Ephrem the Syrian

People imitate those who do good deeds, therefore, not out of love for these good deeds but because of their utility.… The king of Moab took note of Jephthah. But, because it was his firstborn and a human being rather than an animal that he killed, God took pity on him, since he did it in affliction and not through love. In the case of Jephthah, if it had been one of his servants who had been first to encounter him, he would have killed him. But, in order that people would not engage in the sacrifice of their fellow human beings, he caused his own daughter to meet him, so that others would be afraid, lest they offer human beings by vow to God.

Just as those who travel about in the pathless desert tremble at serpents on the ground, and those who travel on the pathways are also terrified of vipers that hide on the paths, so were the Philistines, who traveled on paths and in the pathless desert, terrified of Samson. “To bite the horse’s heels and throw its rider backward.” It was during the great famine, which God had brought upon the Philistines, that Samson burned their crops by means of foxes, for fire was carried on their bodies like a rider on its horse. Then the Philistines keeled over from lack of bread and then fell backwards from lack of nourishment.

Satan the tyrant outwitted Samson with a woman,
the same tyrant outwitted Adam with a woman:
Samson had to grind at the mill, Adam had to labor wearily on the soil;
Samson prayed to be released,
whereas we pray to grow old in our misery.
Blessed is he who delivered Samson, releasing him from the grinding.
Samson is a type of the death of Christ the high priest:
Samson’s death returns prisoners to their towns,
whereas the High Priest’s death has returned us to our heritage.