Bible in One Year Day 94 (Judges 16 -18, Psalm 147)

 You may subscribe yourself at the Ascension site here and receive notifications in your email, or just follow along on my blog.  Bible in One Year Readings Index 

Day 94: Samson and Delilah 

Agape Bible Study 

Judges 16 - 18 

Chapter 16: The Conclusion of the Samson Narrative

Chapter 16 is divided into 3 parts:

1. Samson's adventure at Gaza (16:1-3)
2. The story of Samson and Delilah (16:4-22)
3. Samson's revenge and victory in death (16:23-31)

Notice that the word "woman" (issa) continues to be a key theme word in the narrative of Samson.

Judges 16:1-3 ~ Samson's Adventure at Gaza

Samson is God's consecrated Nazirite and chosen deliverer-judge, but he is also a deeply flawed man who falls easily into temptations of the flesh. The Philistine city of Gaza is a walled city with a fortified defensive gate in which travelers and townspeople enter and exit the city. Samson goes to Gaza to keep a rendezvous with a harlot; he saw a prostitute woman (issa) in the literal text, perhaps sneaking into the town at night or he is so confident of his great strength that he doesn't care. 

The Philistines attempt to trap Samson by waiting for him at the town gate, the only way in and out of the town, but he breaks out of their trap by tearing down the town gate and supporting posts.

Tearing down the town gate and taking it with him is probably a message to the Philistines of Gaza that they have no power over him and he will come and go as he pleases. He has made the city of Gaza defenseless.

Question: What does Samson do with the gate to Gaza?
Answer: He takes it as a trophy of his victory and carries it to a hill across from the city of Hebron.

Carrying the town gate the forty miles to a hill across from Hebron is truly a Herculean feat.

This is Samson's third betrayal:

1. His wife in 14:17-18
2. The men of Judah in 15:9-13
3. The unknown informer 16:2

And this is his third victory over his Philistine enemies (14:19-20; 15:14-16 and 16:2-3).

Samson and Delilah (Jose Etxenagusia)

Samson and Delilah

Up to this point Philistine women have been the cause of Samson's misadventures, and yet he has escaped thanks to God's gift of super-human strength which is due to Samson keeping the secret of his Nazirite vow to not cut his hair. But the day is coming when a Philistine woman named Delilah will break his heart and cause him to break his vow, leaving him without his strength and in the hands of his enemies. 

The Philistines will not threaten Delilah like they threatened Samson's Philistine bride. This is a different sort of woman. Her betrayal will be strictly a business opportunity and she will try unsuccessfully to collect her promised reward three times before she is successful on the fourth attempt. Notice the repetition of threes and sevens in the narrative. They are two of the "perfect" numbers. Three symbolizes perfection and is often used to show the perfection of God's divine plan while seven is the number of the perfection of fulfillment or completion. See the document "The Significance of Numbers in Scripture."

Judges 16:4-9 ~ Delilah's First Attempt at Betrayal

Question: What is different about Samson's interest in the woman Delilah?
Answer: Samson's interest in Delilah is more than the lust he felt for his Philistine bride or the harlot of Gaza. He loves Delilah.

Delilah lived in the Vale of Sorek, a valley that formed a natural access corridor between the coastal plain controlled by the Philistines and Israelite territory to the east. The villages of Zorah and Eshtaol and the "camp of Dan" are just north of the valley of Sorek. The city of Timnah (where Samson married his Philistine bride) and Ekron, the northernmost of the five Philistine cities, are just south of the valley. Samson is literally and metaphorically standing between two worlds and as in this first affair with a Philistine woman (14:1) he has traveled "down" from the camp of Dan to visit Delilah in the Valley of Sorek. Some commentators accuse Delilah of being a prostitute, but that word is not used to describe her in the Hebrew text. Delilah is his mistress whereas the other two women were a wife and a harlot. If there is to be a profession associated with her it may be that of a professional weaver since there was a large loom in her home (16:13-14).

The Philistines probably remained hidden because there is no mention of a fight. This is why Delilah successfully convinces him to reveal his secret three times before she is successful. There is no sign of treachery. The Philistines will not come out of their hiding place until Samson is completely neutralized in verse 21.

Judges 16:10-12 ~ Delilah's Second Attempt at Betrayal

She tries again to bind Samson but again he breaks his bonds.
Question: What is repeated from the first incident?
Answer: His reply that he "should lose my strength and become like any other man" (16:8 and 11) and Delilah's warning words "the Philistines are on you, Samson" (16:9 and 12).

Judges 16:13-14 ~ Delilah's Third Attempt at Betrayal

Delilah lulled Samson to sleep, perhaps with a song or by stroking his head on her lap (see verse 19), and then she wove his seven locks of hair into the textile on her loom that she was already weaving. It must have been a large loom that was bolted to the floor. She wove his hair into the "wrap" of parallel strands of the textile and pushed the hair with the shuttle tightly against the previous rows of fibers, but once again he broke free.

Judges 16:15-22 ~ Delilah Betrays Samson

Perhaps the Philistines are growing restless and so Delilah becomes more persistent in nagging Samson until "his heart grew sick" of it. The expression "his heart grew sick" is the same as in Judges 10:16 when Yahweh's "heart grew sick" because he could not bear to hear Israel's cry of suffering any longer. Samson cannot bear to have his beloved accuse him of not loving her by his refusal to reveal his innermost secret.

Question: Where has Samson heard the same charge that in withholding a secret he is withholding his love? What should he have remembered and what does this tell us about him?
Answer: It is the same accusation his bride made against him in 14:16. He should have remembered how revealing a secret turned out the last time. Clearly he is a man who does not learn from his mistakes.

This is the fourth time Samson has repeated the phrase "like any other man." Is this perhaps his real longing to just live with Delilah "like any other man"? Is he worn out by his life as Israel's deliverer and is this a contributing factor to Samson revealing his secret? It could also be that he really doesn't believe he will lose his strength. After all, he has never tested it before. All Nazirites kept their long hair as a sign of their Nazirite vow, but none of them had his super-human strength. This time her intuition tells her that he has revealed the truth of his strength and she is so confident of this that she demands her payment from the Philistines.

This woman is so cold hearted that she lulls Samson to sleep with his head on her lap like a child. When he is asleep she motions for a Philistine to bring her a razor and she shaves the seven locks of hair from Samson's head herself. 

Question: Why did Samson lose his strength? Did his hair provide some kind of magical power?

Answer: No. His strength came entirely from Yahweh, but his uncut hair was the sign of his Nazirite vow and his commitment to Yahweh as God's special Nazirite-deliverer-judge of Israel. It was when Yahweh's Spirit left him that his strength left him.

Question: What is ironic concerning the torture in gouging out Samson's eyes? There are three points of irony concerning his sight and his blindness.
Answer:

1. When he was supposed to begin his career as a deliverer he was misdirected from his mission when he "saw" a Philistine woman and exclaimed that she was "right in his eyes." Later he "saw" the prostitute of Gaza. Now he has lost the sight that continually led him into sin and away from God.
2. Samson in his blindness has become like what he did to gateless Gaza: he has become violated and defenseless.
3. Samson's love for Delilah figuratively "blinded" him to his danger, and now he has been literally blinded by her betrayal.

