Judges 15 Study Notes

15:12-17 The Judahites were determined to hand Samson over to the Philistines, as evidence of their good faith submission. Samson, confident in his own strength, was quite content to be handed over. When the Philistines came to meet him shouting, their approach was reminiscent of that of the roaring lion in the previous chapter. So too was their fate: Samson seized the fresh jawbone of a donkey and promptly dispatched a thousand of the opposition. The word fresh emphasizes Samson’s neglect of his Nazirite vows—this time by plundering the corpse of an animal for his weapon. Samson’s response was to give himself all the glory for the slaughter (cp. Gn 4:23). Whereas Deborah’s song praised God for giving his people the victory (Jdg 5), Samson’s song praised himself for making heaps (or “a donkey”; the Hebrew words are identical) out of his enemies. He also renamed the location Ramath-lehi (“High Place of the Jawbone”) in honor of his feat.

15:18-19 Samson calling out to the Lord for a drink is once again a vivid picture of Israel, ascribing his victories to himself and only crying out to the Lord in time of trouble. When he found himself in need, the orthodox vocabulary reasserted itself. He was now “the Lord’s servant.” When in need, Samson sought the Lord’s deliverance, but as soon as the crisis was over, he returned to his old ways. The parallel between Samson and Israel is highlighted by the echoes of Israel’s wilderness experience of Ex 17, where the Lord had made water come out of the rock for his people. Typically, instead of naming the spring that revived him after the Lord, Samson named it after himself, calling it En-hakkore, “The Spring of the Caller.”

15:20 In this way, Samson judged Israel twenty years. Normally this notice comes at the end of the story of a judge. In this case, there is another chapter in the story in which Samson is operating on his own strength, abandoned by God, a tragedy waiting to happen.