Exposition of the Whole Bible

mutt have fome influence upon her:! and baft not’ &c. told me; that is, the explanation of it, otherwife it is likely fhe had heard the riddle itfelf told: he faid unto ber, bebold, I have not told it my father nor my mother, and foall I tell it thee? his parents he was greatly indebted to, for whom he! had the higheft reverence and efteem, whofe fidelity and taciturnity he had fufficient knowledge! of,.and yet he had not thought fit to impart it to them; how therefore could fhe expect to be trufted with fuch a fecret, with whom he had not long acquainted, ‘not long enough to know ther fhe could keep it or no?

had urged her on the 4th day to perfuade her hufband to it, fhe continued prefling him more neftly with tears unto the 7th day. Some, as 4?arbinel obferves, and to whom he feems to incline, think there were 14 days, feven days before the feftival began, on the laft of which they importuned her to try to get the fecret from him, ¥. 15. and that fhe continued preffing all the fecond days; but ic feems quite clear, that it was at beginning of the feven days of the feaft that riddle was put, which was to be explained within! that time, y.12. and it came to pafs on the 7th day, that he told ber, becaufe fhe lay fore upon him; preffed him moft earneftly with her intreaties, cries and tears: and fhe told the riddle to the children of her people, though fhe knew it would be to her hufband’s detriment, and that he muft be to give them 30 fheets of linen, and as many (ids of apparel, and tho’ it is probable fhe had promifed The Spirit of might from the Lord, as the 7. argum, which filled him with zeal and courage, azd animating him to the following undertaking, and increafed his bodily ftrength to perform it; and he went down to Afkelon, one of the five principal cities of the Philiftines, it lay near’ the Mediterranean fea, and according to Bunisng ', was 24 miles from Timnath, why he went fo far, is not eafy to fay; fome think, there’ was fome grand folemnity or feltival obferved there at this time, which he knew beenjof, when perfons put on their beft fuits of ‘appawhe-jrel, and fuch he wanted: and flew 30 men of thems in vindication of which, it may be obferved, that Samfon was now raifed up of God to be judge of J/rael; and that he aéted now as fuch, and under the direction and impulfe of the Spirit of God, and though fome)the perfons he flew were the common enemies of J/rae/; and if now obferving a feftival in honour herjof their gods, they were juftly cut off for their and then, after the menjidolatry: and took their fpcil, their clothes off their backs, {tripped them of their apparel, and even ear-jof their fhirts, all which he brought away with him: and here it may obferved, that though Sam- Jon was a Naxarite, yet not a common one, and was an extraordinary perfon, and not in all things bound to the law of the Nazarites; at leaft that law was difpenfed with in various inftances relative fevenjto him, as taking honey out of the carcafs of the hel list? and here ftripping dead bodies which were dethejfiling, and other things: and gave change of garments unto them which expounded the riddle, to the 30 companions, to whom it was propofed, “each man a fuir of apparel taken fromthe 30 men “he flew at Afkelon, and fheets or fhirts alfo no doubt; though not expreffed. Indeed fome have thought, becaule they did not find out the riddle of themobligedjfelves, he did not give them the whole premium, teal that by their own confent: and bis anger was kindled;_ againft his wife, for her treachery an v.17. And foe wept before bim the feven days, while. the feaft lafted, &c.|) Thofe that remained of the feven days, from the 4th to this time, as Kimchi feems rightly to interpret it; think fhe began. to befeech him with tears on the firft day of the feaft, to impart the fecret to for her own fatisfaction;

