Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Judges 15:9
Then the Philistines went up, and pitched in Judah, and spread themselves in Lehi.
9. spread themselves in Lehi ] Better, made a raid against Lehi; 2Sa 5:18 ; 2Sa 5:22. The situation of Lehi is unknown; it must have been nearer to the Philistines than Etam, and in the neighbourhood of the other places already mentioned. The name = jawbone (LXX Jdg 15:14 Siagn) was no doubt suggested by the formation of a prominent rock; cf. Ass’s Jaw ( ), the name of a peninsula W. of Cape Malea in the Peloponnese (Strabo, p. 363), and the Arabic place-name Camel’s Jaw ( lay gamal, quot. by Wellhausen).
10f. The Philistines have no quarrel with any one but Samson, and the Judaeans exhibit no resentment against their alien rulers. This shews that Samson’s attacks upon the Philistines were of a purely local and private nature, and that the Israelites in this part of the country had not yet acquired any sense of national feeling or of a common cause.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
9 20. Local traditions
Provoked by Samson’s violence, the Philistines made a raid upon Lehi in Judah for the purpose of capturing their enemy. The name of the place was suggestive, and tradition attached to it the story of S.’s feat with the ‘fresh jawbone ( l) of an ass.’ Popular etymology explained Ramath-lehi, ‘the height of Lehi’ (from rm), as the place where S. ‘threw away’ ( rmh) the jawbone; a hollow basin in the hill side, which held the water of the ‘Partridge Spring’ (‘ n har ’), became the spring which God granted when S. ‘called’ ( r’) for help in his exhaustion. It is noteworthy that the exploit of Shammah, one of David’s heroes, also took place at Lehi, 2Sa 23:11 (reading unto Lehi for into a troop); cf. also the story of Shamgar, Jdg 3:31.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Spread themselves – An expression used of the Philistine mode of war 2Sa 5:18, 2Sa 5:22, alluding to the compact way in which they came up the wadys, and then distpersed. Lehi is so called by anticipation (see Jdg 15:17).
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
The rock Etam was
in Judah: see 1Ch 4:32; 2Ch 11:5,6.
Spread themselves, as coming in great numbers with a powerful host.
Lehi; a place so called by anticipation, Jdg 15:17.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
9-17. Then the Philistines wentupto the high land of Judah.
and spread themselves inLehinow El-Lekieh, abounding with limestone cliffs; the sidesof which are perforated with caves. The object of the Philistines inthis expedition was to apprehend Samson, in revenge for the greatslaughter he had committed on their people. With a view of freeinghis own countrymen from all danger from the infuriated Philistines,he allowed himself to be bound and surrendered a fettered prisonerinto their power. Exulting with joy at the near prospect of riddancefrom so formidable an enemy, they went to meet him. But he exertedhis superhuman strength, and finding a new (or moist) jawbone of anass, he laid hold of it, and with no other weapon, slew a thousandmen at a place which he called Ramath-lehithat is, “the hillof the jawbone.”
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Then the Philistines went up,…. From Palestine, which lay low on the shore of the Mediterranean sea:
and pitched in Judah; in the laud of Judea, which lay higher, particularly in the tribe of Judah, whither they came with an army, and encamped there:
and spread themselves in Lehi; their forces were so many, that they extended a considerable way, and particularly reached to Lehi, that is, which was afterwards so called; for it has its name by anticipation from the jaw bone, which it signifies, with which Samson slew many in this place, as after related.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Samson is delivered up to the Philistines, and smites them with the jaw-bone of an Ass.
Jdg 15:9 The Philistines came (“went up,” denoting the advance of an army: see at Jos 8:1) to avenge themselves for the defeat they had sustained from Samson; and having encamped in Judah, spread themselves out in Lechi ( Lehi). Lechi ( , in pause , i.e., a jaw), which is probably mentioned again in 2Sa 23:11, and, according to Jdg 15:17, received the name of Ramath-lechi from Samson himself, cannot be traced with any certainty, as the early church tradition respecting the place is utterly worthless. Van de Velde imagines that it is to be found in the flattened rocky hill el Lechieh, or Lekieh, upon which an ancient fortification has been discovered, in the middle of the road from Tell Khewelfeh to Beersheba, at the south-western approach of the mountains of Judah.
Jdg 15:10-12 When the Judaeans learned what was the object of this invasion on the part of the Philistines, three thousand of them went down to the cleft in the rock Etam, to bind Samson and deliver him up to the Philistines. Instead of recognising in Samson a deliverer whom the Lord had raised up for them, and crowding round him that they might smite their oppressors with his help and drive them out of the land, the men of Judah were so degraded, that they cast this reproach at Samson: “ Knowest thou not that the Philistines rule over us? Wherefore hast thou done this (the deed described in Jdg 15:8)? We have come down to bind thee, and deliver thee into the hand of the Philistines. ” Samson replied, “ Swear to me that ye will not fall upon me yourselves.” with , to thrust at a person, fall upon him, including in this case, according to Jdg 15:13, the intention of killing.
Jdg 15:13 When they promised him this, he let them bind him with two new cords and lead him up (into the camp of the Philistines) out of the rock (i.e., the cleft of the rock).
Jdg 15:14 But when he came to Lechi, and the Philistines shouted with joy as they came to meet him, the Spirit of Jehovah came upon him, “ and the cords on his arms became like two that had been burnt with fire, and his fetters melted from his hands.” The description rises up to a poetical parallelism, to depict the triumph which Samson celebrated over the Philistines in the power of the Spirit of Jehovah.
Jdg 15:15-16 As soon as he was relieved of his bands, he seized upon a fresh jaw-bone of an ass, which he found there, and smote therewith a thousand men. He himself commemorated this victory in a short poetical strain (Jdg 15:16): “ With the ass’s jaw-bone a heap, two heaps; with the ass’s jaw-bone I smote a thousand men. ” The form of the word = is chosen on account of the resemblance to , and is found again at 1Sa 16:20. How Samson achieved this victory is not minutely described. But the words “a heap, two heaps,” point to the conclusion that it did not take place in one encounter, but in several. The supernatural strength with which Samson rent asunder the fetters bound upon him, when the Philistines thought they had him safely in their power, filled them with fear and awe as before a superior being, so that they fled, and he pursued them, smiting one heap after another, as he overtook them, with an ass’s jaw-bone which he found in the way. The number given, viz., a thousand, is of course a round number signifying a very great multitude, and has been adopted from the song into the historical account.
Jdg 15:17 When he had given utterance to his saying, he threw the jaw-bone away, and called the place Ramath-lechi, i.e., the jaw-bone height. This seems to indicate that the name Lechi in Jdg 15:9 is used proleptically, and that the place first received its name from this deed of Samson.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Samson Bound by the Men of Judah. | B. C. 1140. |
9 Then the Philistines went up, and pitched in Judah, and spread themselves in Lehi. 10 And the men of Judah said, Why are ye come up against us? And they answered, To bind Samson are we come up, to do to him as he hath done to us. 11 Then three thousand men of Judah went to the top of the rock Etam, and said to Samson, Knowest thou not that the Philistines are rulers over us? what is this that thou hast done unto us? And he said unto them, As they did unto me, so have I done unto them. 12 And they said unto him, We are come down to bind thee, that we may deliver thee into the hand of the Philistines. And Samson said unto them, Swear unto me, that ye will not fall upon me yourselves. 13 And they spake unto him, saying, No; but we will bind thee fast, and deliver thee into their hand: but surely we will not kill thee. And they bound him with two new cords, and brought him up from the rock. 14 And when he came unto Lehi, the Philistines shouted against him: and the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him, and the cords that were upon his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire, and his bands loosed from off his hands. 15 And he found a new jawbone of an ass, and put forth his hand, and took it, and slew a thousand men therewith. 16 And Samson said, With the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, with the jaw of an ass have I slain a thousand men. 17 And it came to pass, when he had made an end of speaking, that he cast away the jawbone out of his hand, and called that place Ramath-lehi.
Here is, I. Samson violently pursued by the Philistine. They went up in a body, a more formidable force than they had together when Samson smote them hip and thigh; and they pitched in Judah, and spread themselves up and down the country, to find out Samson, who they heard had come this way, v. 9. When the men of Judah, who had tamely submitted to their yoke, pleaded that they had paid their tribute, and that none of their tribe had given them any offence, they freely own they designed nothing in this invasion but to seize Samson; they would fight neither against small nor great, but only that judge of Israel (v. 10), to do to him as he has done to us, that is, to smite his hip and thigh, as he did ours–an eye for an eye. Here was an army sent against one man, for indeed he was himself an army. Thus a whole band of men was sent to seize our Lord Jesus, that blessed Samson, though a tenth part would have served now that his hour had come, and ten times as many would have done nothing if he had not yielded.
