When he came to Lehi, the Philistines shouted against him. And the Spirit of Jehovah came upon him, and the cords that were on his arms became as threads of flax that are burned with fire, and his bands loosed from off his hands.
Samson is at his lowest point here: his own people have tied him with new ropes and handed him over, and the Philistines shout in triumph. Then everything turns, and commentators ask where that strength came from — and why so strong a man was so weak in character.
One writer reads the turn in this verse as a change of who is fighting, not a change in what Samson could do.
By himself he could do nothing. But the conflict was not his; it was the Lord's. And the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him. It was no longer a question of one man against thousands. It was the LORD against His enemies.
The ropes do not stretch or break; they stop being ropes. The weapon that follows is worth no more than they were.
But, at a given moment, the power of the Spirit bursts all bonds. "Then the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon him, and the ropes that were on his arms became as flax that has caught fire." Then God used a bone thrown away in the fields — the worthless jawbone of a donkey — to win a striking victory. We are such instruments in the hands of the Spirit of God (see 1 Corinthians 1:27-29). Yet it pleases the Lord to link our names with His victory.
The ropes were not Philistine ropes. Samson let his own tribe bind him. One writer sees there a picture of how God's people treat the Spirit's power when it unsettles them.
The people of God have acted towards the Holy Spirit in much the same way that Judah acted towards Samson. His power disturbed them. They did not want the liberty of the Spirit, so they have hindered His action. They have tied Him down, as it were, with their new methods, like the new cords with which Judah bound their liberator... The strong man laughed at their new cords, but he agreed to be bound.
The ESV says the Spirit "rushed upon him"; older translations read "came mightily upon him." One writer weighs what that coming meant in Old Testament times.
We read about Samson, "The Spirit of the Lord began to move him at times" (Judges 13:25). We also read that "the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him" (Judges 14:6, Judges 15:14)... Old Testament Scripture never suggests the thought of the Holy Spirit remaining. It was merely His coming upon a man in the character of power.
One writer contrasts that coming from outside with what believers have now.
We may win victories like Samson's too. Not by depending on a temporary action of the Holy Spirit coming upon us from outside, but because through redemption God has sealed us with the Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of power.
Commentators are blunt: Samson's strength was a gift, never a certificate of character.
It is important to notice that we cannot judge the moral worth of a man of God by the greatness of his gift. Nowhere in Scripture do we find a stronger man than Samson, nor one weaker morally... Samson was a Nazirite — a man set apart to God by vow. The Spirit of God often came upon him. But he had never judged his own heart, so his state did not match the gift he used.
The gift was not guaranteed forever. Another writer traces where the notices of the Spirit stop.
It is worth noting that the Spirit of God worked mightily in Samson, a judge of Israel (Judges 13:25; Judges 14:6, 19; Judges 15:14). Samson betrayed his Nazirite vow to the crafty Delilah and lost his strength. After that, there are no more references to the Spirit working in him (Judges 16:17). When devotion to God was treated lightly, the Spirit's help was withdrawn.
One writer turns the picture on the reader. The ropes on Samson's arms become the secret sin no one else can see.
Is there some silent chain wound around your heart, without a sound but without fail — and it may be, without your knowing it?... Perhaps it is some secret sin, something you cherish and allow in your heart and ways. No one else sees it. There it rusts and clings to you. Be warned, and look to Him who has pointed it out. His unerring eye has seen it. Just as surely, He can snap the chains that bind your heart. They will be like "the ropes that were on [Samson's] arms" — they will become "as flax that has caught fire."
- Bound first. His own people tie him, and the enemy cheers. The low point is where the power starts, not an obstacle to it.
- The fight changes owner. Once the Spirit comes on him, it is no longer one man against thousands. It is the Lord against His enemies.
- Cords, then a jawbone. The ropes turn to burnt flax, and a discarded bone wins the day. God works through what is worthless, and still links our names to His victory.
- Gift is not goodness. No man in Scripture was stronger than Samson, and none weaker in character. Power never proves the state of a heart.
