Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Judges 15:8
And he smote them hip and thigh with a great slaughter: and he went down and dwelt in the top of the rock Etam.
8. hip and thigh ] lit. leg upon thigh, so that the limbs of the slain fall one upon another: such seems to be the force of the prep, upon, cf. Amo 3:15 ‘the winter house upon the summer house,’ i.e. so that the one falls upon the other, and Gen 32:11, Hos 10:14. At any rate it is a proverbial expression for with a great slaughter.
the rock of Etam ] The Etam between Beth-lehem and Tekoa, 2Ch 11:6, is too high up and too far away. Schick, who finds the scenes of Samson’s exploits in the neighbourhood of ‘Artuf a little S.E. of Zorah, identifies Etam with ‘Ara Isma ‘n, near Marmita, remarkable for a perpendicular rock with a cave which can only be reached by going down to it ( ZDPV. x. 143 ff.). Perhaps this was almost within the Danite territory; Jdg 15:9 ff. imply that the rock of Etam was in Judah.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Hip and thigh – A proverbial expression of doubtful origin, meaning all the great and mighty, all the choice pieces like the thigh and shoulder.
In the top of the rock – Rather, the cleft of the rock. These clefts of the rock were the natural fortresses and hiding places of the land. (Isa 2:21; Isa 57:5. Compare 1Sa 13:6; 1Ki 18:13.)
Etam – Not the same as the place in the territory of Simeon 1Ch 4:32. Its situation is uncertain, but a site near Eleutheropolis (Beth-jibrin) is required; and there exist some extraordinary caverns in the soft limestone or chalky rock, fifteen or twenty feet deep, with perpendicular sides, opening into extensive excavations in the rock, about two hours from Eleutheropolis. (Conder conjectures it to be the same as Atab, a village 12 miles southwest of Jerusalem, in the arkub or Ridge.)
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 8. He smote them hip and thigh] This also is variously understood; but the general meaning seems plain; he appears to have had no kind of defensive weapon, therefore he was obliged to grapple with them, and, according to the custom of wrestlers, trip up their feet, and then bruise them to death. Some translate heaps upon heaps; others, he smote horsemen and footmen; others, he wounded them from their legs to their thighs, c., c. See the different versions. Some think in their running away from him he kicked them down, and then trod them to death: thus his leg or thigh was against their hip hence the expression.
The top of the rock Etam.] It is very likely that this is the same place as that mentioned 1Ch 4:32; it was in the tribe of Simeon, and on the borders of Dan, and probably a fortified place.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Hip and thigh; upon their hips and thighs, peradventure not designing to kill them, but to make them incapable of military employment, or of doing hurt to the Israelites. Or, He smote them with his leg upon their thigh, i.e. without any other weapon but his leg and foot he kicked them, and made them lame and useless for war.
With a great slaughter, Heb. with a great stroke; for so it was, even to them whom it did not kill.
He dwelt in the top of the rock Etam; partly because there he could better defend himself from his enemies; and partly because he would not involve his brethren in the same danger with himself, but, like a worthy magistrate, would secure them even with his own greater hazard.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
8. smote them hip and thighaproverbial expression for a merciless slaughter.
he went down and dwelt in thetop of the rock Etamrather went down and dwelt in thecleftthat is, the cave or cavern of the cliff Etam.
Jud15:9-13. HE ISBOUND BY THE MENOF JUDAH, ANDDELIVERED TO THEPHILISTINES.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And he smote them hip and thigh with a great slaughter,…. Either smote them on their hips and thighs with his hands (for it does not appear he had any weapon of war), so that they were sadly bruised, and maimed, and lamed, that they could not stir, and of which blows and bruises multitudes died: or he smote them with his legs on their thighs, kicked them about at pleasure, which kicks numbers of them never got over; or the meaning of the proverbial expression is, he laid on them at a great rate, and smote them here and there, and any where, which issued in the death of many of them: the Targum is,
“he smote them horse and foot,”
their cavalry and infantry, destroyed them both; but it does not appear that they came out in an hostile manner unto him, and much less in the form of a regular army:
and he went down and dwelt in the top of the rock Etam. Josephus says e, that Samson having slain many in the fields of the Philistines, went and dwelt at Etam, a strong rock in the tribe of Judah; and which agrees with 2Ch 11:6, where mention is made of the city Etam, along with Bethlehem and Tekoah, cities in that tribe, which had its name either from this rock, or the rock from that. The Septuagint and Vulgate Latin versions read,
“in a cave of the rock of Etam;”
and the Syriac and Arabic versions, in Sahaph, which is on the rock of Etam, as if Sahaph was the name of a city there; hither Samson went, not through fear, or for safety, but to wait for another opportunity of further avenging the injuries of Israel on the Philistines.
