Scripture Daily

Context No. 1342 of 4322 · Judges

Context · Reflection

Judges 15:6-10: in context

6Then the Philistines said, “Who has done this?” They said, “Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he has taken his wife and given her to his companion.” The Philistines came up, and burned her and her father with fire. 7Samson said to them, “If you behave like this, surely I will take revenge on you, and after that I will cease.” 8He struck them hip and thigh with a great slaughter; and he went down and lived in the cave in Etam’s rock. 9Then the Philistines went up, encamped in Judah, and spread themselves in Lehi. 10The men of Judah said, “Why have you come up against us?” They said, “We have come up to bind Samson, to do to him as he has done to us.”

Samson's conflict with the Philistines has become a spiral of revenge. In retaliation for something Samson had done, the Philistines burn his wife and her father to death. Samson answers, if this is how you act, I will be avenged on you, and only then will I stop, and he strikes them down in a great slaughter before withdrawing to a cave. The Philistines then invade Judah to capture him, and when the men of Judah ask why they have come, the answer is the same logic: we have come to bind Samson, to do to him as he has done to us. Blow answers blow, and each side justifies its next act by the last one done to it.

This grim passage is a study in the spiral of revenge, the way retaliation feeds itself and never ends where it promises. Each act of vengeance is justified as a response to the one before it: the Philistines burn Samson's wife because of what he did, Samson slaughters them in return, the Philistines invade to do to Samson as he has done to them, and on it goes. Notice Samson's own words, I will be avenged, and after that I will stop, the promise every avenger makes, that just one more act of retaliation will settle the account and then it will be over. But it never is; the account never balances, because every act of revenge becomes a new injury that demands its own answer. This is why scripture takes vengeance out of our hands entirely and reserves it to God. Not because the wrongs are not real, but because human vengeance has no stopping point; once we take up the logic of doing to others as they have done to us, we are caught in a wheel that keeps turning, each turn feeling justified, none of it ever bringing the peace it promises. The only way out of the spiral is not to enter it, to refuse the tempting logic of retaliation and to leave the settling of accounts to the God who alone can end the cycle.

When I have been wronged, am I tempted by the avenger's promise that just one act of retaliation will settle the account and then I will stop, and can I refuse to enter the spiral, leaving the settling of accounts to God?

Sources