I pass over the other considerations here noticed to remark the most interesting, namely, of the suitable punishment on the house of Samson's wife's father. The Reader will recollect the treachery of his wife to get out of Samson the riddle, was to prevent the threatened destruction of her father's house by fire; and now the Lord suffers the very ruin which she had studied to avoid to fall upon her and her house, from the instrumentality of the husband she had injured. Our blessed Lord sweetly explains, in a reference to his holy gospel, the wisdom of doing what the Lord appoints, and of leaving the issue with him. He that will save his life, saith Christ, shall lose it: and he that will lose his life for my sake, and the gospel's, the same shall save it. Mark 8:35.
Judges 15:4-8
4 And Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took firebrands,a and turned tail to tail, and put a firebrand in the midst between two tails.
5 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.
6 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. And the Philistines came up, and burnt her and her father with fire.
7 And Samson said unto them, Though ye have done this, yet will I be avenged of you, and after that I will cease.
8 And he smote them hip and thigh with a great slaughter: and he went down and dwelt in the top of the rock Etam.