Judges 15:18

18 And he was very thirsty, and he called to Yahweh and said, "You gave this great victory into the hand of your servant, but now I must die of thirst and fall into the hand 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 And Samson said, "With the jawbone of the donkey, heap upon heap; with the jawbone of the donkey, I struck dead one thousand men."

17 And it happened, when he finished speaking he threw the jawbone from his hand; and he called that place Ramath Lehi.

18 And he was very thirsty, and he called to Yahweh and said, "You gave this great victory into the hand of your servant, but now I must die of thirst and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised?"

19 So God split the hollow place that [is] at Lehi, and water came out from it; and he drank, and his spirit returned, and he was revived. Thus he called its name {The Spring of Ha-Qore}, which [is] at Lehi to this day.

20 And he judged Israel in the days of [the] Philistines twenty years.