Verse 8
He smote them hip and thigh - This also is variously understood; but the general meaning seems plain; he appears to have had no kind of defensive weapon, therefore he was obliged to grapple with them, and, according to the custom of wrestlers, trip up their feet, and then bruise them to death. Some translate heaps upon heaps; others, he smote horsemen and footmen; others, he wounded them from their legs to their thighs, etc., etc. See the different versions. Some think in their running away from him he kicked them down, and then trod them to death: thus his leg or thigh was against their hip; hence the expression.
The top of the rock Etam - It is very likely that this is the same place as that mentioned [1Chr 4:32]; it was in the tribe of Simeon, and on the borders of Dan, and probably a fortified place.
Verse 10
To bind Samson are we come up - It seems they did not wish to come to an open rupture with the Israelites, provided they would deliver up him who was the cause of their disasters.
Verse 11
Three thousand men of Judah went - It appears evidently from this that Samson was strongly posted, and they thought that no less than three thousand men were necessary to reduce him.
Verse 12
That ye will not fall upon me yourselves - He could not bear the thought of contending with and slaying his own countrymen; for there is no doubt that he could have as easily rescued himself from their hands as from those of the Philistines.
Verse 13
They bound him with two new cords - Probably his hands with one and his legs with the other.
Verse 14
When he came unto Lehi - This was the name of the place to which they brought him, either to put him to death, or keep him in perpetual confinement.
Shouted against him - His capture was a matter of public rejoicing.
Verse 15
He found a new jaw-bone of an ass - I rather think that the word טריה teriyah, which we translate new, and the margin moist, should be understood as signifying the tabia or putrid state of the ass from which this jawbone was taken. He found there a dead ass in a state of putrefaction; on which account he could the more easily separate the jaw from its integuments; this was a circumstance proper to be recorded by the historian, and a mark of the providence of God. But were we to understand it of a fresh jaw-bone, very lately separated from the head of an ass, the circumstance does not seem worthy of being recorded.
With the jaw-bore of an ass, heaps upon heaps - I cannot see the propriety of this rendering of the Hebrew words בלחי החמור חמור חמרתים bilchi hachamor, chemor chamorathayim; I believe they should be translated thus: - "With the jaw-bone of this ass, an ass (the foal) of two asses; "With the jaw-bone of this ass I have slain a thousand men."
This appears to have been a triumphal song on the occasion; and the words are variously rendered both by the versions, and by expositors.
Verse 17
Ramath-lehi - The lifting up or casting away of the jaw-bone. Lehi was the name of the place before, Ramath was now added to it here; he lifted up the jaw-bone against his enemies, and slew them.
Verse 18
I die for thirst - The natural consequence of the excessive fatigue he had gone through in this encounter.
Verse 19
God clave a hollow place that was in the jaw - אשר בלחי asher ballechi, that was in Lehi; that is, there was a hollow place in this Lehi, and God caused a fountain to spring up in it. Because the place was hollow it was capable of containing the water that rose up in it, and thus of becoming a well.
En-hakkore - The well of the implorer; this name he gave to the spot where the water rose, in order to perpetuate the bounty of God in affording him this miraculous supply.
Which is in Lehi unto this day - Consequently not In the jaw-bone of the ass, a most unfortunate rendering.
Verse 20
He judged Israel - twenty years - In the margin it is said, He seems to have judged southwest Israel during twenty years of their servitude of the Philistines, [Jdg 13:1]. Instead of עשרים שנה esrim shanah, twenty years, the Jerusalem Talmud has ארבעים שנה arbaim shanah, forty years; but this reading is not acknowledged by any MS. or version. According to Calmet, the twenty years of the judicature of Samson began the eighteenth year of the subjection of Israel to the Philistines; and these twenty years are included in the judicature of the high priest Eli.
The burning of the Philistines' corn by the means of foxes and firebrands is a very remarkable circumstance; and there is a story told by Ovid, in the 4th book of his Fasti, that bears a striking similitude to this; and is supposed by some learned men to allude to Samson and his foxes. The poet is at a loss to account for this custom, but brings in an old man of Carseoli, with what must have appeared to himself a very unsatisfactory solution. The passage begins as follows: -
Tertia post Hyadas cum luxerit orta, remotas,
Carcere partitos Circus habebit equos
Cur igitur missae vinctis ardentia taedis
Terga ferant vulpes, causa docenda mihi?
