A verse by verse commentary on Judges 15 dealing with Samson's vengeance on the Philistines.as he struck down a thousand men with the jawbone of an donkey.

1. JUDGES 15 COMME TARY
EDITED BY GLE PEASE
Samson’s Vengeance on the Philistines
1 Later on, at the time of wheat harvest, Samson
took a young goat and went to visit his wife. He
said, “I’m going to my wife’s room.” But her
father would not let him go in.
Samson does not have a clue that the woman is no longer his wife. He is all cooled
off now and feeling ready to consumate his marriage. His rage had passed and
romance now flows through his veins instead. He comes bearing a gift of a goat just
like a modern young man would be coming to apologize with flowers. He just
walked away from the marriage because of his great anger, but now has come to
realize that he really wants that woman for a wife. So he is coming back to seek her
forgiveness, and also to forgive her for her betrayal of him. He comes expecting a
great reconciliation, and he expects it to take place in the woman's bedroom. It does
not take a genius to figure out just what is pulling Samson back to this home and to
this bedroom. He is not looking for a place to nap, but is looking to consumate his
marriage. There have been too many interruptions between the celebration and the
consumation and he is sick of waiting to go to bed with this dream girl he married.
It is time to kiss and make up, and so he comes with a young goat to show he is
willing to pay for his bad behavior. "Women need a reason to have sex. Men just
need a place." -- Billy Crystal
He just marches in as if he owned the place and tells his new father in law that he is
going to his wife's room. Dad says " ot so fast lover boy, things have changed since
you were here last." He explains to him that he cannot just waltz back into their
lives after the way he acted. "You abandoned your wife and hightailed it back to
mommy and daddy, and I figured you were out of the picture for good, so I gave
your wife to your friend." This was not the closure that Samson was hoping for at
all. He comes looking for romance and gets a heavy dose of rejection instead. He is
not likely the first man to come home and find his wife in bed with another man, but
seldom to never is the man she is with her new husband. So on with the soap opra!

2. BAR ES, “Visited his wife with a kid - A common present (see Gen_38:17; Luk_
15:29). From Samson’s wife being still in her father’s house, it would seem that she was
only betrothed, not actually married, to his companion.
CLARKE, “Visited his wife with a kid - On her betraying him, he had, no doubt,
left her in great disgust. After some time his affection appears to have returned; and,
taking a kid, or perhaps a fawn, as a present, he goes to make reconciliation, and finds
her given to his brideman; probably, the person to whom she betrayed his riddle.
GILL, “But it came to pass within a while after,.... Or "after days", a year after,
the same phrase as in Jdg_14:8 in the time of wheat harvest; which began at Pentecost,
as barley harvest did at the passover; this circumstance is mentioned for the sake of the
following piece of history:
that Samson visited his wife with a kid; by this time his passion of anger subsided,
and he "remembered" his wife, as the Targum expresses it, and thought proper to return
to her, and attempt a reconciliation with her; and for that purpose took a kid with him to
eat a meal with her in her own apartment, which in those days was reckoned an elegant
entertainment, and was a present to a king, 1Sa_16:20. Isidore (s) derives the Latin word
for a kid, "ab edendo", from eating, as if it was food by way of eminency, as it is both
savoury and wholesome:
and he said, I will go with my wife into the chamber; where she was, as women
had their chambers and apartments by themselves; this he said within himself, or
resolved in his own mind, and perhaps expressed it in her father's hearing, or however
moved that way, which plainly indicated his design:
but her father would not suffer him to go in; placed himself perhaps between him
and the door, and parleyed with him, and declared he should not go into his daughter's
chamber; Samson, through his superior strength, could easily have pushed him away,
and broke open the door, but he did not choose to use such violent methods, and
patiently heard what he had to say, and submitted.
HE RY, “Here is, I. Samson's return to his wife, whom he had left in displeasure; not
hearing perhaps that she was given to another, when time had a little cooled his
resentments, he came back to her, visited her with a kid, Jdg_15:1. The value of the
present was inconsiderable, but it was intended as a token of reconciliation, and perhaps
was then so used, when those that had been at variance were brought together again; he
sent this, that he might sup with her in her apartments, and she with him, on his
provision, and so they might be friends again. It was generously done of Samson, though
he was the party offended and the superior relation, to whom therefore she was bound in
duty to sue for peace and to make the first motion of reconciliation. When differences
happen between near relations, let hose be ever reckoned the wisest and the best that are
most forward to forgive and forget injuries and most willing to stoop and yield for peace'

3. sake.
JAMISO , “Jdg_15:1, Jdg_15:2. Samson is denied his wife.
in the time of wheat harvest — that is, about the end of our April, or the beginning
of our May. The shocks of grain were then gathered into heaps, and lying on the field or
on the threshing-floors. It was the dry season, dry far beyond our experience, and the
grain in a most combustible state.
Samson visited his wife with a kid — It is usual for a visitor in the East to carry
some present; in this case, it might be not only as a token of civility, but of reconciliation.
he said — that is, to himself. It was his secret purpose.
into the chamber — the female apartments or harem.
K&D, “Further Acts of Samson. - Jdg_15:1-8. His Revenge upon the Philistines. -
Jdg_15:1.
Some time after, Samson visited his wife in the time of the wheat harvest with a kid-a
customary present at that time (Gen_38:17)-and wished to go into the chamber (the
women's apartment) to her; but her father would not allow him, and said, “I thought
thou hatedst her, and therefore gave her to thy friend (Jdg_14:20): behold her younger
sister is fairer than she; let her be thine in her stead.”
COFFMA , “SAMSO 'S VE GEA CE AGAI ST THE PHILISTI ES;
HIS VAI ATTEMPT TO CO TI UE HIS MARRIAGE
"But it came to pass after awhile, 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 unto
them, This time shall I be blameless in regard of the Philistines, when I do them
mischief."
The family into which Samson had married had suffered a shocking disgrace in the
eyes of their whole city when Samson had rushed away without consummating the
marriage, and since some time had evidently elapsed without Samson's making any
appearance in his wife's home, one can readily understand the father-in-law's
behavior in giving Samson's wife to the person we might call his "best man." The
situation, however, could not have justified such an action.
"In the time of the wheat harvest" (Judges 15:1). This indicates a different season of
the year from that when the wedding had occurred.
"Samson visited his wife with a kid" (Judges 15:1). This is an indication of the kind
of marriage that was contracted. It was like that of Gideon and his concubine, in

4. which the wife continued to live in her father's house, with the husband paying
occasional visits. Myers tells us that the technical name of such a marriage was "a
sadiga marriage."[1]
The gift of a little goat for his wife seems also to have been the customary price of
conjugal visits, that being exactly the price that Judah agreed to pay Tamar for his
"going in unto her," not knowing that she was his daughter-in-law (Genesis 38:17).
It seems never to have occurred to Samson that he was a bit late with this attempt to
consummate his marriage.
Of course, Samson's father-in-law would not allow Samson to see his new wife and
explained what had happened.
"Her younger sister is fairer than she ... take her, I pray thee, instead of her"
(Judges 15:2). Samson's father-in-law learned, as had Samson's parents, that
"nobody, but nobody, would be allowed to help Samson get a wife"!
"I shall be blameless, when I do them mischief" (Judges 15:3). This was Samson's
blunt rejection of the offer of her younger sister, and it was also the statement of his
intention to take vengeance on all the Philistines. either Samson nor the Philistines
knew anything about a "Golden Rule." The father-in-law had indeed avoided what
he considered a disgrace to his family, but he had failed to take into account the
kind of man Samson was. He had a just cause for revenge, and he would certainly
take advantage of it. The father-in-law's offer of the younger sister was an
admission of the injustice done to Samson.
Barnes explained the new situation here, as follows:
"When the Philistines, earlier, had injured Samson (in the matter of the riddle), he
was in covenant with the Timnathites through his marriage and the laws of
hospitality, for which reason he went down to Ashkelon to take his revenge (Judges
14:19), but now that the Philistines themselves had broken this bond, he was free to
take his revenge on the spot."[2]
COKE, “Samson is denied his wife: he burneth the Philistines' corn; he is bound by
the men of Judah, and delivered to the Philistines: he breaketh his bands, and
killeth one thousand of the Philistines with the jaw-bone of an ass; the Lord giveth
water to quench his thirst.
Before Christ 1155.
ELLICOTT, “Judges 15:1-2. Samson, desiring to return to his wife, learns that she
has been betrothed to another. Judges 15:3-5. He revenges himself by setting fire to
the crops of the Philistines by means of jackals and fire-brands. Judges 15:6. The
Philistines burn his wife and her father. Judges 15:7-8. He inflicts a massacre upon
them. Judges 15:9-13. He is handed over to them by the people of Judah. Judges

5. 15:14-17. He breaks his cords, and slaughters a thousand with the jaw-bone of an
ass. Judges 15:18-19. The Fountain of the Crier.
Verse 1
(1) Within a while after.—“After days” (Judges 11:4; Judges 14:8).
In the time of wheat harvest.—This, in the Shephelah, would be about the middle of
May.
Visited his wife with a kid.—We find the same present given by Judah to Tamar in
Genesis 38:17. We may compare the complaint of the elder brother of the prodigal,
given him a kid (Luke 15:29).
I will go in to my wife.—Uxoriousness was the chief secret of the weakness and ruin
of Samson, as it was afterwards of a very different type of man, Solomon.
Into the chamber.—Song of Solomon 1:4; Song of Solomon 3:4.
TRAPP, “15:1 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.
Ver. 1. But it came to pass within a while after.] When Samson had now digested the
wrong his wife had done by disclosing his secrets, as Fulvia did Catiline’s. Married
couples must either not fall out, or not go long unreconciled -
“ Qum modo pugnarant iungant sua rostra columbae. ” - Ovid.
Visited his wife with a kid.] As a token of his kindness. So Isaac feasted Abimelech
and his company, [Genesis 26:30] to show that there was no rancour, or purpose of
revenge. Feasting together hath, as Athenaeus saith of wine, ελκυστικον τι προς
φιλιαν a force to make men friends.
PETT, “Introduction
Samson the Deliverer
God’s Sixth Lesson - the Rise of the Philistines - God Raises Up Samson (Judges
13:1 to Judges 16:31).
The story of Samson is one of the most remarkable in the Bible. It demonstrates
quite clearly that God can use the inadequacies of a man within His purposes. When
God raised up Samson from birth He knew the propensities that he would have for
good or evil. He gave him every opportunity for success but knew that he would
eventually fail. Yet from that failure He purposed to produce success. Samson is an
encouragement to all, that if the heart is right, God can use a man, even in his

