Judg. 15 Samson desireth to visit his wife; is denied her; wherefore he tieth firebrands to three hundred foxes’ tails, and sets the corn on fire, Judg. 15:1–5; for which they burn his wife and her father, Judg. 15:6. Samson’s revenge, Judg. 15:7–8.

In the time of wheat harvest; which circumstance is noted as the proper season for the following exploit. Into the chamber; into her proper chamber, which women had distinct and separate from the men’s.

I verily thought that thou hadst utterly hated her, because thou didst desert her in great wrath: but this was not sufficient cause; for he should have endeavoured a reconciliation, or waited for it; and not have disposed of another man’s wife without his consent; which is not only against the law…

Because they have first provoked me by an irreparable injury. But although this may look like an act of private revenge, yet it is plain enough that Samson acted as a judge, (for so he was,) and as an avenger of the public injuries and oppressions of his people; as plainly appears from hence, that…

There were great numbers of foxes in Canaan, as appears from Neh. 4:3, Ps. 63:10, Song 2:15, Lam. 5:18, Ezek. 13:4. So that divers places there have their names from the foxes which abounded there; as Josh. 15:28, Josh. 19:42, 1 Sam. 13:17.

He let them go, to wit, successively at several times, and in divers places, with great care and discretion, so as they might not hinder one another, nor all run into the same field; but being dispersed in all parts, might spread the plague further; and withal might be kept at a distance from the…

Partly for her adultery, which divers heathens punished with death; and partly for that mischief which she had occasioned to them; thus she brought upon herself that mischief which she studied to avoid, Judg. 14:15, as wicked persons oft do, Prov. 10:24.

Whereby it appears, that it was not his private injuries, but the public, which he did revenge.

Hip and thigh; upon their hips and thighs, peradventure not designing to kill them, but to make them incapable of military employment, or of doing hurt to the Israelites. Or, He smote them with his leg upon their thigh, i.e.

The rock Etam was in Judah: see 1 Chron. 4:32, 2 Chron. 11:5–6. Spread themselves, as coming in great numbers with a powerful host. Lehi; a place so called by anticipation, Judg. 15:17.

What is this that thou hast done unto us? thou hast by these actions punished not them, as thou intendest; but us, who being under their dominion, are sure to smart for it.

Not that he feared them, or could not as easily have conquered them, as he did the whole host of the Philistines; but because he would be free from all obligation or temptation of doing them any harm, though it were in his own just and necessary defence.

i.e. from the cave or hole in the rock, in which he had secured himself, out of which he was first brought up, and then carried down from the rock to the plain.

The Philistines shouted against him, for joy and triumph, because they had now their great enemy, as they supposed, in their hands. His bands loosed, Heb. were melted, i.e. were dissolved, as things are which are melted in the fire.

A new jawbone, and therefore more tough and strong.

This, though it might seem difficult, yet is not at all impossible or incredible; especially seeing the learned affirm of the asses of Syria, that they were larger and stronger than ours, and so consequently were their bones.

And by contraction, Lehi, Judg. 15:14, it being usual so to contract proper names; as Salem is put for Jerusalem, Ps. 76:2; Sheba for Beer-sheba, Josh. 19:2; and many other.

He was sore athirst, so as he was ready to faint and die with thirst; which was partly natural, from his excessive toil and heat; partly sent by God, that by the experience of his own impotency he might be forced to ascribe the victory to God only, and not to himself.

Clave an hollow place, i.e. by cleaving a place, made it hollow; an expression like that Isa. 47:2, grind meal, i.e. grind corn into meal; and that Ps. 74:15, thou didst cleave the fountain, i.e. cleave the rock so as to make a fountain in it.

i.e. He pleaded their cause, and avenged them against the Philistines. In the days of the Philistines, i.e. whilst the Philistines had the power and dominion, from which he was not fully to deliver, but only to begin to deliver them, as it was foretold, Judg. 13:5.