Judges 15:9

9 Then the Philistines went up, camped in Judah, and deployed themselves near the town of Lehi. ^[a]

Judges 15:9 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 15:9

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.

Judges 15:9 In-Context

7 And Samson told them, “Because you have done this, I will not rest until I have taken vengeance upon you.”

8 And he struck them ruthlessly with a great slaughter, and then went down and stayed in the cave at the rock of Etam.

9 Then the Philistines went up, camped in Judah, and deployed themselves near the town of Lehi.

10 “Why have you attacked us?” said the men of Judah. The Philistines replied, “We have come to arrest Samson and pay him back for what he has done to us.”

11 In response, three thousand men of Judah went to the cave at the rock of Etam, and they asked Samson, “Do you not realize that the Philistines rule over us? What have you done to us?” “I have done to them what they did to me,” he replied.

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally and spread out in Lehi