Judges 15:3

What does Judges 15:3 mean?

Samson is preparing to retaliate against the Philistines after they've burned his wife and her father to death, and he's framing his coming violence as justified rather than vengeful. He's claiming that what he's about to do will be righteous because the Philistines started this cycle of harm. The irony, which the book of Judges invites us to notice, is that Samson keeps getting pulled into escalating cycles of violence where he tells himself he's the innocent party—even as his own impulsiveness and pride have often lit the match. His statement reflects something deeply human: our tendency to feel blameless when we're responding to wrongs, even when our responses might spiral into something we didn't initially intend. It's a moment that shows us how easy it is to lose perspective when we're hurt and angry.