Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Judges 15:19
But God cleaved a hollow place that [was] in the jaw, and there came water therefrom; and when he had drunk, his spirit came again, and he revived: wherefore he called the name thereof En-hakkore, which [is] in Lehi unto this day.
19. the hollow place that is in Lehi ] the Mortar which is in L., i.e. a mortar-shaped basin in the hill side. The word comes from a root meaning, not ‘to be hollow,’ but to pound (cf. in Aram. NSI. , p. 171, and the Palmyrene pr. n. Maktash = ‘the pounder’); so maktsh = ‘pounding place,’ i.e. mortar, Pro 27:22, Zep 1:11 (the name of a quarter in Jerusalem). The old interpretation, represented by the marg., went wrong by translating Lehi instead of taking it as a pr. n.; maktsh was then understood to mean a hollow place in the jaw, or the hole of a tooth, through which the spring rose, as many Fathers and Rabbis imagine (see Ber. Rab 98, Rashi, imi etc.). Some of the Greek versions render the word by , which can mean both a mortar and the hollow of a double tooth; Symmachus likewise translates the grinder ( ); and thus arose another way of understanding the word, viz. the molar tooth, so Vulgate The LXX transl. as RV. ‘the hole which is in Siagon.’
his spirit revived ] Cf. Gen 45:27.
The spring, which was pointed out in the writer’s day, and therefore could not have had anything to do with a jawbone, was known as En-hakkore, i.e. the Spring of the Partridge (lit. the crier, 1Sa 26:20, Jer 17:11); playing on the word, the story-tellers connected it with Samson’s cry to God in his thirst.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
An hollow place that was in the jaw – The right translation is, the hollow place which is in Lehi. The word translated hollow place, means a mortar Pro 27:22, and is here evidently a hollow or basin among the cliffs of Lehi, which, from its shape, was called the mortar. A spring, on the way from Socho to Eleutheropolis, was commonly called Samsons spring in the time of Jerome and writers in the 7th, 12th, and 14th centuries.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 19. God clave a hollow place that was in the jaw] asher ballechi, that was in Lehi; that is, there was a hollow place in this Lehi, and God caused a fountain to spring up in it. Because the place was hollow it was capable of containing the water that rose up in it, and thus of becoming a well.
En-hakkore] The well of the implorer; this name he gave to the spot where the water rose, in order to perpetuate the bounty of God in affording him this miraculous supply.
Which is in Lehi unto this day.] Consequently not IN the jaw-bone of the ass, a most unfortunate rendering.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Clave an hollow place, i.e. by cleaving a place, made it hollow; an expression like that Isa 47:2, grind meal, i.e. grind corn into meal; and that Psa 74:15, thou didst cleave the fountain, i.e. cleave the rock so as to make a fountain in it.
In the jaw; in the jawbone which he had used, which God could easily effect, either by causing the jawbone to send forth water, as the rock formerly did, the miracle being in effect the same, though in a differing subject, causing a spring to break forth in Lehi: or, in that Lehi mentioned before, Jdg 15:14; for Lehi is both the name of a place, and signifies a jawbone. En-hakkore, i.e. the fountain of him that cried for thirst; or, that called upon God for deliverance; i.e. the fountain or well which was given in answer to my prayer.
Which is in Lehi unto this day. According to this translation, Lehi is the name of a place, and not a jawbone, because it seems improbable that a jawbone should continue there so long, which every traveller might take away, and would be forward enough to carry a fountain with them in those hot countries; although it is not incredible that passengers would generally forbear to meddle with or remove so great a monument of Gods power and goodness; or that the same God who made it instrumental to so great a wonder, should add one circumstance more, to wit, fix it in the earth, as a testimony to posterity of the truth of this glorious work. But these words may be otherwise rendered thus, which fountain was in that jawbone; and for the following words, unto this day, they may not be joined with the words next and immediately foregoing, as if the fountain was there to this day; but with the former words, he called, &c., and so the sense may be this, that it was so called unto this day; and the place may be thus read, he called the name thereof, or, the name thereof was called, (such active verbs being frequently put passively and impersonally,) The well or fountain of him that called or cried (which was in Lehi) unto this day.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
19. a hollow place . . . in thejaw“in Lehi”taking the word as a proper noun,marking the place.