Question: What are at least two other points of irony concerning Samson's fate?
Answer:

1. Samson being taken "down" to Gaza by the Philistines (16:21) is the climax of his continual "going down" to the women of Philistia that began the Samson adult narrative in 14:1 (also see 14:5).
2. It is exactly as he predicted four times in that he is "like every other man" and no longer has superhuman strength.

This is Samson's fourth betrayal:

1. Betrayed by his Philistine bride (Judg 14:17)
2. Betrayed by the men of Judah (Judg 15:12)
3. Betrayed by the unknown person of Gaza (Judg 16:2)
4. Betrayed by Delilah, the woman he loved (Judges 16:2-3)

Samson in the Treadmill (Carl Bloch)

The mutilation of prisoners of war was common in the ancient Near East (i.e., Judg 1:6-7; 1 Sam 11:2), and blinding was a common form of punishment for a rebellious vassal (i.e., 2 Kng 25:7). The Philistines considered themselves to be the overlords of the Israelites and Samson has been a rebellious vassal for twenty years. To further humiliate him, the Philistines made him a slave in the grinding mill at Gaza. Grinding houses were places where slaves would grind grain for their masters. In such public mills, large mill stones were turned by an animal or by slave labor to grind grain into meal.

Question: But this episode ends in what note of hope?
Answer: Samson's hair began to grow back.

Judges 16:23-31 ~ Samson's Victory in Death

The Philistines attribute their victory over Samson to their god Dagon. They are wrong, of course.
Question: Why are they wrong?
Answer: They were not victorious over Samson because their god gave Samson into their hands but because Yahweh's Spirit had left Samson.

Dagon was an ancient Semitic fertility deity worshipped in northern Mesopotamia, in Syria and along the Mediterranean coast. The Philistines adopted Dagon as their principal deity when they settled in their cities along the Mediterranean coast. T

While celebrating what was probably a harvest festival to Dagon, the people want to gloat over their victory in conquering their greatest enemy, Samson. He is brought from the grain house to amuse the crowd. Even though he has been deprived of his superhuman strength, he is still strong enough to perform feats of strength to entertain the crowd. In his blindness, they do not perceive him to be a threat.

Question: During a lull in the celebration, what two requests will Samson make?
Answer: He asks the lad who is assigned to guide him to take him to the two central pillars of the temple, and he petitions God to give him great strength one last time.

Only limited excavations have been undertaken at Gaza which is now under the control of the Palestinian authority. However, at Tel Qasile a Philistine temple has been discovered where the roof of the building was supported by two central columns only seven feet apart, very similar to the description of the temple in this passage. The temple complex where Samson was taken was probably surrounded by an open court and had a flat roof or terrace on which a large number of people could gather for festivals. When God granted Samson's petition and returned his great strength, Samson pushed what were probably wooden pillars off their stone bases and the entire temple was demolished.

Question: What is the irony of Samson's victory?
Answer: In Samson's final victory, he killed more of his Philistine enemies in death than in life.

Samson's kinsmen from the tribe of Dan and his father's household (slaves and retainers) brought Samson's body back to bury him in the tomb of his father which was located between the towns of Zorah and Eshtaol. It was where Samson's story began and where God's Spirit first stirred Samson to take up his destiny as Israel's judge-deliverer (13:2, 25). The narrative ends with the type of formula statement used for the minor judges, indicating that there was no real "peace" in his twenty years of judgeship.

Question: What is the final irony concerning the first and last woman in Samson's life?
Answer: The first woman was his mother who truly loved him. She kept the secret of his strength even from his father, and tried to help him observe the restrictions of his Nazirite vow. It was a love he did not appreciate and did not honor. He only saw her love and the love of his father as interference in his life and he rebelled. The last woman in his life was Delilah. She was a woman he loved but he was too blind to recognize the difference between genuine love and false love. Delilah, the woman he loved, betrayed his secret for money.

Delilah is the last "named" woman in the Book of Judges along with Achsah, Deborah, and Jael.
Question: What do these women have in common? How are they different?
Answer: All these women think and act for themselves; they shape their own destinies through their courageous actions. The first three women take action that will benefit their family or the people of Israel as a whole, while Delilah acts only out of her own self-interest.

"everyone did as he saw fit" or literally "everyone did what was right in his eyes" (17:6 and 21:25.). 

Part III: Israel's Cycle of Depravity in Sinning like the Canaanites

Chapter 16 is the end of the history of the leadership provided by Israel's twelve Judge-Deliverers. Chapters 17-21 provide a summary of the conditions in Israel during this period by providing examples of the failure of the Israelites in sinning like the Canaanites both as individuals and as members of the unified covenant people. In terms of chronology, the events in chapters 17-18 are set at the beginning of the Age of the Judges (see 17:6 and 18:30), but is placed at the end of the book to emphasize that the people did not heed God's warning in the covenant lawsuit delivered by the messenger of Yahweh at the beginning of the Age of the Judges in 2:1-5 and the summary of the peoples failures in 2:6-19. 

The events in chapters 19-21 probably take place during the end of the period. This last section begins with the statement that in those days there was no king in Israel to unify the people (19:1) and ends with the same statement coupled with the repeated statement that "everyone did as he saw fit" or literally "everyone did what was right in his eyes" (17:6 and 21:25.). 

Chapters 17-21 can be divided into three parts:
Results of Israel's Spiritual and Moral Decay in Sinning like the Canaanites

Part I: The Sin of Idolatry

• An Example of Personal Idolatry (Judg 17:1-13)
• An Example of Tribal Idolatry (Judg 18:1-31)

Part II: The Sin of Immoral Conduct

• An Example of Personal Immorality (Judg 19:1-10)
• An Example of Tribal Immorality (Judg 19:11-30)

Part III: The Failure of Israel Through Disunity and Civil War

• War Between Israel and the tribe of Benjamin (Judg 20:1-48)
• Failure of Israel After the War (Judg 21:1-25)

Micah and the Danites (Johann Christoph Weigel) 

Chapter 17: Micayehu's Forbidden Shrine

The subject of chapter 17 is one man's sin of apostasy in erecting a personal shrine and installing idols to rival God's one Sanctuary as well as establishing his own priest to rival the chief priests of the hereditary priesthood of Aaron. 

Chapter 18 covers the migration of the tribe of Dan to the northern region of Israel where they founded the illicit sanctuary of Dan and their own idols representing Yahweh served by an illegal priesthood. The events recorded probably took place prior to Samson's judgeship and perhaps during the judgeship of Deborah and the war with the northern Canaanite king when the tribe of Dan is mentioned with the northern tribe of Asher in not coming to aid in Barak's battle against the Canaanite king Jabin (Judg 5:17). After Deborah and Barak conquered the major Canaanite presence in the north, it would have been safe for the majority of the tribe of Dan to finish their migration. It would also account for why the Philistines went to the men of Judah to arrest Samson as well as why Samson was not able to muster a force of Danites to go to war against the Philistines and was forced to wage a one-man war. The episodes in chapters 17 and 18 are linked by the sin of idolatry.