6. weakness, in His purposes.
Chapter 15. Samson At The Height of His Success.
This chapter goes on to relate how Samson, being denied his wife, gained his
revenge by burning the corn fields, vineyards, and olives of the Philistines, as a
result of which they burned his wife and his father-in-law in return, and how,
because of their burning of her and her father, he indulged in great slaughter
among them. This brought the Philistines against the men of Judah, who took
Samson and bound him, to deliver him to the Philistines. Whereupon he, freeing
himself, slew a thousand of them with the jaw bone of an ass, and being thirsty, was
wonderfully supplied with water by God.
Verse 1
Chapter 15. Samson At The Height of His Success.
This chapter goes on to relate how Samson, being denied his wife, gained his
revenge by burning the corn fields, vineyards, and olives of the Philistines, as a
result of which they burned his wife and his father-in-law in return, and how,
because of their burning of her and her father, he indulged in great slaughter
among them. This brought the Philistines against the men of Judah, who took
Samson and bound him, to deliver him to the Philistines. Whereupon he, freeing
himself, slew a thousand of them with the jaw bone of an ass, and being thirsty, was
wonderfully supplied with water by God.
Judges 15:1
‘And so it happened that after a while, at the time of wheat harvest, Samson visited
his wife with a young goat, and he said, “I will go in to my wife into the chamber.”
But her father would not allow him to go in.’
As far as Samson was concerned he was now legally married to the Philistine
woman, and once his anger had subsided and he had had time to get over her
betrayal, he went to see his wife taking her a present, intending to consummate his
marriage (possibly the young goat was a Philistine fertility symbol). But
understandably the father would not allow him to go in, for she had been given to
another and had consummated a marriage with him. It may even be that the
husband was there with her. This no doubt came as a great shock to Samson who
seems to have been genuinely fond of the girl.
“At the time of wheat harvest.” This time note was important to explain what
follows.
BI 1-20, “I verily thought that thou hadst utterly hated her.
Wrong-doers naturally seek to justify themselves
This spirit of self-justification, which is generally associated with wrong-doing, appeared
very early in the history of our race (Gen_3:12-13). And the same spirit is commonly

7. found still amongst all ranks and classes of wrong-doers. Frank and full
acknowledgment of a wrong is exceedingly rare. In most cases the wrong-doer through
self-love aims at making the wrong appear right, or as near to right as one may expect
from fallible men; and in this endeavour to exonerate himself he is in great danger of
blinding the eye of his conscience and tampering with the sanctities of truth. Hence it
behoves us, in the interests of our moral nature, to abhor that which is evil and cleave to
that which is good; and, when we have done wrong through weakness or the stress of
temptation, frankly and at once to confess it. The person who does wrong and seeks to
justify it, is morally on the down-grade. (Thomas Kirk.)
Now shall I be more blameless than the Philistines.
Infliction of wrong is sometimes overruled for the good of the sufferer
In the providence of God this great wrong freed Samson from the meshes of an
unworthy alliance, and awoke him to the responsibilities of his position as the divinely-
chosen champion of his people. And wrongs, even great and heartrending wrongs, are
often permitted by God, sometimes for the purpose of rescuing Satan’s slaves from his
servitude, and sometimes for the purpose of rescuing His own people from the enslaving
power of some unworthy passion. The injustice which abounds in the world is not an
unmixed evil. Tyrants, extortioners, dishonest merchants, and all sorts of wrong-doers
to their fellow-men, are used by God for beneficent ends. They often constrain those who
groan under the wrongs which they inflict to think of God and the things unseen and
eternal, and to enter on a new and a divine life. Great wrongs from men often lead the
sufferers to see and repent of the great wrongs which they have done against God. They
have often been the means of breaking their moral and spiritual slavery, and bringing
them into the liberty wherewith Christ makes His people free. And great wrongs have
been the means not only of giving freedom to the slaves of sin and Satan, but also of
purifying and ennobling the people of God. The great wrongs of the Babylonian captivity
burnt out of the Jewish people the besetting sin of idolatry. The great wrongs which the
apostles and the early Church had to endure at the hands of their wicked persecutors
were, like the furnace to silver or gold, the means of their moral or spiritual refinement
(Rom_5:3-4; 2Co_4:17). We may deplore and abhor the wrongs which are perpetrated
in the world and on the Church; but let us also gratefully behold this silver lining in the
cloud, which comes from the gracious overruling providence of God. (Thomas Kirk.)
Samson went and caught three hundred foxes.—
Three hundred foxes in the corn
Surely it is not so unheard of and incredible a thing, to have collected such a number of
these animals in ancient times, as to destroy the credibility and literality of our story,
because it contains this statement about the foxes. Did not Sylla show at one time to the
Romans one hundred lions? And Caesar four hundred, and Pompey six hundred? The
history of Roman pleasures, according to the books, states that the Emperor Probus let
loose into the theatre at one time one thousand wild boars, one thousand does, one
thousand ostriches, one thousand stags, and a countless multitude of other wild animals.
At another time he exhibited one hundred leopards from Libya, one hundred from Syria,
and three hundred bears. When the caviller settles his hypercriticism with Vopiscus’s
Life of Probus, and with Roman history generally, we shall then consider whether our

8. story should be rejected as incredible because of its three hundred foxes. It has also been
proved by learned men that the Romans had the custom, which they seem to have
borrowed from the Phoenicians, who were near neighbours of the Philistines—if they
were not Philistines themselves—of letting loose, in the middle of April (the feast of
Ceres)—the very time of wheat-harvest in Palestine, but not in Italy—in the circus, a
large number of foxes with burning torches to their tails. Is Samson’s the original, or did
he adopt a common custom of the country? The story of the celebrated Roman
vulpinaria, or feast of the foxes, as told by Ovid and others, bears a remarkable similarity
to the history before us, ascribing the origin of this Roman custom to the following
circumstance: A lad caught a fox which had stolen many fowls, and having enveloped
‘his body with straw, set it on fire and let it run loose. The fox, hoping to escape from the
fire, took to the thick standing corn which was then ready for the sickle; and the wind
blowing hard at the time, the flames soon consumed the crop. And from this
circumstance ever afterwards a law of the city of Rome required that every fox caught
should be burnt alive. This is the substance of the Roman story, which Bochart and
others insist took its rise from the burning of the cornfields of the Philistines by
Samson’s foxes. The Judaean origin of the custom is certainly the most probable, and in
every way the most satisfactory. (W. A. Scott, D. D.)
The Philistines . . . burnt her and her father.—
The fate of Samson’s wife an illustration of retributive justice
Samson’s wife in trying to avoid Scylla fell into Charybdis. She betrayed her husband,
because she feared her brethren would burn her and her father’s house with fire, and yet
by their hands she was burned with fire and her father also. It is still the rule of
Providence, that as men measure to others so it shall be measured to them again. It
should be eternally before our minds that true principle is the only expediency. All
history, both sacred and profane, shows that the evil that men do in trying to escape by
continuing to sin—by doing wrong to correct a wrong—always meets them sooner or
later in their flight. Sin added to sin only enhances guilt. Those that hasten to be rich, by
resorting to dishonest means, and have accumulated property by fraud, do not generally
long enjoy it. They seldom retain their gains, and if they do, how can they enjoy them
haunted with a guilty conscience? It is a singular and significant providence that so
many of the inventors of means for taking the life of their fellow-men should have
perished by their own inventions, Gunpowder was the death of its inventor; Phalaris was
destroyed by his own “brazen bull” The regent Morton who first introduced the
“Maiden,” a Scottish instrument of decapitation, like the inventor of the guillotine,
perished by his own instrument. Danton and Robespierre conspired the death of
Vergniaud and of his republican covertures, the noble Girondists, and then Robespierre
lived only long enough to see the death of Danton before perishing himself by the same
guillotine. (W. A. Scott, D. D.)
The Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him.—
How we may burst the bonds of sin
The descent of the Spirit of the Lord upon us is the grand power by which we may burst
asunder the strongest cords of sinful habit with which we may be bound. These cords,
with which men freely bind themselves, increase in strength as they advance in years. By