e Ibid. (Antiqu. l. 5. c. 8.) sect. 8.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
“ Then he smote them hip and thigh ( lit. ‘thigh upon hip;’ as in Gen 32:12), a great slaughter. ” , thigh, strengthened by , is a second accusative governed by the verb, and added to define the word more minutely, in the sense of “on hip and thigh;” whilst the expression which follows, , is added as an adverbial accusative to strengthen the verb . Smiting hip and thigh is a proverbial expression for a cruel, unsparing slaughter, like the German “cutting arm and leg in two,” or the Arabic “war in thigh fashion” (see Bertheau in loc.). After smiting the Philistines, Samson went down and dwelt in the cleft of the rock Etam. There is a town of Etam mentioned in 2Ch 11:6, between Bethlehem and Tekoah, which was fortified by Rehoboam, and stood in all probability to the south of Jerusalem, upon the mountains of Judah. But this Etam, which Robinson (Pal. ii. 168) supposes to be the village of Urtas, a place still inhabited, though lying in ruins, is not to be thought of here, as the Philistines did not go up to the mountains of Judah (Jdg 15:9), as Bertheau imagines, but simply came forward and encamped in Judah. The Etam of this verse is mentioned in 1Ch 4:32, along with Ain Rimmon and other Simeonitish towns, and is to be sought for on the border of the Negeb and of the mountains of Judah, in the neighbourhood of Khuweilifeh (see V. de Velde, Mem. p. 311). The expression “he went down” suits this place very well, but not the Etam on the mountains of Judah, to which he would have had to go up, and not down, from Timnath.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
(8) Hip and thigh.There is no doubt that the expression intensifies the words with a great slaughter; but the origin of the phrase is a matter of conjecture. It may be purely general, like the German expression Arm und Bein, or er hieb den Feind in die Pfanne, or in Kochstcke (A blow strikes a fugitive on the hip, and that would be enough; another blow on the thigh ends him). Hence, says Ewald, it means thigh over and abovei.e., besides the hip. It cannot possibly mean cavalry and infantry, as the Chaldee renders it, or be a reference to wrestling (Greek, huposkelizein); nor is it likely to have a sacrificial origin (good and bad pieces). It is hard to see what St. Jerome means by his gloss ita ut slupentes suram femori imponerent. Literally it is, thigh upon hip, or leg upon thigh (LXX., ). May it not have had its origin in some such fierce custom as that known to the Greeks as akroteriasmos, or maschalismos, in which the extremities of a corpse were cut off and placed under the arm-pits? (sch. Cho. 439; Soph. El. 445.) Thus in Hesychius and Suidas maschalismata means mutilated limbs, and also the flesh of the shoulders laid on the haunches at sacrifices.
With a great slaughter.It is not said, nor is it necessarily implied (any more than in the case of Shamgar), that Samson was absolutely alone in these raids. There is nothing either in the narrative or in the ordinary style of Hebrew prose which makes any such inference necessary, nor, indeed, is there any such inference drawn in many similar passages (e.g., Judgesi. 20, &c.).
In the top of the rock Etam.It should undoubtedly be in a ravine (or cave) of the cliff Etam. For instance, in Jdg. 15:11 the men of Judah could not go down to the top of a rock, and the same word is rendered cleft in Isa. 57:5, and should be so rendered for top in Isa. 3:21 (LXX., in a hole of the rock, and in the cave of Etam; Vulg., in spelunca petrae). This explains the expression went down in this verse, and brought him up in Jdg. 15:13. Such cliff-caves are the natural refuge of oppressed peoples (Jdg. 6:2; 1Sa. 13:6; 1Ki. 18:13). These caves, like the cave of Aduliam, are often supplied with water by natural springs, and one man may defend them against a multitude. The LXX. (Cod. A) add the words by the torrent. The site of Etam is uncertain; but it is in the tribe of Judah, which Samson only enters once, or, possibly (Jdg. 16:3), twice, and then only as a fugitive.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
8. Smote them hip and thigh Rather, leg upon thigh. A proverbial expression that seems most naturally to denote a ferocious and indiscriminate slaughter, as when we say of slaughtered troops, “They were utterly cut to pieces.” Gesenius explains that he smote them so that the scattered limbs fell one upon another. It was a great slaughter, and convinced the Philistines, if they knew it not before, that Samson was their great national enemy.
