The Histories · Old Testament

Judges 15

Retaliation, the jawbone battle and water at Lehi

General context

At wheat harvest Samson returns to visit his wife with a young goat, but her father refuses entry and says he gave her to Samson's companion. Samson responds by using three hundred foxes with burning brands to set Philistine crops, vineyards and olive trees on fire. The Philistines then burn his wife and her father. He retaliates with a great slaughter and withdraws to Etam. When Philistines enter Judah to seize him, three thousand men of Judah bind Samson for delivery after promising not to kill him themselves. At Lehi the Spirit comes upon him, his new cords give way, and he kills a thousand men with a fresh donkey jawbone. After his victory speech he is overcome by thirst and calls to the Lord. God supplies water, he revives, and the place is named En-hakkore. The chapter closes by stating that Samson judges Israel for twenty years during Philistine rule.

Cited passages: Judges 15:1, Judges 15:2, Judges 15:3, Judges 15:4, Judges 15:5, Judges 15:6, Judges 15:7, Judges 15:8, Judges 15:9, Judges 15:10, Judges 15:11, Judges 15:12, Judges 15:13, Judges 15:14, Judges 15:15, Judges 15:16, Judges 15:17, Judges 15:18, Judges 15:19, Judges 15:20

Judges 15 (KJV)

¹But 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.

²And 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.

³And Samson said concerning them, Now shall I be more blameless than the Philistines, though I do them a displeasure.

⁴And 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.

⁵And 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.

⁶Then 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.

⁷And Samson said unto them, Though ye have done this, yet will I be avenged of you, and after that I will cease.

⁸And he smote them hip and thigh with a great slaughter: and he went down and dwelt in the top of the rock Etam.

⁹Then the Philistines went up, and pitched in Judah, and spread themselves in Lehi.

¹⁰And 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.

¹¹Then 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.

¹²And 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.

¹³And 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.

¹⁴And 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.

¹⁵And he found a new jawbone of an ass, and put forth his hand, and took it, and slew a thousand men therewith.

¹⁶And Samson said, With the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, with the jaw of an ass have I slain a thousand men.

¹⁷And 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 Ramath-lehi.

¹⁸And 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?

¹⁹But 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 En-hakkore, which is in Lehi unto this day.

²⁰And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.

This page shows the King James Version. In the app, reading opens in the Berean Standard Bible unless you have chosen another translation. The reader includes five translations: the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), the King James Version (KJV), the World English Bible (WEB), the Bible in Basic English (BBE), and the American Standard Version (ASV). Search covers three of them: Berean Standard, King James, and World English. Basic English and American Standard readers search the King James words.

Historical context

The father gives his own explanation for transferring Samson's wife and offers her younger sister; no acceptance of that offer is narrated. The wife's death follows the threat made against her in the preceding chapter, but here the Philistines act in response to Samson's crop destruction. The three thousand Judeans and one thousand slain are different groups and counts. The cords are compared to flax burned by fire when they break; the account does not describe Samson setting them alight. For the water, KJV says a hollow place in the jaw, ASV a hollow place in Lehi, and BBE a hollow rock in Lehi. The provision and revival are shared; its physical location should not be forced into one reconstructed mechanism.

Cited passages: Judges 15:1, Judges 15:2, Judges 15:3, Judges 15:6, Judges 15:7, Judges 15:8, Judges 15:9, Judges 15:10, Judges 15:11, Judges 15:12, Judges 15:13, Judges 15:14, Judges 15:15, Judges 15:16, Judges 15:17, Judges 15:18, Judges 15:19, Judges 14:15

Literary context

The parties repeatedly justify retaliation by referring to what has been done to them. The exchange grows from a household grievance into destroyed food, deaths and conflict with Judah. Samson's strength at Lehi is followed immediately by helpless thirst, and his boast-like victory speech gives way to a request for life. The closing twenty-year notice places these conflicts within continued Philistine dominance.

Key moments

The household grievance (Judges 15:2). The father explains why he gave Samson's wife to another man and offers her sister.
Judah agrees not to kill Samson (Judges 15:13). The men bind him with new cords for delivery to the Philistines.
The jawbone battle (Judges 15:15). Samson kills a stated thousand men with a fresh donkey jawbone.
Thirst after victory (Judges 15:18). He credits the Lord with deliverance and asks whether he will now die of thirst.

For reflection

Several speakers justify harm as a response to earlier harm. What does the chain of consequences reveal that each speaker's account of justification leaves out?