Today we meet Samson, who was a real threat to the Philistines. I cannot help but feel sorry for the Philistines a bit. He’s implacable and aggressive against them, and quite unfair to the poor gal he chose to be his bride. The story about the foxes always amuses me greatly, as it was surely more labor to capture them and tie them to those torches than it would have been to just do the arson himself. The energy he has for hatred of the Philistines is really quite remarkable.
A few years ago, I read John Wesley’s Notes on the Old Testament. Throughout Judges, he does all kinds of mental gymnastics to make all of these judges look like good guys. In the face of Jephthah, who kills and sacrifices his own daughter, Wesley straight up denies that it happened despite the clear language here. I have a hard time excusing him that easily. And despite the fact that she isn’t named, the fact that a tradition existed for some time afterwards, such that it was mentioned in the bible, that her memory would be preserved is quite a thing. There is a beauty to the scriptures even when what is described is quite reprehensible. It is a general reminder to me that the Lord and his word are not at all under an obligation to meet my standards of acceptability. The holy comes to me on terms that aren’t mine. My posture is to be that of complete surrender.
Judges 11
Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valor; he was the son of a prostitute, and Gilead was his father.
And Gilead’s wife bore him sons who grew up, drove Jephthah out, and said to him, “You shall have no inheritance in our father’s house, because you are the son of another woman.”
So Jephthah fled from his brothers and settled in the land of Tob, where worthless men gathered around him and traveled with him.
Some time later, when the Ammonites fought against Israel and made war with them, the elders of Gilead went to get Jephthah from the land of Tob.
“Come,” they said, “be our commander, so that we can fight against the Ammonites.”
Jephthah replied to the elders of Gilead, “Did you not hate me and expel me from my father’s house? Why then have you come to me now, when you are in distress?”
They answered Jephthah, “This is why we now turn to you, that you may go with us, fight the Ammonites, and become leader over all of us who live in Gilead.”
But Jephthah asked them, “If you take me back to fight the Ammonites and the LORD gives them to me, will I really be your leader?”
And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “The LORD is our witness if we do not do as you say.”
So Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him their leader and commander. And Jephthah repeated all his terms in the presence of the LORD at Mizpah.
Then Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites, saying, “What do you have against me that you have come to fight against my land?”
The king of the Ammonites answered Jephthah’s messengers, “When Israel came up out of Egypt, they seized my land, from the Arnon to the Jabbok and all the way to the Jordan. Now, therefore, restore it peaceably.”
Jephthah again sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites to tell him, “This is what Jephthah says: Israel did not take away the land of Moab or of the Ammonites.
But when Israel came up out of Egypt, they traveled through the wilderness to the Red Sea and came to Kadesh.
Then Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, ‘Please let us pass through your land,’ but the king of Edom would not listen. They also sent messengers to the king of Moab, but he would not consent. So Israel stayed in Kadesh.
Then Israel traveled through the wilderness and bypassed the lands of Edom and Moab. They came to the east side of the land of Moab and camped on the other side of the Arnon. But they did not enter the territory of Moab, since the Arnon was its border.
And Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, who ruled in Heshbon, and said to him, ‘Please let us pass through your land into our own place.’
But Sihon would not trust Israel to pass through his territory. So he gathered all his people, encamped in Jahaz, and fought with Israel.
Then the LORD, the God of Israel, delivered Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, who defeated them. So Israel took possession of all the land of the Amorites who inhabited that country, seizing all the land from the Arnon to the Jabbok and from the wilderness to the Jordan.
Now since the LORD, the God of Israel, has driven out the Amorites from before His people Israel, should you now possess it?
Do you not possess whatever your god Chemosh grants you? So also, we possess whatever the LORD our God has granted us.
Are you now so much better than Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever contend with Israel or fight against them?
For three hundred years Israel has lived in Heshbon, Aroer, and their villages, as well as all the cities along the banks of the Arnon. Why did you not take them back during that time?
