Judges 15:6: Samson's Wife Burned

Verse 6:[1] Then the Philistines said, Who hath done this? And they answered, Samson, the son in law of the Timnite, because he had taken his wife, and given her to his companion. (Judg. 14:15) And the Philistines came up, and burnt her and her father with fire.

[And they burned both her, etc.] Monstrous cruelty against those that had given only an occasion for evil, not foreseeing it (Grotius). What the impious fear happens to them, accordingly to Solomon.[2] The young woman was afraid that the house of her father would be burned, and she sent for the conflagration in that very way in which she was desiring to avoid it (Martyr, similarly Bonfrerius, Lapide). Learn here adulteresses were punished with death, even indeed by fire (Lapide). From this place it is evident that Samson avenged public, not private, injuries; for he would not have been willing to avenge an injury inflicted by a private man to the public hurt, much less after such ample satisfaction given (Bonfrerius).

And burnt her, etc.: Partly for her adultery, which divers heathens punished with death; and partly for that mischief which she had occasioned to them; thus she brought upon herself that mischief which she studied to avoid, Judges 14:15, as wicked persons oft do, Proverbs 10:24.

[1] Hebrew: וַיֹּאמְר֣וּ פְלִשְׁתִּים֮ מִ֣י עָ֣שָׂה זֹאת֒ וַיֹּאמְר֗וּ שִׁמְשׁוֹן֙ חֲתַ֣ן הַתִּמְנִ֔י כִּ֚י לָקַ֣ח אֶת־אִשְׁתּ֔וֹ וַֽיִּתְּנָ֖הּ לְמֵרֵעֵ֑הוּ וַיַּעֲל֣וּ פְלִשְׁתִּ֔ים וַיִּשְׂרְפ֥וּ אוֹתָ֛הּ וְאֶת־אָבִ֖יהָ בָּאֵֽשׁ׃

[2] Proverbs 10:24. See also Proverbs 11:23.