The children of Israel again did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, and served the Baals, and the Ashtaroth, and the gods of Syria, and the gods of Sidon, and the gods of Moab, and the gods of the children of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines; and they forsook Yahweh, and didn't serve him.
Beginning here, and through the end of the chapter, we have what some have called an expansion of the usual introductory paragraph recounting the usual cycle, of apostasy, oppression, crying unto Jehovah, and the sending of relief.  The surprise that some have expressed at this is due to their failure to recognize the fact that we have here a double introduction: (1) There is the introduction to the judgeship of Jephthah and his deliverance of Israel out of the hand of the Ammonites, and (2) this chapter also is an introduction anticipating the conflict of Samson with the Philistines. "This also explains the fact that the Samson narrative, which is the second longest in the Book of Judges, has but a single verse introducing the story."[11]