II. Samson basely betrayed and delivered up by the men of Judah, v. 11. Of Judah were they? Degenerate branches of that valiant tribe! Utterly unworthy to carry in their standard the lion of the tribe of Judah. Perhaps they were disaffected to Samson because he was not of their tribe. Out of a foolish fondness for their forfeited precedency, they would rather be oppressed by Philistines than rescued by a Danite. Often has the church’s deliverance been obstructed by such jealousies and pretended points of honour. Rather it was because they stood in awe of the Philistines, and were willing, at any rate, to get them out of their country. If their spirits had not been perfectly cowed and broken by their sins and troubles, and they had not been given up to a spirit of slumber, they would have taken this fair opportunity to shake off the Philistine’s yoke. If they had had the least spark of ingenuousness and courage remaining in them, having so brave a man as Samson was to head them, they would now have made one bold struggle for the recovery of their liberty; but no marvel if those that had debased themselves to hell in the worship of their dung-hill gods (Isa. lvii. 9) thus debased themselves to the dust, in submission to their insulting oppressors. Sin dispirits men, nay, it infatuates them, and hides from their eyes the things that belong to their peace. Probably Samson went into the border of that country to offer his service, supposing his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them, as Moses did, Acts vii. 25. But they thrust him from them, and very disingenuously, 1. Blamed him for what he had done against the Philistines, as if he had done them a great injury. Such ungrateful returns have those often received that have done the best service imaginable to their country. Thus our Lord Jesus did many good works, and for these they were ready to stone him. 2. They begged of him that he would suffer them to bind him, and deliver him up to the Philistines. Cowardly unthankful wretches! Fond of their fetters and in love with servitude! Thus the Jews delivered up our Saviour, under pretence of a fear lest the Romans should come and take away their place and nation. With what a sordid servile spirit do they argue, Knowest thou not that the Philistines rule over us? And whose fault was that? They knew they had no right to rule over them, nor would they have been sold into their hands if they had not first sold themselves to work wickedness.
III. Samson tamely yielding to be bound by his countrymen, and delivered into the hands of his enraged enemies, Jdg 15:12; Jdg 15:13. Now easily could he have beaten them off, and kept the top of his rock against these 3000 men, and none of them all could, or durst, have laid hands on him; but he patiently submitted, 1. That he might give an example of great meekness, mixed with great strength and courage; as one that had rule over his own spirit, he knew how to yield as well as how to conquer. 2. That, by being delivered up to the Philistine, he might have an opportunity of making a slaughter among them. 3. That he might be a type of Christ, who, when he had shown what he could do, in striking those down that came to seize him, yielded to be bound and led as a lamb to the slaughter. Samson justified himself in what he had done against the Philistines: “As they did to me, so I did to them; it was a piece of necessary justice, and they ought not to retaliate it upon me, for they began.” He covenants with the men of Judah that, if he put himself into their hands, they should not fall upon him themselves, because then he should be tempted to fall upon them, which he was very loth to do. This they promised him (v. 13), and then he surrendered. The men of Judah, being his betrayers, were in effect his murderers; they would not kill him themselves, but they did that which was worse, they delivered him into the hands of the uncircumcised Philistines, who they knew would do worse than kill him, would abuse and torment him to death. Perhaps they thought, as some think Judas did when he betrayed Christ, that he would by his great strength deliver himself out of their hands; but no thanks to them if he had delivered himself, and, if they thought he would do so, they might of themselves have thought this again, that he could and would deliver them too if they would adhere to him and make him their head. Justly is their misery prolonged who, to oblige their worst enemies, thus abuse their best friend. Never were men so infatuated except those who thus treated our blessed Saviour.
IV. Samson making his part good against the Philistines, even when he was delivered into their hands, fast pinioned with two new cords. The Philistines, when they had him among them, shouted against him (v. 14), so triumphing in their success, and insulting over him. If God had not tied their hands faster than the men of Judah had tied his, they would have shot at him (as their archers did at Saul) to dispatch him immediately, rather than have shouted at him, and given him time to help himself. But their security and joy were a presage of their ruin. When they shouted against him as a man run down, confident that all was their own, then the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, came mightily upon him, inspired him with more than ordinary strength and resolution. Thus fired, 1. He presently got clear of his bonds. The two new cords, upon the first struggle he gave, broke, and were melted (as the original word is) from off his hands, no doubt to the great amazement and terror of those that shouted against him, whose shouts were hereby turned into shrieks. Observe, When the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, his cords were loosed. Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty, and those are free indeed who are thus freed. This typified the resurrection of Christ by the power of the Spirit of holiness. In it he loosed the bands of death, and its cords, the grave-clothes, fell from his hands without being loosed, as Lazarus’s were, because it was impossible that the mighty Saviour should be holden of them; and thus he triumphed over the powers of darkness that shouted against him, as if they had him sure. 2. He made a great destruction among the Philistines, who all gathered about him to make sport with him, v. 15. See how poorly he was armed: he had no better weapon than the jaw-bone of an ass, and yet what execution he did with it! he never laid it out of his hand till he had with it laid 1000 Philistines dead upon the spot; and thus that promise was more than accomplished. One of you shall chase a thousand, Josh. xxiii. 10. A jaw-bone was an inconvenient thing to grasp, and, one would think, might easily be wrested out of his hand, and a few such blows as he gave with it might have crushed and broken it, and yet it held good to the last. Had it been the jaw-bone of a lion, especially that which he himself had slain, it might have helped to heighten his fancy and to make him think himself the more formidable; but to take the bone of that despicable animal was to do wonders by the foolish things of the world, that the excellency of the power might be of God and not of man. One of David’s worthies slew 300 Philistines at once, but it was with a spear, 1 Chron. xi. 11. Another slew of them till his hand was weary and stuck to his sword, 2 Sam. xxiii. 10. But they all came short of Samson. What could be thought too hard, too much, for him to do, on whom the Spirit of the Lord came mightily! Through God we shall do valiantly. It was strange the men of Judah did not now come in to his aid: cowards can strike a falling enemy. But he was to be a type of him that trod the wine-press alone.
V. Samson celebrating his own victory, since the men of Judah would not do even that for him. He composed a short song, which he sang to himself, for the daughters of Israel did not meet him, as afterwards they did Saul, to sing, with more reason, Samson hath slain his thousands. The burden of this song was, With the jaw-bone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, have I slain a thousand men, v. 16. The same word in Hebrew (chamor) signifies both an ass and a heap, so that this is an elegant paronomasia, and represents the Philistines falling as tamely as asses. He also gave a name to the place, to perpetuate the Philistines’ disgrace, v. 17. Ramath-lehi, the lifting up of the jaw-bone. Yet he did not vain-gloriously carry the bone about with him for a show, but threw it away when he had done with it. So little were relics valued then.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Samson Betrayed, vs. 9-13
Samson’s judgeship had reached a critical period. A crisis had arisen by Samson’s challenge of the Philistines. Though Samson seems not to have issued the trumpet blast to call the Israelites to war, it does seem that he probably thought by going into Judah, the strongest of the tribes, and the. one suffering most from the Philistine oppression, he could secure aid. If so, he was most bitterly disappointed. It is hard to imagine a more cowardly act than that the men of Judah perpetrated on Samson, who was attempting to deliver them from their enemies, ,and was in fact the very one the Lord had raised up for the purpose.
The Judahites did come to Samson, three thousand strong, and ample number for the Lord to give them victory. Where were the Shamgars? or the Deborahs, the Ehuds, or the Gideons? The Philistines invade Judah in force looking for Samson, and cowards in wholesale numbers hurry to betray their hero and judge. How shameful are their words! “What have you done to us? Don’t you know the Philistines are our rulers? We have come to bind you and give you up to them. Samson replied that what he had done was in vengeance for what they had done to him. He agreed to submit to their binding, but he did not trust the sorry bunch of cowards not to do him in themselves. He wisely made them swear that they would not kill him. So they bound him fast with two new cords and carried him to the Philistines. There is indication in this that Samson’s strength was not a constant thing, it coming only on occasions when the Lord gave it to him, (cf. 1Ti 1:12). He seems to have been bound helplessly by the Judahites.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(9) Then the Philistines went up.They went up in hostile array against the hill-country of Judea to take vengeance for the dreadful injury which Samson had inflicted on them.
