Judges 15:9-19

9 Then the Philistines came up and encamped in Judah and ¹made a raid on ²Lehi.

10 And the men of Judah said, “Why have you come up against us? ” They said, “We have come up to bind Samson, 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 that ³the 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 have I done to them. ”

12 And they said to him, “We have come down to bind you, that we may give you into the hands of the Philistines. ” And Samson said to them, “Swear to me that you will not attack me yourselves. ”

13 They said to him, “No; we will only bind you and give you into their hands. We will surely not kill you. ” So they bound him with two ⁴new ropes and brought him up from the rock.

14 When he came to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting to meet him. ⁵Then the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him, and the ropes that were on his arms became as flax that has caught fire, and his bonds melted off his hands.

15 And he found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, and put out his hand and took it, ⁶and with it he struck 1,000 men.

16 And Samson said, “With the jawbone of a donkey, heaps upon heaps, with the jawbone of a donkey have I struck down a thousand men. ”

17 As soon as he had finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone out of his hand. And that place ⁷was called Ramath-lehi. ^[a]

18 And he was very thirsty, and he called upon the Lord and said, ⁸“You have granted this great salvation by the hand of your servant, and shall I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised? ”

19 And God split open the hollow place that is ⁹at Lehi, and water came out from it. And when he drank, ¹⁰his spirit returned, and he revived. Therefore the name of it was called En-hakkore; ^[b] it is at 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

• 1. 15:9 2 Sam. 5:18, 22
• 2. 15:9 ver. 14, 17, 19
• 3. 15:11 ch. 13:1; 14:4
• 4. 15:13 ch. 16:11, 12
• 5. 15:14 ch. 14:6, 19; 1 Sam. 11:6; [ch. 3:10]
• 6. 15:15 Josh. 23:10; [ch. 3:31; Lev. 26:8]
• 7. 15:17 ver. 9, 14
• 8. 15:18 [Ps. 3:7]
• 9. 15:19 [See ver. 17 above]
• 10. 15:19 Gen. 45:27

Footnotes

• [a] 15:17 'Ramath-lehi' means 'the hill of the jawbone'
• [b] 15:19 'En-hakkore' means 'the spring of him who called'