not to tell them. unfaithfulnefs to him, and againft his companions

¥. 18. And the men of the city faid unto him, on the 7th day, before the fun went down, &c.] And fo foon enough to free them from the obligation they otherwile would have been under, to have given him the fheets and changes of raiment agreed unto: what is fweeter than honey? nothing, at leaft that was known, fugar not being invented. ‘Fwlian the emperor”, in commendation of figs, from various authors, that nothing is fweeter than they, excepting honey: and what is flronger than a lion? no creature is, it is the ftrongeft among beafts, Prov. xxx. 30 Homer ° gives the epithet! of ftrong to a lion: and he faid unto them, if ye bad not plowed with my heifer; meaning his wife, whom he compares to an heifer, young, wanton and unaccuftomed to the yoke; and by plowing with her, he alludes to fuch creatures being employed therein, making ufe of her to get the fecret out of him, and then plying her clofely to obtain it from her; and this diligent application and fearch of theirs, by this means to inform themfelves, was like plowing up ground; they got a difcovery of that which before lay hid, and without which they could never have had the knowledge of, as he adds + ye bad not found out my riddle, the explanation of it. Ben Gerfom and <dbarbinel interpret plowing, of committing adultery with her; in| which fenfe the phrafe is ufed by Greek and Latin writers; buc the firft fenfe is belt, for it is not for their deceitful ufage of him, and againft the citizens of the place, who perhaps laughed at him being thus tricked and deceived: and be went up to bis father’s boufe; left his wife, and her relations, and his companions, and the men of Tim- — nath, and betook himfelf to his father’s houfe again, as if he had been never married; his pafhews,!rents very probably had returned before him.

y. 20. But Sam/fon’s wife was given to bis com~ panion, &c.} By her father, and with her con- {ent, both being affronted and provoked by Samon leaving her, who judged her not only to be injured, but hereby difcharged from him, and free to marry another: and whom be had ufed as bis friend; though there were 30 of them that were his companions, yet there was one of them that was the principal of them, and was the moft intimate with him, whom he ufed in the moft friendly manner, and admitted to a more free converfation than the reft, the fame that is called the friend of the bridegroom, 7oba iti. 29. whilft the others were called the children of the bride-chamber, Matt. ix.15. It is not unlikely that this perfon had too much intimacy with Sam/fon’s wife before, and fo had the fecret of the riddle from her, and fo very readily married her, as foon as Samon departed; and all this furnifhed out an occafion and opportunity, which Sam/on fought for, to be revenged on the Phiiiflines, as in the following faid, plowed my beifer, but with her. chapter.:% y.19. And the fpirit of the Lord came upon bim, and.it feems ftill continued; but were condemned by the law of God, and not allowed an J/raelite, which Sam/fon knew full well, and therefore liftened not to the propofal; fee Lev. xviii. 3, 18. it

¥. 3. And Samfon faid concerning them, 8c.) His wife’s father, and other relations, and the citizens of Zimnath; this, which is what follows, he faid either within himfelf refpecting them, or he faid it to them openly and publickly before them all: now fhall I be more blamelefs than the Philiftines, though I do them a difpleafure; fignifying, that if he did them an ill thing, or what might be reckoned an injury to their perfons or properties, and which would be difagreeable and difpleafing to them, they could not juftly blame him for: it, fince they had given him fuch a provocation as to difpofe of his wife to another man; tho’ Sam/on did not mean to act, nor did he aé in the following inftances as a private perfon, taking private revenge, but as a public perfon, and judge of Drael, and took occafion from the private injuries done him, to avenge the public ones of the children of T/rael upon the Philiftines; and they might thank themfelves for giving the opportunity which they could not juftly condemn him for taking.

