Judges 15

Translator Notes

1. Bi-yemei qetsir chittim ('in the days of the wheat harvest') — the timing is significant for two reasons: the dry, ripe grain fields will soon become the target of Samson's fiery revenge (vv. 4-5), and the wheat harvest was a time of celebration and movement. Samson brings a gedi izzim ('a young goat') — a gift intended to reconcile. He expects to resume the marriage as though nothing happened. The father's refusal reveals what occurred during Samson's absence: his wife has been given to another man (14:20). Samson does not yet know this.

Translator Notes

1. Amor amarti ki sano senetah ('saying I said that hating you hated her') — double infinitive absolutes in both clauses intensify the father's certainty. He genuinely believed Samson had permanently rejected his daughter. The offer of the younger sister — ha-lo achotah ha-qetannah tovah mimmennah ('isn't her younger sister better/more beautiful than she?') — is meant to placate but instead enrages. The substitution of one daughter for another echoes Laban's swap of Leah for Rachel (Genesis 29:26). For Samson, the insult is compounded: his wife was given to his mere'a ('companion, best man'), and now he is offered a consolation prize.

Translator Notes

1. Niqqeiti ha-pa'am mi-Pelishtim ('I am innocent/free of blame this time from the Philistines') — Samson claims moral justification. The verb naqah ('to be clean, innocent, free of guilt') is a legal term — he is declaring himself not liable for what follows. The phrase ki oseh ani immam ra'ah ('when I do them harm/evil') frankly announces his intention to retaliate. Samson operates on a personal code of proportional justice: they wronged him, so he has the right to wrong them. The narrator neither endorses nor condemns this reasoning — the events simply unfold.

Translator Notes

1. Shelosh me'ot shu'alim ('three hundred foxes') — the word shu'al can mean either 'fox' or 'jackal.' Jackals are more likely since they travel in packs (foxes are solitary), making mass capture more feasible. The number three hundred may be symbolic (Gideon's three hundred warriors, 7:7) or literal. The engineering is deliberate: va-yefen zanav el zanav ('he turned tail to tail') — pairs of animals tied together with a lappid ('torch, firebrand') between them. The panicked animals would run erratically through the fields, spreading fire in unpredictable directions — a devastating incendiary tactic.

Translator Notes

1. The destruction is comprehensive: gadish ('harvested sheaves' — grain already cut and stacked), qamah ('standing grain' — still in the field), kerem ('vineyard'), and zayit ('olive grove'). This represents the Philistines' entire agricultural economy — their present harvest, their future crop, their long-term investment in orchards and vineyards. Olive trees take decades to mature; their loss is generational devastation. The timing during wheat harvest (v. 1) means the grain is dry and burns easily. Samson's personal grievance has become an economic catastrophe for an entire region.

Translator Notes

1. The cycle of violence escalates horribly. The Philistines identify Samson as the culprit (chatan ha-Timni, 'the son-in-law of the Timnite') and trace the cause to the wife's father giving her away. Their response — va-yisrefu otah ve-et avihah ba-esh ('they burned her and her father with fire') — fulfills the exact threat the thirty companions made in 14:15. The woman was caught between Samson and the Philistines, and now she dies the very death she was threatened with. The cruel irony: she betrayed Samson's riddle to save herself from burning, only to be burned anyway.

Translator Notes

1. Im ta'asun kazot ki im niqqamti vakhem ('if you do this, I will surely take vengeance on you') — the conditional structure followed by the emphatic ki im creates an oath-like declaration. The verb naqam ('to take vengeance') is personal, not judicial — Samson acts as a one-man retaliatory force, not as a judge executing divine justice. His promise ve-achar echdal ('and after that I will stop') is ominously open-ended — how much violence satisfies the requirement of 'enough'? The spiral of violence shows no one willing to break the cycle.

Translator Notes

1. Va-yakh otam shoq al yarekh makkah gedolah ('he struck them leg upon thigh, a great blow') — the idiom shoq al yarekh ('hip and thigh' or 'leg upon thigh') suggests a thorough, devastating beating. The exact meaning is debated, but the sense is unmistakable: total, merciless violence. After the slaughter, Samson retreats to se'if sela Eitam ('the cleft/cave of the rock of Etam') — he becomes a fugitive hiding in the wilderness, ironically resembling the Israelites who hid from Midian in caves (6:2). The deliverer has become an outlaw.

Translator Notes

1. Va-ya'alu Felishtim va-yachanu bi-Yehudah ('the Philistines came up and camped in Judah') — the Philistine military response to Samson's raids now threatens all of Judah. The escalation has moved from personal vendetta to regional military crisis. Va-yinnatoshu ba-Lechi ('they spread themselves at Lehi') — the verb natash means 'to spread out' in military formation. Lechi, meaning 'jawbone,' foreshadows what will happen there (v. 15). The name is either pre-existing or given retroactively because of the coming events.

Translator Notes

1. The men of Judah ask the question lamah alitem aleinu ('why have you come up against us?') — they view the Philistine incursion as an attack on themselves, not as a response to Samson. The Philistines' answer le-esor et Shimshon ('to bind Samson') makes clear: this is about one man. The phrase la'asot lo ka-asher asah lanu ('to do to him as he did to us') invokes proportional retaliation — the lex talionis. What is devastating here is that the men of Judah will cooperate with their oppressors to hand over their own judge.

