And Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took firebrands, and turned tail to tail, and put a firebrand in the midst between two tails.
Went and caught three hundred foxes - rather х shuw`aaliym (H7776)], jackals-an animal between a wolf and a fox (Canis aureus), which, unlike our fox, a solitary creature, are gregarious, prowl in large packs or herds, and abound in the mountains of Palestine. The collection of so great a number would require both time and assistance. They were probably snared into traps, or caught in pitfalls; and as these creatures are exceedingly numerous about Gaza and the southern parts of Philistia (Hasselquist: cf. Joshua 19:3; 1 Samuel 13:17), Samson could have had no difficulty, with the aid of servants, in procuring the number here specified.
Took firebrands - torches or matches, which would burn slowly, retaining the fire, and blaze fiercely when blown by the wind. He put two jackals together, tail by tail, and fastened tightly a fire-match between them. But the uniting cord was probably of considerable length, so that, the animals being gregarious they might run in couples, and though tied, be little, if at all, impeded in their movements. At nightfall he lighted the firebrand, and sent each pair successively down from the hills into the 'Shephelah,' or plain of Philistia, lying on the borders of Dan and Judah-a rich and extensive grain district. The pain caused by the fire would make the animals toss about to a wide extent, kindling one great conflagration; but no one could render assistance to his neighbour, the devastation was so general, the panic would be so great, 'There is reason to think,' says Burder ('Oriental Customs,' in loco) 'that there was nothing new or uncommon in this operation, as it was the most obvious, for the end proposed, that the wit of man could devise. We accordingly find that Ovid alludes to the practice, and mentions that foxes and firebrands were every year exhibited at Rome, and killed in the circus. For it was the custom in many places to sacrifice, by way of retaliation, animals which did particular injury to the fruits of the earth. In consequence of this they introduced these foxes, which had been employed for that purpose with firebrands. He then mentions an instance of much injury by a fox accoutred with a firebrand.'
This incident has been so frequently made the subject of infidel raillery, that several writers have endeavoured to explain it away. One commentator maintains that the agents employed by Samson were not four-footed animals, but the Shualim, or men of Shual, a district on the borders of Philistia. Kennicott, on the support of seven MSS., holds that the proper reading should be, not Shualim, but Sholim, handfuls of sheaves; and that what Samson did was to place the shocks of grain two by two endways, so that the fire, aided by a smart breeze, was no sooner sent in among the dry grain, than it quickly consumed it. But it is objected to this translation that Sholim, which occurs only three times in the Scriptures, means strictly a handful, and cannot, but by a very forced construction, signify sheaves. On every view, the commonly received opinion is the most probable (Jamieson's edition of Paxton's 'Illustrations of Scripture Natural History,' p. 361).