Judges 15:17

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

Judges 15:17 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 15:17

And it came to pass, when he had made an end of speaking
Of delivering out the above song, which very probably consisted of much more than what is here expressed:

that he cast away the jawbone out of his hand;
which he held in his hand had wrought by him through the means of it, and so served to animate him to praise and thankfulness; but having no further use for it, he threw it away:

and called the place Ramathlehi;
that is, the casting away the jawbone, so Kimchi; but Ben Gersom thinks it was an high place where it was thrown, and so signifies the elevation or lifting up of the "jawbone", as the Septuagint version renders it.

Judges 15:17 In-Context

15 And he found a fresh jawbone of a donkey; he reached down and took it and killed one thousand men with it.

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.

Footnotes

• [a]. That is, "Hill of the Jawbone"