Judges 15 · a question people ask
Was Samson right to take revenge?
The chapter records what Samson said and did, and gives no verdict in its own words on the burning of the grain (15:4-5) or the slaughter that followed (15:8). Samson gives his reasons himself: "This time I will be blameless in the case of the Philistines when I harm them" (15:3), "If you behave like this, surely I will take revenge on you" (15:7), and "As they did to me, so I have done to them" (15:11). Both readings below agree on those verses, and that the chapter also says "the LORD’s Spirit came mightily on him" at Lehi (15:14). Christians read his revenge in two main ways.
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
The LORD at work against Israel's rulers
Those who hold this view start from what the LORD's angel said of Samson, "He shall begin to save Israel out of the hand of the Philistines" (13:5), and from 14:4: "it was of the LORD; for he sought an occasion against the Philistines". They note that the Philistines "are rulers over us" (15:11), that "the LORD’s Spirit came mightily on him" before the thousand fell (15:14), and that Samson calls it "this great deliverance" the LORD gave "by the hand of your servant" (15:18). They read his acts against the Philistines as the LORD beginning to save Israel through him.
Judges 13:5 · Judges 14:4 · Judges 15:11 · Judges 15:14 · Judges 15:18
Recorded, not approved
Those who hold this view note that the reasons Samson gives are his own: "I will be blameless… when I harm them" (15:3), "surely I will take revenge on you" (15:7), "As they did to me, so I have done to them" (15:11). They note that the text doesn't say the LORD told him to burn the grain or that the Spirit came on him then (15:4-8), that his wife and her father were burned in the Philistines' answer (15:6), and that the returns brought the Philistines into Judah (15:9-10). They read the burning and the slaughter as told, not commended.
Judges 15:3-11