Judges 17:1-6 ~ Micayehu's Double Sin

The highlands of Ephraim are the central hill country immediately north of Jerusalem. This episode concerns the wealthy Ephraimite family of a man named Micayehu and his mother. The son is also called Micah in the story; it is the short form of the name Micayehu, which means "who is like Yahweh." The name itself is ironic since this man is certainly not "like Yahweh."

At first this appears to be the story of a domestic dispute that is peacefully resolved:

1. Eleven hundred pieces of sliver are stolen from Micah's mother.
2. She utters a curse on the person who took it, not knowing it was her son.
3. Micah hears his mother utter the curse and is fearful.
4. He confesses his sin to his mother and promises to return the silver.
5. On hearing his confession, his mother blesses Micah in the name of Yahweh.
6. Micah returns the money to his mother.
7. His mother tells him she had consecrated the money to Yahweh to be made into an idol for her son before it was stolen.
8. She takes two hundred pieces of silver of the eleven hundred pieces to a silversmith to make an idol for her son.
9. Micah established the idol and other cult objects in a shrine in his house and appointed his son to be the priest of his personal shrine.

Question: On the surface all seems to end well, but what are the problems with this episode?
Answer:

1. There is no required atonement for the theft and instead a blessing is given to the thief rather than requiring him to go to Yahweh's Sanctuary with a sin offering and to confess his sin to Yahweh's priest (only an ordained priest can forgive sins).
2. Micah and his mother are breaking the first commandment in making and accepting an idol for purposes of worship.
3. The mother has promised to dedicate all eleven hundred pieces of silver to Yahweh but only spends two hundred to make the idol. What happened to the rest of the money?
4. Micah has established a shrine in opposition to the one Sanctuary of Yahweh and has appointed his son, who is not a descendant of Aaron, as his priest.

Question: Where was the sum of eleven hundred pieces of silver mentioned previously and under what conditions? What is the connection to the last time the sum was mentioned in chapter 16?
Answer: It was the sum the Philistine lords each paid Delilah to betray Samson. Now it is the sum that motivates a mother and her son to betray God.

Question: Finally, to complete his shrine as a place to offer worship, what does Micah do?
Answer: He consecrates one of his sons to become his priest in violation of the Law.

Question: Instead of offering obedience to what God ordained as "right worship" according to the Sinai Covenant, what has Micah done?
Answer: He has created his own idea of what God should be and how He should be worshipped, including his own idea of a priest to lead his family in worship.

Judges 17:7-13 ~ Micah's Levite

This young Levite (repeated three times in 17:7; 18:34 and 15) was living in Bethlehem in Judah as a "resident alien." 

Question: What was the difference between chief priests and Levites? 
Answer: Only descendants of Aaron were to be actual priests who served at God's altar in offering sacrifices and in ministering in the Tabernacle. The rest of the members of the tribe of Levi were to be their assistants. They could not approach the altar, enter the Tabernacle, or even touch the sacred vessels.

Both chief priests and Levites were provided a living by the tithes paid by the twelve tribes and by the firstborn of every male animal from the flocks of the tribes. They lived communally in their cities and took turns serving at God's Sanctuary. The first thing that is odd about this young Levite is that he has separated from his family and his clan and is looking for a home and a way to earn a living.

Question: What offer does Micah make the young man and why should his answer have been to refuse the invitation?
Answer: Micah offers to give him a home and to make him the priest of his private shrine, and to pay him an annual wage of ten pieces of silver in addition to food and clothing. The Levite should have refused the offer since it was in violation of the Sinai Covenant to have any other shrine other than the Sanctuary of Yahweh and for a Levite to serve as a priest.

The question is what motivated the young Levite to accept Micah's offer to become a priestly "father" to his family. Perhaps he harbored resentment that only the descendants of Aaron from the tribe of Levi were ordained as priests. He wouldn't be the first Levite think that all the Levites should be of equal status with the sons of Aaron. During the wilderness journey from Mt. Sinai a Levite name Korah led a rebellion against Moses and Aaron, demanding that the Levites be given equal status with the priests including the right to offer incense in the Sanctuary's sacred Tabernacle.

Question: What happened to the Levites who rebelled against the chief priests and demanded that they be allowed to perform the same ministerial services in the Sanctuary like the offering of the sacred incense in the Holy Place of the Tabernacle? What was God response? 

Answer: God destroyed them with holy fire. The message was that it is God who determines what is defined as "right worship" and not what is perceived as "right worship" by men with their own agenda.

Chapter 18: The Danites' Migration North and their Descent into Idol Worship

Judges 18:1-6 ~ The Danites Send Men to look for new Territory

This is the second time we have the statement that in the days of the Judges there was no king in Israel. This episode recalls a time before the Danites completed their migration north and therefore a time prior to the judgeships of both Deborah and Samson. In Deborah's song of victory the Danites are linked to the northern tribe of Asher (Judg 5:17). The tribe of Dan was given fifteen cities in the allotment situated to the west of the territory of Benjamin, between Ephraim and Judah. However, they were unable to take the territory and were only able to conquer the city of Leshem (Josh 19:40-47). The clans of Dan were squeezed out of the land by Amorites and later by the Philistines. Since they were not strong enough to resist the pagan advances into their territory, they decide to send out spies to find better territory for a homeland. This episode has some similarities to the spies sent out to reconnoiter the land of Canaan in Numbers chapter 13. The inspired writer will vacillate between the designations "tribe" (18:1, 19, 30) and "clan" (18:2, 11, 19) when referring to the Danites. Several clans comprise a tribe. It may be that the tribe of Dan is so reduced in number that only one "clan" remains.

Judges 18:7-10 ~ The Danite Spies Convince the Tribe to Migrate to the North

Laish (see Josh 19:47) was a town located at the sources of the Jordan River about 29 miles north of the Sea of Galilee. It was located just outside what was designated as Israelite territory and therefore was not included in the land allotted the twelve tribes. 

Judges 18:11-20 ~ The Theft of Micah's Idols and False Priest

The five spies have convinced many of the people of Dan to migrate north to take possession of the territory they scouted. The Danites leave the territory of Judah and head north to Mount Ephraim, eventually coming to Micah's house. This is the point where all three episodes in chapters 17-18 now come together. 

Question: When they arrive at Micah's compound, what is the mission of the five Danite spies?
Answer: They raid Micah's shrine and steal all his idols.

Question: After a mild protest what does the Levite do?
Answer: He betrays Micah and decides to become the hired priest of the Danites.

The Danites have shrewdly exploited the ambition of the Levite who cannot resist the Danites offer to become a "father and priest" (verse 19) to an entire tribe and clan instead of to just one man and his family. The Levite's next two actions are symbolic; he takes the ephod, teraphim and idol from the five men who have stolen them and then "went off among the people." He becomes complicit in the crime and completely abandons Micah.