Spread themselves in Lehi.The use of the name before the incident from which a place is said to have received the name is found also in the case of Hormah (Num. 14:45; Num. 21:3). It was called in full Ramath-Lehi. (See on Jdg. 15:17.) The character of the narrative suggests the question whether the name may not have existed previously, and the play on words may not have been adapted by Samson to the incident. For the name of the place is Lechi ( ), and a jawbone is Lehi (). Shen, tooth, is the name of an isolated sharp rock (1Sa. 14:4), and therefore jaw would not be an unnatural name for a range of such rocks. Josephus, however, says that before Samsons exploit the place had no name. It may be again alluded to in 2Sa. 23:11, where the words rendered into a troop may mean to Lehi, as it is understood by Josephus (Antt. vii. 12, 4) and some MSS. of the LXX.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
SAMSON’S EXPLOIT WITH THE JAWBONE OF AN ASS, Jdg 15:9-20.
9. Philistines went up At least a thousand strong. Jdg 15:15. The territory of Judah lies higher than the Philistine plain; hence the Philistines went up.
Spread themselves Scattered about in small companies to hunt for Samson.
Lehi This word means a jawbone; and Gesenius thinks might have been so called from a chain of steep, craggy rocks, which resembled a jawbone, just as some single rocks are for a like reason called teeth. 1Sa 7:12. The place, however, may have derived its name from Samson’s exploit. See Jdg 15:17.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘ Then the Philistines went up, and pitched in Judah, and spread themselves in Lehi.’
The Philistines came to Judah and camped in some considerable force, spreading out in the region of Lehi in Judah. Lehi means ‘jawbone’. Its site is not known.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Samson’s Lone Victory
v. 9. Then the Philistines, v. 10. And the men of Judah said, Why are ye come up against us? And they answered, To bind Samson are we come up, to do to him as he hath done to us, v. 11. Then three thousand men of Judah, v. 12. And they said unto him, We are come down to bind thee, that we may deliver thee into the hand of the Philistines, v. 13. And they spake unto him, saying, No; but we will bind thee fast and deliver thee into their hand; but surely we will not kill thee. v. 14. And when he came unto Lehi, v. 15. And, v. 16. And Samson said,
With the jawbone of an ass
I slew two armies;
With the jawbone of an ass
I took vengeance on a thousand.
v. 17. And it came to pass, when he had made an end of speaking, v. 18. And he was sore athirst, v. 19. But God clave an hollow place that was in the jaw, v. 20. And he,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
Jdg 15:9
Went up, i.e. from their own country in the Shephelah to the hill country of Judah. As Samson had avenged his wrongs on the whole Philistine people, so they now came up to Judah to take vengeance for Samson’s injuries. In Lehi, or, rather, hal-Lehi, the Lehi, the place afterwards so called, as related in Jdg 15:17 and Jdg 15:20 (see Jdg 7:25, note). Lehi has been identified by some with Tell-el-Lekhiyeh, four miles above Beer-sheba; and by others with Beit-Likiyeh, in the Wady Suleiman, two miles below the upper Beth-heron, and so within easy distance of Timnath and other places mentioned in the history of Samson. But no certainty can at present be arrived at.
Jdg 15:11
Men of Judah. It is rather three thousand men went down from Judah, showing that the rock Etam was below. The top. It should be the cleft, as in Jdg 15:8. Knowest thou not, etc. The language of these cowardly men shows how completely the Philistine yoke was fastened upon the necks of Judah. The history gives no account of the Philistine conquest; except the brief allusion in Jdg 10:6, Jdg 10:7; but Samson’s story brings to light the existence of it. The abject state to which they were reduced is shown By their complaint of Samson, What is this that thou hast done unto us?” instead of hailing him as a deliverer. As they did unto me, etc. It is instructive to read Samson’s defence of himself in the very words used by the Philistines in Jdg 10:10. “An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.” There is no end to rendering “evil for evil.”
Jdg 15:12, Jdg 15:13
We are come down to bind thee. There is something very base in this deliberate agreement with their Philistine masters to deliver up Samson bound into their hands. But it is not very unlike the spirit in which the Hebrews looked upon Moses when he first began to work to rescue them from their Egyptian bondage (Exo 2:14; Act 7:25-28). Samson’s forbearance towards his own countrymen is commendable. Brought him upfrom the deep ravine or cleft in which he was hid. His place of concealment was probably unknown to the Philistines, or may be they had quite a superstitious fear of Samson from their experience of his prowess.
Jdg 15:14
When he came, i.e. as soon as he was come to Lehi, where the Philistine camp was (Jdg 15:9). Shouted against him. Rather, shouted as they ran out to meet him. It expresses concisely the double action of their all going out to meet him, and shouting with joy when they saw him bound and, as they thought, in their power.
Jdg 15:15
A most vivid and stirring description! The Spirit of the Lord (Jdg 14:19), with that suddenness which marks his extraordinary movements (1Ki 18:12; 2Ki 2:16; Act 2:2; Act 8:39, etc.), came upon Samson, and mightily strengthened him in his outer man. The strong new cords snapped asunder in an instant, and before the Philistines could recover from their terror at seeing their great enemy free, he had snatched up the heavy jawbone of an ass recently dead, and with it smote the flying Philistines till a thousand of them had fallen under his blows.
Jdg 15:16
And Samson said, etc. The exploit gave birth to one of Sam son’s punning, enigmatical, sayings: “With the jawbone of the ass, one heap, two heads of slain.” Hamor, an ass, means also an heap. If one were to imitate the passage in English, supposing that the jaw of a sheep had been the implement, it might run something like thisBy the jaw of a sheep they fell heap upon heap. A Latin imitation is, Maxilla cervi, acervum acervos (Bochart). He adds, as if in explanation, With the jaw of an ass have I slain a thousand men. So the women sang, Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands (1Sa 18:7), And a Latin song is quoted, in which Aurelian is made to say after the Sarmatic war”Mille Sarmatas, mille Frances, Semel et semel occidimus, Mille Persas quaerimus” (Bp. Patrick on Jdg 15:1-20.).
Jdg 15:17
Made an end of speaking, i.e. of reciting the song about the heaps of slain. It is singular that the word rendered speaking might also be rendered destroying, as in 2Ch 22:10. Called that place Ramath-lechi, i.e. the height of Lechi, or of the jawbone, or, rather, the throwing away of the jawbone. He commemorated the exact spot where the slaughter ceased and the weapon Was thrown away by giving it the name of Ramath-Lechi, or, as it was called for shortness, Lechi (or hal–Lechi).
Jdg 15:18
He was sore athirst. The incredible exertions which he had made in pursuing and slaying the Philistines put him in danger of his life from thirst. He thought he should die, and be found and abused by his uncircumcised foes. His only resource was prayer to God, who had helped him hitherto, We may note by the way that the more God gives, the more he encourages us to ask.
Jdg 15:19
But (or, and) God clave, etc. Cf. Exo 17:6; Num 20:8, Num 20:11. The A.V. has quite misconceived the statement in the text, as if God had cloven a hollow place in the jawbone, and brought out the water thence; whereas the statement is quite clear that God clave the hollow place which is in Lehi (hal-Lehi, Num 20:9, note), and that a spring of water came out, to which Samson gave the name En-hakkorch, the spring of him that called upon God, which name continued till the time of the writer. The spring apparently continued till the time of St. Jerome, and of other later writers, in the seventh, twelfth, and fourteenth centuries; but Robinson was unable to identify it with any certainty (‘B.R.,’ 2:64). The word translated the (not a) hollow place (ham–maktesh) means a mortar; also the cavity in the jaw from which the molar teeth grow. The hollow ground from which the spring rose, with which Samson quenched his thirst, from its shape and from the connection with hal-Lechi (the jawbone) was called hammaktech. In Zep 1:11 it is also a proper name, apparently of some spot near Jerusalem. The name thereof, i.e. of the fountain, with which thereof, which is in the feminine gender, agrees. Which is in Lehi unto this day. This punctuation does not agree with the Hebrew accents, which put a strong stop after Lehi. The Hebrew accents rather convey the sense that the name En–kakkoreh continued to be the name of the well unto the day of the writer.
Jdg 15:20
And he judged Israel, etc. See Jdg 16:1-31 :81. It looks as if it had been the intention to close the history of Samson with these Words, but that Jdg 16:1-31. was subsequently added, possibly from other sources. Compare the close of Jdg 20:1-48 and Jdg 21:1-25. of the Gospel of St. John. A possible explanation, however, of this verse being placed here is that it results from the statement in verse 19, that Samson’s spirit came again, and he revived, or came to life again, after being on the very point of death; and, adds the writer, he judged Israel after this for twenty years.