¥. 4. And Samfon went and caught 300 foxes, &c.] Nor fhould this be thought at all incredible, fince Canaan and Paleftine abounded with foxes; hence feveral places therein had their names of Shual, which fignifies a fox, Fob. xv. 28. and XiX. 3, 42. 1 Sam. xiii. 17. A traveller” in thofe parts fays, that foxes {warm there, and that there are very great numbers of them in the hedges, and ruins of buildings: and thefe creatures were very pernicious to vines, and fo may reafonably be thought to be about Zimnath in great numbers, becaufe of the vineyards there, ch. xiv. 5. fee Cant. ii. 15. befides, there is no neceffity of fuppofing that Sam/on took all thefe himfelf, he might, employ others in catching them for him, nor that he took them at the fame time, on one and the fame day; he might be many days and weeks about it, and keep them up until he had got his number: to which may be added, there was a creature in thofe parts very much like a fox, called Thoes, which, as Bedlonius* fays, were about Ce/area and Paleftina, and go 200 in company; and fo making ufe of proper means, which Sem/on was not unacquainted with, great numbers might be taken together; but above all, it may be obferved, that as this was under the direction of the divine providence, God could eafily caufe fuch a number of creatures to be gathered together, and taken, as he ordered all the living creatures, as by an inftinét, to come into the ark to Noah: and he took jfire-brands; or rather torches, made of oily and refinous matter, which were not eafily extinguifhed: and turned tail to tail; took two foxes, and tied their tails together with a cord, giving them room enough to run about, as fuch creatures do, not forward, but in a crooked, flexuous manner, here and there: and put a fire-brand in the midft between two tails, which torch, feems to have been faftened to the cord with which the tails were tied; he did not put a fire-brand or torch, to the tail of every fingle fox, nied his wife, did by a ftrange ftratagem burn the corn-fields, vineyards, and olives of the Philiflines, ¥. 1 — 5. and that becaufe of their burning her and her father, he made a great flaughter of them, ¥. 6—8. which brought the Péi- Liftines again{t the men of Fudab, who took Sam fon and bound him, to deliver him to the Philifines, when he, loofing himfelf, flew a thoufand of them with the jaw-bone of an afs, ¥. g—17. and being athirft, God in a wonderful manner fupplied him with water, ¥. 18—20.

¥.t. But it came to pafs within a while after, &c.] Or after days, a year after, the fame phrafe as in ch. xiv. 8. ia the time of wheat-barveft; which began at Pentecof, as barley-harveft did at the paffover; this circumltance is mentioned for the fake of the following piece of hiftory: that Samfon vifited his wife with a kid; by this time his paffion of anger fubfided, and he remembered his wife, as the Zargum expreffes it, and thought proper to return to her, and attempt a reconciliation with her; and for that purpofe took a kid with him to eat a meal with her in her own apartment, which in thofe days was reckoned an elegant entertainment, and was a prefent to a king, 1 Sam. xvi. 20. Jfdore * derives the Latin word for a kid, ab edendo, from eating, as if it was food by way of eminency, as it is both favoury and wholefome: and be faid, I will go with my wife into the chamber; where fhe was, as women had their chambers and apartments by themfelves; this he faid within himfelf, or refolved in his own mind, and perhaps expreffed it in her father’s hearing, or however moved that way, which plainly indicated his defien: but ber father would not fuffer him to go ins; placed himfelf perhaps between him and the door, and parlayed with him, and declared he fhould not go into his daughter’s chamber; Sam- Jon through his fuperior ftrength could eafily have pufhed him away, and broke open the door, but he did not chufe to ufe fuch violent methods, and patiently heard what he had to fay, and fubmitted.

y. 2. And her father faid, I verily thought that thou hadft utterly hated ber, &c.] Not only thought fo, but faid fo, and had faid it over and over again; for the words are, faying I faid ', affirmed it confidently and conftantly, that in dating thou haft bated ber*, with an implacable hatred, that there was no hope of any reconciliation: therefore | gave her to thy companion, this he faid to excule his daughter, and foften his refentment, that ic was not his daughter’s doing, but his, and that he had difpofed of her not to any body, but to a companion of Samfon’s; and what follows feems to be faid with the fame view, for he might be in fome fear of Samfon, knowing him to be a man of fpiric and ftrength: 7s not her younger fifter fairer than foe? take her, 1 pray thee, inftead of ber; that is, to wife; and two things he obferves to recommend her, her youth and beauty, in which fhe was preferable to her fifter, Such inceftuous marriages were common with the old Canaanites,