Judges 18:21-27 ~ Micah Demands the Return of His Idols

The Danites expect Micah to come after his property and so they place the women, children, livestock and baggage in the front while the fighting men take up their positions in the rear of the column. Micah does attempt to reclaim his property but his idols do not protect him. When he caught up with the Danites and they threatened his life, he realized that he had no choice except to retreat. The Danites have acquired gods and a priest by theft and intimidation. Micah's story began with his confession that he had stolen his mother's silver and it ends here with his having to accept that the Danites have stolen his gods, which he admits I have had made. This is poetic justice: the robber is robbed and gets what he deserves; he now has nothing.

Judges 18:27-31 ~ The Danites Capture Laish and set up a Pagan Shrine

The town of Laish was outside of the territory promised to the Israelites. It was in a valley belonging to Beth-Rehob which was about five miles to the east and which later became a city-state that was hostile to Israel (2 Sam 10:6). The Danites had no authority to make war on people outside of the Promised Land unless those people were the aggressors. The Danites have violated "a peaceful and trusting people" who have become their victims and have moved from a true inheritance in the Promised Land to idolatry and the illegal confiscation of land that is not theirs. They have fulfilled Jacob-Israel's deathbed prophecy and have become the serpent who strikes the unprotected from ambush (Gen 49:16-17).

The inspired writer saves this shocking revelation for the end of the narrative.
Question: What is the name of the young Levite who wanted to be a chief priest and from what hero of the Exodus was he descended?
Answer: The Levite who was not a descendant of the chief priests was Jonathan the son/descendant of Moses' eldest son Gershom. Moses' two sons served as Levites and not as chief priests.

Gershom was Moses' eldest son, born to Zipporah in Midian (Ex 2:22), and he is a member of the Levite clan of Kohath. Since he was born before Moses returned to Egypt, and since Moses died at age 120 after the forty years of wilderness wandering, it is unlikely that Jonathan the "young Levite" (17:7; 18:3, 15) was the "son" of Gershon but more likely the grandson or great-grandson even if this episode takes place in the earlier years of the era of the Judges.

Question: What were the duties of the Levitical clan of Kohath? Num 3:27-31.
Answer: The Kohathites had the duty of moving the Ark of the Covenant, the table of the Bread of the Covenant, the lampstand, the altars, the sacred vessels used in the liturgy, and the curtain with all its fittings but only after the chief priests had wrapped them. Like all the Levites, they could not touch the sacred objects on pain of death.

This descendant of Moses is a heretic who has abandoned the truth faith. Perhaps he harbored resentment that only the descendants of his great ancestor's brother Aaron were eligible for the ministerial priesthood and this resentment caused him to separate from his clan. His descendants will remain heretic priests in the service of Dan and the Northern Kingdom until the Assyrian conquest in the last quarter of the 8^th century BC.

+++

A Daily Defense

DAY 94 Miracles and Science 

CHALLENGE: “Miracles are part of a prescientific worldview. Today we understand that the universe operates by the laws of nature, not miracles.” 

DEFENSE: The ancients knew as well as we do that nature obeys particular laws. The idea that there is no room for miracles today reflects a bias against miracles, not real science. 

People in the ancient world were more in touch with nature than we are. They knew it behaved according to regular cycles and that things happened in predictable ways. They knew that the sun rises every day, that they could use the motions of the stars at night to predict the seasons and the correct times for planting crops, and they were aware that stones fall down rather than up, and so on. 

They also were aware that virgins do not give birth, that water does not turn into wine, that loaves do not spontaneously multiply, and that people who have been dead for several days do not come back to life—much less ascend into heaven. 

It was precisely because they knew the regularities of nature that they were able to identify the latter events as miracles. 

The difference between then and now is that we have a more detailed knowledge of the regularities of nature. We have precise measurements of many of them, and these allow us to describe them with mathematical formulas. Some are so well established we refer to them as scientific laws. 

But these “laws” are merely descriptions based on observations of how nature usually works. Nothing says the world always acts that way. 

Science is based on observation, and the only way we could know that the world always behaves a certain way would be to observe the entire history of the universe and see what nature does at each moment, but we can’t do that. 

Consequently, the idea that nature must always behave in the ways that it normally behaves goes beyond what science can establish. It’s a philosophical assumption, not a scientific fact. The open-minded way to approach this issue would not be to make that assumption but to look at the evidence, acknowledging that nature normally works in certain ways but leaving open the possibility that unusual, miraculous events might occur. 

Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist

Bible in One Year Day 93 (Judges 12-15, Psalm 146)

   You may subscribe yourself at the Ascension site here and receive notifications in your email, or just follow along on my blog.  Bible in One Year Readings Index 

Day 93:  Strengths and Weaknesses 

 

Agape Bible Study 

Judges 12 - 15 

Judges 12:1-6 ~ War between Ephraim and Gilead

As in the confrontation with Gideon in Judges 8:1-3, the Ephraimites take offense because they say that they were not summoned to join the battle against the Ammonites and threaten Jephthah (verse 1).   It is a charge Jephthah refutes (verse 2).  The Ephraimites are ambitious and hope to gain dominance over the other tribes.   They are alarmed at the wide powers granted to Jephthah and are looking for an excuse to eliminate him.     Unfortunately they are the losers in the civil war that follows.  

Question: To catch any straggling Ephraimites trying to cross the Jordan back into Ephraimite lands, what do the Gileadites do?  
Answer: The Gileadites use a password meaning "ear of wheat" that the Ephraimites pronounce differently.   They execute anyone who cannot pronounce it as a Gileadite would.  

Perhaps this episode demonstrates the distancing linguistically as well as emotionally and spiritually between the tribes on the east and west sides of the Jordan River.   It was not God's plan that any tribes should remain on the east side of the River, but the tribes of Gad and Reuben petitioned Moses to let them occupy the land taken from the Amorite kings and finally Moses agreed (Num 32).   Eventually the tribes in the Transjordan will be completely lost to Israel when the Assyrians conquer the eastern tribes and exile them into pagan lands to the east (1 Chr 5:26).

Have you noticed any similarities between the stories of Gideon and Jephthah and the stories of Abimelech and Jephthah?
Question: How are the stories of the "valiant warrior" Gideon (Judg 6:12) and the "valiant warrior" Jephthah (Judg 11:1) alike?
Answer: As in the story of Gideon, the "valiant warrior" Jephthah started out with much promise but in the end failed both himself and his people with his excessive pride and his cruelty.   Gideon's pride caused him to viciously destroy two Israelite villages who offended him.   It was because of his pride that Jephthah refused to release his daughter from his vow.   His excessive pride also caused the civil war with Ephraim and the failure to secure peace within the tribes of Israel.

Question: Women play a role in both the Abimelech and Jephthah narratives.   What similar role do women play in both narratives?
Answer: Like the Abimelech narrative, a woman comes at both the beginning and near the end of Jephthah's story:

• Abimelech's unnamed Canaanite mother who gave him life and an unnamed Canaanite woman ended it.
• Jephthah's unnamed prostitute mother who gave him life and his unnamed daughter whose life he ended.