HOMILETICS
Jdg 15:9-20
Man without God, and man with God.
These 3000 men of Judah of whom we read in Jdg 15:11 present us with a pitiable view of man’s spirit crushed by misfortune, when it is not upheld by trust in Almighty God. These men of Judah were among those who did evil in the sight of the Lord, and were In consequence delivered into the hand of the Philistines. But this chastisement, instead of leading them to repent of their sin and folly in forsaking God and putting their trust in false gods, only led to a kind of sullen despair. They said in their hearts,” There is no hope: no; for I have loved strangers, and after them will I go” (Jer 2:25). Utterly unmindful of their high privileges and vocation as the people of God, they acquiesce in their own degradation: “The Philistines are rulers over us,” They had rather not be disturbed. Let us alone, they said. Let us be as we are, fallen, sunken, degraded. All good within them was blunted and quenched. Self-respect was gone; love of country was gone; aspiration after all that is good and high was gone; courage, honour, enterprise, love of freedom, pride in their own matchless institutions, remembrance of a glorious past, hope for a glorious future, all was crushed within them because they had no trust in God. The elevating, ennobling, sustaining feeling that they were God’s chosen people, and that the unchanging love and power of God were on their side to sustain them in every virtuous effort, and give effect to every good and holy desire, was extinct within them. Their calamities and injuries, not being mixed with confidence in God, and prayer to him for deliverance, had only trodden out their manhood. It was the sorrow of the world working death. Now such a state of mind as this is a very common effect of unsanctified misfortunes. Sorrows, brought on perhaps by misconduct, which do not send men to God in penitence and prayer only harden and depress. They produce sullenness, and they destroy the spring of hope. Men sink on to a lower platform even in regard to their fellow-men. They are not humbled, only lowered. They take a lower, darker view of human life and human responsibilities. Virtue, truth, love of neighbours, kindness, generosity, and the charities of life burn very low and dim within them, if they are not Wholly extinct. A cold, hard selfishness, and even that not an aspiring selfishness, wraps itself around the centre of their being. Every appeal to the higher qualities of human nature is resented or scoffed at. “Leave me alone,” is the silent language of their attitude towards humanity. “Trouble me not,” is their answer to every call upon them for virtuous effort. And as to the still higher and nobler calls of religion, every invitation to rise toward God, to act in the spirit of his holy word, to follow the leading of his Holy Spirit, to walk in the steps of the Lord Jesus Christ, is received with a cynical sneer; and even those who, in better days, seemed to be actuated by religious hopes and feelings, under the pressure of such unsanctified cares and sorrows fall into a thoroughly low region both of religion and of morals. Now contrast with those men of Judah the feelings and the conduct of Samson. Conscious of Divine aid, and of having unfailing strength in God, his courage never drooped in the darkest days of the Philistine oppression. Conscious of his own high calling, and of the election of Israel to be the people of God, he could not brook the notion of being ruled over by the uncircumcised, nor did he lose the hope of some great deliverance. He was ready for the service of God and of his country. And even the feeling that he stood alone did not quench his spirit. He did not lose sight of hope, because he did not lose sight of God. The weight of the great national calamity, in which he also was involved, did not utterly depress and crush him, because he believed in the mighty hand of God, which could lift up that weight in a moment, whenever it seemed good to him to do so. And so all the natural resources of his mind were kept alive and ready for action, as well as his great supernatural strength, whenever the opportunity should arise. And Samson’s supernatural strength is only a type to us of that invincible spiritual strength which they have who are the faithful servants of the Lord Jesus Christ. “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me,” is the truth embodied in Samson’s exploits. In the Christian’s steady, unwearied, resistance to evil, in his patient continuance in well doing, in the quiet, hopeful endurance of sufferings and afflictions, in the undaunted spirit which quails under no dangers, and faints under no adversities, and in the faith which eventually triumphs over all the powers of the world, we have the spiritual counterpart of Samson’s great bodily strength. The brave, hopeful struggle of such, ending in victory, is in striking contrast with the desperate succumbing to evil of which we have spoken. And we may see it on a large scale in the Church herself. Often has the Church of God seemed weak and helpless before the powers of darkness, even while she had in herself the secret of an invincible strength. Often would her professed friends bind her in the fetters of worldly compliances, and hand her over to be shaped according to the fashion of this world, lest she should overthrow the accustomed sway, and break down the traditionary rules. But as often has the Spirit of the Lord come mightily upon her, and she has awakened as a giant refreshed with wine, and gone forth with irresistible might. The most trivial instruments have been in her hands weapons of supernatural power; her fiercest foes have sunk before her victorious progress; God has raised up refreshments to her in her hours of need; when she called upon God for help she was helped; and many a monument of God’s saving grace and he]ping hand has deserved to be inscribed as En-hakkorehthe supply granted to the cry of faithful prayer. O Lord, let thy Spirit come upon us now, in this our day of trial; hear thy Church’s prayer, and let her cry come unto thee!
HOMILIES BY A.F. MUIR
Jdg 15:14-16
Imperfect means made effectual by Divine inspiration.
It was but the jawbone of an ass, yet it slew as many as might have fallen in a battle.
I. IN THE CONFLICTS OF TRUTH IT IS OF CHIEF CONSEQUENCE THAT WE BE ON THE SIDE OF TRUTH, AND ANIMATED BY THE SPIRIT OF GOD.
II. THROUGH GOD‘S BLESSING THE GRANDEST RESULTS HAVE BEEN PRODUCED BY THE RUDEST AND SIMPLEST MEANS. The preaching of the gospel by unlettered fishermen. “The solitary monk that shook the world” with the disused weapon in God’s armoury. The “simple gospel” and the evils of our age.
III. NOTWITHSTANDING OUTWARD ADVANTAGES, THE ENEMIES OF GOD ARE CERTAIN IN THE END TO BE DISCOMFITED.
IV. THE ABSOLUTENESS AND SPLENDOUR OF SPIRITUAL ACHIEVEMENTS. Pentecost; missionary triumphs; the song of Moses and of the Lamb.M.
Jdg 15:17-19
The self-refreshment of Divine service.
After his great exploit Samson was exhausted and athirst. The zeal for the glory of Jehovah is upon him, and he cannot brook the tarnishing of his glorious victory by a base surrender to the Philistines. He immediately calls upon God, and is answered in the very scene of his warfare.
I. IN MOMENTS OF GREATEST EXALTATION AND POWER THE SAINT IS REMINDED OF HIS WEAKNESS AND DEPENDENCE UPON GOD. Paul and the “thorn in the flesh.” The great deed and heroic uplifting of soul accompanying it are a Divine gifta treasure in an earthen vessel. “By the grace of God I am what I am.”
II. THE TRUE SAINT WILL FRANKLY ACKNOWLEDGE THIS, AND BETAKE HIMSELF TO PRAYER FOR DIVINE HELP. The faith that made Samson irresistible in battle now makes him prevail with God. A sense of spiritual fitness forbids the notion that God will suffer such an anti-climax. The victories that spring from acknowledged weakness are more glorious than those which proceed upon our fancied independence and self-sufficiency. “When I am weak, then am I strong.”
III. THE CONDITIONS OF AN EFFECTUAL PRAYER.
1. Sincerity and faith. God had helped him already; be is convinced, therefore, that he will still help.
2. Because of wants and. hardships necessitated by Divine service. He is immediately answered, and in the very scene of it. No earthly hand is suffered to help.
3. Zeal for the glory of God. The idea of neutralising his triumph by yielding through physical distress is obnoxious to him. He asks God to preserve the splendour of the exploit which brought such glory to his name.M.
HOMILIES BY W.F. ADENEY
Jdg 15:15
The jawbone of an ass.
I. IT WAS A NOVEL WEAPON. Samson again shows his inventiveness and originality (see Jdg 15:4). To succeed in sudden emergencies we must have presence of mind to choose and act rapidly and freshly. The slave of routine is helpless in every critical moment of life.
II. IT WAS THE MOST CONVENIENT WEAPON AVAILABLE. If Samson could have laid his hand on a sword he would not have picked up the bone. It would be foolish, rash, and presumptuous to reject the better means in order to make a display of strength or originality in the use of inferior means. But when the only thing available is a comparatively poor expedient, it is better to use this than nothing. While we are waiting for the perfect weapons to be forged the opportunity for victory passes. Thus inferior men and inferior methods must often be used for want of better ones. It is wrong for us to refuse to do any work for Christ because we have not the best possible natural powers or cultivation. It is better to serve as we are than not at all.