there came water thereout;and when he had drunk, his spirit came againHis strength,exhausted by the violent and long-continued exertion, was recruitedby the refreshing draft from the spring; and it was called
En-hakkorethe”supplication well,” a name which records the piety of thisheroic champion.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And God clave an hollow place that was in the jaw, and there came water thereout,…. A socket in which was fastened one of the teeth, and was in the form of a mortar; so Jarchi and Ben Melech, as the word for an hollow place signifies; one of the grinders was knocked out, and so the place where it had been was left hollow, and out of that sprung a stream or flow of water; which was very wonderful, since out of such a place rather blood, or purulent matter, would naturally have issued; the Targum is,
“the Lord clave the rock which was in the jaw;”
which Kimchi interprets thus, the rock was under the jaw and the rock was made as a hollow place, and therefore they call it “mactes”, a mortar: the sense seems to be this, that the place on which Samson cast the jawbone was a rock, and there God clave an hollow place, out of which water sprung, and which perhaps was under the jawbone, and sprung under it, and through it; and so Josephus says o, that God at his prayer brought a sweet and large fountain out of a certain rock; and the words of the text will bear to be rendered, “and God clave, an hollow place, which is in Lehi”; that is, in the place called Lehi,
Jud 15:9 and not in the jawbone itself:
and when he had drank, his spirit came again, and he revived; his spirit was sunk and gone, as it were, but upon drinking a draught of this water he was refreshed and cheered, recovered his spirits, and became brisk and lively:
wherefore he called the name thereof Enhakkore; that is,
“the fountain of him that was calling;”
of Samson that called upon God in prayer, and was heard, in memory of which he gave it this name; so the Targum,
“therefore its name was called the fountain that was given through the prayer of Samson:”
which is in Lehi unto this day; or in the jawbone: not that the jawbone continued unto the time of the writer of this book, but the name of the place where this miracle was wrought, which was in Lehi, continued to be called Enhakkore unto that time, and it may be the fountain itself continued also; nay, Giycas p says, who lived but about six hundred years ago, that the fountain continued unto his time, and was to be seen in the suburbs of Eleutheropolis, and was called the fountain of the jawbone.
o Ibid. (Antiqu. l. 5. c. 8. sect. 9.) p Annal. par. 2. p. 164. apud Reland. Palestin. Illustrat. p. 872.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(19) Clave an hollow place that was in the jaw.Rather, the (fountain called the) socket, which is in Lehi. The notion that God made a miraculous fountain in one of the tooth-sockets of the jawbone of the ass is one of the childish misinterpretations with which Scripture exegesis is constantly defaced. Lehi is here the name of the place, and if the fountain is said to have sprung up in Hammaktesh, the tooth-socket (Vulg., molarem), that is only due to the play on words which characterises the narrative. When the cliff had got the name of Jawbone, the spring would naturally be called a tooth-socket. The word maktesh properly means a mortar (Greek, holmiskos; Lat., mortariolum) (Pro. 27:22), and this name was transferred to the sockets of teeth. We find another place with the same name in Zep. 1:11. Milton understood the passage rightly:
God, who caused a fountain at thy prayer
From the dry ground to spring thy thirst to allay.
For similar instances in the Bible, see Gen. 21:19 (Hagar); Exo. 17:6 (the smitten rock); Isa. 41:17-18 (When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord will hear them. I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys . . . I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water). Josephus says that God caused to spring up for Samson a plentiful fountain of sweet water at a certain rock.
He called the name thereof.Rather, the name thereof was called.