9. an inexorable law of our moral nature, sinful habits become the more binding the more
they are indulged. The drunkard of two years’ standing is more enslaved by the love of
drink than the drunkard of one year’s standing, and less them the drunkard of five or
ten. And the same is true of every evil habit. The longer men continue in sin, they
strengthen the chains of their own enslavement. Men may be able, in their own strength
of will, to free themselves from this and the other evil habit; the drunkard may become
sober, the licentious chaste, the dishonest upright, and so on. There can be no doubt that
many, by their unaided exertions, have reformed themselves, and become respectable
and useful members of society. But even with regard to such moral reformation it is
sometimes—may I not say frequently?—true, that men of themselves are unable to
secure it. There are many drunkards, e.g., who seem to lack the power of bursting the
fetters with which the love of drink has bound and enslaved them. And what seems to be
true of some in reference to particular vices is true of all in reference to the spirit of
insubordination to the Divine will. All men are naturally rebellious; and this
insubordination grows with our growth, and strengthens with our strength. But what is
impossible to man in his own strength, in reference both to this spirit of rebellion and
particular vices, is possible to man in the strength of the Spirit of God. Any man, the
most enslaved, the most powerfully bound with the cords and fetters of sin and vice, may
obtain his spiritual freedom. What he needs is that the Spirit of the Lord come mightily
upon him, as He did upon Samson, and any man who sincerely prays for this wondrous
endowment shall obtain it. This is the grand hope which Jesus Christ has brought to our
race. (Thomas Kirk.)
The jawbone of an ass.—
The rudest weapon not to be despised in God’s service
When God has work for you to do, a conquest for you to make, a deliverance of others for
you to effect, He will not leave you without a weapon; it may not always be a very
promising one, but still a weapon. Samson might, no doubt, have slain more with a
sword if he had had one; and so it is well that in all you do for God you provide yourself
with as likely weapons as you can possibly get. But sometimes you find yourself, like
Samson, in circumstances where you must act quickly, and where you cannot provide
yourself with what you might think the best weapon, but must take the first that comes
to hand. You are, e.g., suddenly prompted by your conscience to say a word of rebuke to
some profane or wicked person, or a word of warning to some one who is, as you know,
casting off even ordinary restraints, and giving way to evil passions; but you feel your
want of wisdom and fluency; you know you can never say a thing as it ought to be said—
you wish you could, you wish you were well enough equipped for this, which you feel to
be really a desirable duty. Now in such circumstances it is more than half the battle to
attempt the duty with such weapon as we have, in the faith that God will help us. A rude
weapon, wielded by a vigorous arm, and by one confident in God, did more than the fine
swords of these men of Judah, who had no spirit in them; and in very much of the good
that we are all called upon to do to one another in this world it is the spirit in which we
do it that tells far more than the outward thing we do. And it is a good thing to be
reduced to reliance, not on the weapon you use, but on the Spirit who uses you. Samson
found it so, and gave a name to that period of his history where he learned this; and so
does every one look back gratefully to the time when he distinctly became aware that
efficiency in duty depends on God’s taking us and using us as His weapons. (Marcus
Dods, D. D.)

10. Samson’s weapon
I. Samson fought the battle single-handed against three thousand men. It is a feature of
God’s heroes in all ages that they fight whether they are in the minority or the majority.
God has wrought His greatest works through single champions.
II. Samson fought without the usual weapons of warfare. The Philistines were armed,
but he had no sword. Well, now, what did Sampson do? A man that is raised by God for
special work has keen eyes, as a rule. He sees what there is about him and to what use
everything can be put. This moist bone had all its natural strength in it. Samson laid
hold of that. He knew what he was about, and what he could do with that weapon, and
he turned it to terrible uses.
III. Samson won the victory with a poor weapon. He was not one of those who excused
himself for bad work by complaining about the tool he used. I have known some little
boys at school, over whose copy books I have looked. When I have said, “Oh, here is a
blot,” they have replied, “Yes, but the ink bottle was too full.” And so in many other
instances I have noticed that bad writers blame the pens, and bad workers blame the
instruments they have had to work with. If you see a bad carpenter, the plane is always
wrong. On the other hand, if you see a good workman, he never blames his tools, but
makes the best of them. (D. Davies.)
Shall I die for thirst?—
The fainting hero
My drift is the comforting of God’s saints, especially in coming to the table of their Lord.
I. You have already experienced great deliverances. Happy is it for you that you have not
had the slaying of a thousand men, but there are “heaps upon heaps” of another sort
upon which you may look with quite as much satisfaction as Samson, and perhaps with
less mingled emotions than his, when he gazed on the slaughtered Philistines.
1. See there the great heaps of your sins, all of them giants, and any one of them
sufficient to drag you down to the lowest hell. But they are all slain; there is not a
single sin that speaks a word against you.
2. Think, too, of the heaps of your doubts and fears. Do you not remember when you
thought God would never have mercy upon you? “Heaps upon heaps” of fears have
we had; bigger heaps than our sins, but there they lie—troops of doubters. There are
their bones and their skulls, as Bunyan pictured them outside the town of Mansoul;
but they are all dead, God having wrought for us a deliverance from them.
3. Another set of foes that God has slain includes our temptations. Some of us have
been tempted from every quarter of the world, from every corner of the compass.
There has not been a bush behind which an enemy has not lurked, no inch of the
road to Canaan which has not been overgrown with thorns. But look back upon
them. Your temptations, where are they? Your soul has escaped like a bird out of the
snare of the fowler.
4. So, let me say, in the next place, has it been with most of your sorrows. Like Job’s
messengers, evil tidings have followed one another, and you have been brought very
low. But, in Christ Jesus, you have been delivered. “Many are the afflictions of the

11. righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of them all.”
II. Yet fresh troubles will assail you, and excite your alarm. Thus Samson was thirsty.
This was a new kind of want to him. He was so thirsty that he was near to die. The
difficulty was totally different from any that Samson had met before. Now I think there
may be some of you who have been forgiven, saved, delivered, and yet you do not feel
happy. God has done great things for you, whereof you are glad, yet you cannot rejoice;
the song of your thanksgiving is hushed. Let me say two or three words to you. It is very
usual for God’s people, when they have had some great deliverance, to have some little
trouble that is too much for them. Look at Jacob; he wrestles with God at Peniel, and
overcomes Omnipotence itself, and yet he goes “halting on his thigh!” Strange, is it not,
that there must be a touching of the sinew whenever you and I win the day? It seems as if
God must teach us our littleness, our nothingness, in order to keep us within bounds.
III. If you are now feeling any present trouble pressing so sorely that it takes away from
you all power to rejoice in your deliverance, remember that you are still secure. God will
as certainly bring you out of this present little trouble as He has brought you out of all
the great troubles in the past.
1. He will do this because if He does not do it your enemy will rejoice over you. If you
perish, the honour of Christ will be tarnished, and the laughter of hell will be excited.
What! a Child of God forsaken of his Father! God will never permit the power of
darkness to triumph over the power of light.
2. That is one reason for confidence, but another reason is to be found in the fact
that God has already delivered you. I asked you just now to walk over the battlefield
of your life, and observe the heaps of slaughtered sins, and fears, and cares, and
troubles. Do you think He would have done all that He has done for you if He had
intended to leave you? The God who has so graciously delivered you hitherto has not
changed; He is still the same as He ever was. Bethink you if He does not do so He will
lose all that He has done. When I see a potter making a vessel, if he is using some
delicate clay upon which he has spent much preliminary labour to bring it to its
proper fineness, and if I see him again and again moulding the vessel—if I see,
moreover, that the pattern is coming out—if I know that he has put it in the oven,
and that the colours are beginning to display themselves—I bethink me were it
common delf ware I could understand his breaking up what he had done, because it
would be worth but little; but since it is a piece of rich and rare porcelain upon which
months of labour had been spared , I could not understand his saying, “I will not go
on with it,” because he would lose so much that he has already spent. Look at some
of those rich vessels by Bernard de Palissy, which are worth their weight in gold, and
you can hardly imagine Bernard stopping when he had almost finished, and saying,
“I have been six months over this, but I shall never take the pains to complete it.”
Now, God has spent the blood of His own dear Son to save you; He has spent the
power of the Holy Spirit to make you what He would have you be, and He will never
stay His mighty hand till His work is done. “Hath He said, and shall He not do it?
Hath He begun, and shall He not complete?” (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Samson’s prayer
There are two facts in the prayer which Samson recognises and pleads with God.
1. One is that he is the Lord’s servant he describes himself as “Thy servant.” Samson,
in all his hostile acts against the Philistines, evidently regarded himself as doing the

12. work for which God raised him up.
2. The other is, that his recent glorious victory, which was a wonderful deliverance
not only to Samson but to his country, was due to God: “Thou hast given this great
deliverance.” And after stating these two facts, he uses them as a plea for the relief of
his present distresses: “And now shall I die for thirst . . . ?” Surely God cannot allow
such a disgraceful end to happen to His own servant, for whom He had wrought such
a wonderful deliverance! (Thomas Kirk.)
He revived.—
Spiritual renewal in answer to prayer
In this incident we may see an illustration of the principle on which God has acted
towards His people in all ages. His promise is, “As thy days, so shall thy strength be.”
The strength for to-day, like the manna of old, is only sufficient for the necessities of to-
day; and if we would be equal to the duties of the morrow, or to any emergency that may
arise, we must get fresh strength from the Lord. Without spiritual renewal, after
exhausting labour or conflict, we shall become faint and ready to perish; so it is always
with the mightiest spiritual warriors; but if we cry unto the Lord in our times of
faintness, He will hear us, as He did Samson, and He will open up for us, not in the
hollow of some desert place outside, but in the depths of our own parched souls, a spring
whose pure living waters will gladden and revive our languid hearts. (Thomas Kirk.).
EXPOSITOR’S BIBLE COMMENTARY, “DAUNTLESS IN BATTLE, IGNORANTLY
BRAVE
15:1-20
GIVEN a man of strong passions and uninstructed conscience, wild courage and giant
energy, with the sense of a mission which he has to accomplish against his country’s
enemies, so that he reckons himself justified in doing them injury or killing them in the
name of God, and you have no complete hero, but a real and interesting man. Such a
character, however, does not command our admiration. The enthusiasm we feel in
tracing the career of Deborah or Gideon fails us in reviewing these stories of revenge in
which the Hebrew champion appears as cruel and reckless as an uncircumcised
Philistine. When we see Samson leaving the feast by which his marriage has been
celebrated and marching down to Ashkelon where in cold blood he puts thirty men to
death for the sake of their clothing, when we see a countryside ablaze with the standing
corn which he has kindled, we are as indignant with him as with the Philistines when
they burn his wife and her father with fire. Nor can we find anything like excuse for
Samson on the ground of zeal in the service of pure religion. Had he been a fanatical
Hebrew mad against idolatry, his conduct might find some apology; but no such clue
offers. The Danite is moved chiefly by selfish and vain passions, and his sense of official
duty is all too weak and vague. We see little patriotism and not a trace of religious
fervour. He is serving a great purpose with some sincerity, but not wisely, not generously
nor greatly. Samson is a creature of impulse working out his life in blind almost animal
fashion, perceiving the next thing that is to be done not in the light of religion or duty,

