Everyone Did What Was Right in His Own Eyes
Retaliation, Religious Disorder, Exploitation, Civil War, and the Need for Righteous Rule
By Will Bourne · Bourne Again Media LLC
Judges 15–21 · Commentary chapters 15–21
The journey of this volume
Enter the final movement of Judges with care. Samson’s conflicts lead into corrupted religion, sexual violence, tribal protection, civil war, and attempted repairs that create further harm. This volume keeps vulnerable people visible and invites readers to distinguish what the text reports from what God approves, while looking toward Christ’s truthful justice and lasting deliverance.
How can a community face harm and seek repair without repeating the power that caused it?
What you’ll explore
- Retaliation widens harm when a prior offense becomes permission for another.
- Gifted strength and religious language do not make people safe or institutions just.
- Vulnerable lives must remain visible in accountability, protection, and genuine repair.
An injury does not have to author the next response
Begin with Judges 15 in your Bible. Read slowly and pause where needed. Notice how each response widens the conflict, who carries the cost, and how Samson’s thirst brings his dependence into view.
The following reading summarizes Chapter 15, “When Every Injury Becomes Permission for a Greater Injury,” with a selected excerpt from the manuscript.
Judges 15 exposes a chain of escalating responses. Each party can point to a prior offense, yet the next action spreads the cost to others. The people involved have unequal power and responsibility, so the chapter must not become a claim that everyone is equally to blame. It asks what happens when explanation is treated as permission.
The woman caught within the conflict and the households whose harvest is destroyed must remain part of the account. A story centered only on extraordinary strength can make harmed people disappear. The chapter distinguishes God’s empowering action from the maturity of every motive and method surrounding it. Giftedness leaves room for moral examination.
After public strength comes thirst. Samson calls to God and receives water. Mercy meets bodily need without certifying every earlier decision. The chapter invites a response to injury aimed at protection, truth, accountability, and repair rather than another returned wound. Boundaries and appropriate help can belong within that response.
Being wronged still leaves a choice
Feeling justified is not the same as being just. A person may have suffered a real wrong and still choose a harmful response. An institution may have been falsely accused in one matter and still retaliate against truthful criticism in another. A community may carry historic injury and still need moral boundaries governing how present power is used.
Accountability does not require pretending the first offense was acceptable. It requires refusing to let another person’s sin become the author of our character. The question is not only who began the conflict. It is what kind of person and community each response is forming.
Will Bourne · From Chapter 15, “When Every Injury Becomes Permission for a Greater Injury,” in Judges Volume III
Christ interrupts retaliation
Jesus names evil and confronts harmful power while refusing to make retaliation the foundation of his kingdom. He restrains his followers’ violent responses and passes through the cross into resurrection. Victory does not require reproducing the spirit of the hostility he faces.
Following Christ does not require remaining in danger or concealing wrongdoing. His way joins mercy to truth and courage to protection. By the Spirit, we can seek justice, establish boundaries, and refuse to let another person’s wrong determine the character of our own response.
Continue in Scripture
Matthew 5:38–48 · Romans 12:14–21 · Galatians 5:13–26
Read these passages alongside Samson’s conflict. Notice how enemy-love and the Spirit’s fruit can govern a response without denying harm or abandoning protection.
A question to carry
What response am I justifying mainly by what someone else did to me?
Stay with one person or situation that comes to mind. Notice what this passage brings into view before deciding how to respond.
Back to section choices ↑One faithful step
In an ordinary disagreement, pause before one retaliatory response. Name the wrong honestly, identify a boundary or truthful next step, and seek help where needed. If danger is involved, prioritize safety rather than direct confrontation.
Back to section choices ↑A prayer for the journey
Jesus, tell the truth about the wounds I carry and the choices I make. Free me from revenge without making me indifferent to harm. By your Spirit, form courage, wise boundaries, truthful responsibility, and mercy.
Back to section choices ↑Keeping the people beneath the spectacle visible
I want the strongest person in a story to stop being the only person we remember. Samson’s conflicts affect women, households, workers, and communities. Recognizing God’s activity does not erase those costs. We need moral precision about who acts, who holds power, and who suffers.
The final chapters become especially difficult because religious language and communal solutions can reproduce the harm they claim to repair. I want readers to distinguish narration from approval and give vulnerable people the attention the public story often removes. A solution is not righteous simply because it closes an institution’s problem.
Judges creates longing for a Deliverer whose authority remains joined to holy love. Christ is more than a stronger Samson. My hope is that readers bring recurring struggle to him, receive needed help, and learn practices of truth, protection, and repair through which mercy forms a different life.
Adapted from Will Bourne’s prepared Judges interview.
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