Then three thousand men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam, and said to Samson, "Don't you know that the Philistines are rulers over us? What then is this that you have done to us?" He said to them, As they did to me, so have I done to them.
During his whole ministry Samson never had an army or even several Israelites behind him. He fought the Lord’s battles alone. The Judahites were doing their enemies’ work for them by binding Samson and handing him over to them (Judges 15:12). They swore not to kill their judge themselves, but they bound him and handed him over to the Philistines so they could kill him (Judges 15:13).