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Jdg_15:9-20.
With the jaw-bone of an ass
A mass, yea masses:
With the jaw-bone of an ass
I slew a thousand men.
17And it came to pass when he had made an end of speaking, that he cast away the jaw-bone out of his hand, and [people] called that place Ramath-lehi [Hill of the jaw-bone]. 18And he was sore athirst, and called on the Lord [Jehovah], and said, Thou hast given this great deliverance into [by] the hand of thy servant: and now 19shall I die for thirst, and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised? But [And] God clave an hollow place [lit.the mortar] that was in the jaw [in Lehi], and there came water thereout; and when he had drunk, [and he drank, and] his spirit came again, and he revived. Wherefore he [men] called the name thereof Enhakkore 20[Well of him that called], which is in Lehi unto this day. And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.
Jdg_15:11. Then three thousand men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock Etam. Judah never enjoyed such an opportunity to free itself from the yoke of the Philistines. It had a leader of incomparable strength and energy. The enemy had been smitten, and was apprehensive of further defeats. If it had risen now, and, ranged under Samson, undertaken a war of liberation in God’s name, where was the station that the Philistines could have continued to hold? The heroic deeds of Joshua and Caleb would have been reenacted. The power of the Philistines would have been broken, perhaps forever. But what did Judah? Terrified by the threatening advance of the Philistines, coming to seek Samson, it has not even courage to say, “Go, and bind him yourselves.” Three thousand armed men are quickly got together, not to avail themselves of Samson’s leadership against the enemy, but—alas! for the cowards—to act as the enemy’s tools, pledged to deliver the nation’s hero into their hands. The Philistines, with malicious cunning, probably demanded this as the price of peace. For either Samson refuses to follow the men of Judah, and smites them, which would be gain to the Philistines, or he is taken and brought by them, in which case they will have heaped disgrace on both, and filled them with wrath toward each other. And in fact the number of the men who proceed to Etam, shows that they feel obliged, if need be, to use violence.
And they said to Samson, Knowest thou not, etc. No lost battle presents so sad a picture as do these three thousand armed men, with their complaint against Samson that he has provoked the Philistines, and their question, Knowest thou not that they rule over us? It was so easy to say to him: Up, Samson! they come to bind thee; come thou to free us from their bonds. But they cannot speak thus. Their heart is lost in idolatry. No one can raise himself to freedom, who has not first repented—for penitence is courage against self, and confession before others—and among the three thousand there are no three hundred who have not bowed to Baal. Samson’s negotiation with them although comprised in a few sentences, is worthy of admiration. After all, he had really fought only for them, and had attacked the oppressor of the nation. But he does not upbraid them with this. Since they have not comprehended the fact that his own cause was the cause of the nation, he lays no stress on this, but shows them his personal right to engage in the war he had waged. The justification he sets up was such that they could not in honor turn against him. For he says:—
As they did unto me, so have I done unto them. Retaliation was a primitive oriental right, still sanctioned by the Koran. To this right the Philistines had appealed in Jdg_15:10 : “We will do to Samson as he did to us.” The men of Judah do not undertake to decide upon the right of either party. They desire nothing but peace—with the Philistines. They would submit to them at any price. Any admission of Samson’s right would have obligated them to stand by him. The fact is they came to serve not as judges but as tools of the Philistines. Whosoever is weak enough to accept such a mission, will not be brought to thought and reason by any exposition of right. Idolatry is ever blindness. Reason had evanished from the tribe. How else could it surrender such a man, or hope for peace from the Philistines after the here whom they feared was in their possession? How can such slaves—in recent times also such conduct as theirs has been called peace-loving—expect to remain at peace?
Jdg_15:12-13. We are come to bind thee, said the three thousand to the one courageous man. And never does Samson show himself greater than when he voluntarily allows himself to be bound. Against his countrymen he is powerless. With the blood of Israel he must not and will not stain himself. He makes but one condition, and that the least possible. No Judæan hands must meditate his death. That condition alone would have sufficed to inform the men of Judah, had they been able to comprehend such heroism at all, that he consults only their feelings, because they are Israelites, but does not fear the Philistines.
Jdg_15:14. When he came unto Lehi, the shouts of the Philistines met him. What a spectacle! That cowardice can brazen hearts and faces until all sense of shame is lost, is shown by the memorable scene here depicted. Judah is not ashamed to drag its hero forward, bound with strong cords. It does not blush when the Philistines shout aloud at the spectacle. But this cowardly jubilation was soon to be turned into groans and flight. As the hero comes in sight of the enemy and hears their outcries, the Spirit of God comes upon him. His heart boils with indignation over the ignominy of his people. His strength kindles for resistless deeds. His cords fall off like tow seized by the fire. He is free, and his freedom is victory.
Jdg_15:15-16. And he saw a fresh jaw-bone of an ass. The enemy is before him: therefore, forward! to battle! Any weapon is welcome. The jaw-bone of a recently fallen ass is at hand, not yet dried up, and therefore less easily broken. Before the enemy can think, perhaps before their shouts over the prisoner have ceased, he is free, armed, and dealing out deadly blows. The panic is as great as the triumph had been. There was nothing but flight and death for the wretched foe. There ensued a slaughter and victory so extraordinary, that Samson himself, in poetic ecstasy, cries out:—
With the jaw-bone of an ass
I slew two armies:
With the jaw-bone of an ass
I took vengeance on a thousand.
For in the clause áִּìְçé äַçֲîåֹø çֲîåֹø çֲîֹøָúָéִí the paronomasia is to be noted between çַîåֹø , an ass, and çֲîֹø , a heap, which latter is here poetically used of an “army.”
German tradition relates a similar deed of Walter of Aquitania. His enemies pursue him in the forest, while he and Hildegunde roast and eat a swine’s back. He seizes the swine’s bone, and throws it against the enemy with such violence that the latter loses his eye (Wilkinasage, translated by Hagen, i. 289, ch. lxxxvii). In the Latin poem Waltarius, the hero tears out the shoulder-blade of a calf, and with it slays the robbers (Grimm and Schmeller, Lateinsche Gedichte des Mittelalters, p. 109 f.). In both versions the fiction is unreasonable and tasteless, whereas the history of Samson is full of dramatic power and spirit.—The mystical sect of the Nasairians, in Syria, are said to venerate the jaw-bone of an ass, because an ass devoured the plant on which the original documents of their religion had been written (cf. Ritter, xvii. 97, 6).
Jdg_15:17. The name of the place was called Ramath-lechi (Hill of the Jaw-bone). To the height upon which Samson threw the jaw-bone, the tradition of an admiring people gave and preserved a name commemorative of that circumstance. The narrative evinces artistic delicacy in that it relates that Samson uttered his poetic words while he was still victoriously swinging the unusual weapon in his hand. The humiliation of the Philistines, formerly smitten by means of foxes, and now with the jaw-bone of an ass, was too deep to allow the historical recollection of it to perish. To seek another explanation of the name is quite unnecessary. It is undoubtedly true that mountainous peaks sometimes derive names from their forms, as, for instance, “Ass’-ears” (on the coast of Aden, cf. Ritter, xii. 675), or “Tooth” (1Sa_14:4), or “Throat,” “Nose,” and “Horn” (cf. my Thür. Ortsnamen, ii. p. 47, n. 304); but the possibility of an historical explanation is not thereby diminished: for although peculiar names have sometimes given rise to historical legends, the above instances show that quite as often this is not the case. Lehi (properly, Lechi), as the name of a locality, does not elsewhere occur; and a criticism which would make it the source of a history in which it has but an incidental significance, and which forms an organic part of the history of Samson as a whole, has lost all claim to be called criticism.
Jdg_15:18. And he was sore athirst, and called unto Jehovah. The exertion of the day was too great. The burning sun and the unusual excitement also contributed their part to exhaust the powerful man. But where was there any refreshment? He was alone, as always. The cowardly men of Judah had taken themselves off, in order not to be held responsible by the Philistines on the ground of participation in the conflict. Against the enemy he had that mediate divine help which came to him through his Nazaritic consecration; but this was no protection against thirst. He turns, therefore, to God in prayer for direct deliverance.
Thou hast given this great salvation by the hand of thy servant. These words illustrate and confirm the view we have thus far sought to develop of Samson’s spiritual life. In his hours of lofty elevation of soul, when the Spirit of God impels him to great deeds in behalf of national freedom, he is fully conscious of the work to which he is called. Although he stands alone, the ends he pursues are not personal. And though his people sink so deeply into cowardice and weakness, as to deny him, yet all his powers are directed against the enemies of this people. Although he himself has scarcely escaped from their hands, and has no one to stand by his side, he nevertheless considers himself their leader and champion, in duty bound to vindicate the honor and glory of Israel against the Philistines. Properly speaking, no one was delivered in the conflict on Ramath-Lehi but himself; but he thanks God for “the great salvation given by the hand of thy servant.” He finds this salvation in the humiliation experienced by the Philistines, and in the fact that he, as sole representative of the true Israel, has not been allowed to be put to shame. For with his fall, the last bulwark had been leveled. The shouts of the Philistines over his bonds were shouts of triumph over the faith of Israel and over Israel’s God. Hence he can pray: “Thou hast just performed a great deed through me, by which the honor of the national name of the children of Israel has been rescued and exalted, let me not now die of thirst, and in that way fall into the hands of the uncircumcised.” All benefit of the victory would be lost, if Samson were now to perish. The triumph of the cowardly enemy would be greater than ever, should they next see him as a helpless corpse. He speaks of them as “the un circumcised” for the very purpose of expressing his consciousness that with him to fight, to conquer, and to fall, are not personal matters, but involve principles. He is none other than the Nazir of God, i. e., the consecrated warrior for God and his people Israel against the enemies of the divine covenant—the uncircumcised. His petition springs from the profound emotion into which the successive experiences of this day have plunged him. The greater his ardor in battle and joy in victory, the more painful is now the thought of losing the fruits of the advantage gained, for want of a little water. Here, too, what instruction we find! “What is man that thou art mindful of him.” The mighty warrior, before whom thousands tremble, cannot conquer thirst, and must perish unless a fountain opens itself.
Jdg_15:19. And God clave the mortar that was in Lehi. At the place where Samson was, God clave a mortar-like cavity in the rock, from which water sprang, of which Samson drank, and refreshed himself. This spring was ever after named “Well of him that called;” for it was his salvation and second deliverance. The words at the close of our verse, “which (well) is in Lehi unto this day,” to which those at the beginning of the verse correspond, “God clave the mortar that was in Lehi,” put it beyond all doubt that the reference is to a mortar-like well-opening in the place Lehi, and that (as Keil very well remarked) the old, frequently reproduced exposition (approved also by Bertheau), which bids us think of “the socket of a tooth in the jaw-bone,” is entirely erroneous. For from Jdg_15:17, where Samson throws the jaw-bone away, nothing more is said about it, and the name Lehi refers only to the place; just as in Jdg_15:9 the meaning is, not that the Philistines spread themselves about a real jaw-bone, but about the place of this name. The well, it is said, “is in Lehi unto this day.” The place derived its name, Ramath-lehi, from the battle of the jawbone; but the place was not the jaw-bone, which could not exist “unto this day.” The calling forth of the well was a second deliverance, distinct from the first, which was won in battle. It occurred at Lehi, where Samson had conquered, in order that he might there also experience the vanity of all strength without God. The old opinion arose from the fact that, except in Jdg_15:9, the ancient versions (the Sept.) everywhere translated the term Lehi, whereas it is a proper noun in Jdg_15:19 as much as in Jdg_15:9, as Bochart should have known precisely from the article, for it is used in all three instances, Jdg_15:9 included. It is indeed true that later medical writers call the sockets of the double teeth ὅëìïé , mortars; but, granted that a similar usus loquendi prevailed in the Bible,—of which we have no other evidence than this passage can give,—the use of the article would be surprising, because elsewhere (as in Zep_1:11) it points (in connection with the noun îַëְúֵּùׁ ) to a certain definite, mortar like locality. Mention might also be made of the cities in Phrygia and Cilicia that bore the name Holmos. The true view was already held by Josephus, the Chaldee Targum, and, with peculiar clearness, by R. Levi ben Gerson. Perhaps it would receive further illustration from the locality which we may probably venture to fix upon for the event. For the question where the event took place is not unimportant. It must be assumed (cf. Jdg_15:13-14) that Etam and Lehi were not far distant from each other. Moreover, it is evident from the connection of the entire narrative, that the Philistines must have threatened especially that part of Judah which lay contiguous to the region whence Samson made his attacks. For this reason alone, the opinion of Van de Velde (adopted by Keil), who looks for it on the road from Tell Kewelfeh to Beer-sheba, appears improbable. On the other hand, the very ancient tradition which locates the Well of Lehi in the vicinity of Eleutheropolis, appears to me, notwithstanding all opposition, to be entirely probable. It was by a series of interesting observations and arguments that Robinson, Rödiger, and others, established the fact that Eleutheropolis and the modern Beit Jibrîn, the Betogabra of the Tabula Peutingeriana, are the same place (cf. Ritter, xvi. 139); but the hints of the Midrash might have led to the same conclusion, and even now afford additional instruction. To the peculiarities of the region belong the numerous cave-formations, which, by their more or less perfect artificial finish, prove themselves to have been the abodes of men in ancient times. çåֹø (chor) is a cavern, and the term çֹøִé (Chorite, E. V. Horite) signifies troglodytes, people who dwell in caverns. Now, wherever the Chorite is spoken of, the Midrash explains by substituting Eleutheropolis. It has not hitherto been discovered what circumstance induced the Romans to give this beautiful name to the place. But since the tradition of an heroic exploit ( úְּùׁåּòָä âְãåֹìָä ) was connected with the place, the Jewish inhabitants derived the name áֵּéú çåֹøִé or òִéø çåֹøִé , which it may have borne, not from çåֹø , a cavern, but from çֹø , a freeman. “Bene Chorin,” is the title assumed by those whom heroic feats have made free. The same idea leads the Midrash when it derives Eleutheropolis from chiruth, freedom. The name Eleutheropolis was, in fact, only a translation of the ancient name, whose meaning the inhabitants had changed from “City of the Troglodyte” to “City of the Free,” and is undeniably found in the Mishna and Talmud under the forms áéú çåøéï and áéú çøåøéï . If the inhabitants expound the present name Beit Jibrîn as meaning “House of Gabriel,” every one capable of forming a judgment in the ease perceives at once that this became possible only with the prevalence of Islam in those regions. But as the name itself is older than Islam, and is apparently found in the Midrash (as áéú âåáøéï , Beth Goberin), the conjecture suggests itself that it is related to âִּáּåֹø , hero, âְּáåּøָä , heroism; which, if true, connects it once more with Samson’s achievement. The “House of Heroism” answers entirely to the “House of Freedom.” And it is at least not impossible that a change of etymological derivation, like that in the case of Chorite, occurred here also, namely, from âּåֹá , âּåּáָà , a hole, to âִּáּåֹø , a hero. The expression çé÷ï âáåú , in the sense of jaw-bone, occurs also.
The change of the “Troglodytes’ City” into the “City of Heroes,” demonstrates the existence of an old tradition, which, so far as the names (Freedom, Heroism) can explain anything, spoke of the hero who there became free. Springs are still found near the city. One in particular, near the Church of St. Anne, flows from the hard rock, is “fifty-two feet deep, and apparently ancient” (Rob. ii. 26). It is to be noted that Josephus makes Samson’s fountain to spring out of a rock, and declares that its name was still known in his day. The Targum likewise says that God did split the rock ( ëֵּéôָà ), and translates: “They called it ‘the well that arose at the prayer of Samson,’ and it exists in Lehi unto this day.”
No other well than this [one near the church of St. Anne], can be intended by Jerome, when on passing Socoh, he visits the Fountain of Samson (Ep. ad Eust., 106, ed. Benedict. 86). The tradition continued steadfast until the time of Antoninus Martyr, who says (circa 600 a. d.): “We came into the city called Eliotropolis, where Samson, that most valiant man, slew a thousand men with a jaw-bone, out of which jaw-bone, at his prayer, water sprang forth, which fountain irrigates that place unto this day: and we were at the place where it rises.” Traditions reaching so far beyond the age of Islam, are always worthy of attention, especially when they suit so well in their localities. For the distance from Eleutheropolis combines very well with the theatre of Samson’s exploits hitherto, and confirms our assumption that Etam lay in the neighborhood of the present Deir Dubbân. When the Jews grounded the name “City of Freedom” on this tradition, they followed considerations not only beautiful, but also both ethically and historically correct.
It is unquestionably a remarkable feature in the narrative of the occurrence, that, while Samson prays to “Jehovah,” the answer is ascribed to “Elohim:” “Elohim clave the mortar.” Keil’s explanation, that it is thereby intimated that God worked the miracle as Lord of nature, does not seem sufficient. For is not “Jehovah” the Creator of Nature? The Targum uses that name here. According to our view of the relations of the names Jehovah and Elohim in our Book, the latter appears not only when heathen gods are spoken of, but also when others than believing Israelites speak of God. Elohim is here used in order to intimate that non-Israelites also ascribed the wonderful fountain in Lehi to divine intervention. Not only Israel tells of it, how Jehovah clave it,’ but all admit that it is a work of Elohim.
Jdg_15:20. And Samson judged Israel, in the days of the Philistines, twenty years. In the introduction to the history of Samson (Jdg_13:1), it is stated that the Philistines lorded it over Israel forty years. In Jdg_13:5 it is said: “he shall begin to deliver Israel” Their entire downfall he did not accomplish. The blame of this rested not only with the people, of whom Judges 13 does not say that they had repented, but, as Judges 16 shows, also with Samson. But the twenty years during which he wrought are not filled out by the occurrences related. These only indicate what feats and dangers were necessary to qualify Samson for government in Israel. And it may well be supposed that after this the Philistines scarcely undertook to confront him. Doubtless, the tribe of Judah also, must after this last exploit have acknowledged his divine strength, and yielded him their confidence. He himself, in thirst and faintness, had learned that God alone gives strength and help; and this may have served for the moral elevation of the people also. Israel dwelt in security and peace for twenty years, through the consecration and deeds of Samson. For this reason he stood among them as Judge. It was only the want of courage on Israel’s part—due to its imperfect faith—and the excess of it on Samson’s part, that plunged both alike into new distress and suffering.
Wordsworth (on Samson’s victory): A greater miracle was wrought “in the time of wheat-harvest” (cf. Jdg_15:1), namely, at the first [Christian] Pentecost, when three thousand were converted by the preaching of Peter and of the other Apostles, filled with the Spirit of God.—Bp. Hall: This victory was not in the weapon, was not in the arm; it was in the Spirit of God, which moved the weapon in the arm. O God! if the means be weak, Thou art strong!
Henry (on Samson’s prayer): Past experiences of God’s power and goodness, are excellent pleas in prayer for further mercy. “Lest the uncircumcised triumph, and so it redound to God’s dishonor.” The best pleas are those taken from God’s glory.—Kitto: Not many would have had such strong persuasion of the Lord’s providential care as would lead them to cry to Him for water to supply their personal wants in the like exigency.
