Judges 15:18

18 Then he felt very thirsty, so he called on ADONAI, saying, "You accomplished this great rescue through your servant. But am I now to die from thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?"

Judges 15:18 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 15:18

And he was sore athirst
Which Josephus ^F14 thinks came upon him as a rebuke unto him, for ascribing the victory he had obtained to his own strength, and not to the Lord, whereby he was shown his own weakness, and how easily his strength could be reduced; but for this there seems to be no foundation; it is not to wondered at, in a natural way, that he should be athirst after he had been bound with cords, after he had so exerted himself, and slain 1000 men with his own hand, and after he had celebrated this victory with a triumphant song; and it may also be observed, that it was so ordered in Providence, that he might in this be a type of the Messiah, who on the cross, as he was spoiling principalities and powers, and triumphing over them in it, said, "I thirst", ( John 19:28 )

and called on the Lord, and said;
in prayer to him:

thou hast given this great deliverance into the hand of thy servant;
he owns the deliverance to be great, as indeed, it was, and that it was of the Lord, and he only his servant and instrument in it:

and now shall I die for thirst;
when my life has been saved in so wonderful a manner, and so great a salvation has been wrought by my hands, as an instrument:

and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?
which would be matter of joy and triumph to them, and mar the glory of the deliverance wrought.

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FOOTNOTES:

F14 Antiqu. l. 5. c. 8. sect. 9.

Judges 15:18 In-Context

16 Shimshon said, "With the jawbone of a donkey I left heaps piled on heaps! With the jawbone of a donkey I killed a thousand men!"

17 After he finished speaking he threw the jawbone away, and the place came to be called Ramat-Lechi [jawbone heights].

18 Then he felt very thirsty, so he called on ADONAI, saying, "You accomplished this great rescue through your servant. But am I now to die from thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?"

19 Then God made a gash in the crater at Lechi, and water came out. When he had drunk, his spirit came back; and he revived. This is why the place was called 'Ein-HaKorei [the spring of him who called], and it is there in Lechi until now.

20 He judged Isra'el in the period of the P'lishtim for twenty years.