Charles Ellicott Commentary Judges 15:20

"And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years." — Judges 15:20 (ASV)

And he judged Israel. —Probably, as Jephthah had done, with the sort of vague prerogatives of a military hero. Why the verse is found here, as though to close the narrative (compare Judges 12:7 and following), and is again repeated in Judges 16:31, we cannot say. The next chapter belongs mainly to Samson’s fall and humiliation. These twenty years probably fell within the contemporary judgeship of Eli.