Judges 12:7 ~ Conclusion

This verse serves as the seventh part of the Jephthah deliverer sequence which should be the concluding statement of how long peace lasted.   However, this statement only mentions how long Jephthah judged Israel which is evidently the relatively short period of six years of peace.   This becomes the new seventh part statement in the cycle that the judge judged for a certain period of time (see the same statement for the next three judges in Judg 12:9, 11; and 16:31).   As Israelite society grows more spiritually corrupt, so do the judges.

The deliverer cycle for Jephthah:

1. Announcement of Israel's wrong doing (Judg 10:6)
2. Statement of Yahweh's response (Judg 10:7)
3. Notice of how long Israel was oppressed by the enemy (Judg 10:8)
4. Reference to Israel's repentance in "crying out" to God (Judg 10:10)
5. Announcement of God "raising up" a deliver is missing, but God does clothe Jephthah in His spirit (Judg 11:29)
6. Description of how deliverance was achieved (Judg 11:32-33)
7. Concluding statement of how long peace lasted is missing: "Jephthah judged Israel for six years" (Judg 12:7)

Gideon and Jephthah

• Both Gideon and Jephthah are called "valiant warrior" in the text: God addressed Gideon as "valiant warrior" in Judges 6:12 and the inspired writer called Jephthah a "valiant warrior" in Judges 11:1.
• Both men began their careers as judge-deliverers "clothed in the Spirit of Yahweh" (Judges 6:34 and 11:29).
• Although both, through God's intervention, became "valiant warriors," their success was followed by the sins of pride, arrogance, and unnecessary cruelty.
• Both men made war on their own Israelite kinsmen: Gideon destroyed two Israelite towns for refusing food to his men (Judg 8:13-17), and Jephthah began a civil war with the Israelites of Ephraim and killed thousands of men from that tribe (Judg 12:1-6).

Abimelech and Jephthah

• Both Abimelech and Jephthah had Canaanite mothers and the mention of their births begins each narrative (Judg 8:31-32; 11:1b).
• The role of a woman in the life of each man both begins and ends each of their narratives: for Abimelech a Canaanite woman gives him life and a Canaanite woman ends his life (Judg 8:31; 9:52-53), and for Jephthah a Canaanite woman gives him life and in the end he takes the life of his daughter (Judg 11:1b; 11:30-39).
• Both men became the leaders of "empty men" (Judg 9:4; 11:3).
• Both men made war on their own people: Abimelech made war on his mother's town of Shechem and Jephthah made war on the Israelite tribe of Ephraim (Judg 9:39-49; 12:1-6).

The failures of these three men illustrate the moral and spiritual decay of the Israelites as a people in the era of the Judges.

The Minor Judges Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon

The narrative of the major judge Jephthah is followed by the short account of three minor Judges.  After the accounts of the judge-deliverers on the east side of the Jordan River (Jair and Jephthah), the inspired writer returns to the struggles of the tribes on the west side of the Jordan. Judges 12:8-15 completes the account of the minor judges. Their short stories have been distributed across chapters 3-12 in groups of one: Shamgar, two: Tola and Jair, and three: Ibzan, Elon and Abdon, with each minor judge introduced with the word "after" (Judg 3:31; 10:1, 3; 12:8, 11, and 13).

Judges 12:8-10 ~ The Judge Ibzan

It appears Ibzan was the first leader to encourage marriages outside the tribal clan. This does not include marriages outside the tribe; daughters who were their father's heirs when there was no male heirs could only inherit their father's ancestral lands if they married within the tribe (Lev 27:1-11; Num 36:5-9). If they married outside the tribe, the ancestral land passed to the next closest male. The political marriages Ibzan arranged gave his clan more power and prestige.

Judges 12:11-12 ~ The Judge Elon

Elon's tribe is Zebulun in the Galilee. Elon is named as one of the sons of Zebulun who made the migration into Egypt with the family of Jacob-Israel (Gen 46:14), and an Elonite clan is named in the genealogy of the tribe of Zebulun in Numbers 26:26-26. There are two towns called Aijalon: one is located in the south in territory originally assigned to the tribe of Dan before they migrated north (Josh 10:12; 19:42), but this judge's town is obviously the Aijalon located in the land of Zebulun.

Judges 12:13-15 ~ The Judge Abdon

Abdon was an Ephraimite who lived in the highlands of Canaan that was once controlled by the Amalekites, descendants of Amalek the grandson of Esau (Gen 36:15-16). The Amalekites were a nomadic people who inhabited territory assigned to Israel, Judah and the Transjordan states.   

Chapter 13: The Birth of Samson

The great nation of Egypt had been the regional super power for over a thousand years, but political turmoil that began in the mid-14^th century BC finally led in the 12^th century BC to Egypt's collapsed from within and the nation separated into several weak states. The failure of Egypt to maintain its control over its client states including the Levant (Syria, Phoenicia and Canaan) produced a power vacuum that allowed for an unhindered Israelite conquest of Canaan but unfortunately later also allowed Israel's neighboring states the freedom to invade and harass the Israelites. These enemies included the Sea Peoples who had been driven out of Egypt in one last display of power by the Egyptian Pharaoh Ramesses III (1190 BC). The survivors had settled in five city-states along the coast of southern Canaan to become a people known as the Philistines. The Philistines now became the Israelite's greatest enemy and the deliverer God sent was Samson.

The story of the Judge Samson both attracts and repels us. He is the only hero Judge whose birth is foretold by an angel and who is consecrated to God from his mother's womb. He is powerful but he is also flawed. His is hot-blooded, sensual, and violent, but he serves the God of Israel and none other. The Philistines are his enemies, but he is fatally attracted to their women. Samson is, in fact, his own worst enemy. His is the last narrative of a deliverer-judge in the Book of Judges and his story is the longest, spanning four chapters. The narrative begins with another un-named women, the mother of Samson, and ends with the fourth named women in the Book of Judges, the Philistine woman Delilah. Notice how many times women are mentioned in the narrative.

The narrative of Samson can be divided into four parts:

1. Samson's miraculous birth
2. Samson's marriage
3. Samson's one-man war with the Philistines
4. Samson's failure, redemption, and victory

Judges 13:1-7 ~ The Prophecy of Samson's Birth

The Samson narrative begins, like the other major judge narratives, with the formula statement "the Israelites began doing what was evil in Yahweh's eyes." This is the last time the formula statement is used to introduce a judge-deliverer and the eighth time in the Book of Judges. It introduced God's first intervention with Israel in Judges 2:11 and has been repeated eight times: seven times within the section on the history of the Judges (3:7, 12 [twice]; 4:1; 6:1; 10:6 and 13:1). The formula statement reminds us that the root of Israel's problem is maintaining her covenant with Yahweh.

Chapter 13 contains four of the seven statements in the typical judge-deliverer cycle:

1. Announcement of Israel's wrong doing (13:1a)
2. Statement of Yahweh's response (13:1b)
3. Notice of how long Israel was oppressed by the enemy (13:1b)
4. Reference to Israel's repentance in "crying out" to God (absent from the narrative)
5. Announcement of God sending a deliver (13:5, 25)

Perhaps the "crying out" for deliverance is absent because the Israelites dominated by the Philistines had grown so used to Philistine rule they no longer sought autonomy as the incident in Judges 15:9-13 will suggest.

