15:1KJV 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.
B:E Project Some time later, during the wheat harvest, Samson went to visit his wife, bringing a young goat as a gift. He said, 'I'm going in to my wife, into her room.' But her father wouldn't let him in.
Context: Picking up where chapter 14 left off, Samson returns expecting to resume married life, unaware his wife has been given to someone else.
Meaning: The gift of a young goat suggests Samson thought enough time had passed for tempers to cool and the marriage to continue normally — he has no idea what's actually happened. It's the first domino in a chain reaction about to spiral completely out of control.
Lesson: Samson comes back assuming his marriage still stands, without ever checking in - and finds the ground has shifted while he was away. Jesus reminds us that broken trust and silence between people rarely mend themselves; real relationship needs honest communication, not assumption, and he has compassion for everyone left tangled in a mess none of them fully chose.
See Also: Matthew 5:23-24 (leave there thy gift... first be reconciled to thy brother) - a call to sort out broken relationship honestly rather than assuming things are fine, exactly what nobody in this story has done.
15:2KJV 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.
B:E Project Her father said, 'I honestly thought you hated her completely, so I gave her to your friend. Isn't her younger sister more beautiful anyway? Take her instead, please.'
Context: The father explains his reasoning — Samson's furious departure in chapter 14 looked like abandonment — and offers the younger daughter as a replacement.
Meaning: The father's offer treats his daughters as interchangeable, which says a great deal about how little say women had in these arrangements. It also, understandably, does nothing to calm Samson down — it just adds insult to what he already sees as a betrayal.
Lesson: The father offers a substitute daughter as if one woman could simply replace another. Jesus sees straight through this kind of thinking - people are never interchangeable, and every person deserves to be valued for who they are, not treated as one option among several.
See Also: Genesis 29:26-27 (fulfil her week, and we will give thee this also) - Laban's own substitution of one daughter for another, showing this same troubling pattern of treating daughters as interchangeable elsewhere in Scripture.
15:3KJV And Samson said concerning them, Now shall I be more blameless than the Philistines, though I do them a displeasure.
B:E Project Samson said, 'This time I'll be blameless when I hurt the Philistines.'
Context: Samson declares that whatever destruction he's about to unleash is now fully justified in his own mind, given the wrong done to him.
Meaning: This is Samson rationalising escalation — casting himself purely as the wronged party who now has a free pass for revenge. It's worth noticing how easily personal grievance gets dressed up as righteous justification, a pattern that fuels cycles of retaliation far beyond this one story.
Lesson: Samson justifies his coming revenge by saying he'll be 'more blameless than the Philistines' - the classic logic of 'they started it' used to excuse escalating harm. Jesus interrupts exactly this reasoning; he never measures our conduct by comparison to someone worse, but calls us to break the cycle rather than continue it with a clean conscience.
See Also: Luke 6:29 (unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other) - the direct opposite of Samson's self-justifying vengeance, and the way Jesus calls his followers to respond to wrong instead.
15:4KJV 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.
B:E Project So Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, took torches, tied the foxes tail to tail in pairs, and fixed a torch between each pair of tails.
Context: This is an extraordinary, almost folkloric feat — catching that many foxes alone would be remarkable even before the elaborate rigging.
Meaning: Whatever the practical mechanics, the point is a display of both ingenuity and destructive intent taken to an extreme — Samson doesn't do anything by half measures, for better or for worse.
Lesson: Samson's revenge doesn't just hurt those who wronged him - burning crops and vineyards starves entire households who had no part in his grievance. Jesus asks us to weigh who really pays the price when we let anger design our response, because harm has a way of spreading far beyond the person we're angry at.
See Also: Exodus 22:6 (if fire break out... he that kindled the fire shall surely make restitution) - the law's own recognition that setting destructive fire carries real, spreading consequences for which someone is accountable.
15:5KJV 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.
