“With the jawbone of a donkey
I have left them in heaps; 1
with the jawbone of a donkey
I have struck down a thousand men!”
15:17 When he finished speaking, he threw the jawbone down 2 and named that place Ramath Lehi. 3
15:18 He was very thirsty, so he cried out to the Lord and said, “You have given your servant 4 this great victory. But now must I die of thirst and fall into hands of the Philistines?” 5 15:19 So God split open the basin 6 at Lehi and water flowed out from it. When he took a drink, his strength 7 was restored and he revived. For this reason he named the spring 8 En Hakkore. 9 It remains in Lehi to this very day. 15:20 Samson led 10 Israel for twenty years during the days of Philistine prominence. 11
1 tn The precise meaning of the second half of the line (חֲמוֹר חֲמֹרָתָיִם, khamor khamoratayim) is uncertain. The present translation assumes that the phrase means, “a heap, two heaps” and refers to the heaps of corpses littering the battlefield. Other options include: (a) “I have made donkeys of them” (cf. NIV; see C. F. Burney, Judges, 373, for a discussion of this view, which understands a denominative verb from the noun “donkey”); (b) “I have thoroughly skinned them” (see HALOT 330 s.v. IV cj. חמר, which appeals to an Arabic cognate for support); (c) “I have stormed mightily against them,” which assumes the verb חָמַר (khamar, “to ferment; to foam; to boil up”).
2 tn Heb “from his hand.”
3 sn The name Ramath Lehi means “Height of the Jawbone.”
4 tn Heb “you have placed into the hand of your servant.”
5 tn Heb “the uncircumcised,” which in context refers to the Philistines.
6 tn The word translated “basin” refers to a circular-shaped depression in the land’s surface.
7 tn Heb “spirit.”
8 tn Heb “named it”; the referent (the spring) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
9 sn The name En Hakkore means “Spring of the one who cries out.”
10 tn Traditionally, “judged.”
11 tn Heb “in the days of the Philistines.”