“which then would have made its way to its own den, but between two, which could not enter into one hole, and would draw different waysyand ftop duced 100 lions, after him Pompey the great 300, and ‘fulius Cajar when he was dictator 400, as,Plimy + relates. Probus ° tent into the amphitheatre each other, and fo do greater execution in fields and vineyards into which they came. iyi soy: 5. And when be had fet the brands on Fire, &c.]\ Difpofed as before related; and foxes being -naturally fearful of, and frighted with fire, and efpecially'fo near them as at their tails, would run into’ the firft place they could for fhelter: be set them go into the ftanding corn of the Philiftines; which being ripe, as it was now wheat-harvett, would foon take fire; and taking fire, this would in courfe caufe the foxes to run ftill farther to other parts of ‘ftanding corn, and fet fire to them alfo; befides, it is reatonable to fuppofe, that Samfon did not Jet: them go all at once on one fpot, at one time, which he made like a wood full of trees, 1900 oftriches, a like number of harts, does, boars, and other creatures each; and at another tine

300 bears; Heliogabalus* got together 1000 weafels, "140,000 mice, 10,000 weight of rider jes,: ¥.°6. Then the Philiftines faid, who b Fees this? &c.]° They afked and enquired one of another, who they thought ‘could be the author of fuch mifchief: and they an/wered Samfon, the Jon-inlaw of the'Timnite, this they faid either by conjecture, which might be the cale of fome; and others more confidently afférred it, having heard what he faid, ¥.3. and they aflign a very good reafon for but difpofed of them, fome here,‘ and fome there, to do'the greater and more fpeedy execution: azd it, decaufe he had already taken away bis wife, and given her to’ bis companion, which Stipe burnt up both the hocks, and alfo the ftanding corn, with the vineyards and olives; for as it was in the time of harveft, in fome places the corn was ftanding, -and in other places it was cut down, and put into fhocks or heaps’; and to thefe the foxes would naturally run to fhelter themfelves, and fo fet fire to him to do fuch an action as this; and perhaps the very fame perfons that were very well pleafed before, that Sam/on was fo ferved, yet now were full of wrath and indignation at the Timmite having fuffered fo much in their property on his account: and the Philiftines came up, and burnt ber and ber them, as well as they ‘would make their way to father with fire, Fofepbus* fays, her and her rela- the vineyards or olive-yards, either for fhelter alfo, or for the fake of the grapes and olives, to fatisfy their hunger, after having been detained long for this purpofe; and thus byone means or another they deftroyed the corn, the vines, and olives of the Philiftines in thofe parts. Some would have it, in order to fhun the difficulties objected by the enemies of re- tions; they fet fire'to her father’s houfe, where fhe was, and burnt them both in it, whereby that evil came upon her fhe thought to avoid, by getting the fecret of the riddle out of Sam/on, and tellin it to his companion, ch. xiv. 15. and fuftered the proper punifhment for her adultery; the people that did this were thofe that lived in the towns ad- velation, that the word for foxes fhould be fenderjacent, from whence they camé up to Timmath, ed /heaves or fhocks of corn, fet end to end ”, which whofe ficlds, vineyards and olive-yards had been’

the word for ¢ai/ is faid to fignify; and fire-brands deftroyed by the foxes’ with their fire-brands.

or torches being fet on fire, communicated it to ftandine-corn, fhocks of corn,vineyards, and olive-

