And the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, so the LORD gave them into the hand of the Philistines for forty years.
The first verse gives us a short account, such as we have too often met with already, of the great distress that Israel was in, which gave occasion for the raising up of a deliverer. They did evil, as they had done, in the sight of the Lord, and then God delivered them, as he had done, into the hands of their enemies.
Commenting on Judges 13:1-7
And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord,.... Committed idolatry, which was the evil they were prone unto, and were frequently guilty of: and the Lord delivered them into the hands of the Philistines forty years: which according to Josephus (f) are to be reckoned from the death of the last judge, and the time of Samson's birth; or rather...
Samson’s Life, and Conflicts with the Philistines - Judges 13-16 Whilst Jephthah, in the power of God, was delivering the tribes on the east of the Jordan from the oppression of the Ammonites, the oppression on the part of the Philistines continued uninterruptedly for forty years in the land to the west of the Jordan (Jdg 13:1), and probably increased more and more after the...