Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Judges 15:6
Then the Philistines said, Who hath done this? And they answered, Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he had taken his wife, and given her to his companion. And the Philistines came up, and burnt her and her father with fire.
6. her father ] Read with many Hebr. mss., LXX. cod. A, Peshitto etc. her father’s house, i.e. family, as in the threat Jdg 14:15.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
burnt her and her father – Out of revenge on Samsons nearest relations; or, as others think, as an act of justice in favor of Samson, and in hope of pacifying his anger. Burning was the punishment for adultery and kindred crimes among the Jews Gen 38:24; Lev 20:14; Lev 21:9. Samsons wife brought upon herself the very punishment which she sought to escape by betraying her husband Jdg 14:15.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 6. Burnt her and her father] This was probably done to appease Samson: as they saw he had been unjustly treated both by his wife and her father; therefore they destroyed them both, that they might cause his wrath to cease from them. And this indeed seems intimated in the following verse: And Samson said – Though ye have done this, yet will I be avenged of you; that is, I am not yet satisfied: ye have done me great wrongs, I must have proportionate redress; then I shall rest satisfied.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Partly for her adultery, which divers heathens punished with death; and partly for that mischief which she had occasioned to them; thus she brought upon herself that mischief which she studied to avoid, Jdg 14:15, as wicked persons oft do, Pro 10:24.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
6. Who hath done thisTheauthor of this outrage, and the cause that provoked such anextraordinary retaliation, soon became known; and the sufferers,enraged by the destruction of their crops, rushing with tumultuousfury to the house of Samson’s wife, “burnt her and her fatherwith fire.” This was a remarkable retribution. To avoid thismenace, she had betrayed her husband; and by that unprincipledconduct, eventually exposed herself to the horrid doom which, at thesacrifice of conjugal fidelity, she had sought to escape [Jud14:15].
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Then the Philistines said, who hath done this?…. They asked and inquired one of another, who they thought could be the author of such mischief:
and they answered, Samson, the son in law of the Timnite; this they said either by conjecture, which might be the case of some; and others more confidently asserted it, having heard what he said, Jud 15:3 and they assign a very good reason for it,
because he had already taken away his wife, and given her to his companion, which had provoked him to do such an action as this; and perhaps the very same persons that were very well pleased before that Samson was so served, yet now were full of wrath and indignation at the Timnite, having suffered so much in their property on his account:
and the Philistines came up, and burnt her and her father with fire; Josephus d says, her and her relations; they set fire to her father’s house, where she was, and burnt them both in it, whereby that evil came upon her she thought to avoid by getting the secret of the riddle out of Samson, and telling it to his companion, Jud 14:15 and suffered the proper punishment for her adultery; the people that did this were those that lived in the towns adjacent, from whence they came up to Timnath, whose fields, vineyards, and oliveyards, had been destroyed by the foxes with their firebrands.
d Antiqu. l. 5. c. 8. sect. 7.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The Philistines found out at once, that Samson had done them this injury because his father-in-law, the Timnite, had taken away his wife and given her to his companion. They therefore avenged themselves by burning her and her father-probably by burning his house down to the ground, with its occupants within it-an act of barbarity and cruelty which fully justified Samson’s war upon them.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
(6) They answered.The phrase is impersonal; but Samson had quite openly threatened vengeance in speaking to the Timnites, and is not likely to have done his work unaided or to have been very reticent about it; nor would the poor oppressed Israelites be inclined to keep his secret when they were confronted with the fury of the Philistines.
Burnt her and her father with fire.Was this meant as a way of revenging themselves on Samson, or of avenging him for the wrongs which he had received from the Timnite? The latter seems to be most unlikely. Looking with despair and fury at the blackened fields which but a few days before had been thick with golden corn, it is inconceivable that the Philistines would be in a mood to perform an act of justice for the sake of the deadly enemy who had inflicted this loss upon them. Their motive is clear enough. They wished to insult and injure Samson, and, at the same time, vent their fierce spleen on the man whose family and whose conduct had led to all these troubles. That they thought about burning as the punishment of adultery among the Jews (Gen. 38:24, &c.) is still more improbable. To burn a person, and his house and his family, seems to have been the ordinary revenge of these barbarous days. (See Jdg. 12:1; Jdg. 14:15.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
SAMSON’S REVENGE OF HIS WIFE’S DEATH, Jdg 15:6-8.