I have not sinned against you, but you have done me wrong by waging war against me. May the LORD, the Judge, decide today between the Israelites and the Ammonites.”
But the king of the Ammonites paid no heed to the message Jephthah sent him.
Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah, and he passed through Gilead and Manasseh, then through Mizpah of Gilead. And from there he advanced against the Ammonites.
Jephthah made this vow to the LORD: “If indeed You will deliver the Ammonites into my hand, then whatever comes out the door of my house to greet me on my triumphant return from the Ammonites will belong to the LORD, and I will offer it up as a burnt offering.”
So Jephthah crossed over to the Ammonites to fight against them, and the LORD delivered them into his hand.
With a great blow he devastated twenty cities from Aroer to the vicinity of Minnith, as far as Abel-keramim. So the Ammonites were subdued before the Israelites.
And when Jephthah returned home to Mizpah, there was his daughter coming out to meet him with tambourines and dancing! She was his only child; he had no son or daughter besides her.
As soon as Jephthah saw her, he tore his clothes and said, “No! Not my daughter! You have brought me to my knees! You have brought great misery upon me, for I have given my word to the LORD and cannot take it back.”
“My father,” she replied, “you have given your word to the LORD. Do to me as you have said, for the LORD has avenged you of your enemies, the Ammonites.”
She also said to her father, “Let me do this one thing: Let me wander for two months through the mountains with my friends and mourn my virginity.”
“Go,” he said. And he sent her away for two months.
So she left with her friends and mourned her virginity upon the mountains.
After two months, she returned to her father, and he did to her as he had vowed. And she had never had relations with a man.
So it has become a custom in Israel that each year the young women of Israel go out for four days to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite.
Judges 12
Then the men of Ephraim assembled and crossed the Jordan to Zaphon. They said to Jephthah, “Why have you crossed over to fight the Ammonites without calling us to go with you? We will burn your house down with you inside!”
But Jephthah replied, “My people and I had a serious conflict with the Ammonites, and when I called, you did not save me out of their hands.
When I saw that you would not save me, I risked my life and crossed over to the Ammonites, and the LORD delivered them into my hand. Why then have you come today to fight against me?”
Jephthah then gathered all the men of Gilead and fought against Ephraim. And the men of Gilead struck them down because the Ephraimites had said, “You Gileadites are fugitives in Ephraim, living in the territories of Ephraim and Manasseh.”
The Gileadites captured the fords of the Jordan leading to Ephraim, and whenever a fugitive from Ephraim would say, “Let me cross over,” the Gileadites would ask him, “Are you an Ephraimite?”
If he answered, “No,”
they told him, “Please say Shibboleth.”
If he said, “Sibboleth,” because he could not pronounce it correctly, they seized him and killed him at the fords of the Jordan. So at that time 42,000 Ephraimites were killed.
Jephthah judged Israel six years, and when he died, he was buried in one of the cities of Gilead.
After Jephthah, Ibzan of Bethlehem judged Israel.
He had thirty sons, as well as thirty daughters whom he gave in marriage to men outside his clan; and for his sons he brought back thirty wives from elsewhere. Ibzan judged Israel seven years.
Then Ibzan died, and he was buried in Bethlehem.
After Ibzan, Elon the Zebulunite judged Israel ten years. Then Elon the Zebulunite died, and he was buried in Aijalon in the land of Zebulun.
After Elon, Abdon son of Hillel, from Pirathon, judged Israel. He had forty sons and thirty grandsons, who rode on seventy donkeys. And he judged Israel eight years.
Then Abdon son of Hillel, from Pirathon, died, and he was buried at Pirathon in Ephraim, in the hill country of the Amalekites.
Judges 13
Again the Israelites did evil in the sight of the LORD, so He delivered them into the hand of the Philistines for forty years.
Now there was a man from Zorah named Manoah, from the clan of the Danites, whose wife was barren and had no children.
