JUDGES CHAPTER 15 Samson desireth to visit his wife; is denied her; wherefore he tieth firebrands to three hundred foxes tails, and sets the corn on fire, JUDGES 15:1; for which they burn his wife and her father, JUDGES 15:6. Samson's revenge, JUDGES 15:7,8. The Philistines pitch in Judah, and deman... [ Continue Reading ]
I VERILY THOUGHT THAT THOU HADST UTTERLY HATED HER, because thou didst desert her in great wrath: but this was not sufficient cause; for he should have endeavoured a reconciliation, or waited for it; and not have disposed of another man's wife without his consent; which is not only against the law o... [ Continue Reading ]
Because they have first provoked me by an irreparable injury. But although this may look like an act of private revenge, yet it is plain enough that Samson acted as a judge, (for so he was,) and as an avenger of the public injuries and oppressions of his people; as plainly appears from hence, that S... [ Continue Reading ]
There were great numbers of foxes in Canaan, as appears from NEHEMIAH 4:3 PSALMS 63:10 SONG OF SOLOMON 2:15 LAMENTATIONS 5:18 EZEKIEL 13:4. So that divers places there have their names from the foxes which abounded there; as JOSHUA 15:28, JOSHUA 19:42 1 SAMUEL 13:17. Add t [ Continue Reading ]
HE LET THEM GO, to wit, successively at several times, and in divers places, with great care and discretion, so as they might not hinder one another, nor all run into the same field; but being dispersed in all parts, might spread the plague further; and withal might be kept at a distance from the fi... [ Continue Reading ]
Partly for her adultery, which divers heathens punished with death; and partly for that mischief which she had occasioned to them; thus she brought upon herself that mischief which she studied to avoid, JUDGES 14:15, as wicked persons oft do, PROVERBS 10:24.... [ Continue Reading ]
Whereby it appears, that it was not his private injuries, but the public, which he did revenge.... [ Continue Reading ]
HIP AND THIGH; upon their hips and thighs, peradventure not designing to kill them, but to make them incapable of military employment, or of doing hurt to the Israelites. Or, _He smote them with his leg upon their thigh_, i.e. without any other weapon but his leg and foot he kicked them, and made th... [ Continue Reading ]
The rock Etam was IN JUDAH: see 1 CHRONICLES 4:32 2 CHRONICLES 11:5,6. SPREAD THEMSELVES, as coming in great numbers with a powerful host. LEHI; a place so called by anticipation, JUDGES 15:17.... [ Continue Reading ]
No text from Poole on this verse.... [ Continue Reading ]
WHAT IS THIS THAT THOU HAST DONE UNTO US? thou hast by these actions punished not them, as thou intendest; but us, who being under their dominion, are sure to smart for it.... [ Continue Reading ]
Not that he feared them, or could not as easily have conquered them, as he did the whole host of the Philistines; but because he would be free from all obligation or temptation of doing them any harm, though it were in his own just and necessary defence.... [ Continue Reading ]
i.e. from the cave or hole in the rock, in which he had secured himself, out of which he was first brought up, and then carried down from the rock to the plain.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE PHILISTINES SHOUTED AGAINST HIM, for joy and triumph, because they had now their great enemy, as they supposed, in their hands. HIS BANDS LOOSED, Heb. _were melted_, i.e. were dissolved, as things are which are melted in the fire.... [ Continue Reading ]
A NEW JAWBONE, and therefore more tough and strong.... [ Continue Reading ]
This, though it might seem difficult, yet is not at all impossible or incredible; especially seeing the learned affirm of the asses of Syria, that they were larger and stronger than ours, and so consequently were their bones. And withal, it must be acknowledged that there was something extraordinary... [ Continue Reading ]
And by contraction, _Lehi_, JUDGES 15:14, it being usual so to contract proper names; as _Salem_ is put for _Jerusalem_, PSALMS 76:2; _Sheba_ for _Beer-sheba_, JOSHUA 19:2; and many other.... [ Continue Reading ]
HE WAS SORE ATHIRST, so as he was ready to faint and die with thirst; which was partly natural, from his excessive toil and heat; partly sent by God, that by the experience of his own impotency he might be forced to ascribe the victory to God only, and not to himself. NOW SHALL I DIE FOR THIRST? Wil... [ Continue Reading ]
CLAVE AN HOLLOW PLACE, i.e. by _cleaving a place_, made it hollow; an expression like that ISAIAH 47:2, _grind meal_, i.e. grind corn into meal; and that PSALMS 74:15, _thou didst cleave the fountain_, i.e. cleave the rock so as to make a fountain in it. IN THE JAW; in the jawbone which he had used,... [ Continue Reading ]
i.e. He pleaded their cause, and avenged them against the Philistines. IN THE DAYS OF THE PHILISTINES, i.e. whilst the Philistines had the power and dominion, from which he was not fully to deliver, but only _to begin to deliver them_, as it was foretold, JUDGES 13:5. From this place it is manifest,... [ Continue Reading ]