III. IT WAS A SIMPLE WEAPON. Many would have despaired with such a prospect as Samson’s. But difficulty is the inspiration of genius. In spiritual warfare God sometimes blesses the poorest means when faith and zeal are making the best use of them. God’s strength is thus most perfect in our weakness, because then we most reed it, are most likely to seek it trustfully, and will be most inclined to use it obediently.
IV. IT WAS A RIDICULOUS WEAPON. The hero would seem to be humiliated as he condescended to use such a weapon. But he was great enough to despise ridicule. It is weak and wrong to decline to use the only available means of rendering God good service because we fear they are undignified. True dignity is found not in pedantry and pomp, but in simple, brave independence. Great needs conquer foolish vanity. When the Philistines are on us we are in no mood to ask or to care whether our conduct will excite the laughter of the idle. If Christians realised more fully the awful depth of the world’s sin and misery, they would be less sensitive to the trivial ridicule with which men may regard their work. How many promising lives have been poisoned by the narcotic of a false respectability!
V. IT WAS A SUCCESSFUL WEAPON. This is the one matter of consequence. Success refutes all objections. Ridicule is now turned into admiration, The very simplicity and folly of the means increases the glory of the result. So the great question in the Christian warfare against evil is that this is effective. If so, all the world’s foolish criticism will be drowned in the triumph of victory.A.
Jdg 15:18, Jdg 15:19
Distress after triumph.
I. ONE GREAT DELIVERANCE IS NO SECURITY AGAINST ALL FUTURE TROUBLE. Samson is surprised and vexed that a new trouble should fall upon him after his great victory. There is a danger lest we should rest contented with past triumphs. The Christian warfare can only end with the final victory over death. Till then we are in the enemy’s land, and must expect that one battle will only be succeeded by another. Though we may have a season of calm, an oasis in the desert, a quiet resting-place, “this is not our rest.” Let us beware of the confident self-elation which often follows the conquest of a temptation; it may be an introduction to a new and more dangerous one.
II. SLIGHT EVILS MAY PROVE MORE DANGEROUS THAN GREAT ONES. Samson feels it humiliating to be in danger of dying of thirst after his victory over a much more imposing enemy; but he had means to meet the greater foe, and none with which to face the smaller one. Evils are injurious not so much in proportion to their simple magnitude as in proportion to our susceptibility to them. The force of a particular temptation depends on a man’s special disposition and peculiarity of character, not simply on its inherent alarming or alluring qualities. It should humble us to learn that after escaping the greatest dangers by the help of God we may succumb to very small dangers if left to ourselves.
III. SEASONS OF TRIUMPH ARE OFTEN FOLLOWED BY SEASONS OF DEPRESSION. Samson is despondent and querulous after his victory. So was Elijah (1Ki 19:4). No doubt this common experience is partly the result of nervous reaction. Excitable people oscillate between the extremes of ecstasy and despair. It has also moral grounds. We grow over-confident, we expect too much, we forget that life cannot always be pitched in the heroic mood. The career of the loftiest souls is not one unbroken epic; even this has its seamy side, its stale and unprofitable moments. There is a Divine purpose of discipline in this painful experience to keep us humble and in trustful submission.
IV. GOD HELPS US IN OUR DEPRESSION AS WELL AS IN OUR ELATION. God came to the rescue of Samson. Though he murmured, God had compassion on him. God understands our weakness, and, understanding, pities it. He does not treat his servants as heroes, but as children (Psa 103:13). The depression of feeling which destroys our consciousness of assurance does not destroy God’s grace. It is important to observe that the faith which is the condition of God’s help is not our confidence in our own salvation, but the simple trusting of ourselves to God’s care, so that when we least expect his help this may come upon us and surprise us, if only we thus cast ourselves upon his mercy.A.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
The Philistines threaten war against Judah. The men of Judah, to save themselves, seek to deliver up Samson, who allows himself to be bound, but tears his bonds when brought in sight of the Philistines, and slays a thousand of the enemy.
Jdg 15:9-20.
9Then the Philistines went up, and pitched in [encamped against] Judah, and spread themselves in Lehi. 10And the men of Judah said, Why are ye come up against us? And they answered, To bind [i. e., to capture] Samson are we come up, to do to him as he hath done to us. 11Then three thousand men of Judah went [down] to the top [cleft] of the rock Etam, and said to Samson, Knowest thou not that the Philistines are [omit: are] rulers [rule] over us? what is this that thou hast done unto us? And he said unto them, As they did unto me, so have I done unto them. 12And they said unto him, We are come down to bind thee, that we may deliver thee into the hand of the Philistines. And Samson said unto them, Swear unto me, that ye will not fall upon me yourselves. 13And they spake unto him, saying, No; but [for] we will bind thee last [omit: fast], and deliver thee into their hand: but surely [omit: surely] we will not kill thee. And they bound him with 14two new cords, and brought him up from the rock. And when he came unto Lehi, the Philistines shouted against10 him: and the Spirit of the Lord [Jehovah] came mightily [suddenly] upon him, and the cords that were upon his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire, and his bands loosed [melted] from off his hands. 15And he found a new [fresh] jaw-bone of an ass, and put forth his hand, and took it, and slew a thousand men therewith. 16And Samson said,11
With the jaw-bone of an ass
A mass, yea masses:
With the jaw-bone of an ass
I slew a thousand men.
17And it came to pass when he had made an end of speaking, that he cast away the jaw-bone out of his hand, and [people] called that place Ramath-lehi [Hill of the jaw-bone]. 18And he was sore athirst, and called on the Lord [Jehovah], and said, Thou hast given this great deliverance into [by] the hand of thy servant: and now 19shall I die for thirst, and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised? But [And] God clave an hollow place [lit.the mortar] that was in the jaw [in Lehi],12 and there came water thereout; and when he had drunk, [and he drank, and] his spirit came again, and he revived. Wherefore he [men] called the name thereof Enhakkore 20[Well of him that called], which is in Lehi unto this day. And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
[1 Jdg 15:14.: towards, rather than against. The idea is that when the Philistines saw Samson coming, they set up shouts of exultation which met him, so to speak, as he approached.Tr.]
EXEGETICAL AND DOCTRINAL
Jdg 15:9-10. And the Philistines went up and encamped against Judah. Samson had foreseen that the Philistines would now seek vengeance on a larger scale, and had therefore provided himself with a place of security against both friend and foe. This time also, however, the enemy proceed not directly against him, but take the field against Israel. As on a former occasion, they seek satisfaction from those who were really innocent, and who would gladly remain at peace. They announce that they have come to bind Samson, i. e., to make him powerless to injure them. It is no sign of forbearance that they do not say, We will kill him; on the contrary, it appears from Judges 16 that they entertained still more cruel designs. It was easy for Judah to perceive how cowardly was the hatred they cherished against Samson, and thence to infer what heroic deeds of conquest the victor might yet achieve; but the great tribe, once so powerful in action, lay helpless in the deepest decay. It would not be possible to portray the slavish disposition of a people that has departed from God more strikingly, than is here done by the conduct of Judah.
Jdg 15:11. Then three thousand men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock Etam. Judah never enjoyed such an opportunity to free itself from the yoke of the Philistines. It had a leader of incomparable strength and energy. The enemy had been smitten, and was apprehensive of further defeats. If it had risen now, and, ranged under Samson, undertaken a war of liberation in Gods name, where was the station that the Philistines could have continued to hold? The heroic deeds of Joshua and Caleb would have been reenacted. The power of the Philistines would have been broken, perhaps forever. But what did Judah? Terrified by the threatening advance of the Philistines, coming to seek Samson, it has not even courage to say, Go, and bind him yourselves. Three thousand armed men are quickly got together, not to avail themselves of Samsons leadership against the enemy, butalas! for the cowardsto act as the enemys tools, pledged to deliver the nations hero into their hands. The Philistines, with malicious cunning, probably demanded this as the price of peace. For either Samson refuses to follow the men of Judah, and smites them, which would be gain to the Philistines, or he is taken and brought by them, in which case they will have heaped disgrace on both, and filled them with wrath toward each other. And in fact the number of the men who proceed to Etam, shows that they feel obliged, if need be, to use violence.
