19

15:1 Sometime later, during the wheat harvest, Samson took a young goat as a gift and went to visit his bride. He said to her father, “I want to have sex with my bride in her bedroom!” But her father would not let him enter. 15:2 Her father said, “I really thought you absolutely despised her, so I gave her to your best man. Her younger sister is more attractive than she is. Take her instead!” 15:3 Samson said to them, “This time I am justified in doing the Philistines harm!” 15:4 Samson went and captured three hundred jackals and got some torches. He tied the jackals in pairs by their tails and then tied a torch to each pair. 15:5 He lit the torches and set the jackals loose in the Philistines’ standing grain. He burned up the grain heaps and the standing grain, as well as the vineyards and olive groves. 15:6 The Philistines asked, “Who did this?” They were told, “Samson, the Timnite’s son-in-law, because the Timnite took Samson’s bride and gave her to his best man.” So the Philistines went up and burned her and her father. 15:7 Samson said to them, “Because you did this, I will get revenge against you before I quit fighting.” 15:8 He struck them down and defeated them. Then he went down and lived for a time in the cave in the cliff of Etam.
15:9 The Philistines went up and invaded Judah. They arrayed themselves for battle in Lehi. 15:10 The men of Judah said, “Why are you attacking us?” The Philistines said, “We have come up to take Samson prisoner so we can do to him what he has done to us.” 15:11 Three thousand men of Judah went down to the cave in the cliff of Etam and said to Samson, “Do you not know that the Philistines rule over us? Why have you done this to us?” He said to them, “I have only done to them what they have done to me.” 15:12 They said to him, “We have come down to take you prisoner so we can hand you over to the Philistines.” Samson said to them, “Promise me you will not kill me.” 15:13 They said to him, “We promise! We will only take you prisoner and hand you over to them. We promise not to kill you.” They tied him up with two brand new ropes and led him up from the cliff. 15:14 When he arrived in Lehi, the Philistines shouted as they approached him. But the LORD’s spirit empowered him. The ropes around his arms were like flax dissolving in fire, and they melted away from his hands. 15:15 He happened to see a solid jawbone of a donkey. He grabbed it and struck down a thousand men. 15:16 Samson then said,

“With the jawbone of a donkey
I have left them in heaps;
with the jawbone of a donkey
I have struck down a thousand men!”

Samson’s legendary strength is attested in several ways: killing a lion with his bare hands, (Judg 14:5–7), slaying large numbers of Philistines (Judg 14:19–20; 15:8, 14–17), carrying away the city gates of Gaza (Judg 16:3), breaking his  shackles (Judg 15:14; 16:7–9, 11–12, 13–14) and bringing down the temple of Dagon on the Philistine worshipers and on himself (Judg 16:20–23).

Cheryl Brown underscores several ‘unusual’ aspects of this narrative: a donkey’s jawbone is a bizarre weapon; Samson violated his Nazirite vow by touching a dead carcass; and the number of men slain is miraculously high.

He…struck down a thousand men – Regarded by sceptics (such as Conner in All That’s Wrong With The Bible) as a simple absurdity.  At the other extreme, many believing interpreters regard this and similar account as evidence of supernatural power.

The account might be approached from one or more different angles:

1. Supernatural power.  This is acknowledged by Samson himself in v18.  Obviously, a Christian reader believes that God could accomplish this feat without any human intervention at all.  But would he, and did he?
2. Translation.  The word translated ‘kill’ can also mean ‘strike’.  It is possible that Samson killed some, injured others, and caused the rest to panic and flee (see Samson’s comment in v18 about not wanting to fall into the hands of the Philistines).
3. Not without precedent.  This is one of a number of occasions when Samson exhibits superhuman strength.
4. A donkey’s jawbone as a weapon.  It has been argued that such a jawbone, presumably with some teeth still attached, would have formed a rather formidable weapon.
5. Embelishment.  It was common practice, in OT times, for accounts of military exploits to be exaggerated by the victors.  It is possible that the number of Philistines who were slain has been exaggerated, and/or that Samson did not kill them entirely on his own (there were, after all, 3,000 Israelites standing by).
6. Element of surprise.  The Philistines were not expecting Samson to free himself from the ropes, and then to attack them.  They were, therefore, totally unprepared for this.
7. Terrain.  It seems likely that the Philistines were coming up the hillside, and Samson down it, giving him a distinct advantage.

See this for a rather literal explanation.

Block remarks that Samson’s song is very effective as poetry, but is entirely self-congratulating, with no acknowledge of God’s part in his victory (but see v18).  Contrast the Song of Deborah in ch. 5.

15:17 When he finished speaking, he threw the jawbone down and named that place Ramath Lehi.

15:18 He was very thirsty, so he cried out to the LORD and said, “You have given your servant this great victory. But now must I die of thirst and fall into hands of the Philistines?” 15:19 So God split open the basin at Lehi and water flowed out from it. When he took a drink, his strength was restored and he revived. For this reason he named the spring En Hakkore. It remains in Lehi to this very day. 15:20 Samson led Israel for twenty years during the days of Philistine prominence.

Dale Ralph Davis (who raises no questions about the historicity of the event), finds in this chapter (and, indeed, throughout chapters 14-16, evidence of divine ‘humour’.  These episodies constintute a ‘biting satire’ against the Philistines.  The answer Samson’s riddle, but lose thirty of their number (14:17-19).  Things seem to be peaceful in Timnah, but Samson’s jackals ensure that it is otherwise (15:4f).  The Philistines think that have Samson at their mercy, but they think too soon (15:14f).

Here, then, is ‘one long Israelite joke on the Philistines’.  It is full of irony.  Samson himself is not whitewashed, but even in his downfall he will make the Philistines look foolish (16:22ff).  They are the enemies of God’s people, and their stupidity is held up for ridicule.

God will make fools of those who mcok him and who seek the ruin of his people (sinful though they may be).  It is a fearful thing to be the object of divine derision (cf. Psa 2:4).

Webb (NBC) summarises:

‘At one level this is a repulsive tale of retaliation and ever-escalating violence, with the action driven by the dark forces of anger, hate, and the desire for revenge. But at another, more fundamental level, it is a story of God’s power bringing victory out of defeat and subduing the enemies of his people. And at the end, even Samson himself acknowledged that he was the Lord’s servant and that what had happened had been God’s doing (18). He cried out to the Lord, acknowledging his own utter weakness and dependence on God, and found God ready and willing to grant his request (18–19). It was one of his finest moments, and an anticipation of the climax towards which the whole story of his career was moving (see 16:28–30).’

Wilcock comments on the ‘paradox’ of Samson:

‘He was so obviously now acting as the one through whom God would save Israel. Yet at the same time he was as clearly identified with Israel’s sin as with God’s salvation. He was a Nazirite, under a vow to distance himself from forbidden things, but reckoning that in practice the vow was unrealistic; you couldn’t actually live that way. The very weapon he used against God’s enemies he must have taken from a carcass (not a skeleton; ‘a fresh jawbone’). And that was just the attitude of his people. They were supposed to be devoted to the Lord. But they had reached the stage where so far from wanting to destroy the wicked ways of Canaan, they would not even distance themselves from these forbidden things.

‘So as his compatriots (and his enemies, for that matter) look at Samson, they see in him the power of God at work for salvation; but as God looks at him, he sees in him the sin of Israel at work for destruction. The twelfth judge may be in some ways the nearest we get in this book to a Christ-figure, but he is also a walking disaster. Let all who are given great opportunities, great responsibilities, and great gifts, take warning.’