B:E Project He set the torches alight and released the foxes into the Philistines' standing grain, burning up the harvested bundles, the standing crops, and the vineyards and olive groves as well.
Context: This is peak harvest season, so the destruction hits the Philistines' entire year's food supply — grain, grapes, and olives all at once.
Meaning: This isn't a targeted strike against soldiers; it's scorched-earth destruction of an entire region's livelihood, hitting ordinary farming families along with everyone else. The text simply reports what happened — the escalating cycle of harm that personal vengeance, once unleashed, tends to produce.
Lesson: Fields, vineyards and olive groves - a whole community's food and livelihood - go up in flames because of one man's grievance. Jesus teaches that what we sow in anger we and others eventually reap in loss, and he calls us instead to sow the kind of peace that doesn't leave a scorched harvest behind it.
See Also: Galatians 6:7 (whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap) - a fitting warning over a chapter literally about burning what should have been a harvest, foreshadowing the harvest of consequences still to come.
15:6KJV 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.
B:E Project The Philistines asked, 'Who did this?' and were told, 'Samson, the Timnite's son-in-law, because his wife was taken and given to his companion.' So the Philistines went and burned her and her father to death.
Context: The Philistines retaliate not against Samson directly but against his former wife and her father — killing them by the very method they'd earlier threatened her with in chapter 14.
Meaning: This is a grim irony: the threat made to force her hand in chapter 14 ('we'll burn you and your father's house') is now carried out for real, and by her own people, over a conflict she had no real control over. The chapter is unflinching about how violence in this story keeps landing on people who aren't the ones actually fighting.
Lesson: The Philistines respond to Samson's fire with fire of their own, burning his wife and her father alive - an innocent woman and her father killed because of a cycle none of them started fairly. Jesus grieves with the victims of violence like this and shows us why the world so desperately needed a Saviour who absorbs wrong instead of multiplying it.
See Also: Genesis 4:23-24 (Lamech... if Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold) - the ancient pattern of escalating vengeance running out of control, exactly what unfolds here with tragic, fatal results.
15:7KJV And Samson said unto them, Though ye have done this, yet will I be avenged of you, and after that I will cease.
B:E Project Samson said to them, 'Since you've done this, I will take revenge on you — and after that, I'll stop.'
Context: Rather than being satisfied or feeling the matter is settled, Samson escalates further in response to the killings.
Meaning: The promise to 'cease' after one more act of revenge rings hollow given everything we've seen — vengeance rarely ends where it says it will. This cycle of retaliation-provoking-retaliation is exactly the trap the whole story is illustrating.
Lesson: Samson vows more violence and promises himself a stopping point - 'after that I will cease' - but vengeance never actually satisfies itself and stops on command. Jesus tells us to hand retribution over to God entirely rather than trying to manage our own cycle of payback, because only God can be trusted to judge rightly.
See Also: Romans 12:19 (vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord) - the New Testament's direct answer to Samson's self-appointed vow of revenge, handing retribution back to God instead.
15:8KJV And he smote them hip and thigh with a great slaughter: and he went down and dwelt in the top of the rock Etam.
B:E Project He attacked them viciously, causing great slaughter, and then went down and lived in a cave in the rock of Etam.
Context: Samson carries out a large-scale attack on the Philistines before retreating to a naturally defensible rock formation in Judah.
Meaning: 'Hip and thigh' is an old idiom for total, merciless defeat — the text doesn't shy from how brutal this was. Samson then goes into hiding, which sets up the next problem: his own people, living under Philistine rule, are about to be caught in the crossfire.
Lesson: After the slaughter, Samson withdraws alone to a rock. Jesus doesn't abandon people in the aftermath of violence and shame, even violence they caused themselves - he meets us in the isolated places we retreat to when we can't face what we've done or what's been done to us.
See Also: Psalm 27:5 (in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me) - a picture of God as refuge even in withdrawal, the same rock-shelter Samson seeks here.
15:9KJV Then the Philistines went up, and pitched in Judah, and spread themselves in Lehi.