And they said to Samson, Knowest thou not, etc. No lost battle presents so sad a picture as do these three thousand armed men, with their complaint against Samson that he has provoked the Philistines, and their question, Knowest thou not that they rule over us? It was so easy to say to him: Up, Samson! they come to bind thee; come thou to free us from their bonds. But they cannot speak thus. Their heart is lost in idolatry. No one can raise himself to freedom, who has not first repentedfor penitence is courage against self, and confession before othersand among the three thousand there are no three hundred who have not bowed to Baal. Samsons negotiation with them although comprised in a few sentences, is worthy of admiration. After all, he had really fought only for them, and had attacked the oppressor of the nation. But he does not upbraid them with this.13 Since they have not comprehended the fact that his own cause was the cause of the nation, he lays no stress on this, but shows them his personal right to engage in the war he had waged. The justification he sets up was such that they could not in honor turn against him. For he says:
As they did unto me, so have I done unto them. Retaliation was a primitive oriental right, still sanctioned by the Koran.14 To this right the Philistines had appealed in Jdg 15:10 : We will do to Samson as he did to us. The men of Judah do not undertake to decide upon the right of either party. They desire nothing but peacewith the Philistines. They would submit to them at any price. Any admission of Samsons right would have obligated them to stand by him. The fact is they came to serve not as judges but as tools of the Philistines. Whosoever is weak enough to accept such a mission, will not be brought to thought and reason by any exposition of right. Idolatry is ever blindness. Reason had evanished from the tribe. How else could it surrender such a man, or hope for peace from the Philistines after the here whom they feared was in their possession? How can such slavesin recent times also such conduct as theirs has been called peace-lovingexpect to remain at peace?
Jdg 15:12-13. We are come to bind thee, said the three thousand to the one courageous man. And never does Samson show himself greater than when he voluntarily allows himself to be bound. Against his countrymen he is powerless. With the blood of Israel he must not and will not stain himself. He makes but one condition, and that the least possible. No Judan hands must meditate his death. That condition alone would have sufficed to inform the men of Judah, had they been able to comprehend such heroism at all, that he consults only their feelings, because they are Israelites, but does not fear the Philistines.
Jdg 15:14. When he came unto Lehi, the shouts of the Philistines met him. What a spectacle! That cowardice can brazen hearts and faces until all sense of shame is lost, is shown by the memorable scene here depicted. Judah is not ashamed to drag its hero forward, bound with strong cords. It does not blush when the Philistines shout aloud at the spectacle. But this cowardly jubilation was soon to be turned into groans and flight. As the hero comes in sight of the enemy and hears their outcries, the Spirit of God comes upon him. His heart boils with indignation over the ignominy of his people. His strength kindles for resistless deeds. His cords fall off like tow seized by the fire. He is free, and his freedom is victory.
Jdg 15:15-16. And he saw a fresh jaw-bone of an ass. The enemy is before him: therefore, forward! to battle! Any weapon is welcome. The jaw-bone of a recently fallen ass is at hand, not yet dried up, and therefore less easily broken.15 Before the enemy can think, perhaps before their shouts over the prisoner have ceased, he is free, armed, and dealing out deadly blows. The panic is as great as the triumph had been. There was nothing but flight and death for the wretched foe. There ensued a slaughter and victory so extraordinary, that Samson himself, in poetic ecstasy, cries out:
With the jaw-bone of an ass
I slew two armies:
With the jaw-bone of an ass
I took vengeance on a thousand.
For in the clause the paronomasia is to be noted between , an ass, and , a heap, which latter is here poetically used of an army.
German tradition relates a similar deed of Walter of Aquitania. His enemies pursue him in the forest, while he and Hildegunde roast and eat a swines back. He seizes the swines bone, and throws it against the enemy with such violence that the latter loses his eye (Wilkinasage, translated by Hagen, i. 289, ch. lxxxvii). In the Latin poem Waltarius, the hero tears out the shoulder-blade of a calf, and with it slays the robbers (Grimm and Schmeller, Lateinsche Gedichte des Mittelalters, p. 109 f.). In both versions the fiction is unreasonable and tasteless, whereas the history of Samson is full of dramatic power and spirit.The mystical sect of the Nasairians, in Syria, are said to venerate the jaw-bone of an ass, because an ass devoured the plant on which the original documents of their religion had been written (cf. Ritter, xvii. 97, 6).
Jdg 15:17. The name of the place was called Ramath-lechi (Hill of the Jaw-bone). To the height upon which Samson threw the jaw-bone, the tradition of an admiring people gave and preserved a name commemorative of that circumstance. The narrative evinces artistic delicacy in that it relates that Samson uttered his poetic words while he was still victoriously swinging the unusual weapon in his hand. The humiliation of the Philistines, formerly smitten by means of foxes, and now with the jaw-bone of an ass, was too deep to allow the historical recollection of it to perish. To seek another explanation of the name is quite unnecessary. It is undoubtedly true that mountainous peaks sometimes derive names from their forms, as, for instance, Ass-ears (on the coast of Aden, cf. Ritter, xii. 675), or Tooth (1Sa 14:4), or Throat, Nose, and Horn (cf. my Thr. Ortsnamen, ii. p. 47, n. 304); but the possibility of an historical explanation is not thereby diminished: for although peculiar names have sometimes given rise to historical legends, the above instances show that quite as often this is not the case. Lehi (properly, Lechi), as the name of a locality, does not elsewhere occur;16 and a criticism which would make it the source of a history in which it has but an incidental significance, and which forms an organic part of the history of Samson as a whole, has lost all claim to be called criticism.
Jdg 15:18. And he was sore athirst, and called unto Jehovah. The exertion of the day was too great. The burning sun and the unusual excitement also contributed their part to exhaust the powerful man. But where was there any refreshment? He was alone, as always. The cowardly men of Judah had taken themselves off, in order not to be held responsible by the Philistines on the ground of participation in the conflict. Against the enemy he had that mediate divine help which came to him through his Nazaritic consecration; but this was no protection against thirst. He turns, therefore, to God in prayer for direct deliverance.
Thou hast given this great salvation by the hand of thy servant. These words illustrate and confirm the view we have thus far sought to develop of Samsons spiritual life. In his hours of lofty elevation of soul, when the Spirit of God impels him to great deeds in behalf of national freedom, he is fully conscious of the work to which he is called. Although he stands alone, the ends he pursues are not personal. And though his people sink so deeply into cowardice and weakness, as to deny him, yet all his powers are directed against the enemies of this people. Although he himself has scarcely escaped from their hands, and has no one to stand by his side, he nevertheless considers himself their leader and champion, in duty bound to vindicate the honor and glory of Israel against the Philistines. Properly speaking, no one was delivered in the conflict on Ramath-Lehi but himself; but he thanks God for the great salvation given by the hand of thy servant. He finds this salvation in the humiliation experienced by the Philistines, and in the fact that he, as sole representative of the true Israel, has not been allowed to be put to shame. For with his fall, the last bulwark had been leveled. The shouts of the Philistines over his bonds were shouts of triumph over the faith of Israel and over Israels God. Hence he can pray: Thou hast just performed a great deed through me, by which the honor of the national name of the children of Israel has been rescued and exalted, let me not now die of thirst, and in that way fall into the hands of the uncircumcised. All benefit of the victory would be lost, if Samson were now to perish. The triumph of the cowardly enemy would be greater than ever, should they next see him as a helpless corpse. He speaks of them as the un circumcised for the very purpose of expressing his consciousness that with him to fight, to conquer, and to fall, are not personal matters, but involve principles. He is none other than the Nazir of God, i. e., the consecrated warrior for God and his people Israel against the enemies of the divine covenantthe uncircumcised. His petition springs from the profound emotion into which the successive experiences of this day have plunged him. The greater his ardor in battle and joy in victory, the more painful is now the thought of losing the fruits of the advantage gained, for want of a little water. Here, too, what instruction we find! What is man that thou art mindful of him. The mighty warrior, before whom thousands tremble, cannot conquer thirst, and must perish unless a fountain opens itself.
