Justin Houtz

Judges 15, 1 Peter 4

DateVersionReading Plan
August 14, 2025ESV (2016)OT/NT Plan 2025 – 2027

Judges 15

Observation & Interpretation

Judges 15:2 – The father of Samson’s Philistine wife thought Samson hated his daughter and so he gave her to Samson’s companion. The father told Samson to take her younger sister instead as he considered her more beautiful.

Judges 15:3 – In response to hearing that the father of his Philistine wife gave her to his companion, Samson said that he would now be innocent in regard to the Philistines when he does them harm.

  • Samson, vowing revenge, feels completely justified in his plan. (FSB)

Judges 15:4-5

  • Samson ties the foxes together by their tails (with a rope or string) and attaches a torch. When he releases the terrified foxes into the fields (v. 5), the fields quickly go up in flames. (FSB)

Judges 15:10-13 – The Philistines → Judah that they intended to bind Samson. Three thousand men of Judah then approached Samson to bind him themselves and hand them over to the Philistines. Samson made the men of Judah swear that they would only bind him and not kill him.

  • (v. 12-17) Samson, confident in his own strength, was quite content to be handed over. (CSB Notes)

1 Peter 4

Observation & Interpretation

1 Peter 1-2

  • When one suffers for what is right, it is an indication that one has renounced sinful human desires and embraced the will of God as a higher value. (ESVEC – Comment)

1 Peter 4:6 – Peter gives the reason for why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does.

  • To those who are dead May refer to those who are spiritually dead (that is, nonbelievers), but more likely refers to those who are physically dead, as the use of the same Greek term (nekros) in v. 5 suggests. Peter’s argument is that those who have died will not escape the judgment of God. One day, God will impartially judge all the works of all people. Some of Peter’s audience may have questioned whether those who died before Christ’s return would escape God’s judgment—the answer is no. (FSB)

1 Peter 4:10 – Peter qualifies God’s grace as “varied”

  • We are to be good stewards of the manifold grace of God. The grace of God here refers to the undeserved favor which He offers to man. Manifold literally mans “multi-colored” or variegated. Phillips translates it “magnificently varied.” (BBC)

1 Peter 4:10-11

  • That such glory and praise comes to God “through Jesus Christ” reminds us that whatever gifts we might exercise, whatever grace we might experience, and whatever praise we offer to God is grounded upon and mediated through the life, death, and resurrection of the Son. (ESVEC – Comment)

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