The narrative of Samson begins with information about his background like the other narratives. His father is Manoah, a member of the tribe of Dan from the town of Zorah. Zorah is listed in Joshua 19:40 as one of the towns allotted to the tribe of Dan. It was located eighteen miles due west of Jerusalem in the low hill country adjacent to the coastal plain. Two of the other towns, Eshtaol and Timnah allotted to Dan will also be mentioned in the narrative of Samson. The territory belonging to the tribe of Dan was in central Canaan between the lands of the tribe of Benjamin to the east, the coastal plain to the west, and the tribe of Judah to the south. Unfortunately, the tribe of Dan could not dispossess the Canaanites and the Danites were being squeezed out by them (Judg 1:34-35). Therefore, the clans of Dan from Zorah and Eshtaol migrated and were able to secure lands about ten miles north of Lake Huleh on the northern limits of Israel (Judg 18:1-31).⁽¹⁾ This migration may have already have taken place before Deborah and Barak led the battle against the king of Hazor since the tribe of Dan is mentioned with the tribe of Asher whose tribal lands were also in the north (Judg 5:17). The narrative of Samson concerns those Danites who did not join the migration but remained in the Danite territory now claimed by the Philistines.

Question: The wife of Manoah is one of five barren women in the Bible who, with divine intervention, bear sons who have a mission to fulfill in salvation history. Can you name the other women and the sons who become God's agent? 
Answer:

1. Sarah the wife of Abraham and mother of Isaac.
2. Rebekah wife of Isaac and mother of Jacob-Israel.
3. Hannah the wife of Elkanah and mother of Samuel.
4. Elizabeth wife of Zechariah and mother of John the Baptist.

Question: What other men and women in salvation history receive a divine annunciation of a birth in addition to Manoah's wife?   
Answer:

1. Abraham the husband of Sarah.
2. Zechariah the husband of Elizabeth.
3. Mary of Nazareth.

Question: What is different about the other annunciations by an angelic messenger?
Answer: In the annunciation to Abraham, Zachariah and the Virgin Mary the angel told them what to name the child. In the annunciation to Manoah's wife no name is given and she is free to choose a name.

The mysterious "Suffering Servant" in Isaiah 49:1 was also "called" when he "was in the womb" and "given a name," and the prophet Jeremiah was consecrated from his mother's womb and appointed a prophet (Jer 1:5).

Question: What message does the angel-messenger give the wife of Manoah in this divine annunciation?
Answer:

1. Drink no wine or fermented liquor.
2. Eat nothing unclean.
3. Never cut the child's hair.
4. The child is to be God's Nazirite.
5. He will start rescuing Israel from the Philistines.

The promised child is to be a consecrated Nazirite according to the commands in Numbers chapter 6:1-21. 

1. To abstain from wine, fermented liquor and from any products from the vine including grapes, raisins, grape juice, vinegar; etc.
2. No razor will touch his head until the vow is completed.
3. Avoid a corpse.

In addition it is understood that all other commands and prohibitions of the Sinai Covenant are to be dutifully observed by the Nazirite including the eating of only "clean" animals and the avoidance of all "unclean" foods.

Question: What Nazirite restriction is absent from the Angel's instructions? Why?
Answer: The only requirement that was not mentioned was that a Nazirite could have no contact with the dead, even a dead relative. Since Samson's mission is to be a warrior-judge, perhaps this requirement was not to be enforced in his case.

The mother of a Nazirite from the womb is bound to the same restrictions in ingesting food and drink because the baby in the womb receives nourishment from her. The term Nazirite is related to the verb nazar, "to separate" or "abstain" (Num 6:1-3). Usually to take a Nazirite vow was entirely voluntary and limited to a specific period for a special purpose, but parents could take a vow on behalf of their child and effectively consecrated a child for a period of time or for a lifetime, as in the case of the judge-prophet Samuel (1 Sam 1:11, 24-28). In Samuel's case his parents made the vow for him but in Samson's case the vow is not taken by the parents.   Samson's Nazirite consecration is divinely determined rather than voluntarily assumed and it is for life. During the period of the vow the Nazirite had to observe dietary rules and other disciplines as the outward signs of his separation and consecration to God. He was to be committed to keeping himself ceremonially clean like members of the ministerial priesthood.

The fifth part of the deliverer cycle is God's announcement that He is sending or "raising up" a deliverer to save the Israelites from their enemies.
Question: How are the Angel's words to Samson's mother different from the usual deliverer announcement? See verse 5 and compare it with 13:5 with 3:9; 3:15 and 6:14?
Answer: He tells her that her son will start saving/delivering her people from the Philistines.

The woman immediately ran to share the news with her husband that a person who had the appearance of a "majestic" or "awesome" man came to her. She was in such awe of this person, who she has already determined was a divine person, that she did not ask him any questions for fear of offending him. 

Judges 13:8-18 ~ Manoah's Prayer

Question: What two petitions does Manoah make in his prayer?
Answer:

1. That the man of God should come again and appear to both of them.
2. That they be instructed in how to raise the child.

Question: Why does Manoah want the "man of God" to come to him as well?
Answer: His petition is motivated either by the natural desire to know more, or a nagging doubt that his wife has correctly understood, or he feels any such message should be given to him as the head of the family. His reason is that they do not know what they are to do for the child after he is born.

God's response to Manoah's petition is to send the Angel not to Manoah but instead, for a second time, to his wife.  She brings her husband to the Angel.

Question: Does the Angel answer either of Manoah's petitions in his earlier prayer or Manoah's repeated second petition in the form of a question in verse 12? Why?
Answer: No. It is clear that the woman is God's partner in the birth of His consecrated Nazirite. 

Manoah is prepared to observe the rules of hospitality by inviting the stranger to have a meal with them. He still does not recognize the true identity of the stranger and thinks the "man" is a prophet.
Question: Why does the Angel tell Manoah he cannot eat their food? What does his answer tell us about Jesus who ate with His disciples and Apostles after the Resurrection?
Answer: The Angel is a spiritual being and not human, therefore he cannot consume material food. That Jesus both ate and drank after His Resurrection demonstrates that He was not only resurrected spiritually but also physically.

The Sacrifice of Manoah (Eustache LeSueur)

Judges 13:19-25 ~ Manoah's Offering and the Birth of Samson

Like Gideon's offer of hospitality for his visitor in Judges 6:17-24, Manoah intends to fulfill the duties of hospitality, still unaware of the true identity of his visitor. As with Gideon, the fire theophany erases any doubt as to the identity of the visitor and Manoah is filled with fear like Gideon that he may die for having come into the presence of the divine. His wife comforts his fears. It is the woman's intuition that has been correct twice: first in recognizing the identity of the visitor as a divine personage and second in the assurance that God does not intend to kill them.

