Samson then captures three hundred foxes (shu‘alim, cf. Song 2:15),70 ties them tail to tail in pairs, and fastens a torch to every pair of tails—an act of prowess on his part! Lighting the torches, he lets them loose in the standing grain71 of the Philistines, burning the shocks, standing grain, vineyards, and olive groves72—a thoroughgoing destruction (Judg 15:5)! While truly an amazing feat, it is motivated purely on Samson’s desire for retaliation and is wrong. Note Exodus 22:6: “If a fire breaks out and spreads into thornbushes so that it burns shocks of grain or standing grain or the
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