Jdg 15:19. And God clave the mortar that was in Lehi. At the place where Samson was, God clave a mortar-like cavity in the rock, from which water sprang, of which Samson drank, and refreshed himself. This spring was ever after named Well of him that called; for it was his salvation and second deliverance. The words at the close of our verse, which (well) is in Lehi unto this day, to which those at the beginning of the verse correspond, God clave the mortar that was in Lehi, put it beyond all doubt that the reference is to a mortar-like well-opening in the place Lehi, and that (as Keil very well remarked) the old, frequently reproduced exposition (approved also by Bertheau), which bids us think of the socket of a tooth in the jaw-bone, is entirely erroneous. For from Jdg 15:17, where Samson throws the jaw-bone away, nothing more is said about it, and the name Lehi refers only to the place; just as in Jdg 15:9 the meaning is, not that the Philistines spread themselves about a real jaw-bone, but about the place of this name. The well, it is said, is in Lehi unto this day. The place derived its name, Ramath-lehi, from the battle of the jawbone; but the place was not the jaw-bone, which could not exist unto this day. The calling forth of the well was a second deliverance, distinct from the first, which was won in battle. It occurred at Lehi, where Samson had conquered, in order that he might there also experience the vanity of all strength without God. The old opinion arose from the fact that, except in Jdg 15:9, the ancient versions (the Sept.) everywhere translated the term Lehi, whereas it is a proper noun in Jdg 15:19 as much as in Jdg 15:9, as Bochart should have known precisely from the article, for it is used in all three instances, Jdg 15:9 included. It is indeed true that later medical writers call the sockets of the double teeth , mortars; but, granted that a similar usus loquendi prevailed in the Bible,of which we have no other evidence than this passage can give,the use of the article would be surprising, because elsewhere (as in Zep 1:11) it points (in connection with the noun ) to a certain definite, mortar like17 locality. Mention might also be made of the cities in Phrygia and Cilicia that bore the name Holmos. The true view was already held by Josephus, the Chaldee Targum, and, with peculiar clearness, by R. Levi ben Gerson. Perhaps it would receive further illustration from the locality which we may probably venture to fix upon for the event. For the question where the event took place is not unimportant. It must be assumed (cf. Jdg 15:13-14) that Etam and Lehi were not far distant from each other. Moreover, it is evident from the connection of the entire narrative, that the Philistines must have threatened especially that part of Judah which lay contiguous to the region whence Samson made his attacks. For this reason alone, the opinion of Van de Velde (adopted by Keil), who looks for it on the road from Tell Kewelfeh to Beer-sheba, appears improbable. On the other hand, the very ancient tradition which locates the Well of Lehi in the vicinity of Eleutheropolis, appears to me, notwithstanding all opposition, to be entirely probable. It was by a series of interesting observations and arguments that Robinson, Rdiger, and others, established the fact that Eleutheropolis and the modern Beit Jibrn, the Betogabra of the Tabula Peutingeriana, are the same place (cf. Ritter, xvi. 139); but the hints of the Midrash might have led to the same conclusion, and even now afford additional instruction. To the peculiarities of the region belong the numerous cave-formations, which, by their more or less perfect artificial finish, prove themselves to have been the abodes of men in ancient times. (chor) is a cavern, and the term (Chorite, E. V. Horite) signifies troglodytes, people who dwell in caverns. Now, wherever the Chorite is spoken of, the Midrash explains by substituting Eleutheropolis.18 It has not hitherto been discovered what circumstance induced the Romans to give this beautiful name to the place. But since the tradition of an heroic exploit ( ) was connected with the place, the Jewish inhabitants derived the name or , which it may have borne, not from , a cavern, but from , a freeman. Bene Chorin, is the title assumed by those whom heroic feats have made free.19 The same idea leads the Midrash when it derives Eleutheropolis from chiruth, freedom. The name Eleutheropolis was, in fact, only a translation of the ancient name, whose meaning the inhabitants had changed from City of the Troglodyte to City of the Free, and is undeniably found in the Mishna and Talmud under the forms and .20 If the inhabitants expound the present name Beit Jibrn as meaning House of Gabriel, every one capable of forming a judgment in the ease perceives at once that this became possible only with the prevalence of Islam in those regions. But as the name itself is older than Islam, and is apparently found in the Midrash (as , Beth Goberin), the conjecture suggests itself that it is related to , hero, , heroism; which, if true, connects it once more with Samsons achievement. The House of Heroism answers entirely to the House of Freedom. And it is at least not impossible that a change of etymological derivation, like that in the case of Chorite, occurred here also, namely, from ,, a hole, to , a hero. The expression , in the sense of jaw-bone, occurs also.
The change of the Troglodytes City into the City of Heroes, demonstrates the existence of an old tradition, which, so far as the names (Freedom, Heroism) can explain anything, spoke of the hero who there became free. Springs are still found near the city. One in particular, near the Church of St. Anne, flows from the hard rock, is fifty-two feet deep, and apparently ancient (Rob. ii. 26). It is to be noted that Josephus makes Samsons fountain to spring out of a rock, and declares that its name was still known in his day. The Targum likewise says that God did split the rock (), and translates: They called it the well that arose at the prayer of Samson, and it exists in Lehi unto this day.
No other well than this [one near the church of St. Anne], can be intended by Jerome, when on passing Socoh, he visits the Fountain of Samson (Ep. ad Eust., 106, ed. Benedict. 86). The tradition continued steadfast until the time of Antoninus Martyr, who says (circa 600 a. d.): We came into the city called Eliotropolis, where Samson, that most valiant man, slew a thousand men with a jaw-bone, out of which jaw-bone, at his prayer, water sprang forth, which fountain irrigates that place unto this day: and we were at the place where it rises. Traditions reaching so far beyond the age of Islam, are always worthy of attention, especially when they suit so well in their localities. For the distance from Eleutheropolis combines very well with the theatre of Samsons exploits hitherto, and confirms our assumption that Etam lay in the neighborhood of the present Deir Dubbn. When the Jews grounded the name City of Freedom on this tradition, they followed considerations not only beautiful, but also both ethically and historically correct.
It is unquestionably a remarkable feature in the narrative of the occurrence, that, while Samson prays to Jehovah, the answer is ascribed to Elohim: Elohim clave the mortar. Keils explanation, that it is thereby intimated that God worked the miracle as Lord of nature, does not seem sufficient. For is not Jehovah the Creator of Nature? The Targum uses that name here. According to our view of the relations of the names Jehovah and Elohim in our Book, the latter appears not only when heathen gods are spoken of, but also when others than believing Israelites speak of God. Elohim is here used in order to intimate that non-Israelites also ascribed the wonderful fountain in Lehi to divine intervention. Not only Israel tells of it, how Jehovah clave it, but all admit that it is a work of Elohim.
Jdg 15:20. And Samson judged Israel, in the days of the Philistines, twenty years. In the introduction to the history of Samson (Jdg 13:1), it is stated that the Philistines lorded it over Israel forty years. In Jdg 13:5 it is said: he shall begin to deliver Israel Their entire downfall he did not accomplish. The blame of this rested not only with the people, of whom Judges 13 does not say that they had repented, but, as Judges 16 shows, also with Samson. But the twenty years during which he wrought are not filled out by the occurrences related. These only indicate what feats and dangers were necessary to qualify Samson for government in Israel. And it may well be supposed that after this the Philistines scarcely undertook to confront him. Doubtless, the tribe of Judah also, must after this last exploit have acknowledged his divine strength, and yielded him their confidence. He himself, in thirst and faintness, had learned that God alone gives strength and help; and this may have served for the moral elevation of the people also. Israel dwelt in security and peace for twenty years, through the consecration and deeds of Samson. For this reason he stood among them as Judge. It was only the want of courage on Israels partdue to its imperfect faithand the excess of it on Samsons part, that plunged both alike into new distress and suffering.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
[Bp. Hall: The Philistines that had before ploughed with Samsons heifer, in the case of the riddle, are now ploughing a worse furrow with a heifer more his own. I am ashamed to hear these cowardly Jews say, Knowest thou not, etc.Scott: Heartless professors of religion, who value the friendship and fear the frown of the world, and who are the slaves of sin and Satan, censure, hate, and betray those who call them to liberty in the service of God. To save themselves, in times of persecution, they often apostatize and turn betrayers and accusers of the brethren.Bp. Hall: Now these Jews, that might have let themselves loose from their own bondage, are binding their deliverer.Henry: Thus the Jews delivered up our Saviour, under pretense of a fear lest the Romans should come, and take away their place and nation.Wordsworth: This conduct of the men of Judah, saying that the Philistines are their rulers, and delivering Samson to them, may be compared to that of the Jews, saying, We have no king but Csar (Joh 19:15), and delivering up Christ to the Romans.
Wordsworth (on Samsons victory): A greater miracle was wrought in the time of wheat-harvest (cf. Jdg 15:1), namely, at the first [Christian] Pentecost, when three thousand were converted by the preaching of Peter and of the other Apostles, filled with the Spirit of God.Bp. Hall: This victory was not in the weapon, was not in the arm; it was in the Spirit of God, which moved the weapon in the arm. O God! if the means be weak, Thou art strong!
Henry (on Samsons prayer): Past experiences of Gods power and goodness, are excellent pleas in prayer for further mercy. Lest the uncircumcised triumph, and so it redound to Gods dishonor. The best pleas are those taken from Gods glory.Kitto: Not many would have had such strong persuasion of the Lords providential care as would lead them to cry to Him for water to supply their personal wants in the like exigency.
