Judges — Chapter 15

Samson ties firebrands to 300 foxes' tails and burns the Philistines' harvest. Allegorically (S. Ambrose, S. Augustine): the foxes are heretics — their heads (opinions) are divided but their tails are joined in a common end of destruction. They ignite fields of virtue in others while proclaiming themselves preachers of the cross. Lapide quotes Ambrose at length on twelve similarities between foxes and heretics.

Samson allows the men of Judah to bind him and hand him over to the Philistines. He does this to spare his own people from Philistine wrath. Allegorically (S. Augustine): Samson bound and surrendered by his own people is a figure of Christ bound by the Jews and handed over to Pilate and the Romans to be crucified.

With the jawbone of an ass Samson slays a thousand Philistines. Mystically (S. Ambrose): the jawbone signifies patience, which conquers all enemies. \"The invincible Samson, so unconquerable that in a jawbone of an ass he struck down a thousand men, so full of heavenly grace that he found water even in the jawbone of an ass.\" The water from the jawbone (v. 19) is a figure of the grace that flows from mortification.