Translator Notes

1. Sheloshet alafim ish mi-Yehudah ('three thousand men from Judah') — a massive delegation sent not to rescue Samson but to surrender him. Their accusation ha-lo yadata ki moshelim banu Pelishtim ('don't you know the Philistines rule over us?') reveals a people who have accepted subjugation as the status quo. They blame Samson for disrupting a manageable oppression. His response ka-asher asu li ken asiti lahem ('as they did to me, so I did to them') reduces the entire conflict to personal reciprocity. Neither Samson nor the men of Judah speak in terms of God's purposes, covenant, or deliverance. The theological vacuum is deafening.

Translator Notes

1. Le-esorekha yaradnu letittekha ve-yad Pelishtim ('to bind you we came down to give you into the hand of the Philistines') — Judah's own men will deliver their judge to the enemy. The parallel with later events is unmistakable: Israel handing its deliverer to the ruling power. Samson's condition — hishave'u li pen tifge'un bi attem ('swear to me that you yourselves will not strike me') — reveals where the real danger lies. He does not fear the Philistines; he fears his own people. He will go willingly, bound, if Judah promises not to kill him directly.

Translator Notes

1. Asor ne'esorekha ('binding we will bind you') — the infinitive absolute emphasizes the thoroughness of the binding. The assurance hamet lo nemitekha ('killing we will not kill you') uses the same emphatic construction for the promise of safety. Two new ropes (shenayim avotot chadashot) — the newness implies maximum strength, ropes not weakened by prior use. The narrator builds tension: Samson is bound with fresh, strong rope, surrounded by three thousand of his own countrymen, about to be handed to the Philistines. Everything points to his doom — except the Spirit.

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. Va-titslach alav ruach YHWH — the third and final 'rushing' of the Spirit upon Samson (cf. 14:6, 14:19). Each occurrence triggers superhuman physical action. The ropes become ka-pishtim asher ba'aru va-esh ('like flax that has burned in fire') — flax (pishtim) is linen fiber, and when burned it disintegrates into nothing. Va-yimmassu essurav me-al yadav ('his bonds melted from his hands') — the verb masas ('to melt, dissolve') suggests the ropes did not break but dissolved, as if consumed by invisible fire. The Spirit's power is portrayed as an internal fire that destroys external restraints.

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. Lechi chamor teriyah ('a jawbone of a donkey, fresh/moist') — the jawbone is teriyah ('fresh, moist'), meaning it came from a recently dead animal. This constitutes yet another Nazirite violation: contact with a dead body (Numbers 6:6). The irony is devastating — the instrument of Samson's greatest military triumph is itself a source of ritual defilement. Elef ish ('a thousand men') — whether literal or a round number indicating a massive victory, the scale is extraordinary. A single man with an improvised weapon from a dead animal defeats an army. The Spirit empowers through the profane.

Translator Notes

1. Samson's victory song uses elaborate wordplay: bi-lechi ha-chamor chamor chamoratayim ('with the jawbone of a donkey, a donkey, two donkey-loads' or 'a heap, two heaps'). The word chamor can mean both 'donkey' and 'heap' — Samson puns on the weapon's origin. The poetic structure is a brief victory hymn, similar to the Song of the Sea (Exodus 15) or Deborah's song (Judges 5), but with a critical difference: Samson credits himself, not God. Hikketi elef ish ('I struck down a thousand men') — the first person pronoun is emphatic. He attributes the victory to his own power, never mentioning the Spirit that enabled it.

Translator Notes

1. Va-yashklekh ha-lechi mi-yado ('he threw the jawbone from his hand') — after the battle, Samson discards the weapon. The naming — Ramat Lechi ('Jawbone Hill' or 'the height of the jawbone') — follows the biblical pattern of memorial place-naming. The Hebrew ramat means 'height, hill,' and lechi means 'jawbone' or 'cheek.' The name preserves the memory of the event in the landscape itself. Such etiological naming is common in Judges (cf. Bochim, 2:5; YHWH-Shalom, 6:24).

Translator Notes

1. Va-yitsma me'od va-yiqra el YHWH ('he was very thirsty and he called out to the LORD') — this is the only recorded prayer by Samson before his final prayer in 16:28. After boasting of his own achievement in verse 16, extreme thirst forces him to acknowledge God. Attah natatta be-yad avdekha ('You gave into the hand of your servant') — he now credits God for the victory, calling himself avdekha ('your servant'). The shift from 'I struck down' (v. 16) to 'You gave' (v. 18) is prompted by need, not worship. His concern is still self-preservation: pen efol be-yad ha-arelim ('lest I fall into the hand of the uncircumcised').

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. Va-yivqa Elohim et ha-makhtesh asher ba-Lechi ('God split open the hollow place that is at Lehi') — the makhtesh is a mortar-shaped depression in rock. God provides water from stone, echoing Moses at Horeb (Exodus 17:6) and Meribah (Numbers 20:11). The water revives Samson: va-tashov rucho va-yechi ('his spirit returned and he lived'). The name Ein ha-Qore means either 'the spring of the one who calls' (commemorating Samson's prayer) or 'the spring of the partridge' (a bird associated with rocky terrain). The provision of water after military victory connects Samson's experience to Israel's wilderness narrative — God sustains His warrior even when that warrior is deeply flawed.

Translator Notes

1. Va-yishpot et Yisra'el bi-yemei Pelishtim esrim shanah ('he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years') — this formula usually closes a judge's narrative, but here it appears mid-story. Chapter 16 still lies ahead. The phrase bi-yemei Pelishtim ('in the days of the Philistines') is unique — it acknowledges that Philistine domination continued throughout Samson's judgeship. He judged during the oppression, not after ending it. The twenty years may represent a period of relative stability before the events of chapter 16, or it may be the narrator's way of distinguishing Samson's time as judge from the personal disasters that conclude his life.