Henry (on En-hakkore): Many a spring of comfort God opens to his people which may fitly be called by this name: it is the well of him that cried.Tr.]
Footnotes:
[10][Jdg 15:14.: towards, rather than against. The idea is that when the Philistines saw Samson coming, they set up shouts of exultation which met him, so to speak, as he approached.Tr.]
[11] [Jdg 15:16.We place the amended rendering of this poetic utterance in the text, and for convenience sake subjoin here that of the E. V.:
With the jaw-bone of an ass,
Heaps upon heaps;
With the jaw of an ass
Have I slain a thousand men.
The unusual form = (found elsewhere, if at all, only in 1Sa 16:20), is manifestly chosen for the sake of a pun. It means a heap; but in order to reproduce the paronomasia as nearly as possible, we have substituted the word mass, as suggested by Dr. Wordsworth, in loc. According to Keil, the expression, a heap, two heaps, intimates that the victory was accomplished, not in one combat, but in several. But as the magnitude of the victory is evidently celebrated, rather than the process of its accomplishment, the dual is better regarded as designed to amplify and heighten the idea of the preceding singular: a heapyes, a pair of heaps!Tr.]
[12][Jdg 15:19.. The article occasions no difficulty, as it is frequently used with proper nouns, especially with names of places, rivers, etc.; see Ges. Gram. 109, 3, and especially Ewald, 277 c. Keil very properly observes, that if a tooth-socket in the asss jaw-bone were intended, the expression would naturally be or , rather than . Wordsworth, speaking of the opinion that God clave the rock, objects that the words are, God clave the mactesh, which seems much more applicable to the mortar of the jaw than to a place in the rock. As if an ass had but one tooth to a jaw-bone! Bush is probably not far wrong when he suggests that a fondness for multiplying miracles, may have had some influence over the renderings of several of the ancient versions at this place.Tr.]
[13] Milton rightly makes Samson say:
I, on th other side,
Used no ambition to commend my deeds.
[14]Sura, 5, 53, which refers to Exo 21:24, where, however, the law intends to limit retaliation by determining its measure. Compare the narrative in Diez, Denkwrdigkeiten Asiens, ii. 179.
[15]The following translation of Jdg 15:15-17, from a German book published in 1705, at Halle, may serve as a specimen of the exegesis which sometimes passed current: Samson found a troop of lively soldiers, stretched forth his hand and commanded them, and led them against the Philistines.. And when he had thus spoken, he dismissed the troops. Against such insipidity protests arose at that time from all sides (cf. Starke, Not. Select., p. 127), from Gebhardi (De Maxilla Simsonis, 1707) in Greifswald, Sidelmann (De Maxilla, etc., 1706) in Copenhagen, and in a little-known, but thorough refutation by Heine, of Berlin (Dissert. Sacr, p. 245).
[16]In 2Sa 23:11, where some are disposed to find it in the form [by reading , i. e., with local, cf. Thenius, in loc., and Frst, Lex. s. vv. and ], the is manifestly the prefix preposition, as appears from Jdg 15:13. The Targum, it is true, distinguished between the two forms, and rendered the first by , the term which it regularly employs to express ; but Gesenius and others before him made a mistake when they took as the proper name of a locality. It was only a general term, pagus, village, which was translated into ().
[17]Including, doubtless, a comparison with the hard, rocky nature of a mortar.
[18]Beresn. Rabba, 42, p. 37 b. The right reading has been preserved by Aruch, sub voce. Our editions of the Midrash read metropolis, which only uncritical editors could have overlooked, since the explanation which follows indicates the true reading.
[19]Cf. Buxtorff, Lex., p. 836. Israel calls itself by this name in the beautiful hymn Pesach haggadhah, with reference to the time when Messiah shall have made it free. It is true, at least, that He alone makes free.
[20]On the consentaneous position of the place, cf. Zunz, in Benj. of Tudela, ii. 438, note.
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
I would not willingly or knowingly strain the pure word of God to bear a construction the Holy Ghost had not in view; but I think, without violence to the passage before us, in these verses, we may see, some things which bear resemblance to the ever blessed Jesus. And especially, as Samson was, on many accounts, a type of Jesus, it is hardly possible to overlook the representation Samson here makes, of the apprehending of the Lord Jesus by the Chief Priests, and Elders; before his crucifixion. The men of Judah, were those who came to seize Samson, to deliver him up into the hands of the Philistines. And the Reader will recollect, that it was the Elders of Israel which bound Jesus, and delivered him up to the Romans. And as Samson quietly yielded himself up into their hands for this purpose, when he might, by his great strength have conquered them, who doth not behold in this type of the Redeemer, our Almighty Samson, who was led as a lamb to the slaughter, when he might have smitten the host of his enemies to destruction forever. Luk 12:52-54 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Jdg 15:9 Then the Philistines went up, and pitched in Judah, and spread themselves in Lehi.
Ver. 9. Spread themselves in Lehi. ] Which showeth that they were a great army that came to fetch their bane. “Associate yourselves, ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces.” Isa 8:9
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
pitched = camped.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Mighty against the Foe
Jdg 15:9-20
To how low a depth had the men of Judah descended, that they should hand over their champion to their hereditary foes? The northern tribes that arose at the call of Gideon rebuked such cowardly treachery. There are things worse than defeat or death. To forfeit honor, to shirk duty, to fail in the supreme call of friendship and loyalty-these are the crimes that belittle the soul and court disgrace. What shall it profit, though we gain the whole world, if we lose our souls?
How inspiring is the thought that on us also the Spirit of the Lord may come mightily! There is no limit to his gracious and irresistible operations, save that imposed by the narrowness of our faith. Notice how the Apostle piles up his words in Eph 1:19. Whatever the cords of evil habits, woven through long years, and however entangling your circumstances, Gods indwelling power can set you free. Yes, and that is not all: At the place where you have won your victories, there shall arise that fountain of water which is fed from the throne of God; and the soul, exhausted by its effort, shall drink and be revived. Lord, cause us so to drink!
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
Lehi: Jdg 15:17, Jdg 15:19
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
The Philistine army then encamped in Judah against Lehi, which means “jaw.” Three thousand men of Judah went down and bound Samson with two new ropes and delivered him to the enemy to avoid a war. They rejoiced when they saw him bound but the Spirit of the Lord enabled him to snap the ropes as if they were flax that had been burned in the fire. With the jawbone of an ass, he slew 1,000 men and renamed it Ramath Lehi, meaning “jawbone height.” He then acknowledged God’s victory through his servant and asked for much needed water to drink. God opened up a place in the earth and Samson drank. This place was named “tooth hollow,” likely because it was on jawbone height (15:9- 20).
Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books
Samson’s treatment by the Judahites 15:9-13
The Philistines pursued Samson into the territory of Judah that they controlled (Jdg 15:9; cf. Jdg 14:4). The exact location of Lehi is still uncertain.
We gain a glimpse into the spiritual condition in Judah at this time from how the 3,000 Judahites (more probable than 3 units of people) responded to their Philistine oppressors. The men of Judah were no threat to the Philistines, but Samson was. The men of Judah did not respond to Samson as a judge whom God had raised up to deliver them from the Philistines. Instead of supporting him, they meekly bowed before their oppressors and took the Philistines’ side against Samson (Jdg 15:11-13). They rebuked Samson for jeopardizing their safety by attacking the Philistines. They were content to live under the Philistines’ heel. They regarded Samson’s action as something he was doing against them rather than as an act of aggression against the enemies of God’s people. The Judahites were compromisers who preferred slavery to freedom. Their attitude toward Samson may have been hostile in part because he was from their neighboring tribe, not one of them.
"It is a sad fact of Christian experience that if you are a Christian committed to growing and maturing in Jesus Christ, you will often be hindered the most by other Christians who have become accustomed and accommodated to an anemic, wishy-washy spiritual life." [Note: Inrig, p. 237.]
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 (Jdg 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 (Jdg 15:13).
"The tribe that had formerly waded into battle after battle (Jdg 1:1-20) has become a collection of spineless wimps (Jdg 15:13)." [Note: Davis, p. 182.]
Samson’s patience and grace with his fellow Israelites are astounding. He must have realized what they were doing, but he also apparently believed that, when delivered over to the enemy, he could overcome them. If his courage, as his fellow Israelites brought him bound before hoards of Philistines and handed him over to them, arose from trust in God, his faith was remarkable. This would have been one of the high points of Samson’s spiritual career. Alternatively Samson’s confidence may have rested in himself, particularly in his strength. If that was so, this incident was a low point for him spiritually. I prefer the second explanation since it seems more consistent with Samson’s character.