XV. Judges 15:1. Samson, desiring to return to his wife, learns that she has been betrothed to another. Judges 15:3. He revenges himself by setting fire to the crops of the Philistines by means of jackals and fire-brands. Judges 15:6. The Philistines burn his wife and her father. Judges 15:7. He inf... [ Continue Reading ]
WITHIN A WHILE AFTER. — “After days” (Judges 11:4; Judges 14:8). IN THE TIME OF WHEAT HARVEST. — This, in the _Shephelah,_ would be about the middle of May. VISITED HIS WIFE WITH A KID. — We find the same present given by Judah to Tamar in Genesis 38:17. We may compare the complaint of the elder b... [ Continue Reading ]
VERILY THOUGHT... UTTERLY HATED. — In the emphatic simplicity of the Hebrew style it is, _Saying I said that hating, thou hatest her._ As Samson had left his wife in anger immediately after the wedding feast, the father might have reasonably supposed that he meant finally to desert her. I GAVE HER.... [ Continue Reading ]
CONCERNING THEM. — There is no reason for this rendering. It should be _to them._ The Vulg. has _cui,_ and the LXX. “to them,” or “to him.” NOW_ — i.e.,_ This time. He means that his second act of vengeance will at least have more excuse than his assault on the Askelonites. MORE BLAMELESS THAN THE... [ Continue Reading ]
CAUGHT THREE HUNDRED FOXES. — Rather, _three hundred jackals._ The word _Shualim_ is used for both; but it would be difficult to catch three hundred foxes, whereas the jackals are still heard howling in herds about these very regions at night. They must have been still more common in Palestine in an... [ Continue Reading ]
INTO THE STANDING CORN OF THE PHILISTINES. — He probably did this at night, when his actions would be unobserved, and no one would be at hand to quench the flames. We may imagine him watching the trails of fire from his rocky fastness, and exulting as the conflagration reddened the night. The heat o... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY ANSWERED. — The phrase is impersonal; but Samson had quite openly threatened vengeance in speaking to the Timnites, and is not likely to have done his work unaided or to have been very reticent about it; nor would the poor oppressed Israelites be inclined to keep his secret when they were confr... [ Continue Reading ]
THOUGH YE HAVE DONE THIS. — The rendering of these words is involved in the same obscurity as other details of the narrative. They may mean, “If ye act thus, then will I be avenged on you before I have done;” and perhaps the verse implies, “as long as you avenge yourselves, I mean to retaliate.”... [ Continue Reading ]
HIP AND THIGH. — There is no doubt that the expression intensifies the words “with a great slaughter;” but the origin of the phrase is a matter of conjecture. It may be purely general, like the German expression “_Arm und Bein,”_ or “_er hieb den Feind in die Pfanne,”_ or “in _Kochstücke_” (“A blow... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN THE PHILISTINES WENT UP. — They “went up” in hostile array against the hill-country of Judea to take vengeance for the dreadful injury which Samson had inflicted on them. SPREAD THEMSELVES IN LEHI. — The use of the name before the incident from which a place is said to have received the name is... [ Continue Reading ]
WHY ARE YE COME UP AGAINST US? — Samson was not of the tribe of Judah, which seems to have been living in contented servitude.... [ Continue Reading ]
WENT TO THE TOP OF THE ROCK ETAM. — Rather, _went down to the cave of the rock Etam._ They would easily gain information as to Samson’s hiding-place. WHAT IS THIS THAT THOU HAST DONE UNTO US? — The abject condition into which the Lion Tribe had sunk can best be estimated by this _reproach_ against... [ Continue Reading ]
SWEAR UNTO ME, THAT YE WILL NOT FALL UPON ME YOURSELVES. — It seems as if Samson were parleying with them from some point of vantage which he could easily have defended for a time.... [ Continue Reading ]
BROUGHT HIM UP FROM THE ROCK. — Again the details are uncertain. Was Samson’s cave down the steep side of a cliff? Such caves are common in Palestine, and such a situation would explain these expressions. (See Josephus, _Antt. xiv._ 15, § 5, where he says that the brigands’ caves were inaccessible a... [ Continue Reading ]
SHOUTED AGAINST HIM. — Rather, _cheered as they came to meet him_ (LXX., ἠλάλαξαν εἰς συνάντησιν αὐτοῦ_;_ Vulg., _cum vociferantes occurrissent ei_). The verb _heerioo_ is an onomatopœia, like our “hurrah.” This was not a war cry, as in 1 Samuel 17:20, but a shout of joy. THE CORDS THAT WERE UPON... [ Continue Reading ]
A NEW JAWBONE. — Literally, _a moist jawbone — i.e.,_ the jawbone of an animal recently dead, and before the bone had become brittle. In this instance, at any rate, Samson might feel himself absolved from the rule of ceremonial cleanness, which forbad him as a Nazarite to touch carcases. A jawbone i... [ Continue Reading ]
AND SAMSON SAID, WITH THE JAWBONE OF AN ASS. — Here we once more find ourselves in very primitive regions of poetry and paronomasia. Samson’s exultation over his extraordinary achievement finds vent in a sort of punning couplet, which turns entirely on the identity of sound between _chamor,_ a heap,... [ Continue Reading ]
RAMATH-LEHI. — The marginal rendering, _“_the lifting up of the jawbone” is found in the LXX. and Vulg., and derives Ramath from the verb _rûm,_” to be high.” The more natural explanation is, “the hill of Lehi.” The other marginal rendering, “the casting away of the jawbone,” derives Ramath from the... [ Continue Reading ]
HE WAS SORE ATHIRST. — It was in the heat of harvest time, and he had pursued the Philistines till he was exhausted. INTO THE HAND. — Rather, _by the hand. _... [ Continue Reading ]
CLAVE AN HOLLOW PLACE THAT WAS IN THE JAW. — Rather, _the_ (_fountain called the_)_ “socket,” which is in Lehi._ The notion that God made a miraculous fountain in one of the tooth-sockets of the jawbone of the ass is one of the childish misinterpretations with which Scripture exegesis is constantly... [ Continue Reading ]
AND HE JUDGED ISRAEL. — Probably, as Jephthah had done, with the sort of vague prerogatives of a military hero. Why the verse is found here, as though to close the narrative (comp. Judges 12:7, &c.), and is again repeated in Judges 16:31, we cannot say. The next chapter belongs mainly to Samson’s fa... [ Continue Reading ]