B:E Project Then the Philistines advanced and camped in Judah, spreading out across the area of Lehi.
Context: The Philistines respond to Samson's attack by mobilising into Judahite territory to find him, rather than attacking Samson's own tribe, Dan.
Meaning: This puts pressure squarely on the tribe of Judah, who had nothing to do with Samson's personal feud but now face a full military incursion because of it — collateral damage from one man's private war.
Lesson: The Philistines invade Judah's territory, and Judah's response will be fear of consequences rather than solidarity with the man God is using. Jesus challenges us to have the courage to stand with those God has raised up, even when it costs comfort or safety to do so.
See Also: John 11:48 (if we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him: and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation) - the same fear of provoking an occupying power that will soon drive Judah's leaders to hand Samson over.
15:10KJV 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.
B:E Project The men of Judah asked, 'Why have you come up against us?' They answered, 'We've come to capture Samson, to do to him what he did to us.'
Context: The men of Judah, unwilling to fight the occupying Philistines, ask why they've been targeted and learn it's purely about handing over Samson.
Meaning: This shows just how thoroughly Israel has accepted subjugation — the men of Judah's first instinct isn't to resist the Philistines but to find out how to appease them, which leads directly to the next verse.
Lesson: The men of Judah ask, essentially, 'why have you stirred this up against us?' - preferring the manageable misery of oppression to the risk of standing with a deliverer. Jesus knows how tempting it is to choose familiar bondage over costly freedom, and he keeps calling people towards courage anyway.
See Also: Exodus 14:11-12 (it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians, than that we should die in the wilderness) - Israel's own preference for known bondage over the risk of trusting God's deliverer, echoed here in Judah's complaint against Samson.
15:11KJV 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.
B:E Project So three thousand men of Judah went to the top of the rock of Etam and said to Samson, 'Don't you know the Philistines rule over us? What have you done to us?' He answered, 'I only did to them what they did to me.'
Context: A large delegation from Judah confronts Samson, blaming him for provoking a crisis, rather than confronting the Philistines who actually rule over them.
Meaning: This is one of the book's bleakest moments: three thousand men would rather pressure their own countryman into surrender than challenge their oppressors. It's a striking picture of a community that has adapted to living under domination rather than resisting it — comfort with the status quo, even an unjust one, can be a stronger force than any single act of defiance.
Lesson: Samson defends himself with plain tit-for-tat logic: 'as they did unto me, so have I done unto them.' Jesus names this instinct in all of us and offers something harder and better - breaking the exchange of harm rather than matching it measure for measure.
See Also: Matthew 5:38-39 (ye have heard that it hath been said, an eye for an eye... but I say unto you, that ye resist not evil) - Jesus directly addressing and overturning the very principle Samson appeals to here.
15:12KJV 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.
B:E Project They told him, 'We've come to tie you up and hand you over to the Philistines.' Samson said, 'Swear to me that you won't attack me yourselves.'
Context: Samson agrees to be handed over, but extracts a promise from his own people first — he trusts the Philistines' violence more than he fears betrayal from his own tribe turning fatal.
Meaning: Samson accepts capture without a fight here, which is notable — he seems to already sense this confrontation is heading somewhere significant, and he's willing to let it play out rather than fight three thousand of his own people.
Lesson: Judah's men come to bind Samson and hand him to the Philistines to buy their own peace - fear making them betray the very deliverer raised up for them. Jesus doesn't condemn fear harshly, but he keeps calling his people beyond it, towards loyalty even when it's costly.
See Also: John 18:12 (the band and the captain and officers of the Jews took Jesus, and bound him) - the same act of binding a deliverer to hand him over and appease an occupying power, foreshadowed here in Samson's own people binding him.
15:13KJV 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.
B:E Project They said, 'No, we'll only tie you up firmly and hand you over — we won't kill you.' So they bound him with two new ropes and brought him down from the rock.
