Judges 15:5
in Judges 15Then he lit the torches and released the foxes into the standing grain of the Philistines, burning up the piles of grain and the standing grain, as well as the vineyards and olive groves.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
And when he had set the brands on fire, he let them go into the standing grain of the Philistines, and burnt up both the shocks and the standing grain, and also the oliveyards.
KJV
And when he had set the brands on fire, he let them go into the standing corn of the Philistines, and burnt up both the shocks, and also the standing corn, with the vineyards and olives.
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This verse in Judges 15
Commentary
10 notes on this verseA commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
The pain caused by the fire would make the animals toss about to a wide extent, kindling one great conflagration. But no one could render assistance to his neighbor: the devastation was so general, the panic would be so great.
This site's exposition
and caught three hundred foxes
on Judges 15:4-5
The text gives the number, “three hundred foxes”, and the method, but not how one man took so many. Adam Clarke sets out the argument over the Hebrew shualim, read as jackals because jackals run in packs, and John Gill notes towns in Joshua 15 named for the animal. The fire reaches “the vineyards and olive groves”, so the loss runs into trees that take years to bear again.
This site's exposition
released the foxes into the standing grain
Once Samson lit the torches and released the foxes, Jamieson, Fausset and Brown picture the scattered fires joining into one blaze across the standing grain. No neighbour could help another. Henry holds that a man free to take the lives of the Philistines was free to burn their grain.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers5 voices
Let us avoid, then, brothers, let us avoid the pestilential deceits of the insidious foxes [heretics]. Let us avoid the deadly frauds of wicked persons lest, like the foxes which that famous strong man Samson once sent into the Philistines' fields, bearing torches on their …
Wherefore he took three hundred foxes, and in the heat of summer, when the corn was now ripe in the fields, he tied them together two and two by the tails, and fastened a burning firebrand between them, binding it with a firm knot, and by way of avenging his wrong turned them loose among the sheaves which the Philistines had cut. But the foxes, terrified by the fire, scattered flames whichever way they turned, and burnt the harvest.
Now let us see what Samson did when he was injured by his friend in the person of his wife. He took foxes, that is, adulterous friends of whom it is said in the Canticle of Canticles, "Catch us the foxes, the little foxes that …
Samson resistless because of his hair is attacked by a lion; When he killed the wild beast, from its mouth there flowed streams of honey, And from an ass's jawbone comes forth a fountain of water: Folly with water overflows and virtue with sweetness. Samson …
Just as those who travel about in the pathless desert tremble at serpents on the ground, and those who travel on the pathways are also terrified of vipers that hide on the paths, so were the Philistines, who traveled on paths and in the pathless …
2 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
And when he had set the brands on fire,....
This stratagem is often alluded to to show how the church's adversaries, that are of different interests and designs among themselves, that look and draw contrary ways in other things, yet have often united in a fire-brand, some cursed project or other, to waste the church of God, and particularly to kindle the fire of division in it.
The words behind it
13 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וַיַּבְעֶר־ | vaiyaver- | and he kindled | H1197 → | 94 times |
| אֵשׁ֙ | ʾesh | fire | H784 → | 378 times |
| בַּלַּפִּידִ֔ים | balapidim | on the torches | H3940 → | 13 times |
| וַיְשַׁלַּ֖ח | vayshalach | and he sent [them] | H7971 → | 845 times |
| בְּקָמ֣וֹת | bekamot | among [the] standing grain<s> of | H7054 → | |
| פְּלִשְׁתִּ֑ים | pelishtim | [the] Philistines | H6430 → | 287 times |
| וַיַּבְעֵ֛ר | vaiyaver | and it burned up | H1197 → | 94 times |
| מִגָּדִ֥ישׁ | migadish | from [the] heap of sheaves | H1430 → | |
| וְעַד־ | vead- | and unto | H5704 → | 1261 times |
| קָמָ֖ה | kamah | [the] standing grain | H7054 → | |
| וְעַד־ | vead- | and unto | H5704 → | 1261 times |
| כֶּ֥רֶם | kerem | [the] vineyard of | H3754 → | 92 times |
| זָֽיִת׃ | zayit | olive tree[s] | H2132 → | 38 times |
וַיַּבְעֶר־and he kindled
vaiyaver-H1197 →94 times
אֵשׁ֙fire
ʾeshH784 →378 times
בַּלַּפִּידִ֔יםon the torches
balapidimH3940 →13 times
וַיְשַׁלַּ֖חand he sent [them]
vayshalachH7971 →845 times
בְּקָמ֣וֹתamong [the] standing grain<s> of
bekamotH7054 →
פְּלִשְׁתִּ֑ים[the] Philistines
pelishtimH6430 →287 times
וַיַּבְעֵ֛רand it burned up
vaiyaverH1197 →94 times
מִגָּדִ֥ישׁfrom [the] heap of sheaves
migadishH1430 →
וְעַד־and unto
vead-H5704 →1261 times
קָמָ֖ה[the] standing grain
kamahH7054 →
וְעַד־and unto
vead-H5704 →1261 times
כֶּ֥רֶם[the] vineyard of
keremH3754 →92 times
זָֽיִת׃olive tree[s]
zayitH2132 →38 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
2 Samuel 14:30Then Absalom said to his servants, “Look, Joab’s field is next to mine, and he has barley there. Go and set it on fire!” And Absalom’s servants set the field on fire.
it leads to
- Judges 15:4–5
Then Samson went out and caught three hundred foxes. And he took torches, turned the foxes tail-to-tail, and fastened a torch between each pair of tails.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- 1 Kings 21:9–14
In the letters she wrote: “Proclaim a fast and give Naboth a seat of honor among the people.
- 2 Kings 9:33
“Throw her down!” yelled Jehu. So they threw her down, and her blood splattered on the wall and on the horses as they trampled her underfoot.
- 2 Kings 10:6–7
Then Jehu wrote them a second letter and said: “If you are on my side, and if you will obey me, then bring the heads of your master’s sons to me at Jezreel by…
- 2 Samuel 13:28–29
Now Absalom had ordered his young men, “Watch Amnon until his heart is merry with wine, and when I order you to strike Amnon down, you are to kill him. Do not be afraid.…
- Judges 15:4–5
Through
Exodus 22:6If a fire breaks out and spreads to thornbushes so that it consumes stacked or standing grain, or the whole field, the one who started the fire must make full restitution.
it leads to
- Exodus 22:9
In all cases of illegal possession of an ox, a donkey, a sheep, a garment, or any lost item that someone claims, ‘This is mine,’ both parties shall bring their cases before the judges.…
- Exodus 21:33–34
If a man opens or digs a pit and fails to cover it, and an ox or a donkey falls into it,
- Exodus 22:12
But if the animal was actually stolen from the neighbor, he must make restitution to the owner.
- Exodus 22:9
About Judges
This page draws on 10 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Ambrose of Milan, Letter 19: To Vigilius; Caesarius of Arles, SERMON 118.4; Ephrem the Syrian, ON GENESIS 42.9; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Maximus of Turin, SERMON 41.5 and Prudentius, SCENES FROM SACRED HISTORY 17.18.