_SAMSON IS DENIED HIS WIFE: HE BURNETH THE PHILISTINES' CORN; HE IS BOUND BY THE MEN OF JUDAH, AND DELIVERED TO THE PHILISTINES: HE BREAKETH HIS BANDS, AND KILLETH ONE THOUSAND OF THE PHILISTINES WITH THE JAW-BONE OF AN ASS; THE LORD GIVETH WATER TO QUENCH HIS THIRST._ _Before Christ 1155._... [ Continue Reading ]
AND SAMSON WENT AND CAUGHT THREE HUNDRED FOXES— Samson was moved to take a wife from the Philistines, in order to find occasion against them: such occasions are seldom long wanting where marriages of this kind are contracted between persons of different countries, different religions, or different i... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE PHILISTINES CAME UP AND BURNT HER AND HER FATHER WITH FIRE— Thus they fulfilled their menace uttered in the former chapter, and the faithless wife gained no advantage by her treachery. But who can help remarking, on a circumstance like this, the savage barbarity of those times?... [ Continue Reading ]
AND HE SMOTE THEM HIP AND THIGH— Houbigant renders this, and _he contended with them, and slew them with a great slaughter;_ observing, that the idea is taken from the action of wrestlers. It seems to be a merely proverbial expression, signifying a total overthrow. The French render it, _il les batt... [ Continue Reading ]
A NEW JAW-BONE OF AN ASS— Of an ass that had not been long dead, properly rendered _moist_ in the margin of our Bibles; not so brittle as one that was dry, and had long lain in the air and the sun. No doubt, this event must be ascribed to the providence of God, who thus fulfilled the promise he had... [ Continue Reading ]
SAMSON SAID, WITH THE JAW-BONE OF AN ASS, &C.— Samson, upon this victory, composed a triumphant song, or ode, of which this verse appears to have been the chorus or burden. Houbigant renders it, With the jaw-bone of an ass have I dispersed them; With the jaw-bone of an ass have I slain a thousand m... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT GOD CLAVE AN HOLLOW PLACE THAT WAS IN THE JAW— It is very evident, from what follows in this verse, that our translation is erroneous; since, if God had caused water to come from the _jaw_ only for the present satisfying of Samson's necessities, it is reasonable to suppose, that Samson would hav... [ Continue Reading ]