- Your cords too. The fire that freed Samson's arms meets the silent chain around a heart. The One whose eye sees that chain can snap it.
And he found a fresh jawbone of an ass, and put forth his hand and took it, and slew with it a thousand men.
Samson's own countrymen have just tied him with new ropes and handed him over to the Philistines, and the ropes have dropped off his arms like burnt flax. What follows is one man, one thrown-away bone, and a thousand dead enemies — so whose strength was that?
Enemies stand on both sides of Samson — three thousand men of Judah behind him, the Philistine army in front. One writer sees the moment as a change in whose fight it is.
The men of Judah knew as little about the source of Samson's power as the Philistines did... And what could Samson do, with three thousand men of Judah against him as well as the army of the Philistines? By himself, nothing. But the conflict was not his; it was the Lord's, and the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him. So it was no longer a question of one man against thousands; it was the LORD against His enemies.
The Philistines drew the wrong conclusion from what they saw.
The enemy no doubt thought Samson was just a man of tremendous strength. But the Spirit of God was the one who gave him that strength.
Samson did not pick this weapon for its quality. It lay there worthless, and it gave the battlefield its name.
Then God used a bone thrown away in the fields, the worthless jawbone of a donkey, to win a great victory. The place took the name Ramath-lehi, from the name of that despised tool used in the fight. We are such tools in the hands of the Spirit of God (see 1 Cor. 1:27-29), yet it pleases the Lord to link our names with His victory, as if the jawbone of a donkey had killed "heaps upon heaps."
That pattern runs through Samson's whole story, not just this scene.
True to God's way, the tools he used for his mighty feats were of the simplest kind. Once we read that "he had nothing in his hand" (Judges 14:6). Another time the only tool was "a fresh jawbone of a donkey," and with it he killed a thousand men (Judges 15:15).
Swords lay all around him, and Samson kept the bone.
After killing a few of them, he did not even swap the jawbone for one of their swords. In his hand the jawbone worked perfectly well. If more than a thousand were there, the rest must have run away as fast as they could.
The strangeness of the weapon matches the state of the nation.
To anyone who sees what a witness it is that the people had gone far from Him, the same principle stands out here in full strength. The man is left on his own. Then there are the events that had brought about the break with the enemy. There is the mind of Judah, not exactly treacherous to the Israelite, yet cowering before the Philistines. And now Samson uses the strangest of war weapons against them — the jawbone of a donkey.
Commentators differ on whether Samson's choice was faultless. One writer sees a cost hidden inside the triumph.
An ass is typical of a strong self-will. The natural man is like a wild ass's colt. He takes up that unclean weapon, and he does win a victory with it. But you never use the flesh, an unclean thing, and never use self-will, without suffering for it. No matter how right the cause, if you use a wrong weapon it will hit back sooner or later... He did not realize that the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but mighty through God... He may boast if he likes, but he has used an unclean weapon, and there is a shadow even upon this which is the brightest side of his life.
The practical use of the story is not admiration but action.
Great works have often been done by the faith and energy of people who had only small means — means that looked useless, or even worth despising. If we take this lesson to heart, we will not sit down waiting for swords or royal sceptres before we start work. We will hear the voice of God saying to us, What is that in your hand? A stick? Moses broke the power of Egypt with one like it. What has David not done with a stone? Or Gideon with torches and jars? Or Samson with the jawbone of a donkey?
- Source — By himself Samson was nothing. The Spirit of the Lord came on him, and the fight was no longer one man against thousands; it was the Lord against His enemies.
- Instrument — God reached for a bone thrown away in a field. Such worthless things are what He uses, and He still links our names with His victory.
- Sufficiency — Samson never swapped the jawbone for a Philistine sword. In a hand God is strengthening, the poor tool is enough.
- Shadow — Ridout warns that a wrong weapon in a right cause still costs something. A good aim does not make a wrong means clean.
- Summons — Don't wait for swords before you begin. The question God puts is not what do you lack but what is that in your hand.