13. but of opportunity and revenge. The first of his acts against the Philistines was no
promising start in a heroic career, and almost at every point in the story of his life there
is something that takes away our respect and sympathy. But the life is full of moral
suggestion and warning. He is a real and striking example of the wild Berserker type.
1. For one thing this stands out as a clear principle that a man has his life to live, his
work to do, alone if others will not help, imperfectly if not in the best fashion, half-
wrongly if the right cannot be clearly seen. This world is not for sleep, is not for inaction
and sloth. "Whatsoever thy hand finds to do, do it with thy might." A thousand men in
Dan, ten thousand in Judah did nothing that became men, sat at home while their
grapes and olives grew, abjectly sowed and reaped their fields in dread of the Philistines,
making no attempt to free their country from the hated yoke. Samson, not knowing
rightly how to act, did go to work and, at any rate, lived. Among the dull spiritless
Israelites of the day, three thousand of whom actually came on one occasion to beseech
him to give himself up and bound him with ropes that he might be safely passed over to
the enemy, Samson with all his faults looks like a man. Those men of Dan and Judah
would slay the Philistines if they dared. It is not because they are better than Samson
that they do not go down to Ashkelon and kill. Their consciences do not keep them back;
it is their cowardice. One who with some vision of a duty owing to his people goes forth
and acts, contrasts well with these chicken hearted thousands.
We are not at present stating the complete motive of human activity nor setting forth the
ideal of life. To that we shall come afterwards. But before you can have ideal action you
must have action. Before you can have life of a fine and noble type you must have life.
Here is an absolute primal necessity; and it is the key to both evolutions, the natural and
the spiritual. First the human creature must find its power and capability and must use
these to some end, be it even a wrong end, rather than none; after this the ideal is caught
and proper moral activity becomes possible. We need not look for the full corn in the ear
till the seed has sprouted and grown and sent its roots well into the soil. With this light
the roll of Hebrew fame is cleared and we can trace freely the growth of life. The heroes
are not perfect; they have perhaps barely caught the light of the ideal; but they have
strength to will and to do, they have faith that this power is a divine gift, and they having
it are God’s pioneers.
The need is that men should in the first instance live so that they may be faithful to their
calling. Deborah looking round beheld her country under the sore oppression of Jabin,
saw the need and answered to it. Others only vegetated; she rose up in human stature
resolute to live. That also was what Gideon began to do when at the divine call he
demolished the altar on the height of Ophrah; and Jephthah fought and endured by the
same law. So soon as men begin to live there is hope of them.
Now the hindrances to life are these-first, slothfulness, the disposition to drift, to let
things go; second, fear, the restriction imposed on effort of body or of mind by some
opposing force ingloriously submitted to; third, ignoble dependence on others. The
proper life of man is never reached by many because they are too indolent to win it. To
forecast and devise, to try experiments, pushing out in this direction and that is too
much for them. Some opportunity for doing more and better lies but a mile away or a

14. few yards; they see but will not venture upon it. Their country is sinking under a despot
or a weak and foolish government; they do nothing to avert ruin, things will last their
time. Or again, their church is stirred with throbs of a new duty, a new and keen anxiety;
but they refuse to feel any thrill, or feeling it a moment they repress the disturbing
influence. They will not be troubled with moral and spiritual questions, calls to action
that make life severe, high, heroic. Often this is due to want of physical or mental vigour.
Men and women are overborne by the labour required of them, the weary tale of bricks.
Even from youth they have had burdens to bear so heavy that hope is never kindled. But
there are many who have no such excuse. Let us alone, they say, we have no appetite for
exertion, for strife, for the duties that set life in a fever. The old ways suit us, we will go
on as our fathers have gone. The tide of opportunity ebbs away and are left stranded.
Next, and akin, there is fear, the mood of those who hear the calls of life but hear more
clearly the threatenings of sense and time. Often it comes in the form of a dread of
change, apprehension as regards the unknown seas on which effort or thought would
launch forth. Let us be still, say the prudent; better to bear the ills we have than fly to
others that we know not of. Are we ground down by the Philistines? Better suffer than be
killed. Are our laws unjust and oppressive? Better rest content than risk revolution and
the upturning of everything. Are we not altogether sure of the basis of our belief? Better
leave it unexamined than begin with inquiries the end of which cannot be foreseen.
Besides, they argue, God means us to be content. Our lot in the world however hard is of
His giving; the faith we hold is of His bestowing. Shall we not provoke Him to anger if
we move in revolution or in inquiry. Still it is life they lose. A man who does not think
about the truths he rests on has an impotent mind. One who does not feel it laid on him
to go forward, to be brave, to make the world better has an impotent soul. Life is a
constant reaching after the unattained for ourselves and for the world.
And lastly there is ignoble dependence on others. So many will not exert themselves
because they wait for some one to come and lift them up. They do not think, nor do they
understand that instruction brought to them is not life. No doubt it is the plan of God to
help, the many by the instrumentality of the few, a whole nation or world by one. Again
and again we have seen this illustrated in Hebrew history, and elsewhere the fact
constantly meets us. There is one Luther for Europe, one Cromwell for England, one
Knox for Scotland, one Paul for early Christianity. But at the same time it is because life
is wanting, because men have the deadly habit of dependence that the hero must be
brave for them and the reformer must break their bonds. The true law of life on all
levels, from that of bodily effort upwards, is self-help; without it there is only an infancy
of being. He who is in a pit must exert himself if he is to be delivered. He who is in
spiritual darkness must come to the light if he is to be saved.
Now we see in Samson a man who in his degree lived. He had strength like the strength
of ten; he had also the consecration of his vow and the sense of a divine constraint and
mandate. These things urged him to life and made activity necessary to him. He might
have reclined in careless ease like many around. But sloth did not hold him nor fear. He
wanted no man’s countenance nor help. He lived. His mere exertion of power was the
sign of higher possibilities.

15. Live at all hazards, imperfectly if perfection is not attainable, half-wrongly if the right
cannot be seen. Is this perilous advice? From one point of view it may seem very
dangerous. For many are energetic in so imperfect a way, in so blundering and false a
way that it might appear better for them to remain quiet, practically dead than degrade
and darken the life of the race by their mistaken or immoral vehemence. You read of
those traders among the islands of the Pacific who, afraid that their nefarious traffic
should suffer if missionary work succeeded, urged the natives to kill the missionaries or
drive them away, and when they had gained their end quickly appeared on the scene to
exchange for the pillaged stores of the mission house muskets and gunpowder and
villainous strong drink. May it not be said that these traders were living out their lives as
much as the devoted teachers who had risked everything for the sake of doing good?
Napoleon I, when the scheme of the empire presented itself to him and all his energies
were bent on climbing to the summit of affairs in France and in Europe-was not he living
according to a conception of what was greatest and best? Would it not have been better if
those traders and the ambitious Corsican alike had been content to vegetate-inert and
harmless through their days? And there are multitudes of examples. The poet Byron for
one-could the world not well spare even his finest verse to be rid of his unlawful energy
in personal vice and in coarse profane word?
One has to confess the difficulty of the problem, the danger of praising mere vigour. Yet
if there is risk on the one side the risk on the other is greater: and truth demands risk,
defies peril. It is unquestionable that any family of men when it ceases to be enterprising
and energetic is of no more use in the economy of things. Its land is a necropolis. The
dead cannot praise God. The choice is between activity that takes many a wrong
direction, hurrying men often towards perdition, yet at every point capable of
redemption, and on the other hand inglorious death, that existence which has no
prospect but to be swallowed up of the darkness. And while such is the common choice
there is also this to be noted that inertness is not certainly purer than activity, though it
may appear so merely by contrast. The active life compels us to judge of it; the other, a
mere negation, calls for no judgment, yet is in itself a moral want, an evil and injury.
Conscience being unexercised decays and death rules all.
Men cannot be saved by their own effort and vigour. Most true. But if they make no
attempt to advance towards strength, dominion, and fulness of existence, they are the
prey of force and evil. Nor will it suffice that they simply exert themselves to keep body
and soul together. The life is more than meat. We must toil not only that we may
continue to subsist, but for personal distinctness and freedom. Where there are strong
men, resolute minds, earnestness of some kind, there is soil in which spiritual seed may
strike root. The dead tree can produce neither leaf nor flower. In short, if there is to be a
human race at all for the divine glory it can only be in the divine way, by the laws that
govern existence of every degree.
2. We come, however, to the compensating principle of responsibility-the law of Duty
which stands over energy in the range of our life. No man, no race is justified by force or
as we sometimes say by doing. It is faith that saves. Samson has the rude material of life;
but though his action were far purer and nobler it could not make him a spiritual man:
his heart is not purged of sin nor set on God.

16. Granted that the time was rough, chaotic, cloudy, that the idea of injuring the Philistines
in every possible way was imposed on the Danite by his nation’s abject state, that he had
to take what means lay in his power for accomplishing the end. But possessed of energy
he was deficient in conscience, and so failed of noble life. This may be said for him that
he did not turn against the men of Judah who came to bind him and give him up. Within
a certain range he understood his responsibility. But surely a higher life than he lived,
better plans than he followed were possible to one who could have learned the will of
God at Shiloh, who was bound to God by a vow of purity and had that constant reminder
of the Holy Lord of Israel. It is no uncommon thing for men to content themselves with
one sacrament, one observance which is reckoned enough for salvation-honesty in
business, abstinence from strong drink, attendance on church ordinances. This they do
and keep the rest of existence for unrestrained self-pleasing, as though salvation lay in a
restraint or a form. But whoever can think is bound to criticise life, to try his own life, to
seek the way of salvation, and that means being true to the best he knows and can know;
it means believing in the will of God. Something higher than his own impulse is to guide
him. He is free, yet responsible. His activity, however great, has no real power, no
vindication unless it falls in with the course of divine law and purpose. He lives by faith.
Generally there is one clear principle which, if a man held to it, would keep him right in
the main. It may not be of a very high order, yet it will prepare the way for something
better and meanwhile serve his need. And for Samson one simple law of duty was to
keep clear of all private relations and entanglements with the Philistines. There was
nothing to hinder him from seeing that to be safe and right as a rule of life. They were
Israel’s enemies and his own. He should have been free to act against them: and when he
married a daughter of the race he forfeited as an honourable man the freedom he ought
to have had as a son of Israel. Doubtless he did not understand fully the evil of idolatry
nor the divine law that Hebrews were to keep themselves separate from the worshippers
of false gods. Yet the instincts of the race to which he belonged, fidelity to his forefathers
and compatriots made their claim upon him. There was a duty too which he owed to
himself. As a brave strong man he was discredited by the line of action which he
followed. His honour lay in being an open enemy to the Philistines, his dishonour in
making underhand excuses for attacking them. It was base to seek occasion against them
when he married the woman at Timnah, and from one act of baseness he went on to
others because of that first error. And chiefly Samson failed in his fidelity to God.
Scarcely ever was the name of Jehovah dragged through the mire as it was by him. The
God of truth, the divine Guardian of faithfulness, the God who is light, in Whom is no
darkness at all, was made by Samson’s deeds to appear as the patron of murder and
treachery. We can hardly allow that an Israelite was so ignorant of the ordinary laws of
morality as to suppose that faith need not be kept with idolaters; there were traditions of
his people which prevented such a notion. One who knew of Abraham’s dealings with the
Hittite Ephron and his rebuke in Egypt could not imagine that the Hebrew lay under no
debt of human equity and honor to the Philistine. Are there men among ourselves who
think no faithfulness is due by the civilised to the savage? Are there professed servants of
Christ who dare to suggest that no faith need be kept with heretics? They reveal their
own dishonour as men, their own falseness and meanness. The primal duty of intelligent
and moral beings cannot be so dismissed. And even Samson should have been openly
the Philistines’ enemy or not at all. If they were cruel, rapacious, mean, he ought to have
shown that Jehovah’s servant was of a different stamp. We cannot believe morality to
have been at so low an ebb among the Hebrews that the popular leader did not know