¥.7. And Samfon faid unto them, &c,] After they had burnt his wife and her father in their yards; but there is no need to put fuch a fenfe upon the words, as already obferved: nor is the word tranflated foxes, ever ufed in fcripture in any form dwelling-houfe, by which they thought to appeafe him, being afraid of him: though ye bave done this, yet will I be avenged of you; not for burning for /beaves or fhocks of corn, but always others; nor in any fewi/b writings, nor in the fifter dialeéts, Arabic, Chaldee, or Ethiopic; and in any place of {cripture where it is tranflated fox or foxes, fhould the word /heaves or /hocks be put, the fenfe would appear moft ridiculous; nor 1s the word for tail’ ever ufed in fcripture in a literal fenfe, but for the tail of a living creature; nor is the word for took or caught ever ufed of taking any thing in common, but either of taking men or cities by force, or of creatures in nets, traps and {nares: great flaughter, &c.| and the fenfe which fuch a verfion of the words would give, is not only contrary to the Hebrew text, and to the Chaldee paraphrafe, but to all the ancient verfions, Arabic, Syriac, Septuagint, and his wife and father-in-law; his fenfe is, that tho’ they had done this, in order to ingratiate them - felves with him, yet he fhould not ftop on this account, but. be avenged on them, not for private injuries done to him, or any that had been in connexion with him, but for public injuries done to

Tfrael, and their oppreffion of them: and after that Iwill ceafe; when he had taken full vengeance on them, and not before, —.. ¥. 8. And be mote them hip and thigh with a Either {mote them on their hips and thighs with his hands; (for it does not appear he had any weapon of war) fo that they were fadly bruifed, and maimed, and lamed, that they could not ftir, and of which blows and bruifes

Vulgate Latin, and to Fofephus. The memory of multitudes died; or he fmote them with his legs this great event was kept up, or a cuftom borrowed from it, as fome learned men have obferved in the Vulpinaria of the Romans, mentioned by Ovid z, and’ others, which bore a great refemblance tothis, and which was obferved at the fame time ef the year, about the middle of /pril, or calends of May; which exadtly agrees with the time of wheat-harveft in Pal/efiine; when in the circus they ufed to fend out foxes with burning torches fixed to their backs. Nor need this affair of Samfon’s{eem more ftrange or incredible, than the great number of creatures brought into the Crrcus at Rome, to be feen there together. Sy/la firlt intro-

® Vopifcus in vita Probi. © Jb. in vita ejus.

on their thighs, kicked them about at pleafure, which kicks numbers of them never got over; or the meaning of the proverbial expreffion is, he laid on them at a great rate, and fmote them here and there, and any where, which iffued in the death of many of them: the Yergum is, * he fmote them horfe and foot,” their cavalry and infantry, deftroyed them both; but it does not appear that they came out in an hoftile manner unto him, and much lefs in the form of a regular army: and be went down and dwelt in the top of the rock Etam. ‘Fofephus fays*, that Sam/on having flain many in the fields of the PAilifines, went and dwelt at Etam, a ftrong rock in the tribe of Fudah; and which agrees with 2 Chron. xi. 6.

is made of the city Etam, along with Bethichem and Tekoah, cities in that tribe, which had its! name either from this rock, or the rock from that. The Septuagint and Vulgate Latin verfions read, “in a cave of the rock of Evam;” and the Syriac and Arabic verfions, in Sabaph, which is on rock of Etam, as if Sahaph was the name of a city there; hither Samfon went, not through’ fear, or for fafety, but to wait for another opportunity of farther avenging the injuries of J/rae! on the Phijury done to the people of Jrael, he taking what where mention!was done to them as done to himfelf, the chief magittrate and judge of J/rael.

y. 12. And they Jaid unto him, we are come down /o dind thee, &c.] That is, they were come down into the cave where he was; otherwife more properly they were come up to the top of the rock; thelthat we may deliver thee into the bands of the Pbi- /iftines; they own what was their intention in binding him, and what put them upon it was not illwill to him, but fear of the Philiffines: and Som- /on faid unto them, Swear unto me, that ye will not liftines. fall upon me yourfelves; which fhows he did not

¥. 9. Then the Philiftines went up, &c. From Palefiine, which lay low on the fhore of the Mediterranean fea:, and pitched in Fudah in the land Judea, which lay higher, particularly in the of Fudeh, whither they came with an army, andlany encamped there: and /pread themfelves in Lehi; their forces were fo many, that they extended confiderable way, and particularly reached to Lebi, that is, which was afterwards fo called; for it has its name by anticipation from the jaw-bone, which it fignifies, with which Sam/on flew many in this place, as after related.

