Judges 15

But after a while, in the time of wheat harvest, Samson visited his wife with a young goat. He said, “I will go in to my wife’s room.” But her father wouldn’t allow him to go in.

Her father said, “I most certainly thought that you utterly hated her; therefore I gave her to your companion. Isn’t her younger sister more beautiful than she? Please, take her instead.”

Samson said to them, “This time I will be blameless in the case of the Philistines when I harm them.”

Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took torches, and turned tail to tail, and put a torch in the middle between every two tails.

When he had set the torches on fire, he let them go into the standing grain of the Philistines, and burned up both the shocks and the standing grain, and also the olive groves.

Then the Philistines said, “Who has done this?” They said, “Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he has taken his wife and given her to his companion.” The Philistines came up, and burned her and her father with fire.

Samson said to them, “If you behave like this, surely I will take revenge on you, and after that I will cease.”

He struck them hip and thigh with a great slaughter; and he went down and lived in the cave in Etam’s rock.

Then the Philistines went up, encamped in Judah, and spread themselves in Lehi.

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 has done to us.”

Then three thousand men of Judah went down to the cave in Etam’s rock, and said to Samson, “Don’t you know that the Philistines are rulers over us? What then is this that you have done to us?” He said to them, “As they did to me, so I have done to them.”

They said to him, “We have come down to bind you, that we may deliver you into the hand of the Philistines.” Samson said to them, “Swear to me that you will not attack me yourselves.”

They spoke to him, saying, “No, but we will bind you securely and deliver you into their hands; but surely we will not kill you.” They bound him with two new ropes, and brought him up from the rock.

When he came to Lehi, the Philistines shouted as they met him. Then the LORD’s Spirit came mightily on him, and the ropes that were on his arms became as flax that was burned with fire; and his bands dropped from off his hands.

He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, put out his hand, took it, and struck a thousand men with it.

Samson said, “With the jawbone of a donkey, heaps on heaps; with the jawbone of a donkey I have struck a thousand men.”

When he had finished speaking, he threw the jawbone out of his hand; and that place was called Ramath Lehi.

He was very thirsty, and called on the LORD and said, “You have given this great deliverance by the hand of your servant; and now shall I die of thirst, and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?”

But God split the hollow place that is in Lehi, and water came out of it. When he had drunk, his spirit came again, and he revived. Therefore its name was called En Hakkore, which is in Lehi, to this day.

He judged Israel twenty years in the days of the Philistines.

Chapter overviewAI-generated

Overview. This chapter centers on Samson’s escalating conflict with the Philistines, triggered by personal betrayal and culminating in divinely empowered victory. It portrays how Samson’s acts of vengeance—though rooted in personal grievances—are used by God to strike a blow against Israel’s oppressors, highlighting the complex interplay between human weakness and divine sovereignty in the deliverance of God’s people.

Flow.

Samson seeks reconciliation with his wife, but her father gives her to another, prompting Samson to retaliate by devastating Philistine crops with fire.
The Philistines respond by killing Samson’s wife and her family, leading Samson to inflict a “great slaughter” in return and retreat to a cave.
Judah, fearing Philistine retaliation, agrees to hand Samson over; yet when confronted by the enemy, the Spirit empowers Samson to slay a thousand men with a donkey’s jawbone.
After crying out in thirst, God miraculously provides water, underscoring His faithfulness, and the chapter closes noting Samson’s twenty-year judgeship.

Connections. Following chapter 14, where Samson’s marriage unravels and he begins to confront the Philistines through riddles and personal conflict, chapter 15 escalates the tension into open, violent confrontation. The betrayal by his wife’s family intensifies the cycle of retaliation, pushing Samson into a role of national deliverer even amid personal failure. This sets the stage for chapter 16, where Samson’s strength, compromised by further moral failure, ultimately leads to his downfall—showing that while God uses flawed instruments, faithfulness is essential for enduring leadership.

What it teaches. The chapter illustrates God’s sovereignty in using even the flawed and personal actions of His appointed judge to accomplish His purpose of delivering Israel from the Philistines (WCF 5.7; LC 84). Samson’s strength comes not from himself but from the Spirit of God, who empowers him at critical moments (; cf. WCF 3.7). The miraculous provision of water reaffirms God’s covenant care for His people, even through imperfect agents, and recalls His pattern of sustaining Israel in the wilderness (HC LD 10). The naming of places—Ramath Lehi and En Hakkore—serves as a witness to God’s deliverance and provision, grounding theological truth in historical event (WCF 4.1).

Apply. God can bring deliverance through broken people when His Spirit empowers them, and He remains faithful to provide even in the aftermath of personal failure.

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