The angel of the LORD appeared to the woman and said to her, “It is true that you are barren and have no children; but you will conceive and give birth to a son.
Now please be careful not to drink wine or strong drink, and not to eat anything unclean.
For behold, you will conceive and give birth to a son. And no razor shall come over his head, because the boy will be a Nazirite to God from the womb, and he will begin the deliverance of Israel from the hand of the Philistines.”
So the woman went and told her husband, “A man of God came to me. His appearance was like the angel of God, exceedingly awesome. I did not ask him where he came from, and he did not tell me his name.
But he said to me, ‘Behold, you will conceive and give birth to a son. Now, therefore, do not drink wine or strong drink, and do not eat anything unclean, because the boy will be a Nazirite to God from the womb until the day of his death.’ ”
Then Manoah prayed to the LORD, “Please, O Lord, let the man of God You sent us come to us again to teach us how to raise the boy who is to be born.”
And God listened to the voice of Manoah, and the angel of God returned to the woman as she was sitting in the field; but her husband Manoah was not with her.
The woman ran quickly to tell her husband, “Behold, the man who came to me the other day has reappeared!”
So Manoah got up and followed his wife. When he came to the man, he asked, “Are you the man who spoke to my wife?”
“I am,” he said.
Then Manoah asked, “When your words come to pass, what will be the boy’s rule of life and mission?”
So the angel of the LORD answered Manoah, “Your wife is to do everything I told her.
She must not eat anything that comes from the vine, nor drink any wine or strong drink, nor eat anything unclean. She must do everything I have commanded her.”
“Please stay here,” Manoah said to the angel of the LORD, “and we will prepare a young goat for you.”
And the angel of the LORD replied, “Even if I stay, I will not eat your food. But if you prepare a burnt offering, offer it to the LORD.” For Manoah did not know that it was the angel of the LORD.
Then Manoah said to the angel of the LORD, “What is your name, so that we may honor you when your word comes to pass?”
“Why do you ask my name,” said the angel of the LORD, “since it is beyond comprehension?”
Then Manoah took a young goat and a grain offering and offered them on a rock to the LORD. And as Manoah and his wife looked on, the LORD did a marvelous thing.
When the flame went up from the altar to the sky, the angel of the LORD ascended in the flame.
When Manoah and his wife saw this, they fell facedown to the ground.
And when the angel of the LORD did not appear again to Manoah and his wife, Manoah realized that it had been the angel of the LORD.
“We are going to die,” he said to his wife, “for we have seen God!”
But his wife replied, “If the LORD had intended to kill us, He would not have accepted the burnt offering and the grain offering from our hands, nor would He have shown us all these things or spoken to us this way.”
So the woman gave birth to a son and named him Samson. The boy grew, and the LORD blessed him.
And the Spirit of the LORD began to stir him at Mahaneh-dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.
Judges 14
One day Samson went down to Timnah, where he saw a young Philistine woman.
So he returned and told his father and mother, “I have seen a daughter of the Philistines in Timnah. Now get her for me as a wife.”
But his father and mother replied, “Can’t you find a young woman among your relatives or among any of our people? Must you go to the uncircumcised Philistines to get a wife?”
But Samson told his father, “Get her for me, for she is pleasing to my eyes.”
(Now his father and mother did not know this was from the LORD, who was seeking an occasion to move against the Philistines; for at that time the Philistines were ruling over Israel.)
Then Samson went down to Timnah with his father and mother and came to the vineyards of Timnah. Suddenly a young lion came roaring at him, and the Spirit of the LORD came powerfully upon him, and he tore the lion apart with his bare hands as one would tear a young goat. But he did not tell his father or mother what he had done.
Then Samson continued on his way down and spoke to the woman, because she was pleasing to his eyes.
When Samson returned later to take her, he left the road to see the lion’s carcass, and in it was a swarm of bees, along with their honey.
