Having noticed the Philistine woman in Timnah, Samson goes to his parents demanding that they get her for him as a wife. The parents, alarmed that he wants to marry a non-Israelite who belongs to the occupying power, try in vain to suggest that he find someone from among their own people. But Samson is insistent, and using an expression that will eventually appear again in the epilogue’s refrain (cf. 17:6; 21:25), he justifies his request by declaring that the woman is literally “right in his eyes” (14:3).

Given the blatant disapproval of marriages with foreigners already expressed in Judges 3:5–6, it seems obvious that Samson’s desires in this matter should be viewed negatively. But the supplementary information provided by the narrator, that Samson’s parents are ignorant of the Lord’s …