Judges 15:20

And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.

i.e. He pleaded their cause, and avenged them against the Philistines. In the days of the Philistines, i.e. whilst the Philistines had the power and dominion, from which he was not fully to deliver, but only to begin to deliver them, as it was foretold, . From this place it is manifest, that in the computation of the times of the judges, the years of servitude or oppression are not to be separated from the years of the judges, and added to them, but are comprehended within them; which proposition is of great importance for clearing this difficult part of Scripture chronology, and for justifying that account of times given .

Judges 15:20 And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.Ver. 20. And he judged Israel.] Haply after this victory he was publicly accepted and acknowledged as judge of Israel by this people, who before had dealt so unworthily with him: “ Sic cum fortuna statque caditque fides. ”

(20) And he judged Israel.—Probably, as Jephthah had done, with the sort of vague prerogatives of a military hero. Why the verse is found here, as though to close the narrative (comp. Judges 12:7, &c.), and is again repeated in Judges 16:31, we cannot say. The next chapter belongs mainly to Samson’s fall and humiliation. These twenty years probably fell within the contemporary judgeship of Eli.

Verse 20. He judged Israel-twenty years.] In the margin it is said, He seems to have judged southwest Israel during twenty years of their servitude of the Philistines, Judges 13:1. Instead of עשרים שנה esrim shanah, twenty years, the Jerusalem Talmud has ארבעים שנה arbaim shanah, forty years; but this reading is not acknowledged by any MS. or version. According to Calmet, the twenty years of the judicature of Samson began the eighteenth year of the subjection of Israel to the Philistines; and these twenty years are included in the judicature of the high priest Eli. THE burning of the Philistines' corn by the means of foxes and firebrands is a very remarkable circumstance; and there is a story told by Ovid, in the 4th book of his Fasti, that bears a striking similitude to this; and is supposed by some learned men to allude to Samson and his foxes. The poet is at a loss to account for this custom, but brings in an old man of Carseoli, with what must have appeared to himself a very unsatisfactory solution. The passage begins as follows: - Tertia post Hyadas cum luxerit orta, remotas, Carcere partitos Circus habebit equos Cur igitur missae vinctis ardentia taedis Terga ferant vulpes, causa docenda mihi? Vid. OVID, Fastor. lib. iv., ver. 679. The substance of the whole account, which is too long to be transcribed, is this: It was a custom in Rome, celebrated in the month of April to let loose a number of foxes in the circus, with lighted flambeaux on their backs; and the Roman people took pleasure in seeing these animals run about till roasted to death by the flames with which they were enveloped. The poet wishes to know what the origin of this custom was, and is thus informed by an old man of the city of Carseoli: "A frolicksome young lad, about ten years of age, found, near a thicket, a fox that had stolen away many fowls from the neighbouring roosts. Having enveloped his body with hay and straw, he set it on fire, and let the fox loose. The animal, in order to avoid the flames, took to the standing corn which was then ready for the sickle; and the wind, driving the flames with double violence, the crops were everywhere consumed. Though this transaction is long since gone by, the commemoration of it still remains; for, by a law of this city, every fox that is taken is burnt to death. Thus the nation awards to the foxes the punishment of being burnt alive, for the destruction of the ripe corn formerly occasioned by one of these animals." Both Serrarius and Bochart reject this origin of the custom given by Ovid; and insist that the custom took its rise from the burning of the Philistines' corn by Samson's foxes. The origin ascribed to the custom by the Carseolian they consider as too frivolous and unimportant to be commemorated by a national festival.

20. The Dtc. editor’s formula, usually at the close of a judge’s history, comes curiously here before the end; perhaps because the editor felt that the end was not a suitable place for a statement of this kind. The words now standing in Judges 16:31 b are merely a briefer repetition of the present verse, and may have been added by some later hand. The alternative is to suppose that the Dtc. editor closed the story of Samson here, and left out ch. 16 as contributing nothing to his purpose; ch. 16 was afterwards restored to its place, with the concluding formula (so Budde, Moore, Nowack). See Introduction § 2 C. twenty years] out of the forty, Judges 13:1. In the Rabbinic schools it was proposed to correct the reading here to forty, Talm. Jer. Sota Judges 1:8.

20. Judged Israel… twenty years — The same statement is repeated at the close of Samson’s history, (Judges 16:31,) but seems to have been introduced here to indicate the time when he first became