Vid. Ovid, Fastor. lib. iv., ver. 679.
The substance of the whole account, which is too long to be transcribed, is this: It was a custom in Rome, celebrated in the month of April to let loose a number of foxes in the circus, with lighted flambeaux on their backs; and the Roman people took pleasure in seeing these animals run about till roasted to death by the flames with which they were enveloped. The poet wishes to know what the origin of this custom was, and is thus informed by an old man of the city of Carseoli: "A frolicksome young lad, about ten years of age, found, near a thicket, a fox that had stolen away many fowls from the neighboring roosts. Having enveloped his body with hay and straw, he set it on fire, and let the fox loose. The animal, in order to avoid the flames, took to the standing corn which was then ready for the sickle; and the wind, driving the flames with double violence, the crops were everywhere consumed. Though this transaction is long since gone by, the commemoration of it still remains; for, by a law of this city, every fox that is taken is burnt to death. Thus the nation awards to the foxes the punishment of being burnt alive, for the destruction of the ripe corn formerly occasioned by one of these animals."
Both Serrarius and Bochart reject this origin of the custom given by Ovid; and insist that the custom took its rise from the burning of the Philistines' corn by Samson's foxes. The origin ascribed to the custom by the Carseolian they consider as too frivolous and unimportant to be commemorated by a national festival. The time of the observation does not accord with the time of harvest about Rome and in Italy, but it perfectly accords with the time of harvest in Palestine, which was at least as early as April. Nor does the circumstance of the fox wrapped in hay and let loose, the hay being set on fire, bear any proper resemblance to the foxes let loose in the circus with burning brands on their backs.
These learned men therefore conclude that it is much more natural to suppose that the Romans derived the custom from Judea, where probably the burning of the Philistines' corn might, for some time, have been annually commemorated.
The whole account is certainly very singular, and has not a very satisfactory solution in the old man's tale, as related by the Roman poet.
All public institutions have had their origin in facts; and if, through the lapse of time or loss of records, the original facts be lost, we may legitimately look for them in cases where there is so near a resemblance as in that above.
Introduction
Samson comes to Gaza; they lay wait for him; he rises by night, and carries away the city gates, [Jdg 16:1-3]. Falls in love with Delilah, [Jdg 16:4]. The lords of the Philistines promise her money if she will obtain from Samson the secret in which his strength lay, [Jdg 16:5]. By various artifices she at last obtains this; and communicates it to the Philistines, who seize and bind him, put out his eyes, and cause him to grind in the prison-house, vv. 6-21. At a public festival to Dagon he is brought out to make sport; when, being weary, he requests to be placed between the two pillars which supported the roof of the house, on which three thousand men and women were stationed to see him make sport, [Jdg 16:22-27]. He prays to God to strengthen him, and pulls down the pillars; by which (the house falling) both himself, the lords of the Philistines, and a vast multitude of the people, are slain, [Jdg 16:28-30]. His relatives come and take away his body, and bury it, [Jdg 16:31].
Verse 1
Then went Samson to Gaza, and saw there a harlot - The Chaldee, as in the former case, renders the clause thus: Samson saw there a woman, an inn-keeper. Perhaps the word זונה zonah is to be taken here in its double sense; one who keeps a house for the entertainment of travelers, and who also prostitutes her person. Gaza was situated near the Mediterranean Sea, and was one of the most southern cities of Palestine. It has been supposed by some to have derived its name from the treasures deposited there by Cambyses, king of the Persians; because they say Gaza, in Persian, signifies treasure; so Pomponius Mela and others. But it is more likely to be a Hebrew word, and that this city derived its name, עזה azzah, from עזז azaz, to be strong, it being a strong or well fortified place. The Hebrew ע ain in this word is, by the Septuagint, the Arabic, and the Vulgate, rendered G; hence instead of azzah, with a strong guttural breathing, we have Gaza, a name by which this town could not be recognized by an ancient Hebrew.
Verse 2
They compassed him in - They shut up all the avenues, secured the gates, and set persons in ambush near them, that they might attack him on his leaving the city early the next morning.