Judges, chapter 15, comments: Samson and the jawbone

 

Judges 15:1 ¶  But it came to pass within a while after, in the time of wheat harvest, that Samson visited his wife with a kid; and he said, I will go in to my wife into the chamber. But her father would not suffer him to go in. 2  And her father said, I verily thought that thou hadst utterly hated her; therefore I gave her to thy companion: is not her younger sister fairer than she? take her, I pray thee, instead of her. 3  And Samson said concerning them, Now shall I be more blameless than the Philistines, though I do them a displeasure. 4  And Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took firebrands, and turned tail to tail, and put a firebrand in the midst between two tails. 5  And when he had set the brands on fire, he let them go into the standing corn of the Philistines, and burnt up both the shocks, and also the standing corn, with the vineyards and olives. 6  Then the Philistines said, Who hath done this? And they answered, Samson, the son in law of the Timnite, because he had taken his wife, and given her to his companion. And the Philistines came up, and burnt her and her father with fire. 7  And Samson said unto them, Though ye have done this, yet will I be avenged of you, and after that I will cease. 8  And he smote them hip and thigh with a great slaughter: and he went down and dwelt in the top of the rock Etam.

 

Samson attempted a reconciliation with his wife. Feasting on a young goat, a kid, is even today considered a premier feast to entertain one’s friends and family with in parts of Africa. It is considered a gift worthy to be given to a king as you can see by 1Samuel 16:20. The reason I believe that this companion was ethnically a Philistine is because Samuel is taking revenge on them after his father-in-law gave his wife to his companion. Another reason may simply be revenge on the father-in-law who doesn’t seem to have intended harm to Samson by his action. In any event, Samson creates a provocation.

 

He sets fire in a miraculous way, perhaps having the help of servants, or maybe just by himself. This type of thing is remarked upon in the Law given to Moses.

 

Exodus 22:5  If a man shall cause a field or vineyard to be eaten, and shall put in his beast, and shall feed in another man’s field; of the best of his own field, and of the best of his own vineyard, shall he make restitution. 6  If fire break out, and catch in thorns, so that the stacks of corn, or the standing corn, or the field, be consumed therewith; he that kindled the fire shall surely make restitution.

 

This is serious business, a serious affront, in a world where food supplies were precious. Later, this is how Absalom will get Joab’s attention.

 

2Samuel 14:28 ¶  So Absalom dwelt two full years in Jerusalem, and saw not the king’s face.

29  Therefore Absalom sent for Joab, to have sent him to the king; but he would not come to him: and when he sent again the second time, he would not come. 30  Therefore he said unto his servants, See, Joab’s field is near mine, and he hath barley there; go and set it on fire. And Absalom’s servants set the field on fire. 31  Then Joab arose, and came to Absalom unto his house, and said unto him, Wherefore have thy servants set my field on fire? 32  And Absalom answered Joab, Behold, I sent unto thee, saying, Come hither, that I may send thee to the king, to say, Wherefore am I come from Geshur? it had been good for me to have been there still: now therefore let me see the king’s face; and if there be any iniquity in me, let him kill me.

 

The Philistines murder Samson’s Philistine wife and her Philistine father and Samson takes revenge on this as an action against him. Their deaths are revenged in a great slaughter. Hip and thigh is an idiom referring to the fierceness and completeness of the attack linked to a great slaughter.

 

Judges 15:9 ¶  Then the Philistines went up, and pitched in Judah, and spread themselves in Lehi. 10  And 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. 11  Then 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. 12  And 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 fall upon me yourselves. 13  And they spake unto him, saying, No; but we will bind thee fast, and deliver thee into their hand: but surely we will not kill thee. And they bound him with two new cords, and brought him up from the rock. 14  And when he came unto Lehi, the Philistines shouted against him: and the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him, and the cords that were upon his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire, and his bands loosed from off his hands. 15  And he found a new jawbone of an ass, and put forth his hand, and took it, and slew a thousand men therewith. 16  And Samson said, With the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, with the jaw of an ass have I slain a thousand men. 17  And 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 Ramathlehi.

 

The men of Judah act as passive subjects to the reigning Philistines. They are afraid of Philistine retribution. While this is understandable their timidity is simply used by God for this provocation. They intend to deliver Samson up to the Philistines. God is going to use that. Lehi means jaw according to Strong and God’s will brings this fight to this place.

 

Samson did not on his own break the cords that bound him or kill a thousand Philistines. It was the Spirit, uppercase S, of the LORD, all caps referring to Jehovah God, that imbued him with the power needed for this fight.

 

Samson names the site Ramathlehi, one meaning of which is the hill of the jawbone.

 

Judges 15:18 ¶  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 uncircumcised? 19  But God clave an hollow place that was in the jaw, and there came water thereout; and when he had drunk, his spirit came again, and he revived: wherefore he called the name thereof Enhakkore, which is in Lehi unto this day. 20  And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.

 

Samson, as vulgar and carnal as he is, will still judge Israel for twenty years. The jawbone Samson discarded is used by God even as Samson did something that was very positive in that he gave credit to God for his incredible victory. God refreshes Samson with water from the jawbone and Samson called the place Enhakkore which Strong’s says means “spring of one calling.”