1. Judges 14:3 (ESV)
  2. Exposition

What does the mention of “right” recall?

Judges 14:3 (ESV)

3 But his father and mother said to him, “Is there not a woman among the daughters of your relatives, or among all our people, that you must go to take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?” But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, for she is right in my eyes.”

The verb to be right means to be straight, as opposed to twisted or crooked.1 The theme of doing right appears frequently in the Torah, particularly the theme of doing what is right in the eyes of the Lord (Exodus 15:26; Numbers 23:27; Deuteronomy 6:18; Deuteronomy 12:25, Deuteronomy 12:28; Deuteronomy 13:18; Deuteronomy 21:9). So according to its earlier usage, there is a moral component in this rightness. This component is now lacking in Samson’s view of the Timnite (Deuteronomy 14:3, Deuteronomy 14:7).