Introduction:
Samson had taken revenge on the Philistines twice after his return to Timnath (Judges 15:1-8). Once he found out his father-in-law had given his bride to the “companion” or best man, as we would say these days, Samson caught 300 “foxes”. He then tied them tail-to-tail, placed a torch (“firebrand”, KJV) between their tails, and turned them loose. These animals burned up the standing grain, olives, and vineyards. Why Samson caused so much destruction is not clear, but he must have thought it was justified—at least in his own mind.
The Philistines got their revenge by killing the bride and her father; whether anyone else in the family met the same fate is not stated. Samson, incredibly, vowed revenge upon the Philistines again and slew an unspecified number of them. Then Samson left to dwell atop the rock of Etam. Even though we do not know its specific location, others did, and that is the beginning point for this next message about Samson.
The text begins in Judges 15:9:
[Judges 15:9, KJV] 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.
The demands of the Philistines
No doubt the Philistines were furious with Samson for both acts of revenge against them. The text says “the Philistines ‘went up’ and pitched in Judah and spread themselves in Lehi”. Where Lehi was located is not certain but it was probably somewhere near the border of Judah and Philistine land. Interestingly, the Philistine cities of Timnath and Gath were both close to the borders of Israel and the Philistines and it would not seem likely Samson would stay very close to either one after an intense battle, such as the one described in verse 8.
Some may wonder why he didn’t return to his home. Although it is not stated anywhere, one thought is that Samson had seen what the Philistines did to family members who seemed to run afoul of their laws, etc. Samson may have wanted to protect his parents and any other relatives during this time of trouble in his life.
So now we see the Philistines, unspecified in number but probably a very large group, and they’re not happy. They ruled over Israel, and Israel was basically helpless to stop them if they invaded. About the only thing they could do was inquire (!) as to why the Philistines were on the border, probably just waiting for the chance to do anything they could. Apparently they too thought revenge was sweet, ignoring the bitter aftertaste.
And seeing this multitude of Philistines, Judah may have thought they had no better choice than to ask what they wanted. Apparently they had no idea what had happened or why the Philistines were there—in the land of Judah itself, according to verse 9.
The Philistines were very specific: they wanted one person, Samson, because they wanted to “do to him as he (did to us)”. In short, they wanted to take their revenge on him and, perhaps, make an example of “you go against us and here’s what we’ll do to you”. Revenge, fear, and terror are not new—people have been using these weapons of war for thousands of years. Just ask the leaders of Judah when they heard the demands of the Philistines.
The next three verses relate what these “men of Judah” did—to Samson.
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.
The delivery to the Philistines
After the Philistines made their demand to Judah, a group of 3000 men went to find Samson and they did, “on the top of the rock Etam”. I’m sure they were relieved that the Philistines had made only the one demand, namely, Samson only. But that may have been small comfort to the people of Judah, fearing, perhaps, that invasion could come at any moment.
They were so afraid of the Philistines that they had “caved” or given in to the demand for Samson by the Philistines. Now these men of Judah were prepared to deliver Samson to the Philistines—anything, they may have thought, to keep the enemy away from them.
The 3000 men of Judah went to the top of the rock Etam and found Samson. The location of “the rock Etam” is unknown to us but these men of Judah knew exactly where it was. Then they asked Samson two of the strangest questions in Scripture, “Don’t you know the Philistines are rulers over us? What did you do them (questions paraphrased)?” Apparently they had no idea what Samson had done to the Philistines, or why they wanted him back.
Now see Samson’s reply, which was vague at best. He said, “I did to them what they did to me (paraphrased)”—kind of a reverse-Golden Rule. Maybe he did go into more detail with these men of Judah about his encounters with the Philistines but there is no record in the text. Samson may have simply “pled the Fifth Amendment” and said nothing that would either lead to his guilt or to the Philistines being cleared. At any rate, this was an awkward moment.
After that, and probably a long pause, the men of Judah told Samson why they had come to find him. They were there to bind Samson and give him to the Philistines. Samson, whose emotions are not known, only asked them, “Just don’t kill me yourselves!” and they agreed. They said, “No, we’ll only tie you up and give you to them (alive), but we promise we won’t kill you ourselves”. Then the men of Judah bound Samson with two new cords and brought him up from the rock (Etam). We have no record of how long this journey required and nothing about the actual exchange of Samson from Israelite custody to Philistine custody. This, sadly, was one of the few times in Scripture when the Israelites handed one of their own to an enemy.
Now that Samson was firmly in their possession, the Philistines were probably thinking of any number of ways to take revenge on him. But something they didn’t expect was about to happen.
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.
The defeat of the Philistines
The distance between the rock of Etam and Lehi is not certain. What is certain is that the Philistines began shouting at Samson. We’re not told what they said—it wasn’t important, apparently—but it could have been a mixture of taunts, insults, mock challenges, or anything else they could think of. For example, later the Philistines would really mock Samson after Delilah betrayed him and they put out his eyes, making him blind, there at one of their temples (chapter 16). Still later, they captured the Ark of the Covenant from Israel and took it to the temple of Dagon, the (pagan) god of the Philistines (see 1 Samuel 5).
Now in the middle of all their shouting, and who knows what else, Samson found relief. The Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon Samson and the first thing he did was to break the cords on his arms. The men of Judah had bound Samson with new two cords, which apparently were very strong, but Samson broke them like they were made of burned flax. When he became free, he looked around and found something, anything, to use as a weapon. And guess what he found.
