Judges 15:11-20

15:11 Three thousand men of Judah went down to the cave in the cliff of Etam and said to Samson, “Do you not know that the Philistines rule over us? Why have you done this to us?” He said to them, “I have only done to them what they have done to me.” 15:12 They said to him, “We have come down to take you prisoner so we can hand you over to the Philistines.” Samson said to them, “Promise me ¹  you will not kill ²  me.” 15:13 They said to him, “We promise! ³  We will only take you prisoner and hand you over to them. We promise not to kill you.” They tied him up with two brand new ropes and led him up from the cliff. 15:14 When he arrived in Lehi, the Philistines shouted as they approached him. But the Lord’s spirit empowered ⁴  him. The ropes around his arms were like flax dissolving in ⁵  fire, and they ⁶  melted away from his hands. 15:15 He happened to see ⁷  a solid ⁸  jawbone of a donkey. He grabbed it ⁹  and struck down ¹⁰  a thousand men. 15:16 Samson then said,

“With the jawbone of a donkey

I have left them in heaps; ¹¹ 

with the jawbone of a donkey

I have struck down a thousand men!”

15:17 When he finished speaking, he threw the jawbone down ¹²  and named that place Ramath Lehi. ¹³ 

15:18 He was very thirsty, so he cried out to the Lord and said, “You have given your servant ¹⁴  this great victory. But now must I die of thirst and fall into hands of the Philistines?” ¹⁵  15:19 So God split open the basin ¹⁶  at Lehi and water flowed out from it. When he took a drink, his strength ¹⁷  was restored and he revived. For this reason he named the spring ¹⁸  En Hakkore. ¹⁹  It remains in Lehi to this very day. 15:20 Samson led ²⁰  Israel for twenty years during the days of Philistine prominence. ²¹ 

[15:12]  ¹ tn Or “swear to me.”

[15:12]  ² tn Heb “meet [with hostility]”; “harm.” In light of v. 13, “kill” is an appropriate translation.

[15:13]  ³ tn Heb “No,” meaning that they will not harm him.

[15:14]  ⁴ tn Heb “rushed on.”

[15:14]  ⁵ tn Heb “burned with.”

[15:14]  ⁶ tn Heb “his bonds.”

[15:15]  ⁷ tn Heb “he found.”

[15:15]  ⁸ tn Heb “fresh,” i.e., not decayed and brittle.

[15:15]  ⁹ tn Heb “he reached out his hand and took it.”

[15:15]  ¹⁰ tn The Hebrew text adds “with it.” This has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[15:16]  ¹¹ 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”).

[15:17]  ¹² tn Heb “from his hand.”

[15:17]  ¹³ sn The name Ramath Lehi means “Height of the Jawbone.”

[15:18]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “you have placed into the hand of your servant.”

[15:18]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “the uncircumcised,” which in context refers to the Philistines.

[15:19]  ¹⁶ tn The word translated “basin” refers to a circular-shaped depression in the land’s surface.

[15:19]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “spirit.”

[15:19]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “named it”; the referent (the spring) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[15:19]  ¹⁹ sn The name En Hakkore means “Spring of the one who cries out.”

[15:20]  ²⁰ tn Traditionally, “judged.”

[15:20]  ²¹ tn Heb “in the days of the Philistines.”