Context: Judah's men agree to Samson's condition and bind him with new, strong ropes before taking him to the Philistines.
Meaning: The 'new cords' detail matters — untried rope, presumably chosen as unusually strong, sets up how astonishing what happens next will be.
Lesson: Samson allows himself to be bound without a fight, trusting there is still a way through even in submission. Jesus, too, was bound and led away without resistance, showing that sometimes the deepest strength is found not in fighting back but in trusting God with what comes next.
See Also: Isaiah 53:7 (he was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth... as a lamb to the slaughter) - the pattern of quiet, non-resistant submission that Samson shows here in a small way and Christ fulfils completely.
15:14KJV 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.
B:E Project When he arrived at Lehi, the Philistines came out shouting in triumph. Then the Spirit of the LORD came powerfully upon him, and the ropes on his arms became like burnt flax, and the bindings fell away from his hands.
Context: Right as the Philistines celebrate having Samson bound and delivered, his strength returns and the ropes disintegrate as if they were never there.
Meaning: The moment of apparent total defeat flips instantly into total power — a dramatic reversal that's become one of the most iconic images of the Samson story, showing how quickly circumstances can turn when someone's real capability finally activates.
Lesson: The moment the Philistines shout in triumph, the Spirit comes and the ropes simply burn away. Jesus can break in an instant the bonds that human fear and betrayal thought were permanent - no chain built by circumstance can finally hold someone God intends to free.
See Also: Acts 12:7 (his chains fell off from his hands) - the angel loosing Peter's chains in prison, the same picture of God breaking bonds no human effort could undo.
15:15KJV And he found a new jawbone of an ass, and put forth his hand, and took it, and slew a thousand men therewith.
B:E Project He found a fresh jawbone from a donkey, picked it up, and used it to kill a thousand men.
Context: With no weapon prepared, Samson improvises with whatever is at hand — a discarded animal jawbone — and uses it to devastating effect against the Philistine force.
Meaning: This is clearly hyperbolic ancient storytelling emphasising Samson's legendary strength rather than a literal battlefield tally — but the core point stands regardless: an ordinary discarded object becomes a weapon of mass devastation in his hands, underlining just how far outside normal human capability his strength operates.
Lesson: God uses the most overlooked, unlikely object imaginable - a discarded donkey's jawbone - to bring about deliverance. Jesus loves to work through what the world considers useless or beneath notice, though the sheer scale of violence here is still something the New Testament calls us beyond, towards a very different kind of weapon altogether.
See Also: 1 Corinthians 1:27 (God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise... the weak things to confound the mighty) - the same principle, God using an unimpressive, unlikely instrument to accomplish something no one expected.
15:16KJV And Samson said, With the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, with the jaw of an ass have I slain a thousand men.
B:E Project Samson said, 'With the jawbone of a donkey, heap upon heap — with the jaw of a donkey I've killed a thousand men.'
Context: This is a short victory poem or boast, playing on wordplay in the original Hebrew between the words for 'donkey' and 'heap.'
Meaning: It's a triumphant, almost gloating chant — a glimpse of Samson enjoying his own legend in the moment, the same self-focus that's shaped every choice he's made so far, just now channelled into military triumph instead of personal indulgence.
Lesson: Samson's boastful little poem credits his own cleverness and the jawbone rather than the Spirit who actually gave him the strength. Jesus wants our celebrations of victory to end in gratitude towards God, not self-congratulation, because every strength we have was lent to us in the first place.
See Also: 1 Corinthians 1:31 (he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord) - the direct corrective to Samson's self-glorying boast here, redirecting credit to where it actually belongs.
15:17KJV 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 Ramathlehi.
B:E Project When he finished speaking, he threw the jawbone out of his hand and named the place Ramath-lehi.
Context: Samson names the site of his victory, a common ancient practice of memorialising a significant event through a place name — 'Ramath-lehi' means roughly 'height of the jawbone.'
