John Gill's Bible Commentary Ver. 1. But it came to pass within a while after , etc.] Or “after days”, a year after, the same phrase as in ( Judges 14:8) in the time of wheat harvest; which began at Pentecost, as barley harvest did at the passover; this circumstance is mentioned for the sake of the following piece of history: that Samson visited his wife with a kid ; by this time his passion of anger subsided, and he “remembered” his wife, as the Targum expresses it, and thought proper to return to her, and attempt a reconciliation with her; and for that purpose took a kid with him to eat a meal with her in her own apartment, which in those days was reckoned an elegant entertainment, and was a present to a king, ( 1 Samuel 16:20). Isidore derives the Latin word for a kid, “ab edendo”, from eating, as if it was food by way of eminency, as it is both savoury and wholesome: and he said, I will go with my wife into the chamber ; where she was, as women had their chambers and apartments by themselves; this he said within himself, or resolved in his own mind, and perhaps expressed it in her father’s hearing, or however moved that way, which plainly indicated his design: but her father would not suffer him to go in ; placed himself perhaps between him and the door, and parleyed with him, and declared he should not go into his daughter’s chamber; Samson, through his superior strength, could easily have pushed him away, and broke open the door, but he did not choose to use such violent methods, and patiently heard what he had to say, and submitted.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 1-8 - When there are differences between relations, let those be reckoned the wisest and best, who are most forward to forgive or forget, and mos willing to stoop and yield for the sake of peace. In the means whic Samson employed, we must look at the power of God supplying them, an making them successful, to mortify the pride and punish the wickednes of the Philistines. The Philistines threatened Samson's wife that the would burn her and her father's house. She, to save herself and oblig her countrymen, betrayed her husband; and the very thing that sh feared, and by sin sought to avoid, came upon her! She, and he father's house, were burnt with fire, and by her countrymen, whom sh thought to oblige by the wrong she did to her husband. The mischief we seek to escape by any unlawful practices, we often pull down upon ou own heads.
Original Hebrew ויהי1961 מימים3117 בימי3117 קציר7105 חטים2406 ויפקד6485 שׁמשׁון8123 את853 אשׁתו802 בגדי1423 עזים5795 ויאמר559 אבאה935 אל413 אשׁתי802 החדרה2315 ולא3808 נתנו5414 אביה1 לבוא׃935
