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Judges 15

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Judges 15 Overview

Samson returns intending to visit his wife and discovers that her father has given her to another man. He retaliates by burning Philistine crops, the Philistines retaliate by killing the woman and her father, and Samson strikes them again. When Philistines threaten Judah, three thousand men of Judah bind Samson and hand him over, but the Spirit of the LORD comes mightily upon him and he kills a thousand men with the jawbone of an ass. Exhausted afterward, Samson calls on the LORD, who provides water.

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Before you read Judges 15

Coming from

Chapter 14 ended with Samson’s wedding collapsing after the Philistines forced his wife to reveal the answer to his riddle.

In this chapter

Personal retaliation escalates into open conflict with the Philistines, and Samson’s supernatural deliverance exposes both Philistine oppression and Judah’s willingness to submit to it.

Leads into

Chapter 16 brings Samson’s final encounters with Philistine women, including Delilah, his capture and humiliation, and his death while destroying the temple of Dagon.

Key understandingExplore deeper

The cycle of vengeance is intentionally ugly: Samson burns crops, the Philistines burn people, Samson strikes them, and the Philistines march against Judah. Judah’s response is especially revealing; rather than rallying around a deliverer, they say to Samson, 'Knowest thou not that the Philistines are rulers over us?' The thousand-man victory at Lehi is attributed to the Spirit of the LORD, but Samson’s own language afterward risks self-focus until his desperate thirst drives him to call upon God.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

Truth 1

Unchecked retaliation multiplies harm and widens conflict far beyond the original offense.

Truth 2

Israel’s oppression has become psychologically entrenched: men of Judah are more ready to bind Samson than to challenge Philistine rule.

Truth 3

Samson’s extraordinary strength again depends on the Spirit of the LORD rather than ordinary human ability.

Truth 4

After a spectacular victory, Samson is still physically dependent on God for something as basic as water.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

Connection 1

Romans 12:19 teaches believers not to avenge themselves; Samson’s escalating personal vengeance should not be treated as a model for Christian conduct.

Connection 2

Judges 13:5 announced that Samson would begin to deliver Israel from the Philistines, and this chapter shows that conflict growing even while Judah remains passive.

Connection 3

Hebrews 11:32 later names Samson in a survey of faith, but that commendation does not require approval of every retaliatory motive recorded in Judges.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Keep this clear 1

Do not confuse God’s empowerment of Samson in battle with approval of every step that led to the battle. The narrative can show divine deliverance through a morally complicated man.

Keep this clear 2

The jawbone is an improvised weapon in this event, not a sacred object or a required symbol to decode.

Keep this clear 3

Samson’s phrase about having slain a thousand men 'with the jawbone of an ass' reflects his speech in the moment; the chapter’s larger narrative still emphasizes divine empowerment and provision.

Read Judges 15 watching for…

The sequence of retaliation between Samson and the Philistines.

What the men of Judah say about Philistine rule.

What happens to the cords when the Spirit of the LORD comes upon Samson.

Samson’s words after the victory compared with his prayer when he becomes thirsty.

The note that Samson judged Israel twenty years.

Chapter outline4 sections

1-8Samson burns the Philistines’ crops after his wife is denied him 9-13The men of Judah bind Samson and deliver him to the Philistines 14-17Samson breaks the cords and strikes a thousand men with a jawbone 18-20The LORD gives Samson water, and he judges Israel twenty years

But it came to pass within a while after, in the time of wheat harvest, that Samson visited his wife with a kid; and he said, I will go in to my wife into the chamber. But her father would not suffer him to go in.

And her father said, I verily thought that thou hadst utterly hated her; therefore I gave her to thy companion: is not her younger sister fairer than she? take her, I pray thee, instead of her.

And Samson said concerning them, Now shall I be more blameless than the Philistines, though I do them a displeasure.

And Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took firebrands, and turned tail to tail, and put a firebrand in the midst between two tails.

And when he had set the brands on fire, he let them go into the standing corn of the Philistines, and burnt up both the shocks, and also the standing corn, with the vineyards and olives.

Then the Philistines said, Who hath done this? And they answered, Samson, the son in law of the Timnite, because he had taken his wife, and given her to his companion. And the Philistines came up, and burnt her and her father with fire.

And Samson said unto them, Though ye have done this, yet will I be avenged of you, and after that I will cease.

And he smote them hip and thigh with a great slaughter: and he went down and dwelt in the top of the rock Etam.

Then the Philistines went up, and pitched in Judah, and spread themselves in Lehi.

And the men of Judah said, Why are ye come up against us? And they answered, To bind Samson are we come up, to do to him as he hath done to us.

Then three thousand men of Judah went to the top of the rock Etam, and said to Samson, Knowest thou not that the Philistines are rulers over us? what is this that thou hast done unto us? And he said unto them, As they did unto me, so have I done unto them.

And they said unto him, We are come down to bind thee, that we may deliver thee into the hand of the Philistines. And Samson said unto them, Swear unto me, that ye will not fall upon me yourselves.

And they spake unto him, saying, No; but we will bind thee fast, and deliver thee into their hand: but surely we will not kill thee. And they bound him with two new cords, and brought him up from the rock.

And when he came unto Lehi, the Philistines shouted against him: and the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him, and the cords that were upon his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire, and his bands loosed from off his hands.

And he found a new jawbone of an ass, and put forth his hand, and took it, and slew a thousand men therewith.

And Samson said, With the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, with the jaw of an ass have I slain a thousand men.

And it came to pass, when he had made an end of speaking, that he cast away the jawbone out of his hand, and called that place Ramathlehi.

And he was sore athirst, and called on the LORD, and said, Thou hast given this great deliverance into the hand of thy servant: and now shall I die for thirst, and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised?

But God clave an hollow place that was in the jaw, and there came water thereout; and when he had drunk, his spirit came again, and he revived: wherefore he called the name thereof Enhakkore, which is in Lehi unto this day.

And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.

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Judges 15:2

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