17. better than he acted. He became a judge in Israel, and his judgeship would have been a
pretence unless he had some of the justice, truth, and honour which God demanded of
men. Beginning in a very mistaken way he must have risen to a higher conception of
duty, otherwise his rule would have been a disaster to the tribes he governed.
Conscience has originated in fear and is to decay with ignorance, say some. Already that
extraordinary piece of folly has been answered. Conscience is the correlative of power,
the guide of energy. If the one decays, so must the other. Living strongly, energetically,
making experiments, seeking liberty and dominion, pressing towards the higher, we are
ever to acknowledge the responsibility which governs life. By what we know of the divine
will we are to order every purpose and scheme and advance to further knowledge. There
are victories we might win, there are methods by which we might harass those who do us
wrong. One voice says, Snatch the victories, go down by night and injure the foe,
insinuate what you cannot prove, while the sentinels sleep plunge your spear through
the heart of a persecuting Saul. But another voice asks, Is this the way to assert moral
life? Is this the line for a man to take? The true man swears to his own hurt, suffers and
is strong, does in the face of day what he has it in him to do and, if he fails, dies a true
man still. He is not responsible for obeying commands of which he is ignorant, nor for
mistakes which he cannot avoid. One like Samson is clean handed in what it would be
unutterably base for us to do. But close beside every man are such guiding ideas as
straightforwardness, sincerity, honesty. Each of us knows his duty so far and cannot
deceive himself by supposing that God will excuse him in acting, even for what he counts
a good end, as a cheat and a hypocrite. In politics the rule is as clear as in
companionship, in war as in love.
It has not been asserted that Samson was without a sense of responsibility. He had it,
and kept his vow. He had it, and fought against the Philistines. He did some brave
things, openly and like a man. He had a vision of Israel’s need and God’s will. Had this
not been true he could have done no good; the whole strength of the hero would have
been wasted. But he came short of effecting what he might have effected just because he
was not wise and serious. His strokes missed their aim. In truth Samson never went
earnestly about the task of delivering Israel. In his fulness of power he was always half in
sport, making random shots, indulging his own humour. And we may find in his career
no inapt illustration of the careless way in which the conflict with the evils of our time is
carried on. With all the rage for societies and organisations there is much haphazard
activity, and the fanatic for rule has his contrast in the freelance who hates the thought
of responsibility. A curious charitableness too confuses the air. There are men who are
full of ardour today and strike in with some hot scheme against social wrongs, and the
next day are to be seen sitting at a feast with the very persons most to blame, under some
pretext of finding occasion against them or showing that there is "nothing personal."
This perplexes the whole campaign. It is usually mere bravado rather than charity, a
mischief, not a virtue.
Israel must be firm and coherent if it is to win liberty from the Philistines. Christians
must stand by each other steadily if they are to overcome infidelity and rescue the slaves
of sin. The feats of a man who holds aloof from the church because he is not willing to be
bound by its rules count for little in the great warfare of the age. Many there are among
our literary men, politicians, and even philanthropists who strike in now and again in a

18. Christian way and with unquestionably Christian purpose against the bad institutions
and social evils of our time, but have no proper basis or aim of action and maintain
towards Christian organisations and churches a constant attitude of criticism. Samson-
like they make showy random attacks on "bigotry," "inconsistency" and the like. It is not
they who will deliver man from hardness and worldliness of soul; not they who will bring
in the reign of love and truth.
3. Looking at Samson’s efforts during the first part of his career and observing the want
of seriousness and wisdom that marred them, we may say that all he did was to make
clear and deep the cleft between Philistines and Hebrews. When he appears on the scene
there are signs of a dangerous intermixture of the two races, and his own marriage is
one. The Hebrews were apparently inclined to settle down in partial subjection to the
Philistines and make the best they could of the situation, hoping perhaps that by and by
they might reach a state of comfortable alliance and equality. Samson may have intended
to end that movement or he may not. But he certainly did much to end it. After the first
series of his exploits, crowned by the slaughter at Lehi, there was an open rupture with
the Philistines which had the best effect on Hebrew morals and religion. It was clear that
one Israelite had to be reckoned with whose strong arm dealt deadly blows. The
Philistines drew away in defeat. The Hebrews learned that they needed not to remain in
any respect dependent or afraid. This kind of division grows into hatred; but, as things
were, dislike was Israel’s safety. The Philistines did harm as masters; as friends they
would have done even more. Enmity meant revulsion from Dagon worship and all the
social customs of the opposed race. For this the Hebrews were indebted to Samson; and
although he was not himself true all along to the principle of separation, yet in his final
act he emphasised it so by destroying the temple of Gaza that the lesson was driven
home beyond the possibility of being forgotten.
It is no slight service those do who as critics of parties and churches show them clearly
where they stand, who are to be reckoned as enemies, what alliances are perilous. There
are many who are exceedingly easy in their beliefs, too ready to yield to the Zeit Geist
that would obliterate definite belief and with it the vigour and hope of mankind. Alliance
with Philistines is thought of as a good, not a risk, and the whole of a party or church
may be so comfortably settling in the new breadth and freedom of this association that
the certain end of it is not seen. Then is the time for the resolute stroke that divides party
from party, creed from creed. A reconciler is the best helper of religion at one juncture;
at another it is the Samson who standing alone perhaps, frowned on equally by the
leaders and the multitude, makes occasion to kindle controversy and set sharp variance
between this side and that. Luther struck in so. His great act was one that "rent
Christendom in twain." Upon the Israel which looked on afraid or suspicious he forced
the division which had been for centuries latent. Does not our age need a new divider?
You set forth to testify against Philistines and soon find that half your acquaintances are
on terms of the most cordial friendship with them, and that attacks upon them which
have any point are reckoned too hot and eager to be tolerated in society. To the few who
are resolute duty is made difficult and protest painful: the reformer has to bear the sins
and even the scorn of many who should appear with him.
PARKER, “IT would be unjust to consider this as a finished picture of the man of
strength. In all that we have said we have endeavoured to establish by good reasoning

19. and clear reference. But it would be unjust to pronounce upon any life after merely
looking at a few incidental points in its course. That is a danger to which all criticism is
exposed. We are prone to look upon vivid incidents, and to omit all the great breadths
and spaces of the daily life, and to found our judgment of one another upon peculiarities,
eccentricities, and very vivid displays of strength, or very pitiful exhibitions of weakness.
This is wrong; this is unjust. Samson has indeed done many things that have startled us.
We have been inclined to say now and again in the course of our study, This is the man—
the whole man; in this point, or in that, we have the key of his character. Now the reality
is that Samson is a greater man than the mere outline of the romantic part of his history
would suggest. There was another man than that which we have just seen pass before
us—the great giant, the man who played with things that were burdens to other men, the
man who was infantile in mental weakness on many occasions; there is another man
within that outer Prayer of Manasseh , and until we understand somewhat of that
interior personality we cannot grasp the whole character of Samson. We must judge men
by the mass of their character. Who would not resent the idea of being tested by the
incidents of a few months, rather than being judged by the level and the general tone and
the average of a lifetime? Man does not reveal himself in little points, except incidentally
and illustratively: hence we must live with the Prayer of Manasseh , and so far as history
will allow us to do so we must become identified with him: when we get to understand
his motives we shall begin to comprehend his conduct, and when we put together the
night and the day, the summer and the winter, the fair youth and the white old age, then
we may be in some degree prepared to say what the man in reality was. When this rule of
judgment obtains we shall get rid of all pettish ness of criticism, all vain remark upon
one another: before pronouncing the final judgment, and especially a harsh verdict, we
shall say: We do not know enough about him; we have only seen a few points in the man;
he seems to be a greater and fuller man than he disclosed himself to be on the occasions
when we saw him; had we seen more of him, and known more of him, we should have
come probably to a more generous conclusion. That is the rule of Christian charity, and
whoso violates it is no friend of Christ. He may show a certain kind of critical ability, and
the very malice of hell in the power of sneering, but he knows nothing about the agony
and the love of the Cross.
Is the life of Samson, then, comprehended within these few incidents which have just
passed before us? The incidents upon which we have remarked might all have occurred
within a few months. What was the exact position of Samson in Israel? He judged Israel
twenty years. How often is that fact over" looked! we speak of the great strong Prayer of
Manasseh , the elephantine child, the huge monstrosity, but who thinks of twenty years"
service—the consideration of all the necessities of the people, the frown which made the
enemy afraid, the smile which encouraged struggling virtue, the recognition which came
very near to being an inspiration? Who knows what headache and heartache the man
had in prosecuting and completing the judgeship? Who can be twenty full years at any
one service without amassing in that time features, actions, exhibitions of strength and
weakness, sagacity, folly,—all of which ought to be taken into account before
pronouncing final judgment? Thus may it be with us, or it will go hard with us in the day
of partial and prejudiced criticism. Who will condemn you for one little month in your
life? Then you were in very deed a fool; you know it; you own it: you broke through the
sacred law; you did things you dare not name; you reeled and stumbled and fell, but
were up again in a moment. Shall he be judge of your life who saw the reeling and the
falling? or shall he be judge who knows that for ten years, twenty, or more, you walked
right steadily, a brave soul, charged with generous thoughts, and often doing good with