And Samson said, With the jawbone of an ass, a heap, two heaps, With the jawbone of an ass have I slain a thousand men.
Samson's song names his weapon twice, and that repetition is the point. How did a thousand armed men fall to a bone picked up in a field?
But at a given moment the power of the Spirit bursts all bonds… Then God used a bone thrown away in the fields, the worthless jawbone of a donkey, to win a remarkable victory. The place took its name, Ramath-lehi, from the contemptible tool used in the fight. Such instruments are we in the hands of the Spirit of God (see 1 Cor. 1:27-29), but it pleases the Lord to associate our names with His victory, as if the jawbone of a donkey had slain "heaps upon heaps."
The pattern runs through the whole book. Writers note that God repeatedly picked tools nobody would have picked.
Their persons show how God has chosen the weak things to accomplish His purposes. One was left-handed. Another used an ox-goad; still another pitchers and trumpets, and one had for a weapon the jawbone of a donkey. One was a woman.
The answer lies in the verse just before the song, where the Spirit of the Lord came on Samson.
By himself he could do nothing. But the fight was not his, it was the Lord's, and the Spirit of the Lord came on him in power. So it was no longer one man against thousands. It was the LORD against His enemies.
One writer points out that Samson never traded up. Swords were lying everywhere on that field.
After killing a few of them, he did not even swap the jawbone for one of their swords. In his hand the jawbone worked perfectly… The enemy no doubt thought Samson was just a man of huge strength. But the Spirit of God gave him that strength.
One writer renders the song to bring out its play on the word donkey:
Once He used the mouth of a living donkey to rebuke the madness of a prophet. Now He uses the jaw of a dead one as a weapon to defeat an army. The song of deliverance stresses this: "With the jaw of a donkey I have made donkeys of them; with the jaw of a donkey I have struck down a thousand men."
The animal itself carries the insult, and it names their fault.
In Scripture the donkey does not stand for stupidity, as it does for us. It usually stands for refusing the yoke, and that seems to be the meaning here. The easy victory showed that these men were rebels against the yoke of God's rule — a rule it was pointless to resist anyway.
Not everything here is bright. Samson was under a Nazirite vow, which forbade him to touch anything dead — and a bone was exactly that.
A donkey pictures a strong self-will… He takes up that unclean weapon, and he certainly does win a victory with it. But you never use the flesh, an unclean thing. You never use self-will without suffering for it. No matter how right the cause, if you use a wrong weapon it will turn back on you sooner or later… He may boast if he likes, but he has used an unclean weapon. A shadow lies even over this, the brightest part of his life.
Another writer names the exact rule he broke, and applies it to us:
In using the jawbone of a donkey, Samson again broke the rules of his Nazirite vow by touching the bone of a dead animal (Num. 6:6). He pictures a believer using a wrong weapon to fight God's battles… So we too may fight for the truth with the means of the flesh. God may still give grace for a victory, but no credit goes to the vessel… It is not enough to be on the right side. We must also act rightly if we want a reward for our work.
In the next verses Samson drops the bone and nearly dies of thirst.
With a jawbone he laid heaps upon heaps, and after the work he sang with a soul full of joy. Then he threw the jawbone away, and his own needs hit him hard… Great service for others will not meet the needs of the soul. Only the Lord can meet them. However brilliant our service, our own souls will starve unless the Lord Himself sustains them. Service alone never sustains.
One writer sees that as the right end for the bone, and turns it on our habit of praising gifted people:
It has served his purpose, so let it go. After all, it is nothing more than the poor jawbone of a dead donkey!… Everywhere we hear what a wonderful man this man is! What marvellous power in the gospel! What beauty in his teaching!… Samson might just as well have said, "What a powerful jawbone! What a wonderful jawbone!"
- Bone. God won the day with something dead, thrown away in a field. The tool was worthless, so the victory could belong to no one but Him.
- Breath. The bone did nothing until the Spirit of the Lord came on Samson. It was not one man against thousands, but the Lord against His enemies.