Top of the rock Better, cleft of the rock. Some deep and wild gorge or cleft, such as abound in the hill country of Judea.
Etam This many have been inclined to identify with Etam of 2Ch 11:6, a city which Rehoboam fortified, and which Dr. Robinson and others have supposed to be the modern Urtas, about a mile south of Bethlehem. But to this place, which is located on high ground, Samson could hardly have been said to go down, and hence the Etam of the tribe of Simeon, mentioned 1Ch 4:32, is more probably intended here. Its exact location has not been certainly identified.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jdg 15:8 a
‘And he smote them hip and thigh with a great slaughter.’
It is possible that Samson actually appeared while they were doing their foul deed and that when he saw them, having cried out his words above, he attacked them mercilessly. Or it may simply be that he sought them out later. ‘Hip and thigh’ may suggest the wrestling method that he used to deal with them, throwing them and crashing their heads on the ground. The Spirit of Yahweh was on him (Jdg 14:19) and he was invincible. Not many escaped to tell the tale.
Jdg 15:8 b
‘And he went down and dwelt in the cleft of the rock Etam.’
Realising that his life might now be in danger Samson sought a safe place to hide, going further into the hill country, away from his own people, until things had blown over. He was ever careful to ensure that his people did not suffer for his activities. A city named Etam was situated not far from Bethelehem-judah (2Ch 11:6).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Jdg 15:8. And he smote them hip and thigh Houbigant renders this, and he contended with them, and slew them with a great slaughter; observing, that the idea is taken from the action of wrestlers. It seems to be a merely proverbial expression, signifying a total overthrow. The French render it, il les battit entierement, he beat them entirely; Isa 9:14. Etam was a strong place in the tribe of Judah, to the top of which there was a passage only capable of admitting a single man at a time. Instead of went down, and dwelt, it may be read, went, and dwelt.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Jdg 15:8 And he smote them hip and thigh with a great slaughter: and he went down and dwelt in the top of the rock Etam.
Ver. 8. And he smote them hip and thigh with a great slaughter, ] i.e., Wherever he hit them, he gave them their passport, as we say: he beat them back and belly, as the French proverb hath it; he peppered them, and paid them to some tune, as ours. He hurled them to the ground with spurns and thrusts with his knees saith Diodat. Wherever his blows fell, they mauled them, and made them sure for stirring any more, saith another interpreter. Here we see that veriverbium of Solomon exemplified, “One sinner destroyeth much good.” Ecc 9:18 As also, what a deal of mischief and bloodshed many times followeth upon adulteries, rapes, or other violations of wedlock: the Trojan war, for instance, waged much about this time: according to that prophecy of Cassandra to her brother Paris.
“ Grain iuvenca venit quae te, patriamque domumque
Perdet; io prohibe; Graia iuvenca venit. ” – Ovid’s Epist.
The Scots paid dear for the dishonour they did to our Edward VI, whom they denied his espoused wife, their then Queen, and married her to the Dauphin of France. This occasioned that great loss they sustained at Musselburgh field. a
a Life of Edward VI.
went down. Some codices, with one early printed edition, and Syriac, read “went”.
top = cleft.
Isa 25:10, Isa 63:3, Isa 63:6
Reciprocal: Deu 33:22 – General Jdg 14:6 – rent him Jdg 16:24 – which slew many of us Jdg 16:30 – So the dead 1Sa 23:25 – into a rock 2Ch 11:6 – Etam Job 16:14 – runneth Psa 108:13 – tread
Jdg 15:8. He smote them hip and thigh This seems to be merely a proverbial expression to denote a desperate attack and total overthrow. And he went down, or, rather, went and dwelt For it is an idiom of the Hebrew language, to speak of going up, or going down, to a place without having any reference to the situation of it, whether it lay high or low. The place here spoken of, the top of the rock Etam, undoubtedly lay high, being, as Josephus informs us, a strong place in the tribe of Judah, to the summit of which only one man could ascend in front. Here Samson waited to see what steps the Philistines would take. It appears that Samson had no commission from God to raise an army and make open war, like Gideon, Jephthah, and others, for the deliverance of Israel from the yoke of the Philistines; but was only authorized to weaken them and keep them in awe, that their dread of him might cause them to lessen their cruelty.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments