Judges 15:10 - Printer Friendly

ESV: And the men of Judah said, “Why have you come up against us?” They said, “We have come up to bind Samson, to do to him as he did to us.”

NIV: The people of Judah asked, 'Why have you come to fight us?' 'We have come to take Samson prisoner,' they answered, 'to do to him as he did to us.'

NASB: So the men of Judah said, 'Why have you come up against us?' And they said, 'We have come up to bind Samson in order to do to him as he did to us.'

CSB: So the men of Judah said, "Why have you attacked us? "They replied, "We have come to tie Samson up and pay him back for what he did to us."

NLT: The men of Judah asked the Philistines, 'Why are you attacking us?' The Philistines replied, 'We’ve come to capture Samson. We’ve come to pay him back for what he did to us.'

KJV: 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.

NKJV: And the men of Judah said, “Why have you come up against us?” So they answered, “We have come up to arrest Samson, to do to him as he has done to us.”

Samson's private war with the Philistines (Judges 15:5–8) has elevated to a conflict between the Philistines and Israel (Judges 15:9), or at least the people of Judah. Samson's attacks were all motivated by personal vengeance. Yet the Lord intended to use Samson to spark conflict between the Philistines and Israel (Judges 13:5; 14:4). God plans to use Samson to shatter the Philistine's comfortable oppression of Israel, whether anyone was asking for liberation or not.

The Philistine army has set up a base, preparing to attack the people of Judah near where Samson is known to be hiding. The men of Judah have no idea why this is happening. They had accepted that the Philistines were rulers over them. What reason could the Philistines have for attacking them now? When Judah's men ask the Philistines this, they learn the truth. The army has come for one man, Samson. They want to catch him, tie him up, and do to him as he has done to them. In other words, they want to kill Samson in retribution for all he has done to their people.

Judges 15:9–20 describes the result of a Philistine incursion meant to capture Samson. The Israelites in Judah hand Samson over when he volunteers to have his hands tied with new rope. However, when he sees the Philistine forces, Samson is empowered by God's Spirit. He snaps his restraints and attacks. Using only jawbone of a donkey, he slaughters the enemy troops and shouts out a clever poem about his victory. God then answers Samson's plea for water.

Samson returns to Timnah to visit his bride, after leaving in a rage when she spoiled his unfair riddle. Her father thought Samson had abandoned her, so she was given to another man. Samson responds by tying animals to torches and setting them loose in Philistine wheat fields. He also burns the harvested crops and olive orchards. The Philistines kill Samson's former bride and father-in-law in retaliation. Samson's vengeance ensues. When the men of Judah turn Samson over to a Philistine army the Lord's Spirit empowers him. Samson slaughters the enemy soldiers with the jawbone of a donkey, and God rescues him from thirst with a miraculous spring of water.

Judges 15 describes a cycle of retribution which continues to spiral from the events of the previous chapter. This results in a Philistine army attempting to capture and kill Samson. Instead, God empowers him to kill masses of the enemy with only a donkey's jawbone. This furthers the Lord's intent to disrupt Philistine control over Israel (Judges 13:5). It does not seem to alter Samson's carnal nature, as his weakness for women continues in the following chapter.

The Book of Judges describes Israel's history from the death of Joshua to shortly before Israel's first king, Saul. Israel fails to complete God's command to purge the wicked Canaanites from the land (Deuteronomy 7:1–5; 9:4). This results in a centuries-long cycle where Israel falls into sin and is oppressed by local enemies. After each oppression, God sends a civil-military leader, labeled using a Hebrew word loosely translated into English as "judge." These appointed rescuers would free Israel from enemy control and govern for a certain time. After each judge's death, the cycle of sin and oppression begins again. This continues until the people of Israel choose a king, during the ministry of the prophet-and-judge Samuel (1 Samuel 1—7).