- Boast. The song puns on the donkey: an animal that will not take the yoke, matching a people who would not bow to God's rule.
- Blemish. Touching a dead bone broke his Nazirite vow. You can be on the right side and still fight with the wrong weapon, and it will cost you later.
- Bareness. Straight after the song came raging thirst. Service for others never feeds the servant; only God does that.
And it came to pass when he had ended speaking, that he cast away the jawbone out of his hand, and called that place Ramath-Lehi.
Samson's song of triumph ends, and the first thing he does is open his hand and let the weapon fall. The place then takes its name from that weapon. Why does the winner drop what won the battle, and what is the name meant to preserve?
The gesture is deliberate. One commentator reads the dropped jawbone as a refusal to let the tool take the credit:
He will not keep it. It might become a snare to him: Israel might go chasing after it as they did after Gideon's ephod. It has served his purpose, now let it go — after all it is nothing more than the poor jawbone of a dead donkey! Oh, that we could learn something from this! It is such a day for exalting the poor, foolish instruments that God, in His goodness, may use. Do we not hear everywhere what a wonderful man this man is! What marvellous power in the gospel! What beauty of exposition! What magnetism! What a clever man he is! Yes, indeed, Samson might just as well say, "What a powerful jawbone! What a wonderful jawbone! What a magnetic jawbone!" No, no — put the poor jawbone where it belongs. It must not take away from the glory of Him to whom all glory alone is due.
The name itself comes from the weapon:
Place in Judah, near to the land of the Philistines. It was where Samson killed a thousand men with the jawbone of a donkey. Judges 15:9-17. Lehi means "jawbone," but whether the place had this name before the victory or after is not clear. Samson called the place RAMATH-LEHI, "hill of the jawbone."
The name does more than mark a battlefield:
He casts the instrument of destruction out of his hand, and calls the place the "Jawbone Height." The lesson is worthy of preserving in the name.
The weapon itself carries a message. God works through what counts for nothing:
Then God made use of a bone cast away in the fields, the worthless jawbone of a donkey, to gain a remarkable victory. We are such instruments in the hands of the Spirit of God (see 1 Corinthians 1:27-29). Yet it pleases the Lord to link our names with His victory, as if the jawbone of a donkey had killed "heaps upon heaps."
Not every writer reads the weapon so kindly. Samson lived under the Nazirite vow, a vow of separation to God:
For an Israelite, the most defiling thing of all was to touch a bone. Yet Samson takes up an unclean weapon against the Philistines: the jawbone of a donkey, evidence of death, and from an unclean animal. A donkey is a picture of strong self-will. The natural man is like a wild donkey's colt. He takes up that unclean weapon, and he does gain a victory with it. But you never use the flesh, an unclean thing, and you never use self-will, without suffering for it. No matter how right the cause, if you use a wrong weapon, sooner or later it will rebound. So I think we have here a sign that the man did not value his Nazirite standing. He did not realise that the weapons of our warfare are not worldly, but mighty through God. Oh, to use spiritual weapons in spiritual conflict! Do not take up the enemy's weapon. Do not come down to the enemy's level, however remarkable it was for him to pile up heaps and heaps of Philistines with that one jawbone. He may boast if he likes. But he has used an unclean weapon, and a shadow falls even over this, the brightest part of his life.
So commentators differ. Some see wisdom in the weapon God chose. Ridout sees carelessness about the vow.
The jawbone drops, and Samson has nothing left but himself. What happens next is the point:
He had laid heaps upon heaps with a jawbone, and had sung with great joy of soul after his work. Then he threw away the jawbone, and his own personal needs came upon him. "He was very thirsty." Great services for others will not supply the soul's necessities. Only the Lord can supply them. However brilliant our services, our own souls will starve unless the Lord Himself sustains them. Service alone never sustains. On the contrary, the fresher the service, the more we shall be conscious of our own need and dependence on God for personal support.
- Instrument dropped. The victory ends with an open hand. The jawbone has done its work. Keeping it would only turn a tool into something people chase after.
