Judges 15:6

6 The Philistines said, "Who did this?" They were told, "Samson, son-in-law of the Timnite who took his bride and gave her to his best man." The Philistines went up and burned both her and her father to death.

Judges 15:6 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 15:6

Then the Philistines said, who hath done this?
&c.] They asked and inquired one of another, who they thought could be the author of such mischief:

and they answered, Samson, the son in law of the Timnite;
this they said either by conjecture, which might be the case of some; and others more confidently asserted it, having heard what he said, ( Judges 15:3 ) and they assign a very good reason for it,

because he had already taken away his wife, and given her to his
companion,
which had provoked him to do such an action as this; and perhaps the very same persons that were very well pleased before that Samson was so served, yet now were full of wrath and indignation at the Timnite, having suffered so much in their property on his account:

and the Philistines came up, and burnt her and her father with fire;
Josephus F4 says, her and her relations; they set fire to her father's house, where she was, and burnt them both in it, whereby that evil came upon her she thought to avoid by getting the secret of the riddle out of Samson, and telling it to his companion, ( Judges 14:15 ) and suffered the proper punishment for her adultery; the people that did this were those that lived in the towns adjacent, from whence they came up to Timnath, whose fields, vineyards, and oliveyards, had been destroyed by the foxes with their firebrands.


FOOTNOTES:

F4 Antiqu. l. 5. c. 8. sect. 7.

Judges 15:6 In-Context

4 Samson then went out and caught three hundred jackals. He lashed the jackals' tails together in pairs and tied a torch between each pair of tails.
5 He then set fire to the torches and let them loose in the Philistine fields of ripe grain. Everything burned, both stacked and standing grain, vineyards and olive orchards - everything.
6 The Philistines said, "Who did this?" They were told, "Samson, son-in-law of the Timnite who took his bride and gave her to his best man." The Philistines went up and burned both her and her father to death.
7 Samson then said, "If this is the way you're going to act, I swear I'll get even with you. And I'm not quitting till the job's done!"
8 With that he tore into them, ripping them limb from limb - a huge slaughter. Then he went down and stayed in a cave at Etam Rock.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.