Verse 20
He judged Israel - twenty years - In the margin it is said, He seems to have judged southwest Israel during twenty years of their servitude of the Philistines, Judges 13:1 . Instead of שנה עשרים esrim shanah , twenty years, the Jerusalem Talmud has שנה ארבעים arbaim shanah , forty years; but this reading is not acknowledged by any MS. or version. According to Calmet, the twenty years of the judicature of Samson began the eighteenth year of the subjection of Israel to the Philistines; and these twenty years are included in the judicature of the high priest Eli.
The burning of the Philistines' corn by the means of foxes and firebrands is a very remarkable circumstance; and there is a story told by Ovid, in the 4th book of his Fasti, that bears a striking similitude to this; and is supposed by some learned men to allude to Samson and his foxes. The poet is at a loss to account for this custom, but brings in an old man of Carseoli, with what must have appeared to himself a very unsatisfactory solution. The passage begins as follows: -
Tertia post Hyadas cum luxerit orta, remotas,
Carcere partitos Circus habebit equos
Cur igitur missae vinctis ardentia taedis
Terga ferant vulpes, causa docenda mihi
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