Judges 15:15-17

15 Finding a fresh jawbone of a donkey, he grabbed it and struck down a thousand men.

16 Then Samson said, “With a donkey’s jawbone I have made donkeys of them.^[a]With a donkey’s jawbone I have killed a thousand men.”

17 When he finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone; and the place was called Ramath Lehi.^[b]

Judges 15:15-17 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. S Leviticus 26:8; Joshua 23:10; Judges 3:31
• 2. Jeremiah 22:19
• 3. S ver 9

Footnotes

• [a]. Or "made a heap or two" ; the Hebrew for "donkey" sounds like the Hebrew for "heap."
• [b]. "Ramath Lehi" means "jawbone hill."