Shofetim 15:18

18 And he was very thirsty, and called on Hashem, and said, Thou hast given this teshu’ah hagedolah (great victory, rescue, salvation) into the yad of thy eved; and now shall I die for thirst, and fall into the yad of the arelim?

Shofetim 15:18 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 15:18

And he was sore athirst
Which Josephus F14 thinks came upon him as a rebuke unto him, for ascribing the victory he had obtained to his own strength, and not to the Lord, whereby he was shown his own weakness, and how easily his strength could be reduced; but for this there seems to be no foundation; it is not to wondered at, in a natural way, that he should be athirst after he had been bound with cords, after he had so exerted himself, and slain 1000 men with his own hand, and after he had celebrated this victory with a triumphant song; and it may also be observed, that it was so ordered in Providence, that he might in this be a type of the Messiah, who on the cross, as he was spoiling principalities and powers, and triumphing over them in it, said, "I thirst", ( John 19:28 )

and called on the Lord, and said;
in prayer to him:

thou hast given this great deliverance into the hand of thy servant;
he owns the deliverance to be great, as indeed, it was, and that it was of the Lord, and he only his servant and instrument in it:

and now shall I die for thirst;
when my life has been saved in so wonderful a manner, and so great a salvation has been wrought by my hands, as an instrument:

and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?
which would be matter of joy and triumph to them, and mar the glory of the deliverance wrought.


FOOTNOTES:

F14 Antiqu. l. 5. c. 8. sect. 9.

Shofetim 15:18 In-Context

16 And Shimshon said, With the lechi (jawbone) of a chamor heaps upon heaps, with the jaw of a chamor have I slain a thousand men.
17 And it came to pass when he had made an end of speaking that he cast away the jawbone out of his yad, and called that place Ramat Lechi (Jawbone Hill).
18 And he was very thirsty, and called on Hashem, and said, Thou hast given this teshu’ah hagedolah (great victory, rescue, salvation) into the yad of thy eved; and now shall I die for thirst, and fall into the yad of the arelim?
19 But Elohim split open the hollow place that is at Lechi, and there came mayim thereout; and when he had drunk, his ruach came again, and he revived; wherefore he called the shem thereof En HaKorei (Spring of the Caller), which is in Lechi unto this day.
20 And he judged Yisroel in the days of the Pelishtim esrim shanah.
The Orthodox Jewish Bible fourth edition, OJB. Copyright 2002,2003,2008,2010, 2011 by Artists for Israel International. All rights reserved.