6. Burnt her and her father with fire This was the first outburst of popular indignation and fury. Not finding at hand the perpetrators of the deed, they wreak vengeance on those who had been the occasion of it. And so that weak and deceitful woman, who had sought to save herself and her father by teasing Samson’s secret from him and telling it to his rival, meets at length the very doom she thought to turn away.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘ Then the Philistines said, “Who has done this?” And they said, “Samson, the son in law of the Timnite, because he has taken away his wife, and given her to his companion.” And the Philistines came up, and burnt her and her father with fire.’
When ‘the Philistines’ (probably the Philistine inhabitants of the town) learned that the devastating damage to their crops and olives had been the result of Samson’s activity because of a quarrel with his wife and her father, and the latter’s precipitate action, their fury knew no bounds. So they took their revenge on them, firstly because they were relatives of Samson, and secondly because they considered that they were largely to blame for bringing his actions to bear against them. They did so by burning them to death, probably in their home. It was a case of ‘a fire for a fire’.
It would seem that burning people with fire was a favourite method of Philistine punishment (compare Jdg 14:15). They were a fierce people. In view of the specific mention of the two guilty parties it may be that this was a specific form of execution, with the others, including her sister, being allowed to go free as not sharing the guilt. That they could do this may indicate the savage forms of justice prevalent among the Philistines at this time.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Jdg 15:6. And the Philistines came up and burnt her and her father with fire Thus they fulfilled their menace uttered in the former chapter, and the faithless wife gained no advantage by her treachery. But who can help remarking, on a circumstance like this, the savage barbarity of those times?
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Jdg 15:6 Then the Philistines said, Who hath done this? And they answered, Samson, the son in law of the Timnite, because he had taken his wife, and given her to his companion. And the Philistines came up, and burnt her and her father with fire.
Ver. 6. Burnt her and her father with fire. ] Thus the fear of the wicked cometh upon them, Pro 10:24 and justly, when they prefer iniquity before affliction, as Samson’s wife had done. See Jdg 14:15 . Josephus saith that together with her they burned all her kindred. She should have been of his mind who said, Potius in ardentem rogue insiluero quam ullum peccatum in Deum commisero. I will leap into a bonfire, rather than sin against God.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
burnt her and her father. Some codices, with one early printed edition, Septuagint, and Syriac, read “burned the house of her father”.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
and burnt: Jdg 12:1, Jdg 14:15, Pro 22:8, 1Th 4:6
Reciprocal: Est 4:14 – but thou
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
The Philistines sought out the cause of such destruction and found Samson had committed his act of aggression because his father-in-law had violated their agreement. So, they burned him and his daughter, which was the very thing she had earlier sought to avoid by revealing the meaning of the riddle (see 14:15.) Samson then set out to avenge himself upon the Philistines with a great slaughter. He then went to Etam, likely the one mentioned in 2Ch 11:6 (15:6-8).
Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books
Jdg 15:6. The Philistines came up and burned her For the mischief which she had occasioned them; thus she brought upon herself that mischief which she studied to avoid. The Philistines had threatened to burn her and her fathers house with fire. To avoid this, she betrayed her husband. And now the very thing she feared comes upon her! And her father Whom they looked upon as one chief cause of the mischief done, by his giving his daughter, Samsons wife, to another man. Punishing or revenging by fire seems to have been a usual practice in those days: see Jdg 14:15.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
15:6 Then the Philistines said, Who hath done this? And they answered, Samson, the son in law of the {d} Timnite, because he had taken his wife, and given her to his companion. And the Philistines came up, and {e} burnt her and her father with fire.
(d) Or, the citizen of Timnath.
(e) So the wicked do not punish vice for love of justice, but for fear of danger, which also might come to them.