20. both hands? So it must be with all men. But we are prone to break that rule. How small
we are, and unjust, herein; we will turn off a friend who has served us twenty years
because of one petulant word which he spoke! Who has the justice, not to say generosity,
to take in a whole lifetime, and let little incidents or great incidents fall into their proper
perspective? Until we do this we cannot ply the craft of criticism: we are ill Judges , and
we shall do one another grievous injury.
Some physical constitutions are to be pitied. Samson"s was particularly such a
constitution. He seemed to be all body. He appeared to have run altogether into bone
and muscle. He was obviously only a giant. How seldom we see more than one aspect of
a man! call up any great name in Biblical history, and you will find how often one little,
or great, characteristic is supposed to sum up and express the man. We call up the name
of Moses, and think of nothing but his meekness: whereas, there was no man in all the
ancient gallery of portraits that could burn with a fiercer anger; he brake stones upon
stones, and shattered the very tablets written by the finger of God. We say, Characterise
Jeremiah , and instantly we think of his tears, and call him the weeping prophet:
whereas who concealed an eloquence equal to his?—a marvellous, many-coloured
eloquence, now so strong, and now so pathetic: now all lightning, and now all tears. We
must beware of the sophism that a life can be summed up in one little characteristic.
Herein God will be Judge. Some men cannot be radiant. They may think they are, but
they are only making sport for the Philistines when they are trying the trick of
cheerfulness which they cannot learn. Other men cannot be wise. If they have conceived
some plan of Song of Solomon -called Wisdom of Solomon , and submit it to you, and
take it back again, they set it upside down, and forget exactly where it began and where it
ended. They are to be pitied. Weakness is written right across the main line of the face;
weakness characterises every tone of the voice. They are not to be judged harshly.
Blessed be God, the judgment is with himself, and what if the first be last, and the last be
first?
2 “I was so sure you hated her,” he said, “that I
gave her to your companion. Isn’t her younger
sister more attractive? Take her instead.”
This is an unbelievable situation that would put this story at the top of the soap opra
charts. Dads can understand this father wanting his daughter to be married. He
paid for this wedding and they spent a week celebrating her becoming a wife. He
was not about to let her still be single after all that, and so he gave her to the best
man at the wedding. I do not know if he was as insensitive as someone wrote, "His
father-in-law steps in and says, “Listen buck wheat, you left. So, I gave your wife

21. away. But, hey, I’ve got her little sister here. She’s a knock-out. Take her instead.”
This is “Let’s Make a Deal With My Daughters.” The whole situation is very much
like a sitcom joke, but Samson is not laughing. He is not impressed with the offer of
the sister and does not bother to take a look at this supposedly beautiful substitute.
He wants his own heifer. His rage is now rekindled. Had it been modern times this
cast would have made a pretty penny or two by appearing on the Jerry Springer
show. How often does a new groom find out he is looking to commit adultery with
his bride because she is now married to his best man? If you are looking for rare
relationship stories, look no further, for this takes the prize. Adam woke up and
found out he had a wife by his side. Jacob woke up and discovered he was married
to the wrong woman. Life is full of surprizes. But who but Samson ever woke up to
discover that his wife was married to another man? That was truly a rude
awakening, and it is understandable that it put Samson back in a bad mood.
The photographer for a national magazine was assigned to get
photos of a great forest fire. Somke at the scene hampered him
and he asked his home office to hire a plane. Arrangements were
made and he was told to go at once to a nearby airport, where the
plane would be waiting. When he arrived at the airport, a plane
was warming up near the runway. He jumped in with his equipment
and yelled, "Let's go! Let's go!" The pilot swung the plane
into the wind and they soon were in the air. "Fly over the north
side of the fire," yelled the photographer, "and make three or
four low level passes." "Why?" asked the pilot. "Because I'm
going to take pictures," cried the photographer. "I'm a
photographer and photographers take pictures!" After a pause the
pilot said, "You mean you're not the instructor?" The Jokesmith
BAR ES, “I gave her - In marriage. Samson had probably not heard of this before.
Samson’s father had paid the dowry for the older sister; her father therefore offers her
sister in her room. The fear of Samson probably also influenced him.
CLARKE, “Thou hadst utterly hated her - As he was conscious she had given
him great cause so to do.
Her younger sister - The father appears to have been perfectly sincere in this offer.
GILL, “And her father said, I verily thought that thou hadst utterly hated
her,.... Not only thought so, but said so, and had said it over and over again; for the
words are, "saying I said" (t), affirmed it confidently and constantly, that "in hating thou
hast hated her" (u), with an implacable hatred, that there was no hope of any
reconciliation:

22. therefore I gave her to thy companion; this he said to excuse his daughter, and
soften his resentment, that it was not his daughter's doing, but his, and that he had
disposed of her not to anybody, but to a companion of Samson's; and what follows seems
to be said with the same view, for he might be in some fear of Samson, knowing him to
be a man of spirit and strength:
is not her younger sister fairer than she? take her, I pray thee, instead of
her; that is, to wife; and two things he observes to recommend her, her youth and
beauty, in which she was preferable to her sister. Such incestuous marriages were
common with the old Canaanites, and it seems still continued; but were condemned by
the law of God, and not allowed an Israelite, which Samson knew full well, and therefore
listened not to the proposal; see Lev_18:3.
HE RY, “The repulse he met with. Her father forbade him to come near her; for
truly he had married her to another, Jdg_15:2. He endeavours, 1. To justify himself in
this wrong: I verily thought that thou hadst utterly hated her. A very ill opinion he had
of Samson, measuring that Nazarite by the common temper of the Philistines; could he
think worse of him than to suspect that, because he was justly angry with his wife, he
utterly hated her, and, because he had seen cause to return to his father's house for a
while, therefore he had abandoned her for ever? Yet this is all he had to say in excuse of
this injury. Thus he made the worst of jealousies to patronize the worst of robberies. But
it will never bear us out in doing ill to say, “We thought others designed ill.” 2. He
endeavours to pacify Samson by offering him his younger daughter, whom, because the
handsomer, he thought Samson might accept, in full recompence for the wrong. See
what confusions those did admit and bring their families to that were not governed by
the fear and law of God, marrying a daughter this week to one and next week to another,
giving a man one daughter first and then another. Samson scorned his proposal; he
knew better things than to take a wife to her sister, Lev_18:18.
JAMISO , “her father said, I verily thought that thou hadst utterly hated
her — This allegation was a mere sham, a flimsy pretext to excuse his refusal of
admittance. The proposal he made of a marriage with her younger sister was but an
insult to Samson, and one which it was unlawful for an Israelite to accept (Lev_18:18).
BE SO , “15:2. That thou hadst utterly hated her — Because thou didst desert
her: but this was no sufficient cause; for he should have endeavoured to effect a
reconciliation, and not have disposed of another man’s wife without his consent. Is
not her younger sister fairer than she? — The marrying of a sister while the other
was alive was expressly forbidden by the law of Moses: see Leviticus 18:18. And
therefore this offer might probably irritate Samson the more.
ELLICOTT, “(2) Verily thought . . . utterly hated.—In the emphatic simplicity of
the Hebrew style it is, Saying I said that hating, thou hatest her. As Samson had left
his wife in anger immediately after the wedding feast, the father might have
reasonably supposed that he meant finally to desert her.
I gave her.—This must mean I have betrothed her, for otherwise she would not have
still been living in her father’s house. But if the father had been an honourable man

23. he could not under these circumstances have done less than restore the dowry which
Manoah had given for her.
To thy companion.—See on Judges 14:20.
Her younger sister.—The father sought in this way to repair the wrong he had
inflicted, and to offer some equivalent for the dower which he had wrongly
appropriated.
TRAPP, “Verse 2
15:2 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.
Ver. 2. I verily thought.] But he should have made sure of that; which because he
did not, it cost him and his daughter their lives.
“ Differ: habent parvae commoda magna morae. ”
Is not her younger sister fairer?] Heb., Better: but never the better for her beauty,
if, with Aurelia Orestilla, the Roman lady, she had nothing else to commend her. (a)
“ Forma bonum fragile est. ” - Ovid.
Take her, I pray thee, instead of her.] This man made nothing of incest: the Pope
frequently dispenseth with it, Lege nimirum canina: but Samson abhorred the
motion, according to Leviticus 18:18.
PETT, “Verse 2
‘And her father said, “I genuinely thought that you utterly hated her, therefore I
gave her to your companion. Is not her younger sister fairer than she? Take her, I
pray you, in her place.” ’
The father was not antagonistic to Samson, indeed was probably a little afraid of
him, and pressed on him his offer of her more beautiful younger sister to replace
what he had lost. He would probably also have ensured that Samson did not lose by
it financially by providing equal dowry and gifts. Furthermore he may have drawn
attention to the fact that the man she had been married to had been ‘the friend of
the bridegroom’, drawing attention to why the marriage to him had taken place as a
stand in for the bridegroom who had walked out. But he had failed to realise
Samson’s genuine affection for his elder daughter. Furthermore as Samson
considered that he was married to the elder sister, marriage to the younger was not
permissible.

