1Samson returning to visit his wife is denied admittance to her. 3He setteth fire to the corn of the Philistines with foxes and firebrands: his wife and her father are burned by the Philistines. 7Samson smiteth them, and retireth to the rock Etam. 9The Philistines come up against him: the men of Judah with his consent deliver him bound to the Philistines. 14He killeth a thousand of the Philistines with the jawbone of an ass. 18God openeth a fountain in Lehi to relieve his thirst.
1BUT it came to pass within a while after, in the time of wheat harvest, that Samson 1visited his wife with a kid; and he said, I will 2go in to my wife into the chamber. But her father would not suffer him to go in.
1 That is, went to visit her.
2 See Gen. 6 on verse 4.
2And her father said, I 3verily thought that thou hadst utterly hated her; therefore I 4gave her to thy companion: is not her 5younger sister 6fairer than she? take her, I pray thee, instead of her.
3 Hebr. saying said, that is, I said unto my people, or thought surely, entirely. See Gen. 20 on verse 11. Also in the following, hating hated.
4 See Gen. 38 on verse 14.
5 That is, youngest sister. See Gen. 9:24; 29:16.
6 Hebr. better.
3¶And Samson said concerning 7them, Now shall 8I be more blameless than the Philistines, though I do them a displeasure.
7 Namely, concerning the Philistines.
8 Intimating, that he has a just cause to hurt the Philistines. Compare Judges 14:4, and below verse 11.
4And Samson went and 9caught three hundred 10foxes, and took firebrands, and turned tail to tail, and put a firebrand in the midst between two tails.
9 Either himself alone, or also with the help and assistance of his friends.
10 Which were in multitudes in those countries: as may be gathered from Neh. 4:3; Psalm 63:10; Cant. 2:15 and it appears especially from this place.
5And when he had 11set the brands on fire, he let them go into the standing corn of the Philistines, and burnt up both 12the shocks, and also the standing corn, with the vineyards and olives.
11 Hebr. he kindled fire in the torches.
12 Namely, the fruits that were cut down, and were brought together by shearers, and heaped up in bundles.
6¶Then the Philistines said, Who hath done this? And they answered, Samson, the son in law of the Timnite, because 13he had taken 14his wife, and given her to his companion. And the Philistines came up, and burnt 15her and her father with fire.
13 Namely, the Timnite, Samson’s father in law.
14 Of Samson.
15 Samson’s wife.
7¶And Samson said unto them, 16Though ye have done this, yet will I be avenged of you, and after that I will cease.
16 Other, Should ye do this, namely, when my wife was taken away from me; yet will I be revenged on you, etc., as if he had said: Though ye have done that, yet nevertheless I will not cease, until I shall fully have revenged myself. In all this Samson is not to be looked upon as a private person, but as a judge and deliverer of Israel, being called thereunto by God in an extraordinary manner.
8And he smote them hip 17and thigh with a great slaughter: and he went 18down and dwelt in the top 19of the rock 20Etam.
17 Hebr. upon, near, at, by the hip, or thigh. It seems to have been a proverb, signifying the breaking of a man’s body, strength, power. Compare Deut. 28:35. Other, he smote them with the shank upon the thigh, that is, he broke their limbs.
18 From his father’s habitation toward the south.
19 Or, a steep, sticking out place.
20 A city situated by the south-end of the mountain of Judah, upon a very high and firm rock, near unto which ran the brook Etham on the borders of Judah and Simeon. Over against in the land of Simeon, was another Etham on the west side of the mountain of Judah, as the maps do show. 1 Chron. 4:32 Etham is reckoned to the tribe of Simeon. Yet Samson’s inheritance was partly among Judah, Joshua 19:1.
9¶Then the Philistines went up, and pitched in Judah, and spread themselves in 21Lehi.
21 Called afterward so by Samson, verse 17, situated in the tribe of Dan.
10And the men of Judah said, Why are ye come up against us? And they answered, To bind Samson are we come up, to do to him as he hath done to us.
11Then three thousand men of Judah went to the top of the rock Etam, and said to Samson, Knowest thou not that the Philistines are rulers over us? what is this that thou hast done unto us? And he said unto them, As they did unto me, so have I done unto them.
12And they said unto him, We are come down to bind thee, that we may deliver thee into the hand of the Philistines. And Samson said unto them, Swear unto me, that ye will not 22fall upon me yourselves.
22 To kill me, as this phrase is often taken in the Holy Scripture, and the following verse explains.
13And they spake unto him, saying, No; but we will bind thee 23fast, and deliver thee into their hand: but 24surely we will not kill thee. And they bound him with two new cords, and brought him 25up from the rock.
23 Hebr. binding bind.
24 Hebr. killing we will not kill thee.
25 Northward towards Lehi, where the Philistines were encamped, verse 9.
14¶And when he came unto Lehi, the Philistines 26shouted against him: and the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him, and the cords that were upon his arms became 27as flax that was burnt with fire, and his bands 28loosed from off his hands.
26 For joy, thinking they had now their enemy in their own hands.
27 He broke them as easily and quickly as if they had been singed threads, or, as flax is burnt with fire.
28 They were so easily and quickly loosened, as wax melts by the fire.
15And he found a 29new jawbone of an ass, and put forth his hand, and took it, and slew a thousand men therewith.
29 Yet new, fresh, and firm; not withered or dried. The word is also taken from purulent moisture, Isa. 1:6.
16And Samson said, With the jawbone of an ass, heaps 30upon heaps, with the jaw of an ass have I slain a thousand men.
30 It seems that he, being assaulted and oppressed on both sides, made two heaps of slain men.
17And it came to pass, when he had made an end of speaking, that he cast away the jawbone out of his hand, and called that place 31Ramath-lehi.
31 That is, the height of the jaw-bone. Other, the casting away of the jaw-bone. This place is also called Lehi only, see verse 9.
18¶And he was sore athirst, and called on the LORD, and said, Thou hast given this great deliverance into the hand of thy servant: and now shall I die for thirst, and fall into the hand of the 32uncircumcised?a
32 Hereby Samson declares his faith, and puts God in mind of His gracious Covenant. See Heb. 11:32, and compare Gen. 34:14; 1 Sam. 17:26, 36; 2 Sam. 1:20.
a 1 Sam. 17:26, 36; 2 Sam. 1:20.
19But God clave an 33hollow place that was in the jaw, and there came water thereout; and when he had drunk, his 34spirit came again, and he 35revived: wherefore 36he 37called the name thereof 38En-hakkore, which is in Lehi unto this day.
33 The Hebrew word (coming from beating, stamping,) should properly signify a mortar, and so forth hollowness, or hollow place, which in regard thereof may be compared to a deep and hollow mortar; see the same Hebrew word, Prov. 27:22; Zeph. 1:11. Some understand here a back tooth of an ass’ jaw, or the hollowness thereof. Yet the Hebrew word is nowhere else found in this signification.
34 Which by reason of the thirst seemed to have been gone from him, forasmuch as he feared to faint or die for thirst.
35 That is, revived, leaped, lusty, nimble.
36 Namely, Samson; unto a sign of thankfulness to God, and in memorial of the victory given to Israel.
37 The name of the fountain.
38 Or, the well of him that called or cried. Hebr. En-hakkore.
20And he 39judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.
39 That is, he executed the Lord’s vengeance for Israel against the Philistines. See concerning the use of this word in these histories, Judges 2 on verse 16.