This seems to be a further confirmation of the limitations of Samson as judge. He leads no one in combat, he gives orders to no one, he doesn’t fight for the sake of others, and each of his battles takes the form of a personal vendetta! And there is no reference to rest for the land under his judgeship. The narrator now says that the days he judged Israel were “the days of the Philistines.” This underlines the limited judgeship of Samson.
Yet we cannot forget that Samson was an agent of the Lord, beginning the work of delivering Israel from the Philistines. In that way he judged Israel.
20 And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.