24. 3 Samson said to them, “This time I have a right
to get even with the Philistines; I will really harm
them.”
Is there a valid reason for anger?
At a recent gathering of seminary professors, one teacher reported that at his school
the most damaging charge one student can lodge against another is that the person
is being "judgmental." He found this pattern very upsetting. "You can't get a good
argument going in class anymore," he said. "As soon as somebody takes a stand on
any important issue, someone else says that the person is being judgmental. And
that's it. End of discussion. Everyone is intimidated!" Many of the other professors
nodded knowingly. There seemed to be a consensus that the fear of being
judgmental has taken on epidemic proportions. Is the call for civility just another
way of spreading this epidemic? If so, then I'm against civility. But I really don't
think that this is what being civil is all about. Christian civility does not commit us
to a relativistic perspective. Being civil doesn't mean that we cannot criticize what
goes on around us. Civility doesn't require us to approve of what other people
believe and do. It is one thing to insist that other people have the right to express
their basic convictions; it is another thing to say that they are right in doing so.
Civility requires us to live by the first of these principles. But it does not commit us
to the second formula. To say that all beliefs and values deserve to be treated as if
they were on a par is to endorse relativism -- a perspective that is incompatible with
Christian faith and practice. Christian civility does not mean refusing to make
judgments about what is good and true. For one thing, it really isn't possible to be
completely nonjudgmental. Even telling someone else that she is being judgmental is
a rather judgmental thing to do!
Richard J. Mouw, Uncommon Decency, pp. 20-21.
MAD
A "do it yourself" catalog firm received the following letter
from one of its customers: "I built a birdhouse according to your
stupid plans, and not only is it much too big, it keeps blowing
out of the tree. Signed, Unhappy. The firm replied: "Dear
Unhappy, We're sorry about the mix-up. We accidentally sent you
a sailboat blueprint. But if you think you are unhappy, you
should read the letter from the guy who came in last in the yacht
club regatta."
MAIL
Early missionaries to the Marshall Islands in the central
Pacific received their mail once a year when the sailing boat

25. made its rounds of the South Pacific. On one occasion the boat
was one day ahead of schedule, and the missionaries were off on a
neighboring island. The captain left the mail with the
Marshallese people while he attended to matters of getting stores
of water and provisions. At last the Marshallese were in
possession of what the missionaries sopke about so often and
aparently cherished so much. The people examined the mail to
find out what was so attractive about it. They concluded that it
must be good to eat, and so they proceeded to tear all the
letters into tiny bits and cook them. However, they didn't taste
very good, and the Marshallese were still puzzled about the
missionaries' strange interest in mail when they returned to find
their year's correspondence made into mush. Adapted from Eugene
A. Nida's Customs and Cultures: Anthropology for Christian
Missions (pp. 5-6)
This was a great insult to Samson and he vowed this was the last straw. He tried to
live in peace with the Philistines, but they treated him worse than a dead dog, and so
he was done trying to be the nice guy. The spirit of revenge took over his mind and
from now on his energy would be devoted to making them pay for the humiliation
they caused him by giving his wife away. Such a thing was so wrong that Samson
says he had a perfect right to get even for this dispicable decision. Was he justified
in getting revenge or not? That is the question.
This situation and the strong emotions it produces forces the Christian to face the
paradox of revenge. The paradox is simply that it can be right and it can we wrong,
and so we need to see both sides of the issue. The first thing we need to recognize is
that we all tend to feel the spirit of revenge taking over in certain situations. Adrian
Plass is very fank in confessing that he hates it when others criticize his writing. He
says, " aturally, as a Christian, I freely forgive people who say negative things
about me. aturally. I'd like to take a sharp stone and scratch "I forgive you" on
the bonnets of their cars. I'm afraid my attitude to criticism is still summed up in
these words:
Freely I confess my sins
For God has poured his grace in
But when another lists my faults
I want to smash his face in.
If you have never felt this kind of emotion, you should die quickly lest you lose your
sainthood status. Most everyone not in a coma has such feelings at some time or
another. Most also never follow through on their evil inner desires to pulverize their
antagonist. They follow the grin and bare it philosophy that represses anger and
revenge and get even by hurting themselves. Samson never dreamed of repressing a
negative emotion. He acted on all of them and always got his revenge. He was very
creative in doing large scale damage to the Philistine farm land and the crops. Later

26. he killed a great host of Philistines in pulling their temple down on them, and this
too was his seeking revenge. Two other text refer to his revenge. Judges 15:7,
"Samson said to them, "Since you've acted like this, I won't stop until I get my
revenge on you." Judges 16:28 "Then Samson prayed to the LORD, "O Sovereign
LORD, remember me. O God, please strengthen me just once more, and let me with
one blow get revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes." His final revenge was an
answer to prayer, and so we are left with a picture of a man who lived and died
pursuing revenge. Samson was not alone in praying for revenge, for we see it in
Jeremiah as well.
Jeremiah 11:20
But, O LORD Almighty, you who judge righteously and test the heart and mind, let
me see your vengeance upon them, for to you I have committed my cause.
Jeremiah 20:12
O LORD Almighty, you who examine the righteous and probe the heart and mind,
let me see your vengeance upon them, for to you I have committed my cause.
We have to admit that it is entertaining to see how clever people can be in getting
revenge. The following story is hard to beat. "After 17 years of marriage, a man
dumped his wife for a younger woman. The downtown luxury apartment was in his
name and he wanted to remain there with his new love, so he asked the wife to move
out and then he would buy her another place. The wife agreed to this, but asked that
she be given three days on her own there to pack up her things.
While he was gone, the first day she lovingly put her personal belongings into boxes
and crates and suitcases.
On the second day, she had the movers come and collect her things.
On the third day, she sat down for the last time at their candlelit dining table, soft
music playing in the background, and feasted on a pound of shrimp and a bottle of
chardonnay. When she had finished, she went into each room and deposited a few of
the shrimp and shells into the hollow of the curtain rods. She then cleaned up the
kitchen and left.
The husband came back, with his new girl, and all was bliss for the first few days.
Then it started, slowly, but surely. Clueless, the man could not explain why the place
smelled so bad. They tried everything, cleaned and mopped and aired the place out.
Vents were checked for dead rodents. Carpets were steam cleaned. Air fresheners
were hung everywhere. Exterminators were brought in. The carpets were replaced,
and on it went.
Finally, they could take it no more and decided to move. The moving company
arrived and did a very professional packing job, taking everything to the new home,
including the curtain rods. ..." --Thanks to Uncmike in the Humor Forum.

27. We are compelled to give this woman a 10 for creativity, and it is hard to not give
her three cheers, but was such sweet revenge really a good thing or a bad thing? It is
scary to even consider that revenge might be right, for the forces of terrorism all
over the world justify their barbaric attacks on innocent people because of revenge.
Everybody is trying to get even for every injustice in the world and this is a never
ending cycle of terror that keeps the world in turmoil. How dare we even suggest
that their can be a valid basis for revenge in a world where revenge is tearing the
world apart? So lets begin our study of this paradox by showing the negative side
and just how hard it is going to be to explain how there can be a positive side to this
most dangerous emotion.
A. WHE REVE GE IS WRO G
Lev. 19:18 makes it clear that revenge has no place within the family of God. "Do
not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your
neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD." Revenge within the family is a no no, for this
is asking for division that will lead to civil war. The ew Testament confirms that
this is to be a timeless truth for God's people. Romans 12:19 says, "Do not take
revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to
avenge; I will repay," [ Deut. 32:35] says the Lord." These two verses make it
perfectly clear that revenge within the family of God is forbidden. If we read more
of the context of what Paul is saying in Rom. 12 we see that it takes on a broader
perspective that is not limited just to fellow believers, but inclused all people. Verses
17 to 21 says, "Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the
eyes of everybody. 18If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with
everyone. 19Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it
is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay,"says the Lord. 20On the contrary:
"If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In
doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head." 21Do not be overcome by evil,
but overcome evil with good." Lets face it, this would really cramp Samson's style,
and he would not have been able to achieve anything in terms of weakening the
power of the Philistines by killing them in wholesale lots. It is obvious that we have a
conflict betwen what is acceptable in the Old Testament and what is acceptable in
the ew Testament. So we need to see if there is a way to reconcile the paradox of
revenge as we look at when revenge is right.
B. WHE REVE GE IS RIGHT
1. When God chooses it.
In Deut. 32:29 to 43 we read God's final words in the song of Moses. It deals with
the vergeance of God.
39 "See now that I myself am He!

28. There is no god besides me.
I put to death and I bring to life,
I have wounded and I will heal,
and no one can deliver out of my hand.
40 I lift my hand to heaven and declare:
As surely as I live forever,
41 when I sharpen my flashing sword
and my hand grasps it in judgment,
I will take vengeance on my adversaries
and repay those who hate me.
42 I will make my arrows drunk with blood,
while my sword devours flesh:
the blood of the slain and the captives,
the heads of the enemy leaders."
43 Rejoice, O nations, with his people, [f] , [g]
for he will avenge the blood of his servants;
he will take vengeance on his enemies
and make atonement for his land and people.
God's vengeance was the hope of the people of Israel, for when he came to get
revenge it was liberation for them. Isa. 35:4 says, "Say to those with fearful hearts,
"Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, he will come with vengeance; with
divine retribution he will come to save you."
In Isa. 59:17-18 we read, " He put on righteousness as his breastplate, and the
helmet of salvation on his head; he put on the garments of
vengeance and wrapped himself in zeal as in a cloak. 18 According to what they
have done, so will he repay wrath to his enemies and retribution to his foes; he will
repay the islands their due." Isa. 61:1-2 reveals that the vengeance of God was the
greatest and most precious hope of the people of God, for their salvation depended
on God's vengeance.
1 The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me,
because the LORD has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners, [a]
2 to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor
and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,"
In Ezek. 25:15-17 we read of God's vengeance on the Philistines. "This is what the

