Judges 15:10

10 “Why have you attacked us?” said the men of Judah. The Philistines replied, “We have come to arrest Samson and pay him back for what he has done to us.”

Judges 15:10 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 15:10

And the men of Judah said
To the Philistines, very probably by a deputation, which they sent unto them, to know the reason of this formidable appearance:

why are ye come up against us?
in this hostile manner, with such a number of forces, since they were not conscious to themselves that they had done anything to offend them; they had not attempted to cast off their yoke, they quietly submitted to their government, and had paid their whole tribute, as Josephus ^F6 represents them saying; they could not imagine what should be the meaning of all this:

and they answered, to bind Samson are we come up;
that is, to oblige them to bind him, and deliver him into their hands:

to do to him as he hath done to us:
to put him to death, as he had slain many of their people in the last rencounter with them.

---

FOOTNOTES:

F6 Ut supra. (Antiqu. l. 5. c. 8. sect. 8.)

Judges 15:10 In-Context

8 And he struck them ruthlessly with a great slaughter, and then went down and stayed in the cave at the rock of Etam.

9 Then the Philistines went up, camped in Judah, and deployed themselves near the town of Lehi.

10 “Why have you attacked us?” said the men of Judah. The Philistines replied, “We have come to arrest Samson and pay him back for what he has done to us.”

11 In response, three thousand men of Judah went to the cave at the rock of Etam, and they asked Samson, “Do you not realize that the Philistines rule over us? What have you done to us?” “I have done to them what they did to me,” he replied.

12 But they said to him, “We have come down to arrest you and hand you over to the Philistines.” Samson replied, “Swear to me that you will not kill me yourselves.”