Three thousand men of Judah go up to the rock Etam to hand Samson over. “Knowest thou not that the Philistines are rulers over us?” they say, and he lets them bind him with two new cords. At a place called Lehi the Philistines shout, “the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him,” and the cords fall away. He finds a new jawbone of an ass and strikes down a thousand men. Then, “sore athirst,” he calls on the LORD, and God opens a hollow place so that water comes out. Samson drinks and “his spirit came again, and he revived.” Judges 15:9-19 tells it whole.
11 verses
Then the Philistines went up, and pitched in Judah, and spread themselves in Lehi.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
And he found a new jawbone of an ass, and put forth his hand, and took it, and slew a thousand men therewith.
And Samson said, With the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, with the jaw of an ass have I slain a thousand men.
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.
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?
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.
Matthew George Easton, 1897
A jawbone, a place in the tribe of Judah where Samson achieved a victory over the Philistines (Judg. 15:9, 14, 16), slaying a thousand of them with the jawbone of an ass. The words in 15:19, “a hollow place that was in the jaw” (A.V.), should be, as in Revised Version, “the hollow place that is in Lehi.”
William Smith, 1884
(jaw bone), a place in Judah, probably on the confines of the Philistines’ country, between it and the cliff Etam; the scene of Samson’s well-known exploit with the jaw bone. (Judges 15:9,14,19) It may perhaps be identified with Beit-Likiyeh , a village about two miles below the upper Beth-horon.