En-hakkore.The Spring of the Crier. These names have vanished, but perhaps traces of them may still be discovered in the abundant springs and numerous eminences of the district round Urtas, the place from which Solomons pleasure-gardens and the Temple and Bethlehem were supplied with water.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
19. God clave a hollow place that was in the jaw So the ancient versions render, and so many expositors understand that God miraculously caused a stream of water to flow out of the jawbone with which Samson had wrought his massacre. But much more properly is the Hebrew rendered, God clave the hollow place which is in Lehi; and the remark at the end of the verse, that the place or fountain remains in Lehi unto this day, fully confirms our rendering. The meaning obviously is, that God caused a spring or fountain to break out in Lehi, which became permanent, and was existing in the historian’s day.
His spirit came again He was reinvigorated and restored from his exhaustion.
He revived He lived, did not perish from his extreme exhaustion. The whole passage shows that Samson’s effort on that occasion had well nigh exhausted all his bodily powers.
Called the name thereof That is, the name of the fountain in the hollow place En-hakkore which means, as the margin has it, the well or the fountain of him that called. It was long known as the fountain that burst forth in answer to Samson’s prayer, but its exact location is not at present known.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘ And God clave the hollow place that was in Lehi and there came water from it, and when he had drunk his spirit returned and he revived. That is why the name of the place was called En-hakkore, which is in Lehi up to this day.’
En-hakkore means ‘the spring of him who called’. From a hollow place in Lehi God by some means caused a spring to flow out, and Samson was thus able to drink and revive himself.
It was ‘God’ not Yahweh who responded. Was this because he had broken his vow by using the jawbone of a dead ass? In Israel’s eyes and the writer’s eyes that would be no light thing. Or was it due to his petulant attitude? Or was the writer signalling that a new chapter was beginning in Samson’s life? His love of women would prove his downfall and the writer traces it back to this moment. From now on he would go continually downwards. Possibly all were true. He had perhaps begun to see himself as able to do anything he wanted. And that is always dangerous for a man.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Jdg 15:19. But God clave an hollow place that was in the jaw It is very evident, from what follows in this verse, that our translation is erroneous; since, if God had caused water to come from the jaw only for the present satisfying of Samson’s necessities, it is reasonable to suppose, that Samson would have given it the name of a well or fountain, or that the sacred historian would have told us, that it remained in Lehi unto this day. The rendering in the margins of our Bibles, therefore, is by far the best. Houbigant observes, very properly, that the word rendered hollow place, maktesh, signifies a rock; and he renders the verse thus: Then God clave the rock which was in Lehi, and there came water from thence; which when he had drank, his spirit came again, and he revived; wherefore Samson called that fountain, the fountain of the implorer; which fountain is in Lehi unto this day. Modern travellers inform us, that in the suburbs of Eleutheropolis, (in all probability the ancient Lehi,) the fountain which flowed upon this occasion is still remaining, and is called to this day the fountain of the jaw; an observation which abundantly confirms the interpretation that we have given. See Scheuchzer on the place.
REFLECTIONS.The withholding of the most common necessaries of life, little as we are apt to value them, would be more fatal than the sword. The want of a draught of water brought Samson nearer to the grave than all the host of the Philistines.
1. We see him here ready to die with thirst; no water is nigh; and he is so parched and weak, as to be unable to seek farther. In this distress he calls upon God, who alone could relieve him. In his prayer he pleads God’s past mercies as an argument for present help, and urges the dishonour which would be cast on God, if now he should be given into the hands of the uncircumcised, after such an instance of divine interposition. Note; (1.) Jesus on the cross cried thus, I thirst. (2.) In time of distress, prayer is our best resource. (3.) Past mercies should encourage us to wait upon God, and no plea so prevalent as his own glory.
2. God heard and answered him, permitting the distress only to exercise his faith, keep his spirit humble, and magnify his own power and grace. God clave the rock, and a stream of fresh water sprang up; whereupon his fainting spirit revived, and his departing life returned. Note; (1.) Every day we have to praise God for a new life given us. (2.) Without the constant supply of living streams from the fountain of grace, our souls must quickly faint and die.
