Judges 14:1,2,7
Samson went down to Timnath, and saw a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines. And he came up, and told his father and his mother, and said, I have seen a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines: now therefore get her for me to wife…And he went down, and talked with the woman; and she pleased Samson well.
MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Samson saw this woman and she pleased him well. It does not appear that he had any reason to think her wise or virtuous, or in any way likely to be a help-meet for him; but he saw something in her face that was very agreeable to his fancy. And therefore nothing will serve but she must be his wife…God had forbidden the people of Israel to marry with the devoted nations, one of which the Philistines were, Deuteronomy 7:3―But this treaty of marriage is expressly said to be “of the Lord,” Judges 14:4.
G. CAMPBELL MORGAN (1863-1945): This fact, however, in no sense justified the sin of Samson in seeking a wife of the Philistines in violation of the expressed commands of God.
CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): The creature, whatever his own mind and purpose may be, is only “a rod, or staff, or sword in Jehovah’s hand,” to execute His holy will. And though this does not excuse the creature, who, in fact, thinks of doing his own will only―there may be many events which seem unpropitious, and threaten the total destruction of the life of God in the soul: but God will overrule them all for the final accomplishment of His own gracious purposes.
JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807): Often, for the manifestation of His wisdom, power, and grace, in bringing good out of evil, He, for a season, gives them up so far to the effects of their own depravity.
JOHN GILL (1697-1771): Samson saw no doubt many other women besides her, but he took special notice of her, and entertained a particular affection for her. Or, in other words—on the sight of her, he fell in love with her.
A. W. PINK (1886-1952): Eye-gate is one of the avenues through which temptations assail the soul…Walking by sight is the cause of most of our failures and sorrows. So it was at the beginning: “And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof,” Genesis 3:6. Mark, too, the confession of Achan: “When I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight, then I coveted them and took them,” Joshua 7:21. How significant the order here I saw, I coveted, I took!
MATTHEW HENRY: “Then went Samson to Gaza, and saw there an harlot, and went in unto her,” Judges 16:1. His taking a Philistine to wife was in some degree excusable, but to join himself to a harlot that he accidentally saw among them was such a profanation of his honour as an Israelite, as a Nazarite, that we cannot but blush to read it…His sin began in his eye―he saw there one in the attire of a harlot, and the lust which conceived brought forth sin: he went in unto her.
JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Satan never ceases diligently to suggest those things that may incite us to sin. The senses both readily embrace the occasion of sin that is presented to them, and also eagerly and quickly convey it to the mind. Wherefore let every one endeavour sedulously to govern his eyes, and his ears, and the other members of his body, unless he wishes to open so many doors to Satan, into the innermost affections of his heart: and especially as the sense of the eyes is the most tender, no common care must be used in putting them under restraint.
RICHARD BAXTER (1615-1691): We can scarce open our eyes, but we are in danger―If we see beauty, it is a bait to lust.
ROBERT NISBET (1814-1874): The lust of the eyes, desire; the lust of the flesh, pleasure.
ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): The first false step leads on to connections unforeseen, from which the man would have shrunk in horror, if he had been told that he would make them. Once on the incline, time and gravity will settle how far down we go.
MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): “And it came to pass afterward, that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah,” Judges 16:4. With lustful love, as a harlot; which though not certain, because the phrase is here ambiguous, she being neither called a harlot, as she of Gaza was; nor yet his wife, as she of Timnath was, yet it may seem more probable; partly, because the dreadful punishment now inflicted upon Samson for this sin, whom God spared for the first offence, is an intimation that this sin was not inferior to the former; partly, because the confidence which the Philistine lords had in her, and their bold and frequent treating with her, and the whole course of her carriage towards Samson, show her to be a mercenary and perfidious harlot, and not a wife, whose affection and interest would have obliged her to better things; and partly, because Samson did not carry her home to his house, as husbands do their wives, but lodged in her house, as appears from the whole story.
MATTHEW HENRY: The burnt child dreads the fire; yet Samson, that has more than the strength of a man, in this comes short of the wisdom of a child; for, though he had been more than once brought into the highest degree of mischief and danger by the love of women and lusting after them, yet he would not take warning, but is here again taken in the same snare, and this third time pays for all. Solomon seems to refer especially to this story of Samson when, in his caution against uncleanness, he gives this account of a whorish woman, that “she hath cast down many wounded, yea, many strong men have been slain by her,” Proverbs 7:26.
ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): Awfully let us remark the punishment suited to the offence; that is, I mean, not as it came from the hand of man, but from the correction of God. It was Samson’s eyes which had become the great inlet to evil, when he first saw this harlot.
G. S. BOWES (circa 1820’s-1880’s): Samson fell by the “lust of the eyes,” 1 John 2:16; and before his death the Philistines “put out his eyes,” Judges 16:21.
THOMAS BROOKS (1608-1680): I remember a notable saying of Ambrose, speaking of Samson: “He broke the bonds of his enemies, but he could not break the bonds of his own lusts; he choked the lion, but he could not choke his own wanton love; he set on fire the harvest of strangers, and himself being set on fire with the spark of one strange woman, lost the harvest of his virtue.” And this saying of Ambrose puts me in mind of a great Roman captain, who, as he was riding in his triumphant chariot through Rome, had his eyes never off a courtesan that walked along the street, which made one say, “Behold how this goodly captain, that conquered such potent armies, is himself conquered by one silly woman.”
