And Samson said unto them, Though ye have done this, yet will I be avenged of you, and after that I will cease.
The verse belongs to the history of Samson in Judges 14-16, whose birth fulfilled the divine promise to Manoah, and who just as he entered manhood was to carry out his divine mission as judge and deliverer of Israel at the time when above all faithfulness to God was required of him. His extraordinary physical strength did not come from well-built muscles or well-knit sinews but from his lifelong consecration as a Nazarite from birth, of which his unshorn hair was the symbol. Living near Zorah, friendly mingling with the Philistines corrupted him, for intimate association with idolaters darkened his whole life. He joined himself to Israel's enemies by insisting on marrying the Philistine woman from Timnath against the dissuasion of his God-fearing parents, answering only that she pleased him well, without asking whether the union would glorify God or place him where he could fulfill his life purpose, in transgression of God's command.
The wife to obtain whom he had thus transgressed proved treacherous before the marriage feast ended, though Philistine threats had driven her to the deceit with which the trouble began. After he left her for a time and then relented, he found her given as wife to another man. His retaliation by laying waste to all the Philistine fields and vineyards provoked them to brutally murder her. In the verse he vows to be avenged upon the Philistines for that barbarous murder before ceasing, and moved by anger he attacks them and strikes them with a great slaughter, then withdraws to a safe retreat at the rock Etam in the tribe of Judah.
Had he obeyed the divine commands as faithfully as his parents did, his destiny would have been nobler and happier. God has promised wisdom to all who seek first to honor Him, but He gives no such promise to those bent on pleasing themselves. Judges 15 as a whole shows his course ending in shame, disaster and death because he gave free rein to passion instead of relying on God's strength and obeying His laws. Physical strength could not make up for weakness in self-control, integrity and firmness.
The verse belongs to the history of Samson in Judges 14-16, whose birth fulfilled the divine promise to Manoah, and who just as he entered manhood was to carry out his divine mission as judge and deliverer of Israel at the time when above all faithfulness to God was required of him. His extraordinary physical strength did not come from well-built muscles or well-knit sinews but from his lifelong consecration as a Nazarite from birth, of which his unshorn hair was the symbol. Living near Zorah, friendly mingling with the Philistines corrupted him, for intimate association with idolaters darkened his whole life. He joined himself to Israel's enemies by insisting on marrying the Philistine woman from Timnath against the dissuasion of his God-fearing parents, answering only that she pleased him well, without asking whether the union would glorify God or place him where he could fulfill his life purpose, in transgression of God's command.
The wife to obtain whom he had thus transgressed proved treacherous before the marriage feast ended, though Philistine threats had driven her to the deceit with which the trouble began. After he left her for a time and then relented, he found her given as wife to another man. His retaliation by laying waste to all the Philistine fields and vineyards provoked them to brutally murder her. In the verse he vows to be avenged upon the Philistines for that barbarous murder before ceasing, and moved by anger he attacks them and strikes them with a great slaughter, then withdraws to a safe retreat at the rock Etam in the tribe of Judah.
Had he obeyed the divine commands as faithfully as his parents did, his destiny would have been nobler and happier. God has promised wisdom to all who seek first to honor Him, but He gives no such promise to those bent on pleasing themselves. Judges 15 as a whole shows his course ending in shame, disaster and death because he gave free rein to passion instead of relying on God's strength and obeying His laws. Physical strength could not make up for weakness in self-control, integrity and firmness.