- Instrument named. Ramath-lehi means "hill of the jawbone." The place remembers the weapon, not the strong man.
- Instrument worthless. God won a great victory with a bone thrown away in a field. He still linked His servant's name to it. We are useful on the same terms.
- Instrument unclean. Others read the bone as death and self-will in Samson's hand. A wrong weapon rebounds sooner or later. It casts a shadow over even his best day.
- Instrument empty. With the jawbone gone, the thirst appears. Work done for others feeds nobody's soul. Only the Lord Himself supplies the servant.
And he was very thirsty, and called on Jehovah, and said, Thou hast given by the hand of thy servant this great deliverance, and now shall I die for thirst, and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised?
Samson has just killed a thousand men with the jawbone of a donkey. Moments later the victor is dying — not of wounds, but of thirst, and his cry asks why God would let that happen at the height of his success.
The order of events matters. Samson sings his victory song, throws the jawbone away, and only then feels his own need. One writer draws out the principle:
He used a jawbone to lay heaps upon heaps, and he sang with a thrilled soul after his work. Then he threw the jawbone away, and his own personal wants hit him. "He was very thirsty." Great services for others will not supply what the soul needs. Only the Lord can supply that. However brilliant our services, our own souls will starve unless the Lord sustains them directly. Service by itself never sustains. On the contrary, the fresher the service, the more we will feel our own need and our dependence on God for personal support. No great deliverance granted will supply one drop of relief to the weary soul.
Samson's fear is not death alone. It is dying this way — falling into the power of the enemy he has just beaten. One writer calls that fear healthy, not faithless:
People have often noted that the moment of victory is the moment of greatest weakness, and Samson felt this. This was his fear: to fall into the hands of the uncircumcised, to be in their power. Scripture speaks of the Philistines this way again and again. Circumcision speaks of cutting off and setting aside the flesh, and it had no place with them. So it was right that the Nazarite should fear coming under their power. I wish there were more of this fear today; it would make us more like Samson in his dependence upon God.
(A Nazarite was a man under a vow that set him apart for God.)
Notice what Samson reasons with. He does not plead his own record; he holds up what God has already done as the ground for what God must do next.
But God, who cares for His poor servant, must make him feel his own need of the same lesson. The heat and exhaustion of the fight leave him with a thirst that could kill him. The man who had been dealing out death to others now faces a danger his own hand cannot save him from. He can only cry to Jehovah, and plead with Him His recent intervention on his behalf as the argument for a new one. It is a good argument with the Unchangeable One. He is not a man, that He should change His mind. He is the One "with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change." The lesson, too, must be complete to be a lesson. And He who has just delivered Samson from the hands of the uncircumcised cannot allow him now to fall into them.
The next verse is often pictured as water from the jawbone. One dictionary corrects that:
Judges 15:19 is better translated, "God clave the hollow place that is in Lehi," that is, in the rock, not in the jaw-bone.
One writer takes that cleft rock as a picture, and draws the practical lesson:
If we do not want to lose the results of conflict, we must use the word of God for our refreshment, and not only for battle. In his extremity, Samson called on Jehovah. God showed him a refreshing spring flowing out of a rock that His own hand had split open. The rock everywhere and always is Christ. "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink" (John 7:37). Let us get back into Christ's presence after conflict.
God answered the cry, and the name Samson gave the place records what he learned:
From God alone must that come. And so, in answer to Samson's cry, God relieves him, and he calls the place En-hakkore, "the well of him that called." He commemorates not his service, but his dependence on God.
It is worth weighing how seldom Samson called on God at all:
Samson was not a man of prayer. Only twice in all his history do we hear him speaking to God (Judges 15:18; Judges 11:28).
(Rossier's text prints Judges 11:28; Samson's other recorded prayer is in Judges 16:28.)
- Victory. Samson felled a thousand enemies, then lay helpless himself — the win did not water the winner.
- Thirst. Work done for others never feeds the worker; the fresher the service, the sharper the sense of personal need.