It appears that many of the Israelites had reverted back to the practice of worship and sacrifice during the age of the Patriarchs when every father of a family acted as a priest and offered sacrifice wherever and whenever he felt the need. This practice was supposed to change with the ratification of the Sinai Covenant in which an ordained priesthood offered sacrifice at God's one altar at God's one Sanctuary (Lev 17:1-9; Dt 12:5-14).   However, after taking possession of the Promised Land permission was given for animals to be humanely killed and eaten for food but not for sacrifice wherever the people settled (Dt 12:15-16); however, as in the case of Gideon, Yahweh has given His permission for Manoah and his wife to give an offering on a rock.

Samson grew up within the two towns out of the fourteen towns originally assigned to the tribe of Dan (Josh 19:41; 18:11). Zorah and Eshtaol were about seven and a half miles apart. The "Camp of Dan," located between the towns, may have been a militia camp to defend the remaining members of the tribe of Dan living in the two towns from the Philistines, or it may have been the only area remaining to the Danites whose towns are now occupied by Philistines. Samson's story begins and ends between Zorah and Eshtaol like Gideon's story began and ended at Ophrah (Judg 16:31). The Hebrew word issa is used for the fourteenth time in verse 24 since 13:2. It will continue to be a keyword in the Samson saga.

Chapter 14: The Judge Samson

Judges 14:1-11 ~ Samson Takes a Philistine Bride

Timnah was originally one of the fourteen cities given to the tribe of Dan and was about four miles west of Zorah and Eshtaol on the opposite side of the Valley of Sorek. It is now a Philistine city. Samson has reached young adulthood. In going "down" to Timnah, Samson is crossing the line physically and metaphorically between Israel and Philistia and will be blurring the line between love and lust.

What father or mother hasn't feared or experienced the pain of their son or daughter choosing to love someone who was unsuitable? His parents are deeply disappointed. The first thing Samson's parents think to ask is why he hadn't found someone suitable within the tribe of his Danite "brothers"/kinsmen or from one of the other tribes of Israel?

Question: Does their disappointment only stem from the fact that their son wants to marry a woman who is not from their cultural background or traditions? 
Answer: The additional problem is that the Israelites were expressly forbidden to give their sons in marriage with pagan women.

This is an impossible situation for loving future grandparents since any children born of this union will be lost to them. The Israelites are to be a consecrated people set apart from the other peoples of the earth by the sign of circumcision which identifies them as an elect covenant people. In addition, to the Israelites the marital covenant involves the deepest possible union between a man and a woman in which the husband and wife, according to God's command, become "one flesh" (Gen 2:24).   How can their son take a wife from among the uncircumcised without betraying his separation to God as an Israelite; and if his uniqueness as an Israelite is compromised, how can his deeper consecration to God as a Nazirite be maintained? Their deepest fear must be that their special son is betraying his identity as an Israelite and may be jeopardizing his status as God's Nazirite.

Question: What is Samson's response to his parents question in verse 3a? What is his demand and why might he take this course of action concerning his parents?
Answer: There is no response to their question or an apology for their pain. He rejects the objections of his parents and like an insistent child, speaking of the woman as though she were an object, demands that they secure the object of his desire for him despite their concerns.

It is God's plan to move Samson forward in his role as a "deliverer." It is a role he has perhaps been hesitant or too lazy to fulfill now that he is an adult. God will use his attraction for the women of the enemy to move forward his plan. The Philistines had spread inland from the coast and were now dominating the highlands. Soon they would be threatening the whole of Israel. God cannot approve of Samson's desire to marry a pagan woman who is not in covenant with Him since it is a decision that is contrary to His commands. He will, however, use this turn of events to move forward His divine plan to stop the Philistines from dispossessing Israel of the Promised Land.

Samson's Fight with the Lion (Lucas Cranach the Elder)

Samson accompanied his parents to Timnah to make arrangements with the woman's parents, but along the way, as they approach a vineyard, he separates from them (verse 6). The separation on the journey is symbolic of his emotional separation from his parents. Samson comes unexpectedly upon a young lion in the vineyard and kills it. The killing of the young lion in the vineyard is a demonstration of Samson's great strength, but it is also a metaphor for Samson and Israel. In Scripture Israel is described metaphorically as God's vineyard (for example see Is 5:1-17; 27:2-5; Ps 80:8-18), and young Samson is the young lion in the vineyard that is Israel.
Question: What is the metaphorical imagery in this episode? What question does the imagery raise?
Answer: Like the young lion, Samson is wild and unpredictable but also powerful. With help from the Spirit of Yahweh, he conquers the young lion in the vineyard on his journey to Timnah. But the question is will he be able to use the Spirit of Yahweh to conquer his own wildness like he conquered the lion in order to be an effective agent of God in Israel's deliverance from the Philistines?

Do not miss the fact that Samson separates himself from his parents on the journey and then fails to tell them about his adventure.   The symbolic elements of the episode in the vineyard in 14:5-6:

Element	Symbolism
Samson separates from his parents on the journey	Beginning of Samson's emotional distancing himself from his parents
The vineyard	Israel
The young lion	The young Samson
Yahweh's Spirit aids him in conquering the wild and unpredictable lion	The invitation for Samson to use Yahweh's Spirit to conquer his wild and unpredictable human nature
Withholding the event from his parents	Distancing himself from his parents established
Michal E. Hunt Copyright © 2013

There is a lot at stake here. Samson's wild, willful, and out-of-control human nature threatens God's plan for Israel and his own future if he is unable to master himself and submit himself in obedience to God's plan.

Question: Why doesn't he tell his parents about killing the lion?
Answer: He does not tell his parents probably because he does not want them to insist that he undergoes the required ritual purification and a sin sacrifice. Any contact with a dead animal required ritual purification and eating any part of a dead animal or anything that has come in contact with a dead animal was strictly forbidden (Lev 5:1-2, 5-6; 11:24-28).   But he is also distancing himself from his parents' involvement in his life.

Question: When he returns to his parents, he shares the honey with them but why doesn't he tell them where the honey came from? What is his double sin? 
Answer: That he did not tell his parents previously of his condition of ritual uncleanliness was bad enough, but now he makes them ritually unclean as well by giving them unclean food from the carcass of a dead animal. He is guilty of shamelessly manipulating his parents and his sin is both a failure to honor his parents as commanded in the Ten Commandments and in making them a party to his sin.

Samson, like Adam, knew the food was forbidden, but Samson's parents did not know that their son had sinned by violating the laws of ritual purity according to the covenant with Yahweh and had also made them also a party to his sin. The young lion Samson, like a wild beast, wants what he sees regardless of rules or regulations.

Judges 14:12-20 ~ Samson's Wedding Feast

Wedding Feast of Samson (Rembrandt)

It was the custom for a wedding feast to last seven days (Gen 29:27). This is the first of two times that a secret of Samson's will be betrayed by a woman he loved. He may be as strong as a giant and as wild as a lion, but he is also as gullible as a child. It was not uncommon for there to be entertainment during the seven days of wedding feasting and Samson introduces entertainment in the form of a riddle.
Question: What is the problem with Samson's choice of a diversion?
Answer: It is provocative and is bound to cause bad feelings. It is also unfair since the other men have no way of knowing the event that is behind the riddle to allow them to solve it.