3. Twenty years he judged Israel, during which the Philistines, though not utterly subdued, seem not to have oppressed them as before, checked by the terror of his arm; so that they had respite from the yoke, if not perfect freedom, Note; (1.) It is a mercy to have our afflictions alleviated. (2.) If we improve the beginning of our mercies, we may expect that they will be continued and perfected.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
But God clave an hollow place that was in the jaw, and there came water thereout; and when he had drunk, his spirit came again, and he revived: wherefore he called the name thereof Enhakkore, which is in Lehi unto this day.
En-hakkore, means the well of him that cried.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Jdg 15:19 But God clave an hollow place that [was] in the jaw, and there came water thereout; and when he had drunk, his spirit came again, and he revived: wherefore he called the name thereof Enhakkore, which [is] in Lehi unto this day.
Ver. 19. But God clave a hollow place. ] In figure like a mortar, as Pro 27:22 .
That was in the jaw.
Wherefore he called the name thereof Enhakkore.
Which is in Lehi unto this day.
a Locus ille referebat mortarium. – Vat.
God. Hebrew. Elohim. App-4. Not Jehovah. A sign of distant or withdrawn relationship. in Jdg 13:24, Jdg 13:25, and Jdg 14:4, Jdg 14:6, we have Jehovah, but not again in Samson’s history till he is humbled, Jdg 16:20; then he prays to Jehovah, Jdg 15:28.
clave an hollow place that was in the jaw = clave open the hollow that is in Lehi.
spirit = courage. Hebrew. ruach. App-9.
En-hakkore = the Caller’s Fount.
Enhakkore
The well of him that cried.
the jaw: or, Lehi, This reading is certainly preferable: it was in the place called Lehi where a spring was supernaturally opened.
there came: Isa 44:3
his spirit: Gen 45:27, 1Sa 30:12, Isa 40:26
Enhakkore: Samson gave this expressive name to the miraculously springing water, to be as a memorial of the goodness of God to him. En-hakkore, the well of him that cried, which kept him in remembrance both of his own distress which caused him to cry, and the favour of Jehovah to him in answer to his cry. Many a spring of comfort God opens to his people, which may fitly be called by the name En-hakkore, and this instance of Samson’s relief should encourage us to trust in God, for when he pleases he can open rivers in high places. Isa 41:17, Isa 41:18, Samson at first gave the name of Ramath-lehi – the lifting up of the jaw-bonewhich denoted him great and triumphant, but now he gives it another name, En-hakkore, which denotes him wanting and dependent. Gen 16:13, Gen 22:14, Gen 28:19, Gen 30:30, Exo 17:15, Psa 34:6, Psa 120:1
Reciprocal: Jdg 15:9 – Lehi 1Ki 17:6 – the ravens Psa 107:5 – General Pro 25:25 – cold
Jdg 15:19. God clave a hollow place in the jaw Or rather, a cavity that was in Lehi, as he had just named the place, Jdg 15:17, and as the same word is rendered in the latter part of this verse. It is very evident, says Dr. Dodd, from what follows, that our translation (namely, in the former part of the verse) is erroneous; since, if God had caused water to come from the jaw, only for the present satisfying of Samsons necessities, it is reasonable to suppose that Samson would have given it the name of a well, or fountain, or that the sacred historian would have told us that it remained in Lehi unto this day. The rendering, therefore, of the margin, which is followed by Dr. Waterland, is far the best. Houbigant observes, very properly, that the word rendered hollow place (, miktesh,) signifies a rock; and he renders the verse thus: Then God clave the rock which was in Lehi, and there came water from thence; which when he had drunk, his spirit came again, and he revived; therefore Samson called the fountain, the fountain of the implorer, which fountain is in Lehi unto this day. Modern travellers inform us, that in the suburbs of Eleutheropolis, (in all probability the ancient Lehi,) the fountain which flowed upon this occasion is still remaining, and called to this day the fountain of the jaw; an observation which abundantly confirms the interpretation we have given. He called the name thereof En-hakkore; that is, the fountain of him that cried for thirst; or, that called on God for deliverance; or, the fountain that was given in answer to prayer. Which is in Lehi So that our translators take Lehi here to be the name of a place.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments