Judges 15

Jud 15:1, 2.

SAMSON

IS

DENIED

HIS

WIFE.

1. in the time of wheat harvest--that is, about the end of our April,

or the beginning of our May. The shocks of grain were then gathered

into heaps, and lying on the field or on the threshing-floors. It was

the dry season, dry far beyond our experience, and the grain in a most

combustible state.

Samson visited his wife with a kid--It is usual for a visitor in

the East to carry some present; in this case, it might be not only as a

token of civility, but of reconciliation.

he said--that is, to himself. It was his secret purpose.

into the chamber--the female apartments or harem.

2. her father said, I verily thought that thou hadst utterly hated

her--This allegation was a mere sham, a flimsy pretext to excuse

his refusal of admittance. The proposal he made of a marriage with her

younger sister was but an insult to Samson, and one which it was

unlawful for an Israelite to accept

(Le 18:18).

Jud 15:3-8.

HE

BURNS THE

PHILISTINES'

CORN.

3. Samson said . . ., Now shall I be more blameless than the

Philistines--This nefarious conduct provoked the hero's just

indignation, and he resolved to take signal vengeance.

4, 5. went and caught three hundred foxes--rather, "jackals"; an

animal between a wolf and a fox, which, unlike our fox, a solitary

creature, prowls in large packs or herds and abounds in the mountains

of Palestine. The collection of so great a number would require both

time and assistance.

took firebrands--torches or matches which would burn slowly,

retaining the fire, and blaze fiercely when blown by the wind. He put

two jackals together, tail by tail, and fastened tightly a fire match

between them. At nightfall he lighted the firebrand and sent each pair

successively down from the hills, into the "Shefala," or plain of

Philistia, lying on the borders of Dan and Judah, a rich and extensive

corn district. The pain caused by the fire would make the animals toss

about to a wide extent, kindling one great conflagration. But no one

could render assistance to his neighbor: the devastation was so

general, the panic would be so great.

6. Who hath done this--The author of this outrage, and the cause that

provoked such an extraordinary retaliation, soon became known; and the

sufferers, enraged by the destruction of their crops, rushing with

tumultuous fury to the house of Samson's wife, "burnt her and her

father with fire." This was a remarkable retribution. To avoid this

menace, she had betrayed her husband; and by that unprincipled conduct,

eventually exposed herself to the horrid doom which, at the sacrifice

of conjugal fidelity, she had sought to escape

[Jud 14:15].

7. Samson said . . ., Though ye have done this, yet will I be avenged

of you--By that act the husbandmen had been the instruments in avenging

his private and personal wrongs. But as a judge, divinely appointed to

deliver Israel, his work of retribution was not yet accomplished.

8. smote them hip and thigh--a proverbial expression for a merciless

slaughter.

he went down and dwelt in the top of the rock Etam--rather went down

and dwelt in the cleft--that is, the cave or cavern of the cliff Etam.

Jud 15:9-13.

HE

IS

BOUND BY THE

MEN OF

JUDAH, AND

DELIVERED TO THE

PHILISTINES.

9-17. Then the Philistines went up--to the high land of Judah.

and spread themselves in Lehi--now El-Lekieh, abounding with

limestone cliffs; the sides of which are perforated with caves. The

object of the Philistines in this expedition was to apprehend Samson,

in revenge for the great slaughter he had committed on their people.

With a view of freeing his own countrymen from all danger from the

infuriated Philistines, he allowed himself to be bound and surrendered

a fettered prisoner into their power. Exulting with joy at the near

prospect of riddance from so formidable an enemy, they went to meet

him. But he exerted his superhuman strength, and finding a new (or

moist) jawbone of an ass, he laid hold of it, and with no other weapon,

slew a thousand men at a place which he called Ramath-lehi--that is,

"the hill of the jawbone."

16. With the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, with the jaw of an

ass have I slain a thousand men--The inadequacy of the weapon plainly

shows this to have been a miraculous feat, "a case of supernatural

strength," just as the gift of prophecy is a case of supernatural

knowledge [CHALMERS].

19. a hollow place . . . in the jaw--"in Lehi"--taking the word as a

proper noun, marking the place.

there came water thereout; and when he had drunk, his spirit came

again--His strength, exhausted by the violent and long-continued

exertion, was recruited by the refreshing draft from the spring; and it

was called

En-hakkore--the "supplication well," a name which records the piety

of this heroic champion.