- Fear. Samson dreaded falling into the hands of the uncircumcised. That dread is the very thing that kept him dependent.
- Cry. He argued from God's past deliverance to God's present help — a sound argument with the God who does not change.
- Well. God split the rock, and Samson named the place after the caller, not the conqueror — a memorial of dependence, not achievement.
And God clave the hallow rock which was in Lehi, and water came out of it. And he drank, and his spirit came again, and he revived. Therefore its name was called En-hakkore, which is in Lehi to this day.
Samson has just cut down heaps of the enemy with a donkey's jawbone. Now the man no one could beat in battle is dying of thirst. His cry, and God's answer in the cleft rock, turn a monument of his own strength into a monument of his dependence.
Some have read the verse as if water burst out of the bone Samson had thrown away. The name he gave the place points instead to what he did there.
Samson gave this name, meaning "the caller's spring," to the place where God gave him water in answer to his call. There is no doubt that the spring was in the rock, not in the jawbone. The words that follow show it: "it is at Lehi to this day."
Lehi means "jawbone": the place took its name from the weapon.
Notice the order. He sings over the heaps of slain, throws the jawbone away, and only then feels his own need.
He used a jawbone to lay heaps upon heaps, and he sang with delight of soul after his work. Then he threw the jawbone away, and his own personal needs troubled him. "He was very thirsty." Great services for others will not supply the soul's needs. Only the Lord can supply them. However brilliant our services, our own souls will starve unless the Lord Himself sustains them. Mere service never sustains. On the contrary, the fresher the service, the more we will feel our own need, and our dependence on God for personal support.
Winning the fight was not the end of the danger. What Samson needed next could not be won by fighting.
The believer's activity is not everything; conflict does not quench thirst... If we do not want to lose what the conflict has won, we must use the word of God to refresh us, and not only for battle. In his extremity, Samson called on the LORD, who showed him a refreshing spring flowing out of a rock that God's hand had split open. The rock everywhere and always is Christ. "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink" (John 7:37). Let us get back into Christ's presence after conflict. His word will refresh us. Samson was alive to the dangers that closely follow victory.
The thirst did what the fighting never did. It sent him to God.
Then after the victory is won, another bright gleam comes out. Poor dear man, it is the first time we hear his soul going out to God. "My soul thirsts for God, for the living God." We find him parched with thirst. Even after this great victory, the most severe thirst afflicts his soul. Well it might, since he had used an unclean weapon, and well might he find a parched dryness in his soul. But he turns to God, he calls for help, and in the place that bore the name of his victory — Lehi, "the jawbone" — God splits open a place in the rock for him.
The chapter gives no polish to Samson's character. That is what makes God's answer so striking.
Divine power never failed Samson against the enemy. More than that, the LORD's tenderness toward His poor servant stands out. Did He turn away when the thirsty man called on Him, as he cried to God in his distress? Bad as the features we have seen were, we have worse still to see. Yet when he called, God heard and answered him.
The rock frames the whole episode. Samson lived in a rock before the battle, and water came out of rock after it.
This section begins and ends with the rock. He lived in the rock, and out of the rock, under God's splitting hand, the water flows out for his refreshment. The well is called En-hakkore, "the spring of him that called" to God. It is in connection with that, growing out of all that, that we read he judged Israel twenty years... In this period of complete separation from the Philistines, he lived in the rock. He broke the bonds that even his own people would put on him. He stood out in all the energy of faith in God. Then, and only then, could he judge the people of God.
- Called. En-hakkore means "the spring of him that called." Samson named the place after his cry, not after his victory.
- Cleft. God split open the rock at Lehi, not the jawbone Samson had thrown away. The spring was still there long after.
- Drank. Service for others never feeds the servant's own soul. Only the Lord does that. The fresher the service, the deeper the need.
- Revived. The moment after victory is the moment of greatest danger — the refreshment comes from the rock, and the rock is Christ: "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink."
- Ruled. The man who called, and lived in the rock, judged Israel for twenty years. Power to lead God's people grew out of dependence on God.