Judges 15:9-19

9 Then the Philistines went up and camped in Judah, and spread out in Lehi.
10 The men of Judah said, "Why have you come up against us?" And they said, "We have come up to bind Samson in order to do to him as he did to us."
11 Then 3,000 * men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam and said to Samson, "Do you not know 1that the Philistines are rulers over us? What then is this that you have done to us?" And he said to them, "As they did to me, so I have done to them."
12 They said to him, "We have come down to bind you so that we may give you into the hands of the Philistines." And Samson said to them, "Swear to me that you will not kill me."
13 So they said to him, "No, but we will bind you fast and give you into their hands; yet surely we will not kill you." Then they bound him with two new ropes and brought him up from the rock.
14 When he came to Lehi, the Philistines shouted as they met him. And 2the Spirit of the LORD came upon him mightily so that the ropes that were on his arms were as flax that is burned with fire, and his bonds dropped from his hands.
15 He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, so he reached * out and took it and killed 3a thousand men with it.
16 Then Samson said, "With the jawbone of a donkey, Heaps upon heaps, With the jawbone of a donkey I have killed a thousand men."
17 When he had finished speaking, he threw the jawbone from his hand; and he named that place Ramath-lehi.
18 Then he became very thirsty, and he 4called to the LORD and said, "You have given this great deliverance by the hand of Your servant, and now shall I die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?"
19 But God split the hollow place that is in Lehi so that water came out of it. When he drank, 5his strength returned and he revived. Therefore * he named * it En-hakkore, which is in Lehi to this day.

Judges 15:9-19 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JUDGES 15

This chapter relates, that Samson being denied his wife, did by a strange stratagem burn the corn fields, vineyards, and olives of the Philistines, Jud 15:1-5, and that because of their burning her and her father, he made a great slaughter of them, Jud 15:6-8, which brought the Philistines against the men of Judah, who took Samson and bound him, to deliver him to the Philistines, when he, loosing himself, slew a thousand of them with the jaw bone of an ass, Jud 15:9-17 and being athirst, God in a wonderful manner supplied him with water, Jud 15:18-20.

Cross References 5

  • 1. Leviticus 26:25; Deuteronomy 28:43; Judges 13:1; Judges 14:4; Psalms 106:40-42
  • 2. Judges 14:19; 1 Samuel 11:6
  • 3. Leviticus 26:8; Joshua 23:10
  • 4. Judges 16:28
  • 5. Isaiah 40:29

Footnotes 13

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