Samson's wife was in a difficult position, but instead of trusting her new husband and alerting him to the threat against her and her family it is clear that her loyalties still rest with her people. In his anger at his betrayal by his wife, Samson makes a reference to her that is particularly offensive in verse 18.
Question: How does Samson refer to his wife?
Answer: He refers to her as though she is a domesticated animal he owns that was illegally used by someone else.

Samson's mission is not to marry Philistines and feast with them; his mission is to fight the Philistines and stop their advance into Israelite territory. God's Spirit moved Samson to war; unfortunately he turns what should be a holy war into a personal vendetta and pays his debt to the Philistines groomsmen by murdering and robbing their countrymen. Then he returns to in a rage to his father's house. It will only make matters worse that his Philistine father-in-law has given his wife to the "best man" Philistine attendant who is one of his enemies.

Chapter 15: War with the Philistines

Judges 15:1-8 ~ Samson burns the Philistines' Harvest

Like a child who has behaved badly after a tantrum and then expects to resume life without the consequences for his actions, Samson returns to the home of his wife's father and expects to resume marital relations. His father-in-law explains that his elder daughter has been given to the chief Philistine groomsman at his wedding than then tries to make amends by offering Samson his wife's younger sister.
Question: How does Samson once again turn what should be a holy war into a personal vendetta?
Answer: He destroys the Philistines' crops and vineyards.

Question: Since the Philistines cannot find Samson, how do they get retribution for his crimes against them?
Answer: They burn down the house of Samson's Philistine father-in-law, destroying his entire family.

It is ironic that in her attempt to save her family from the threat of death by fire in 14:15 Samson's wife betrayed him. But her betrayal didn't save her; instead it cost her and her family their lives.

Judges 15:9-13 ~ The Men of Judah give Samson to the Philistines

The Philistines want Samson and since he is hiding in territory controlled by the Israelite tribe of Judah, they attack the city of Lehi and demand that the Judahites turn Samson over to them. The Judahites see this as a crisis that could end in the loss of their land in a war with the more powerful Philistines.
Question: What do they agree to do to resolve the crisis?
Answer: They agree to turn their Israelite kinsman Samson over to their enemies.

Lehi will later be known as Ramath-lehi (Jawbone Hill), a name that recalls the events of this episode. Its exact location is unknown but it must have been located somewhere where the territories of the Philistines and the tribal lands of Judah intersected between the central highlands and the coastal plain. Knowing about Samson's great strength, the Judahite warriors didn't take any changes and came for him with a large number of men, represented by the three thousand, or what is more likely "three contingents of men" which would be seventy-five men.  They are ready to please their Philistine enemies rather than support their God ordained deliverer.   Samson has been betrayed by his wife and now he is betrayed by his own people.

Question: Despite his betrayal, he does not want to fight his own people.  What does he do?
Answer: He negotiates the terms of his surrender: he makes them swear not to attack him and kill him; then he allows them to bind him with "new ropes."

Judges 15:14-20 ~ Samson defeats the Philistines

The men of Judah deliver Samson to the Philistines at Lehi, but as the shouting Philistines came running towards him to seize him, the Spirit of Yahweh came upon him in the same way the Spirit of God came upon him when he was under attack by the lion.

In both episodes it is God who takes charge and moves the events forward toward a conclusion that is a victory for Samson against a powerful enemy. God's spirit rushes upon His deliverer and the bonds that held him are miraculously loosened. Whether he really killed a thousand Philistines with a jawbone of an ass or not is not the point. Samson uses an unconventional weapon at hand like Shamgar used the ox-goad (3:31) and Jael used the tent peg (4:21). It is possible the words elep is do not refer to a thousand men but a "contingent/unit of men," which would be twenty-five men. The point is that this time Samson is God's deliverer fulfilling his mission of a holy war against Israel's enemy and winning victory through God's intervention.

In verse 16 Samson sings a short victory song, then he gives God the credit for the victory and then, like a child again, complains that he is thirsty. In his complaint he expresses the fear that he could fall into the hands of his "uncircumcised" enemy. 

Samson was judge in Israel in the day of the Philistines for twenty years.
This statement should be the conclusion of the Samson narrative. It is a concluding statement like those for the minor judges. Most of the major judges' narratives ended in "the country then had peace for x years":

• Othniel: The country then had peace for forty years (Judg 3:11).
• Ehud: ...and the country had peace for eighty years (Judg 3:30).
• Deborah in: And the country had peace for forty years. Judg 5:31
• Gideon in: ...and the country had peace for forty years... Judg 8:28

However, Samson like the major judge Jephthah does not have the same concluding deliverer statement. Both have the statement ".... judged Israel for x years" (12:7 and 15:20), while the minor judges' short narratives (with the exception of Shamgar, Deborah's contemporary in chapter 3) have a similar statement:

• Tola: He was judge in Israel for twenty-three years (Judg 10:2).
• Jair: ... who judged Israel for twenty-two years (Judg 10:3).
• Ibzan: He was judge in Israel for seven years (Judg 12:9b).
• Elon: He was judge in Israel for ten years (Judg 12:11).
• Abdon: He was judge in Israel for eight years (Judg 12:14b).

+++
A Daily Defense
DAY 93 Cursing the Fig Tree 

CHALLENGE: “Jesus displayed gratuitous malice when he cursed a fig tree for not having fruit when it wasn’t even the season for figs.” 

DEFENSE: Jesus didn’t display gratuitous malice. He was teaching a lesson.

“Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, [Jesus] went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs” (Mark 11:13). The fig tree was known to produce fruit before putting forth leaves (Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 16:49).

Seeing a fig tree in leaf, Jesus had reason to suppose it had put forth figs earlier than usual. By its leaves, the tree made an outward show indicating fruit, but there was none. Jesus therefore used it to teach a lesson. 

On other occasions, Jesus criticized Jewish leaders of making a false, outward show of spirituality (Matt. 23:5–7, 25–28). He also used fruit to symbolize the results of true spirituality (Matt. 7:16 20, 12:33, 13:23, etc.). 

In particular, he indicted the chief priests and Pharisees for failing to produce spiritual fruit, saying: “I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation producing the fruits of it” (Matt. 21:43). 

By cursing the fig tree and causing it to wither, Jesus symbolized the fate of spiritual hypocrites and the judgment coming upon the Jewish leadership. This is confirmed in Mark’s account. Scholars have noted that Mark often sequences material so that two halves of a story are interrupted by something important that sheds light on them. Places where Mark sandwiches material this way are known as “Markan sandwiches.” 

The cursing of the fig tree is such a case: Jesus first curses the fig tree (Mark 11:12–14), then he clears the temple of those abusing its holiness (11:15–19), and then the disciples return and see the fig tree withered (11:20–21). The Jewish authorities, despite their outward religiosity, had allowed the temple to be corrupted, and juxtaposing Jesus’ judgment on the temple with the cursing of the fig tree reveals the message that the latter teaches. It also foretells the doom of the Jewish authorities and the temple itself (Mark 12:1–12, 13:1–2).

Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist