‘And they said to him, “We have come down to bind you, so that we may deliver you into the hands of the Philistines.” '
The men of Judah approached the issue with Samson tentatively. They were apprehensive in the extreme. But they had a job to do that they dared not shirk. To arrest Samson. I remember once when I was in the RAF and was in a billet when the wakeup call came. There was one airman who still lay in bed under the covers, and a corporal came in and pointed to me and said, ‘Throw that man out of bed.' The man in question was a rugby league centre and a huge man and I went up to his bed tentatively and tapped him on the shoulder and said, ‘Excuse me, I am supposed to throw you out of bed.' I knew exactly how these men of Judah felt. Fortunately like Samson, he responded graciously.
‘And Samson said to them, “Swear to me that you will not fall on me yourselves.” '
He was not afraid of them but he did not want to have to fight his own countrymen. They were his responsibility. They would indeed have had a huge job for only one or two would have been able to enter the cleft in the rock at one time, and they would have had no chance against Samson. But he did not want that. So he asked for their solemn oath that they themselves would not seek to do him harm.