Preparing Context
Loading the book, timeline, map, and study notes.
Book
World Stage
Structure
Historical Setting
Opening Book
Loading the overview, historical setting, map, timeline, and chapter structure.
Book
World Stage
Structure
Historical Setting
Opening Chapter
Loading the chapter, structure, timeline, and Scripture reader.
Book
World Stage
Structure
Historical Setting
Opening Passage
Loading the passage, surrounding structure, questions, and study notes.
Book
World Stage
Structure
Historical Setting
Judges 15:6-8
The Philistines trace the cause, burn the woman and her father, and Samson answers with a severe attack before withdrawing.
Meaning in context
The Philistines trace the cause, burn the woman and her father, and Samson answers with a severe attack before withdrawing.
Section 3 of 6
Philistine Reprisal and Samson’s Counterstrike
The Philistines trace the cause, burn the woman and her father, and Samson answers with a severe attack before withdrawing.
Movement
Life before Israel had a king
Artifact
Cycles of rebellion and deliverance
Biblical Timeline
Exodus & Settlement
Judges context: 1500 BC - 1000 BC
Biblical Timeline
Exodus & Settlement
Judges context
Exodus & Settlement / 1500 BC - 1000 BC
Judges context is set in the exodus and settlement period, where Moses, the exodus, wilderness, covenant instruction, conquest, and judges.
Scripture Text
Thesis
The Philistines trace the cause, burn the woman and her father, and Samson answers with a severe attack before withdrawing.
Verse by Verse
Philistine investigation and collective punishment The Philistines ask who caused the earlier damage, and the answer identifies Samson, described through his relationship to the Timnite household. The stated reason is personal retaliation: Samson acted because his wife was taken from him and given to another man. The Philistines then “come up” and burn the woman and her father, a drastic reprisal that targets the Timnite family.
Samson’s stated intent to retaliate and then stop Samson addresses “them” (the Philistines) and treats their burning of the woman and her father as a provocation. He declares that he will be avenged for what they have done, and that afterward he will cease—presenting his next action as a limited round of payback rather than an open-ended campaign.
Samson’s counterstrike and withdrawal Samson attacks and inflicts a “great slaughter,” described with the phrase “hip and thigh,” suggesting a hard, sweeping blow. After this, he goes down and lives in a cleft of the rock of Etam, moving from open conflict to seclusion, as if anticipating further pursuit or needing a defensible refuge.
Literary Context
This unit continues the chain reaction set in motion by Samson’s conflict with the Philistines around his attempted marriage with a woman from Timnah. Earlier in the chapter, Samson’s actions escalate tensions, and the narrative keeps moving by showing each side responding to the previous injury. Verses 6–8 focus on three quick turns: the Philistines’ inquiry and punishment, Samson’s spoken resolve to retaliate, and the resulting violence followed by Samson’s retreat. The story emphasizes rapidly cycling reprisals rather than extended reflection.
Historical Context
Judges portrays a time before Israel had a centralized monarchy, when local communities and clans navigated threats from stronger neighboring peoples. The Philistines were a prominent power in the coastal plains with the ability to project force into nearby regions, while Israelite groups lived more diffusely. Burning people and property appears in ancient Near Eastern settings as a public, terrorizing punishment aimed at deterrence and control. The “rock of Etam” suggests a landscape where caves and rocky clefts could function as temporary strongholds or hiding places during local conflict.
Theological Significance
This short scene keeps the story moving by showing one retaliation triggering the next. The Philistines investigate the earlier damage, identify Samson as responsible, and tie his motive to a marriage dispute: his wife had been given to his companion. In response, they burn the woman and her father. Samson then treats their action as grounds for payback, announces that he will take revenge and then stop, strikes the Philistines with a large-scale attack, and withdraws to a rocky refuge at Etam.
Questions
Keep Studying
The text is explicit about the cycle of violence and about the collateral victims: the Timnite woman and her father die for a conflict that has grown beyond them. It is also explicit that Samson frames his next move as a limited round of retribution (“after that I will cease”).
What kind of action the Philistines are taking when they burn the woman and her father. Some read it mainly as revenge against Samson’s closest ties (hurting him through his in-laws). Others read it more as a public punishment meant to deter and reassert control in a volatile region.
How to hear Samson’s wording in v. 7 (“If you do after this manner…”). Some take it as a conditional threat (“since you’ve done this, I will…”). Others hear it as rhetorical speech that amounts to “because you did this, I will retaliate,” without real uncertainty.
What “hip and thigh” contributes to the meaning. Most agree it signals a severe defeat; some take it as a vivid way of saying “thoroughly,” while others think it hints at a particular style of combat or a sweeping blow.
The narrator leaves several details implicit: who exactly answers the Philistines’ question, what “companion” means in the marriage setting, whether the burning is framed as revenge or as broader intimidation, and how to translate an idiom (“hip and thigh”). Those gaps are enough to produce different (but overlapping) reconstructions of motive and tone.
like (kā·zōṯ)