Judges 15:1-8. _Samson's revenge_ 1 _.in the time of wheat harvest_ From mid-May to mid-June in this region. The harvest is mentioned to prepare the scene for Judges 15:5. Country weddings generally take place in March (Wetzstein, l.c.); a couple of months may have passed since the furious ending o... [ Continue Reading ]
_unto them_ Cf. Judges 15:7. The family and friends were no doubt discussing the situation with oriental excitement. _shall I be blameless in regard of_ i.e. I am resolved to have my revenge on the Philistines, and no one will be able to blame me for it (cf. Numbers 32:22; 2 Samuel 3:28); Samson's... [ Continue Reading ]
_three hundred foxes_ The fox is a solitary animal, and to catch 300 would be impossible for any one but Samson. It seems a pity to lessen the marvel in the interests of prosaic probability by translating _jackals_, animals which roam in packs, though the word can mean this, Psalms 63:10; Nehemiah 4... [ Continue Reading ]
_oliveyards_ lit. _vineyard of oliveyard_, which cannot be right; read _vineyard_ AND _oliveyard_, with LXX, Vulgate; cf. Judges 14:5.... [ Continue Reading ]
_her father_ Read with many Hebr. mss., LXX. cod. A, Peshitto etc. _her father's_ HOUSE, i.e. family, as in the threat Judges 14:15.... [ Continue Reading ]
_hip and thigh_ lit. _leg upon thigh_, so that the limbs of the slain fall one upon another: such seems to be the force of the prep, _upon_, cf. Amos 3:15 -the winter house _upon_the summer house," i.e. so that the one falls upon the other, and Genesis 32:11; Hosea 10:14. At any rate it is a proverb... [ Continue Reading ]
_spread themselves in Lehi_ Better, _made a raid against Lehi_; 2Sa 5:18; 2 Samuel 5:22. The situation of Lehi is unknown; it must have been nearer to the Philistines than Etam, and in the neighbourhood of the other places already mentioned. The name = _jawbone_(LXX Judges 15:14 _Siagôn_) was no dou... [ Continue Reading ]
_Local traditions_ Provoked by Samson's violence, the Philistines made a raid upon Lehi in Judah for the purpose of capturing their enemy. The name of the place was suggestive, and tradition attached to it the story of S."s feat with the -fresh jawbone (_lěḥî_) of an ass." Popular etymology explain... [ Continue Reading ]
See on Judges 14:19.... [ Continue Reading ]
_a thousand men_ The numbers of course belong to the extraordinary character of the story. Moore notes that, according to Moslem tradition, the first blood in the cause of Islam was drawn with a similar weapon, the jawbone of a camel.... [ Continue Reading ]
_heaps upon heaps_ See marg., and cf. Exodus 8:14 [Hebrews 10, lit. _heaps, heaps_. But a verb is wanted to complete the parallelism with clause b; and, simply pronouncing the words differently, we may render _heaping I have heaped them_, i. e. I HAVE HEAPED THEM HIGH. The verb _ḥamar_was chosen for... [ Continue Reading ]
_was called_ The text here and in Judges 15:19 is to be preferred to the marg. _Ramath-lehi_ i.e. _the height of Lehi_, cf. Ramath-mizpeh Joshua 13:26, Ramoth-gilead etc. Popular etymology, however, gave it the sense, _casting away of the jawbone_.... [ Continue Reading ]
Samson becomes religious when he is in straits; cf. Judges 16:28. _great deliverance_ Cf. 1 Samuel 19:5; 2 Samuel 23:10; 2 Samuel 23:12.... [ Continue Reading ]
_the hollow place that is in Lehi the_ MORTAR _which is in L._, i.e. a mortar-shaped basin in the hill side. The word comes from a root meaning, not -to be hollow," but _to pound_(cf. in Aram. _NSI_., p. 171, and the Palmyrene pr. n. _Maktash_= -the pounder"); so _maktçsh_= -pounding place," i.e. _m... [ Continue Reading ]
The Dtc. editor's formula, usually at the close of a judge's history, comes curiously here before the end; perhaps because the editor felt that the end was not a suitable place for a statement of this kind. The words now standing in Judges 16:31 b are merely a briefer repetition of the present verse... [ Continue Reading ]