10 Cool Things You Can Do with 300 Fox Tails

You’re right, the post title is intentionally misleading.

I only have one idea for what to do with a whole bunch of fox tails. It’s been done, and I’m not sure how cool it was.

But I’ve read that list-posts are popular with readers and I’m all about making you happy. So I figured, why not?

What could it hurt if I didn’t deliver the goods?

It’s not like anybody would get mad and take three hundred foxes, tie their tails together, start them on fire and set them loose in my back yard.

Nah, nobody would ever do something like that.

Except, I suppose, maybe Samson . . .

He might just be crazy enough to do something like that.

::

Samson was one crazy loose cannon.

He was already mad that his heifer, having been plowed with, spilled all her cookies to the Philistine men and helped them solve his riddle. When he finally calmed down around harvest season, he decided it might be a good time to pay a visit to his bride.

Young goat squirming under his arm, he went in search of his lovely heifer.

When he arrived, her father stopped him and would not permit Samson to see his wife. Since he beat up the guys and left in such a huff the last time, it was assumed he did not want her.

And so he gave her to the next available guy.

But hey, how about my other daughter? She’s actually better looking.

Take her.

::

Samson didn’t want to give his goat to the other girl. He wanted his woman, and he wanted her now.

Samson was the kind of guy that just didn’t take well to being told No.

So he caught three hundred foxes, tied them together at the tail and lit them on fire. Blazing red, he set wild flaming critters loose in the fields of the Philistines. They lit up shocks, standing grain, vineyards and olive groves.

They destroyed everything of value.

Later on, at the time of wheat harvest, Samson took a young goat and went to visit his wife. He said, “I’m going to my wife’s room.” But her father would not let him go in.

“I was so sure you thoroughly hated her,” he said, “that I gave her to your friend. Isn’t her younger sister more attractive? Take her instead.”

Samson said to them, “This time I have a right to get even with the Philistines; I will really harm them.” So he went out and caught three hundred foxes and tied them tail to tail in pairs. He then fastened a torch to every pair of tails, lit the torches and let the foxes loose in the standing grain of the Philistines. He burned up the shocks and standing grain, together with the vineyards and olive groves. (Judges 15:1-5)

And why? Because this time he had a right to get even.

Last time, when he knocked thirty guys’ blocks off and stole their clothes, it wasn’t because they particularly deserved it. He was just mad.

But this time was different. This time he found himself entitled to extract vengeance.

What ensued was a deadly series of events, each one ratcheted up from the next.

The Philistines retaliated by burning Samson’s wife and father to death. (Judges 15:6)

Samson slaughtered a bunch of them in return, visciously. (Judges 15:7)

The Philistines prepared to attack Judah before striking a deal to trade in Samson. (Judges 15:13)

Samson broke free, grabbed a donkey’s jawbone and killed a thousand men. Then, he fancied himself a poet. (Judges 15:15)

Then Samson said,
“With a donkey’s jawbone
I have made donkeys of them.
With a donkey’s jawbone
I have killed a thousand men.” (Judges 15:16)

(I’m not sure, but I thought I read once that the old saying about what assuming makes out of you and me has its origins with this verse. Perhaps in the KJV?)

::

As the men of Judah sought initially to mediate between Samson and the Philistines, the two parties sounded like my children.

When the men asked the Philistines why they prepared to attack, they answered that they meant only to do to Samson “as he did to us.” (Judges 15:10)

And when they asked Samson what he was thinking when he attacked them, he said much the same: “I merely did to them what they did to me.” (Judges 15:11)

They deserved it.

I was just doing what they did.

It was the same as what they did to me.

Bottom line: I believe I am entitled to extract payment.

::

Mosaic law allowed “an eye for an eye” repayment for wrong for just such a situation as Samson faced. But it was intended to encourage restraint, not justify excessive retaliation. It seems restitution was the intent of the law, moreso than retribution.

Retribution and retaliation seemed to be Samson’s priorities. It was as though he said, I see your eye, and I’ll raise you two. In fact, I’ll raise you your neighbor’s eyes too.

I’m thinking about this fox stunt. It took planning, deliberation and time.

Lots and lots of time.

He had to catch three hundred foxes first. Then he had to pair up and tie three hundred fox tails together.

Every time he got his hands around a fox, he had the opportunity to say, “No. I’m done. I’ll forgive and move on.”

Three hundred times he had opportunity to stop.

Every time he picked up two foxes and tied their tails, he had another opportunity to prevent escalation.

One hundred and fifty times more he had opportunity.

But he pushed on ahead.

Four hundred and fifty chances, plus or minus.

He had the chance to quiet his anger. To let go his pride. To recognize his own shortcomings and say enough is enough.

That’s how many times he said I have a right to get even.

::

Crazy thing for Samson, after all that hard work it wasn’t enough. He wanted still more. He would later swing the donkey’s jawbone and take off some heads.

Each of those hundreds of moments in which he could have stopped — but didn’t — added fuel to the fires of vengeance burning in his own heart.

His refusal to even consider extending forgiveness helped to forge the very circumstances that would bring about his own humiliating end.

And I wonder. You know how I wonder.

How often is that me, tying together fox tails, one by one. Painstakingly refusing forgiveness, choosing not to move on.

Watching the fields burn restores nothing to me, but only sears my heart more deeply.

::

Related: More posts in the Samson series.