The Woman Is Killed and Samson Vows Vengeance

After the agricultural fire, Philistines identify Samson and attack the Timnite household; Samson later hides at the rock of Etam.

The fire in 15:4-5 follows the father's transfer of Samson's wife. During the earlier riddle dispute, men threatened to burn her and her father's house (14:15). This unit makes the threat's danger concrete without proving that the later killers are exactly the earlier speakers. Philistines then enter Judah to seize Samson (15:9-13).

The threat of burning becomes lethal murder, followed by another turn of retaliatory killing.

Understanding the Big Idea

After discovering that Samson burned the crops, Philistines burn his wife and her father to death. Their earlier threat of fire against her household has become lethal reality. Samson announces vengeance, strikes Philistines in a great slaughter, and stays at the rock of Etam. The killers bear responsibility for the murders; the passage gives no death count for Samson's subsequent attack or divine command to avenge them.

To name the Philistines’ murder of Samson’s wife and her father after the crop fire, then trace Samson’s retaliatory vow and slaughter without assigning blame to the threatened woman.

The wife’s death and Samson’s retaliation are not a gospel pattern of justice through escalating violence. Christ’s death for sins and resurrection are the gospel (1 Corinthians 15:3-4); this passage should move readers toward truthful lament and protection of the endangered, never toward revenge as salvation.

1. Who lights the crops, and who burns the woman and her father?
2. How does 15:6 relate to the threat in 14:15?
3. What does Samson vow, and is that a narrator command?
4. What does the passage say about the scale of the following slaughter?
5. How can a teacher keep the victims visible instead of using them only to explain Samson’s anger?