On the seventh day, they said to Shimshon’s wife, “Coax your husband into telling us the solution to the riddle. Otherwise we’ll burn down your father’s house and you with it. You two called us here to turn us into paupers, didn’t you?”
Have you ever heard the word Philistine thrown around as a pejorative? Shimshon’s interactions with them here might be the reason for that. These men go from being guests at a wedding feast to threatening to murder the bride and her father and all the people in his household because they refused to deal with the consequences of their actions. Then the bride is given as wife to the best man. What kind of people were these? They didn’t have to agree to the contest. They knee the terms. If they lost, 30 men would have to provide 2 items each. If they won, one man would have to provide 60 items. It feels like their greed overtook them and drove them into a deadly frenzy. May Heaven protect us from rashness and foolishness that leads to destruction.