He found a fresh jawbone of a dead donkey (obviously, he couldn’t take one from a live donkey) then picked it up and started a one-man fight against the Philistines. Something we’re not told is if he used the entire lower jawbone or only a part of it. He could have perhaps used the entire bone as a hammer or something similar, or only a side or part of it, using the teeth as sharp objects. We’re not given too many details, but we’re told enough to know this was a miracle.
Besides a miracle, in that God provided something for Samson to use, note that he again touched something dead and violated his Nazarite vow. This didn’t seem to bother him at this time; at the very worst, as even God allowed this to happen. After all, if Samson had been killed by the Philistines, his Nazarite vow would have become null and void.
And now comes one of the most unusual stories in the Bible. Once Samson grabbed that donkey’s jawbone, he started swinging! And with that, with only the strength the LORD gave him and the bone he found, he killed 1000 Philistines. There had to have been more of them otherwise the men of Judah wouldn’t have been afraid of such a small group (then again, they may have been afraid of only a few of the enemy).
Once this battle was over, Samson probably looked around to see if there were any more Philistines trying to attack him. Not seeing any, he then gave a saying that could either be boasting, or a statement of gratitude. In a sentence, a paraphrase might go something like this:
“With the jawbone that I found, I laid a thousand of ‘em down!”
Yet something that’s missing is something very important: where does he give credit to the LORD for first providing a weapon, and then providing victory? Samson could have had the best weapons available at the time but without God’s help, he wouldn’t have won anything. Indeed, Samson could have fought anybody in his own strength but would have failed unless God had been with him in that conflict.
In fact, we see a bit of this lack of gratitude in the next few verses. Even though there was no way Samson could have defeated the Philistines by himself, note that he took all the credit!
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. 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.
The deliverance from the Philistines
Samson did one positive thing after his deliverance from the Philistines: he got rid of the donkey’s jawbone! For one thing, it was probably disgusting after the blood and gore from the battle and Samson may have “chucked” it just to get rid of it. For another, he didn’t run the risk, as Gideon had earlier, of making the object of victory an object of worship (see Judges 8). Gideon had asked for earrings (one wonders why) and made an “ephod” –whatever that was—paving the way for another of Israel’s lapses into idolatry. As an aside, since Samson was basically homeless at this time, where would he have taken the bone?
Who would have wanted it? Or him, at this time?
Yet, Samson also displayed some of his sinful nature. Sure, he was “sore athirst”, as anybody would be after serious exertion such as what he had gone through. Allowing two seconds to swing the jawbone, hit an enemy, and swing it again, he would have easily been fighting for 30 minutes or more (2000 seconds divided by 60 seconds per minute)! Anyone who has worked at any kind of labor would know that thirst is a constant companion, let alone in prolonged conflict such as what Samson had endured.
Maybe we’re being a little hard on Samson. After all, he had had to run for his life, fleeing Timnath and a group of Philistines who wanted to do him harm; he had fled to an out of the way place like the top of “the rock Etam (maybe a cliff top?)” and lived there as best he could; and he had been handed over by his own countrymen—men of Judah—like a transfer of cattle or tribute or anything else. Even though he had battled a large group of the Philistines, and facing 1000 to one and he still one, he shows here either a lack of trust or a lack of thankfulness. If God hadn’t helped him, Samson wouldn’t be making this plea!
His prayer, such as it was, had two parts. First, he does acknowledge God by giving him “great deliverance” from his enemies. As noted, if God hadn’t helped, Samson would not be uttering this prayer; rather, he would have been in “Abraham’s bosom” or the place of the righteous dead. The second part shows his lack of gratitude, maybe his frustration: “now shall I die for thirst, and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised (Philistines)? Apparently he forgot, or at the moment lost sight of the fact that the God Who provided strength to snap the cords, and the God Who provided a donkey’s jawbone, was the same God Who would provide relief.
And what relief!
Remember that Samson had thrown the donkey’s jawbone away from him, maybe just tossing it off to the side someplace, where he maybe figured he’d never see it again. But God had other ideas. As incredible as it seems, God “clave” or split a “hollow place . . in the jaw . . and there came water (from it)”! Compare this with the story of Hagar, Abraham and Sarah’s maid servant, who was banished from their home. Wandering in the desert, she and Ishmael ran out of water but she prayed, weeping, and God “opened her eyes” so she could see a well of water (Genesis 21). There, God provided a well; here, God provided a fountain out of the ground and bubbling through the donkey’s jawbone!
That water must have been truly refreshing because the writer says when he drank, he revived. Not much tastes better than good, cold, clear water and Samson probably drank all he could hold after his battle. Physically, and physiologically, dehydration is a serious problem; people have died from thirst but God wasn’t going to let that happen to Samson. God knew Samson would need water (note there is no mention of food) and God provided.
He always will, in His time and in His ways.
Besides keeping Samson safe from the Philistines, God was not in any ways done with Samson. Verse 20 says he judged Israel for 20 years in the days of the Philistine rule over Israel. Whether these encounters here and in chapter 14 took place before or during his time as judge is not certain. Yet he was God’s man and God’s choice as a “judge” for Israel. Had he kept sight of his relation to God as an Israelite and as a Nazarite, and had he followed the Lord more closely, how different his and Israel’s history might have been. True, he faced odds or soldiers (!) of 1000 to 1 and still won, but he never seemed to weld Israel into a true fighting force, aligned with and right with God, to bring deliverance.
In spite of that, and his failures to follow, Samson was given a place in the “hall of fame” in Hebrews 11:32. Whether you and I face odds of 1000 to 1 or more, or less, may we remember that the same God Who gave victory to Samson will give victory to us if we are right with God.
I hope and pray each one of us gets, and stays, right with God. There’s no better place to be!
Scripture quotations taken from the King James Version of the Bible (KJV)