Meaning: A brief closing note on the battle, before the story pivots to something more human and vulnerable — Samson's physical exhaustion in the verses that follow.
Lesson: Samson quickly throws the jawbone away once the victory is won - the very tool of his deliverance discarded in a moment. Jesus wants us to remember the giver long after we've set down whatever tool or circumstance he used, rather than moving on and forgetting where the victory actually came from.
See Also: Deuteronomy 8:17-18 (beware lest thou say... my power hath gotten me this wealth. But thou shalt remember the LORD thy God) - a warning against exactly the kind of forgetting Samson risks the moment his triumph is over.
15:18KJV 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?
B:E Project He became desperately thirsty, and he called out to the LORD, saying, 'You've given this great victory through your servant — but now am I going to die of thirst and fall into the hands of the Philistines?'
Context: Immediately after his greatest triumph, Samson faces a mundane but serious threat: dehydration after intense physical exertion, in contrast to the superhuman feat he's just performed.
Meaning: This is one of the most human moments in the whole Samson story — the invincible strongman, moments after a legendary victory, is suddenly just a thirsty, mortal man who could die from something as ordinary as lack of water. It's a genuinely relatable insight: extraordinary achievement doesn't exempt anyone from very ordinary vulnerability, and it's honest to admit that rather than pretend strength solves everything.
Lesson: Straight after his greatest victory, Samson is desperately thirsty and honestly cries out to God rather than pretending he's fine. Jesus welcomes that kind of vulnerable prayer; even after our biggest wins, it's right to turn first to him when we're weak, not just when we're strong.
See Also: Psalm 34:6 (this poor man cried, and the LORD heard him) - the same honest cry from weakness that God hears and answers, right after Samson's moment of triumph.
15:19KJV 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 Enhakkore, which is in Lehi unto this day.
B:E Project So God split open a hollow place, and water came out of it. When Samson drank, his strength returned and he revived — so he named the place En-hakkore, and it's still called that in Lehi to this day.
Context: This is the only time in the Samson narrative that he directly calls out to God for help rather than simply channelling the Spirit's power — and it's answered with a simple, practical provision of water.
Meaning: 'En-hakkore' means 'spring of the one who called' — a small but genuine moment of need met, right after a scene of extreme violence and self-glorifying boasting. Whatever else his story shows, this is a rare instance of a real, vulnerable request, answered simply and directly.
Lesson: God provides water from the very jawbone that had just been an instrument of violence, meeting Samson exactly at the point of his exhaustion. Jesus offers living water to anyone worn out by their own past, however that past has been spent, meeting us right where we are rather than where we ought to be.
See Also: John 7:37-38 (if any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink) - Jesus' own invitation to the thirsty, echoing the physical thirst God satisfies for Samson here with something far deeper.
15:20KJV And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.
B:E Project He led Israel for twenty years during the time the Philistines dominated the land.
Context: This closing summary statement wraps up this stage of the narrative — though it's worth noting the same line appears again at the very end of chapter 16, after Samson's death, suggesting the chronology of these chapters isn't strictly linear.
Meaning: Despite everything — the impulsiveness, the violence, the personal feuds — the text still credits Samson with twenty years of leadership 'in the days of the Philistines,' meaning he never actually broke their overall dominance. It's a realistic, unglamorous verdict: real influence, but no final victory — a reminder that partial, complicated impact is often what real leadership amounts to, even for a legendary figure.
Lesson: Samson judges Israel for twenty years, flaws and all, still under Philistine oppression the whole time. Jesus can use imperfect, deeply flawed people faithfully over a long stretch of time - a hard chapter in your story doesn't cancel a lifetime's calling, even while it also shows why a far better deliverer was still to come.
See Also: Hebrews 11:32 (time would fail me to tell of Gedeon, and of Barak, and of Samson... who through faith...) - the New Testament's own verdict on Samson, counted among the faithful despite everything, by grace rather than by merit.