29. Sovereign LORD says: 'Because the Philistines acted in vengeance and took revenge
with malice in their hearts, and with ancient hostility sought to destroy Judah, 16
therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I am about to stretch out my hand
against the Philistines, and I will cut off the Kerethites and destroy those remaining
along the coast. 17 I will carry out great vengeance on them and punish them in my
wrath. Then they will know that I am the LORD, when I take vengeance on them.' "
If we look at all the verses that deal with vengeance in the Old Testament we see
that most of them deal with God's vengeance on the enemies of Israel who were
idolaters and living in disobedience to the heritage they once had that included him
as Lord. These people went after other gods and received the judgment of God, even
as did his own people when they went after other gods. Vengeance is not something
God enjoys, but his righteous nature demands that judgment fall on that which is
evil and corrupt, and so his vengeance is just and it is a good and necessary thing in
a fallen world. A few other texts make it clear that God is a God of vengeance.
Jeremiah 51:11
"Sharpen the arrows, take up the shields! The LORD has stirred up the kings of the
Medes, because his purpose is to destroy Babylon. The LORD will take vengeance,
vengeance for his temple.
Ezekiel 16:38 IV • Read this chapter
I will sentence you to the punishment of women who commit adultery and who shed
blood; I will bring upon you the blood vengeance of my wrath and jealous anger.
Ezekiel 25:14
I will take vengeance on Edom by the hand of my people Israel, and they will deal
with Edom in accordance with my anger and my wrath; they will know my
vengeance, declares the Sovereign LORD.' "
Ezekiel 25:17 IV • Read this chapter
I will carry out great vengeance on them and punish them in my wrath. Then they
will know that I am the LORD, when I take vengeance on them.'
Micah 5:15
I will take vengeance in anger and wrath upon the nations that have not obeyed
me."
ahum 1:2
[ The Lord 's Anger Against ineveh ] The LORD is a jealous and avenging God;
the LORD takes vengeance and is filled with wrath. The LORD takes vengeance on
his foes and maintains his wrath against his enemies.
2. When God commands it.
It is good when God does it and when men do it in obedience to God, for they then
are just the instruments of his vengeance.

30. um. 31:1-4 "The LORD said to Moses, 2 "Take vengeance on the Midianites for
the Israelites. After that, you will be gathered to your people."3 So Moses said to the
people, "Arm some of your men to go to war against the Midianites and to carry out
the LORD's vengeance on them. 4 Send into battle a thousand men from each of the
tribes of Israel." The army of Israel marched and wiped out the Midianites. Was it
right? Of course, for it was the command of God to do so.
3. When it is a legitimate matter of justice. There are many situations where a
person is severely wronged where they have every right to seek to punish the
wrongdoer by getting them arrested, or by making them pay for damages. The
following verses deal with a specific example.
Prov. 6:32-35 implies that the husband who knows the man who has committed
adultery with his wife, has a right to revenge, and that without mercy. Just what
that means is not spelled out in detail, but it does mean that he has a valid right to
inflict some kind of punishment on the man.
32 But a man who commits adultery lacks judgment;
whoever does so destroys himself.
33 Blows and disgrace are his lot,
and his shame will never be wiped away;
34 for jealousy arouses a husband's fury,
and he will show no mercy when he takes revenge.
35 He will not accept any compensation;
he will refuse the bribe, however great it is.
4. When the teachings of Jesus support it.
We think that Jesus was nothing like Samson, but if we look deeper, Jesus did have
a side that was full of anger at evil and folly and he had some severe judgment that
was a demand for revenge on evil behavior. Adrian Plass has put together this list in
a form of blessed, meaning they will be receiveing a reward they deserve.
Blessed are they who exchange money and sell cattle, sheep or doves in the temple
court, for they shall be driven out with a knotted cord.
Blessed are they who cause little ones to sin, for it will be better for them if they
were to drown with a millstone tied around their necks.
Blessed are they whose debts have been cancelled, but will not cancel the debts owed
to them, for they shall be turned over to the jailers to be tortured until they have
paid back all that they owe.

31. Blessed are they who arrive to celebrate the wedding of the king’s son without
wedding clothes, for they shall be bound hand and foot and thrown outside into the
darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Blessed are they who say to me, “Lord, Lord”, but do not do the will of my Father,
for they will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are they who refuse to forgive others, for they will not be forgiven by God.
Blessed are they who continue to sin after being rescued from the cruelty of men, for
worse shall befall them.
Blessed are they who love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street
corners to be seen by men, for they have received their reward in full.
Blessed are they who judge others, for they will be judged by the same measure.
Blessed are they who did not give me something to eat when I was hungry, nor
something to drink when I was thirsty, who did not invite me in when I was a
stranger, nor clothe me when I was naked, nor visit me in prison when I was sick,
for they will depart into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
Blessed are they who do not believe in me, for they shall not inherit eternal life.
What this list is teaching is that the ew Testament is not as radical a departure
from the Old Testament as we tend to think. Pay back and revenge on the evil and
foolish acts of men is an ongoing thing in the plan of God. eil Forsyth points out
that Jews today want the same rights they had in the Old Testament to get revenge
on those who wrong them. He writes, "With his unerring ability to name and
explore the fundamental emotions that drive our culture, Shakespeare has his hero-
villain Shylock claim revenge as a sign of humanity. When asked why he wants his
pound of flesh -- "what's that good for?" -- he explains that his enemy
hath disgrac'd me, …laugh'd at my losses, … laugh'd at my nation, …-- and what
is his reason? Because I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands? …if
you prick us do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison us, do
we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? if we are like you in the rest,
we will resemble you in that (III.i.46-63)"
And even after writing Paradise Lost Milton continued to reflect on the question of
revenge: I think the degree to which it still troubled him can be measured by the last
great poem he wrote, in which he dramatizes the story of Samson. ‘Revenge is the
dominant note of Milton’s last poem’, as Sir Herbert Grierson wrote in the midst of
an earlier war.

32. One or two even reminded us that Milton had written an early Latin poem about
the Gunpowder plot, in which the evil Pope directs his followers to blow up
Parliament, king and all, ‘to scatter their dismembered bodies through the air [hos
tu membratim poteries conspergere in auras], and to burn them to cinders by
exploding nitrous powder under the halls where thy will assemble’ (119-21).
REVE GE
1. big bullies on motorcycles pulled up to a highway café where a truck driver was
sitting on a stool quietly eating his lunch. As the three fellows came in, they spotted
him, grabbed his food away from him, and laughed in his face. The truck driver
said nothing. He got up, paid for his food, and walked out. One of the three bullies,
unhappy that they hadn't succeeded in provoking the man into a fight, commented
to the waitress: "He sure wasn't much of a man, was he?" She, looking out the
window, replied, " o, he's not much of a truck driver either. He just ran his big
truck over three motorcycles."
2. He that studieth Revenge keepeth his own wounds green.
When we are wronged in some way, our natural inclination is to fight back, to get
even. eedless to say, this reaction, though thoroughly human, is almost always in
error. "Forgiveness," said Epictetus, "is better than revenge, for forgiveness is the
sign of a gentle nature, but revenge is the sign of a savage nature."
A dramatic example is the experience of a Hungarian refugee -- to protect his
privacy we'll call him Joseph Kudar. Kudar was a successful young lawyer in
Hungary before the uprisings in that country in 1956. A strong believer in freedom
for his country, he fought Soviet tanks in the streets of Budapest with his friends.
When the uprising failed, he was forced to flee the country.
When Kudar arrived in the U.S. he had no money, no job, no friends. He was,
however, well educated; he spoke and wrote several languages, including English.
For several months he tried to get a job in a law office, but because of his lack of
familiarity with American law, he received only polite refusals.
Finally, it occurred to him that with his knowledge of language he might be able to
get a job with an import-export company. He selected one such company and wrote
a letter to the owner.
Two weeks later he received an answer, but was hardly prepared for the
vindictiveness of the man's reply. Among other things, it said that even if they did
need someone, they wouldn't hire him because he couldn't even write good English.
Crushed, Kudar's hurt quickly turned to anger. What right did this rude, arrogant
man have to tell him he couldn't write the language! The man was obviously crude

33. and uneducated -- his letter was chock-full of grammatical errors!
Kudar sat down and, in the white heat of anger, wrote a scathing reply, calculated
to rip the man to shreds. When he'd finished, however, as he was reading it over, his
anger began to drain away. Then he remembered the biblical admonition, "A soft
answer turneth away wrath."
o, he wouldn't mail the letter. Maybe the man was right. English was not his native
tongue. Maybe he did need further study in it. Possibly this man had done him a
favor by making him realize he did need to work harder on perfecting his English.
Kudar tore up the letter and wrote another. This time he apologized for the previous
letter, explained his situation, and thanked the man for pointing out his need for
further study.
Two days later he received a phone call inviting him to ew York for an interview.
A week later he went to work for them as a correspondent. Later, Joseph Kudar
became vice president and executive officer of the company, destined to succeed the
man he had hated and sought revenge against for a fleeting moment -- and then
resisted.
Bits & Pieces, March 31, 1994, Page 12-15
Many years ago during a Knicks-Bullets playoff game, one of the Bullets came up
from behind the great Walt Frazier and punched him in the face. Strangely, the
referee called a foul on Frazier. Frazier didn't complain. His expression never
changed. He simply called for the ball and put in seven straight shots to win the
game, an amazing display of productive anger. If you want to get huffy about it, it
was a great moral lesson as well.
U.S. ews & World Report
June 14, 1993
Page 37
Chicago Cubs outfielder Andre Dawson paid a $1000 fine for disputing a strike
called by umpire Joe West. On the memo line of his check Dawson wrote:
"Donation for the blind."
--Sports Illustrated
Swindoll, Three Steps Forward, p. 76
In Brazil, several Indians who had been refused an
audience with then President Ernesto Geisel because they were not
wearing ties told the press they would "insist that any
government official visiting an Indian Village must wear a
feathered headdress and body paint." --Reuters
At one point early in Julius Caesar's political career,
feelings ran so high against him that he thought it best to leave
Rome. He sailed for the Aegean island of Rhodes, but en route
the ship was attacked by pirates and Caesar was captured. The
pirates demanded a ransom of 12,000 gold pieces, and Caesar's
staff was sent away to arrange the payment. Caesar spent almost
40 days with his captors, jokingly telling the pirates on several
occasions that he would someday capture and crucify them to a
man. The kidnappers were greatly amused, but when the ransom was
paid and Caesar was freed, the first thing he did was gather a