When he had set the brands on fire, he let them go into the standing grain of the Philistines, and burnt up both the shocks and the standing grain, and also the olive groves.
"The burning of standing corn was a common method of retaliation or revenge in the ancient world and its effect in an agricultural community was very serious." [Note: Ibid., p. 169. Cf. 2 Samuel 14:29-32.] 