Verse 19
19. Ashkelon Some twenty-five miles distant to the southwest.
Slew thirty men of them That is, men of Ashkelon. He would not stain his hands with the blood of the citizens of Timnath, but goes far off to take his spoil; yet will he make Philistine blood pay for this Philistine treachery. His whole object in going to Ashkelon to get his spoils is not clear. To justify this wholesale murder by any standard of New Testament morality is idle and absurd.
His anger was kindled He doubtless felt that he did well to be angry, and his slaughter of the thirty men of Ashkelon is to be regarded largely as a fearful revenge, by which he would awe and terrify the Timnathites who had treated him so treacherously. The changes of garments which he paid them he probably flung at their feet all stained with human blood, and in a spell of ferocious indignation at their perfidy left them, and went up to his father’s house at Zorah.
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