Samson says, “If this is what you do, I swear I will be avenged on you.” He is motivated entirely by selfish interests. Interestingly, the word he uses for “avenge” does not refer to personal vengeance, but to lawful vengeance. (The word is used in Genesis 4:15 when the Lord tells Cain that if anyone kills him, vengeance will be taken upon him sevenfold.) In Samson’s mind, he was justified in what he was about to do. But we have a very hard time believing this. Till now he has been entirely motivated by selfish interests. He may think he is justified here, but this is simply a case of Samson and the Philistines acting like five-year-olds on the playground—“You hit me, now I’m going to get you.” It did not matter to him that the Philistines were oppressing the Israelites. It mattered that the enemy hurt him personally.
7 And Samson said to them, “If this is what you do, I swear I will be avenged on you, and after that I will quit.”