A Thousand To One, And He Won! Series

Introduction:

Samson had taken revenge on the Philistines twice after his return to Timnath (Judges 15:1-8). Once he found out his father-in-law had given his bride to the “companion” or best man, as we would say these days, Samson caught 300 “foxes”. He then tied them tail-to-tail, placed a torch (“firebrand”, KJV) between their tails, and turned them loose. These animals burned up the standing grain, olives, and vineyards. Why Samson caused so much destruction is not clear, but he must have thought it was justified—at least in his own mind.

The Philistines got their revenge by killing the bride and her father; whether anyone else in the family met the same fate is not stated. Samson, incredibly, vowed revenge upon the Philistines again and slew an unspecified number of them. Then Samson left to dwell atop the rock of Etam. Even though we do not know its specific location, others did, and that is the beginning point for this next message about Samson.

The text begins in Judges 15:9:

[Judges 15:9, KJV] Then the Philistines went up, and pitched in Judah, and spread themselves in Lehi. 10 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.

The demands of the Philistines

No doubt the Philistines were furious with Samson for both acts of revenge against them. The text says “the Philistines ‘went up’ and pitched in Judah and spread themselves in Lehi”. Where Lehi was located is not certain but it was probably somewhere near the border of Judah and Philistine land. Interestingly, the Philistine cities of Timnath and Gath were both close to the borders of Israel and the Philistines and it would not seem likely Samson would stay very close to either one after an intense battle, such as the one described in verse 8.

Some may wonder why he didn’t return to his home. Although it is not stated anywhere, one thought is that Samson had seen what the Philistines did to family members who seemed to run afoul of their laws, etc. Samson may have wanted to protect his parents and any other relatives during this time of trouble in his life.

So now we see the Philistines, unspecified in number but probably a very large group, and they’re not happy. They ruled over Israel, and Israel was basically helpless to stop them if they invaded. About the only thing they could do was inquire (!) as to why the Philistines were on the border, probably just waiting for the chance to do anything they could. Apparently they too thought revenge was sweet, ignoring the bitter aftertaste.

And seeing this multitude of Philistines, Judah may have thought they had no better choice than to ask what they wanted. Apparently they had no idea what had happened or why the Philistines were there—in the land of Judah itself, according to verse 9.

The Philistines were very specific: they wanted one person, Samson, because they wanted to “do to him as he (did to us)”. In short, they wanted to take their revenge on him and, perhaps, make an example of “you go against us and here’s what we’ll do to you”. Revenge, fear, and terror are not new—people have been using these weapons of war for thousands of years. Just ask the leaders of Judah when they heard the demands of the Philistines.

The next three verses relate what these “men of Judah” did—to Samson.

11 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. 12 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. 13 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.

The delivery to the Philistines

After the Philistines made their demand to Judah, a group of 3000 men went to find Samson and they did, “on the top of the rock Etam”. I’m sure they were relieved that the Philistines had made only the one demand, namely, Samson only. But that may have been small comfort to the people of Judah, fearing, perhaps, that invasion could come at any moment.

They were so afraid of the Philistines that they had “caved” or given in to the demand for Samson by the Philistines. Now these men of Judah were prepared to deliver Samson to the Philistines—anything, they may have thought, to keep the enemy away from them.