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Thou hadst utterly hated her - As he was conscious she had given him great cause so to do.

Her younger sister - The father appears to have been perfectly sincere in this offer.

I gave her - In marriage. Samson had probably not heard of this before. Samson‘s father had paid the dowry for the older sister; her father therefore offers her sister in her room. The fear of Samson probably also influenced him.

When there are differences between relations, let those be reckoned the wisest and best, who are most forward to forgive or forget, and most willing to stoop and yield for the sake of peace. In the means which Samson employed, we must look at the power of God supplying them, and making them successful, to mortify the pride and punish the wickedness of the Philistines. The Philistines threatened Samson's wife that they would burn her and her father's house. She, to save herself and oblige her countrymen, betrayed her husband; and the very thing that she feared, and by sin sought to avoid, came upon her! She, and her father's house, were burnt with fire, and by her countrymen, whom she 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 our own heads.