Henry (on En-hakkore): Many a spring of comfort God opens to his people which may fitly be called by this name: it is the “well of him that cried.”—Tr.]
Footnotes:
[Jdg_15:14.— ìִ÷ְøָàúåֹ : “towards,” rather than “against.” The idea is that when the Philistines saw Samson coming, they set up shouts of exultation which “met him,” so to speak, as he approached.—Tr.]
[Jdg_15:16.—We place the amended rendering of this poetic utterance in the text, and for convenience’ sake subjoin here that of the E. V.:—
Heaps upon heaps;
With the jaw of an ass
Have I slain a thousand men.
[Jdg_15:19.— áַּìֶּçé . The article occasions no difficulty, as it is frequently used with proper nouns, especially with names of places, rivers, etc.; see Ges. Gram. 109, 3, and especially Ewald, 277 c. Keil very properly observes, that if a tooth-socket in the ass’s jaw-bone were intended, the expression would naturally be îַëúֵּùׁ äַìֶּçִé or îַëְúֵּùׁ áַּìֶּçִé , rather than îַëְúֵּùׁ àַùֶׁø áַּìֶּäִé . Wordsworth, speaking of the opinion that God clave the rock, objects “that the words are, ‘God clave the mactesh,’ which seems much more applicable to the mortar of the jaw than to a place in the rock.” As if an ass had but one tooth to a jaw-bone! Bush is probably not far wrong when he suggests that “a fondness for multiplying miracles,” may have had some influence over the renderings of “several of the ancient versions” at this place.—Tr.]
Milton rightly makes Samson say:—
“I, on th’ other side,
Used no ambition to commend my deeds.”
Sura, 5, 53, which refers to Exo_21:24, where, however, the law intends to limit retaliation by determining its measure. Compare the narrative in Diez, Denkwürdigkeiten Asiens, ii. 179.
The following translation of Jdg_15:15-17, from a German book published in 1705, at Halle, may serve as a specimen of the exegesis which sometimes passed current: “Samson found a troop of lively soldiers, stretched forth his hand and commanded them, and led them against the Philistines..… And when he had thus spoken, he dismissed the troops.” Against such insipidity protests arose at that time from all sides (cf. Starke, Not. Select., p. 127), from Gebhardi (De Maxilla Simsonis, 1707) in Greifswald, Sidelmann (De Maxilla, etc., 1706) in Copenhagen, and in a little-known, but thorough refutation by Heine, of Berlin (Dissert. Sacræ, p. 245).
In 2Sa_23:11, where some are disposed to find it in the form ìַçַéָּä [by reading ìֶֽçְéַä , i. e., ìְçִé with ä local, cf. Thenius, in loc., and Fürst, Lex. s. vv. çַéָä and ìְçִé ], the ì is manifestly the prefix preposition, as appears from Jdg_15:13. The Targum, it is true, distinguished between the two forms, and rendered the first by ìְçִééַú , the term which it regularly employs to express òָø îåֹàָá ; but Gesenius and others before him made a mistake when they took ìְçִééַú as the proper name of a locality. It was only a general term, pagus, village, which was translated into òָø ( òִéø ).
Including, doubtless, a comparison with the hard, rocky nature of a mortar.
Beresn. Rabba, § 42, p. 37 b. The right reading has been preserved by Aruch, sub voce. Our editions of the Midrash read metropolis, which only uncritical editors could have overlooked, since the explanation which follows indicates the true reading.
Cf. Buxtorff, Lex., p. 836. Israel calls itself by this name in the beautiful hymn Pesach haggadhah, with reference to the time when Messiah shall have made it free. It is true, at least, that He alone makes free.
On the consentaneous position of the place, cf. Zunz, in Benj. of Tudela, ii. 438, note.