So he scooped some honey into his hands and ate it as he went along. And when he returned to his father and mother, he gave some to them and they ate it. But he did not tell them that he had taken the honey from the lion’s carcass.
Then his father went to visit the woman, and Samson prepared a feast there, as was customary for the bridegroom.
And when the Philistines saw him, they selected thirty men to accompany him.
“Let me tell you a riddle,” Samson said to them. “If you can solve it for me within the seven days of the feast, I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty sets of clothes.
But if you cannot solve it, you must give me thirty linen garments and thirty sets of clothes.”
“Tell us your riddle,” they replied. “Let us hear it.”
So he said to them:
“Out of the eater came something to eat,
and out of the strong came something sweet.”
For three days they were unable to explain the riddle.
So on the fourth day they said to Samson’s wife, “Entice your husband to explain the riddle to us, or we will burn you and your father’s household to death. Did you invite us here to rob us?”
Then Samson’s wife came to him, weeping, and said, “You hate me! You do not really love me! You have posed to my people a riddle, but have not explained it to me.”
“Look,” he said, “I have not even explained it to my father or mother, so why should I explain it to you?”
She wept the whole seven days of the feast, and finally on the seventh day, because she had pressed him so much, he told her the answer. And in turn she explained the riddle to her people.
Before sunset on the seventh day, the men of the city said to Samson:
“What is sweeter than honey?
And what is stronger than a lion?”
So he said to them:
“If you had not plowed with my heifer,
you would not have solved my riddle!”
Then the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him, and he went down to Ashkelon, killed thirty of their men, took their apparel, and gave their clothes to those who had solved the riddle. And burning with anger, Samson returned to his father’s house, and his wife was given to one of the men who had accompanied him.
Judges 15
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.
“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.”
Samson said to them, “This time I will be blameless in doing harm to the Philistines.”
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.
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.
“Who did this?” the Philistines demanded.
“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.”
And he struck them ruthlessly with a great slaughter, and then went down and stayed in the cave at the rock of Etam.
Then the Philistines went up, camped in Judah, and deployed themselves near the town of Lehi.
“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?”
“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.”
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.
He found the fresh jawbone of a donkey, reached out his hand and took it, and struck down a thousand men. Then Samson said:
“With the jawbone of a donkey
I have piled them into heaps.
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.
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?”
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, and it remains in Lehi to this day.
And Samson judged Israel for twenty years in the days of the Philistines.
Psalm 49
Hear this, all you peoples;
listen, all inhabitants of the world,
both low and high,
rich and poor alike.
My mouth will impart wisdom,
and the meditation of my heart will bring understanding.
I will incline my ear to a proverb;
I will express my riddle with the harp:
Why should I fear in times of trouble,
when wicked usurpers surround me?
They trust in their wealth
and boast in their great riches.
No man can possibly redeem his brother
or pay his ransom to God.
For the redemption of his soul is costly,
and never can payment suffice,
that he should live on forever
and not see decay.
For it is clear that wise men die,
and the foolish and the senseless both perish
and leave their wealth to others.
Their graves are their eternal homes—
their dwellings for endless generations—
even though their lands were their namesakes.
But a man, despite his wealth, cannot endure;
he is like the beasts that perish.
This is the fate of the self-confident
and their followers who endorse their sayings.
Selah
Like sheep they are destined for Sheol.
Death will be their shepherd.
The upright will rule them in the morning,
and their form will decay in Sheol,
far from their lofty abode.
But God will redeem my life from Sheol,
for He will surely take me to Himself.
Selah
Do not be amazed when a man grows rich,
when the splendor of his house increases.
For when he dies, he will carry nothing away;
his abundance will not follow him down.
Though in his lifetime he blesses his soul—
and men praise you when you prosper—
he will join the generation of his fathers,
who will never see the light of day.
A man who has riches without understanding
is like the beasts that perish.
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