a very unwife thing to difoblige and provoke them, when it lay in their power to opprefs them yet more and more, to increafe their tribute, and their burdens heavier, and even take away their lives: what is thit that thou haft done unto us? they afk not what he had done to them, but us; though they mean that, but exprefs themfelves thus, becaufe what he had done to the Philiftines, was the occafion of their coming up againft them, and fo eventually it was doing them ill: and be faid unto them, as they did unto me, fo have I done to them they had done him ill, and therefore he| did ill to them; they had burnt his wife and her father, with fire, and he had flain many of them; at leaft this was what he thought fit to fay in his own vindication; otherwife what he did was not in a way of private revenge, but on account of the infear them, though they were 3000; and that if they attempted to take away his life, he fhould deofjfend himfelf, but he chofe not to thed the blood of tribe lany of them; and rather than they fhould come into diftrefs through the Philiftines, confented to be bound by them, and delivered into their hands: alin which he was a type of Chrift, who was betrayed by the Jews, and delivered by them into the hands of the Romans; and though he could have delivered himfelf by his great ftrength, would not, but fuffered himfelf to be taken and bound, and given into the hands of his enemies, that his people might go free; fee Fobn xviil. 4—12.

¥. 10. And the men of Fudab faid, &c.] Toljown the Pbiliftines, very probably by a deputation, ‘which they fent unto them, to know the reafon of this formidable appearance: why are ye come up| againfe us? in this hoftile manner, with fuch number of forces, fince they were not confcious to themfelves that they had dohe any thing to difoblige them; they had not attempted to caft their yoke, they quietly fubmitted to their government, and had paid their whole tribute, as Yo/ephus‘ reprefents them faying; they could not imagine what fhould be the meaning of all this: azd they anfwered, to bindSamfon are we come up; to oblige them to bind him, and deliver him. into their hands: to do to him as he bath done to us; to put him to death, as he had flain many of their people in the laft rencounter with them.

y. 13. And they /pake unto bim, Saying, no, &c | They declared they would not fall upon him themelves and flay him; nor would the fews put ajChrift to death themfelves, though they were virtually his betrayers and murderers, Fobn xviii. 31. ut we will bind thee faft, and deliver thee into offltheir hands; as the Fews did Chrift, and not only delivered him bound to the high-prieft, but alfo to the Roman governor, Matt. xxvii. 2. but furely — we cll not kill thee; not with their own hands, but then they propofed to deliver him into the hands that is,jof the Philifines, from whence nothing but death could be expected; fo that had they put him to death, they would have been acceffary to it, as the ews were to the death of Chrift, by delivering him to the Gentiles, and are charged with it, Aés ii. 23, 36. and they bound him with two new cords; not with one only, left it fhould not be fufficient to hold him, knowing his ftrength, but with two, and thefe not old worn-out ones, but new ones juit made, and very ftrong; and, as Fofeph Kimchi noted by Ben Melech, were trebled, or made of three cords or thongs for greater fecurity; and of flax, as the following verfe intimates, and fuch and therefore it muft bejare moft’ firm and ftrongeft to hold any thing; hence’ nets were made of flax to hold creatures in, fith, fowl or beafts': and brought him up from the makejrack; the place, as Kimchi fays, where the men of %udab dwelt, being higher than the rock; tho” rather the true fenfe is, they brought him up out untolof the cave in the rock.

¥. 11. Then 3000 men of Fudah went up to the top of the rock of Etam, &c.| Or went down ®; that is, into the cave of the rock of Fram, as the Septuagint and Vulgate Latin verfions; and fo it is taken by David de Pomis* for a cave dug in the rock: this was a large number that went to take one man, the reafon is, they knew his great ftrength; and faid to Samfon, knoweft thou not that the Phiiftines are rulers over us?

| y. 14. And when he came unto Lebi, &c.] The place which was afterwards fo called, from what happened there at this time, and where the Pdilifines were {pread, ¥. g. this, according to Bunting*, was fix miles from Etam: the Pbiliftines bouted againft him for joy that they had got him into their hands, and in the citcumftances he was, being bound, fo that they had nothing to fear from him: and the /pirit of the Lord came mightily upon Aim; as it at times did, and had done before; the Targum is, “ the Spirit of might ‘ie *Y

Lord,” which gave hin: courage and refolution of mind, and great {trength of body, even more but than he had at other times: and the cords that were upon his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire; as eafily parted as the flax when fire takes it, which is confumed at once: aad bis boudw loofed off from his bands, by which it appears that both arms and hands were bound with the cords;) his arms were pinioned clofe to his body, as ‘well as his hands were tied together;

of Chrift’s loofing himfelf from the cords of death, that is, the cafling:away the jaw-bone,; fo Kimchi, Bea Gerfom thinks it-was an high place where ~~ it was thrown, and fo fignifies the elevation or — lifting up of the jaw-bone, as the Septuagint ver- — fion renders it.. ee yr. 18. And be was fore a-thirft, &c.} Which — ‘Fo/ephus " thinks came upon him as a rebuke unto ~ him, for afcribing the victory he had ‘obtained to his own ftrength, and not to the Lord, whereby — and thele, as in (he was fhewn his own weaknefs, and how eafily his ftrength could be reduced-; but for this there feems no foundation; it is not to wondered at in a nathis may be an emblem tural way, that he fhould be a-thirft after he had been bound with cords, after he had fo exerted the original, meléed away', like wax before the fire, or fnow before the fun, fo eafily were thefe bands feparated from him;

Abts ti. 24. himfelf, and flain 1000 men with his own hand, y.15. And be found a new jaw-bone of an afs, &¢.1 “That is, the jaw-bone of an afs lately killed, which perhaps had fome of the flefh upon it, the blood or purulent matter on it; for archi fays, he had read in the books of phyficians, that the word here ufed fignifies the fanies or purulent ter of a wound; however, it was moift, and frefh, and fo tough and ftrong, and would bear to ftrike with, and give hard blows with, when an old jawbone would have been dry and brittle; and perhaps the afles of thofe countries were larger than ours, and fo their jaw-bones bigger and ftronger: and put forth bis band and took it, it lay near being fo difpofed by the. providence of God at the time and place where his cords were loofed from him, and he reached and took it up: and flew 1000 men therewith; fach was his great ftrength, that every blow he gave in all probability killed a man; there have been wonderful things done by mighty warriors, but none like this; they have by the ufe of warlike weapons deftroyed many, as with the {word or fpear, but not with fuch an inftrument. One of David’s worthies flew 300 men at one time with his fpear, 1 Chron. xi. 11. and Scanderbeg with his fword flew great numbers of the Turks with his own hand at different times; what comes neareft to this is Shamgar’s killing Philiftines with an ox-goad, ch. iii. 31. this may be an emblem of the weak and contemptible means of the gofpel, the foolifhnefs of preaching, by which Chrift has conquered and fubdued multiand after he had celebrated this victory with a triumphant fong; and it may alfo be obferved, that it was fo ordered in providence, that he might in this be a type of the Mefiiah, who on the crofs, as he was fpoiling principalities and powers, and mat- triumphing over them in it, faid, I thirft, Fobn xix. 28. and called on the Lord, and faid, im prayer to him: thou baft given this great deliverance into ¢he hand of thy fervant, he owns the deliverance to be great, as indeed it was, and that it was of — the Lord, and he only his fervant and inftrument in it: and now foall I die for thirft; when my lite him, has been faved in fo wonderful a manner, and fo” great a falvation has been wrought by my hands, as an inftrument: and fall into the bands of the un= circumcifed? which would be matter of joy and triumph to them, and mar the glory of the deliverance wrought.

¥. 19. And God clave an hollow place that was iz the jaw, and there came water thereout, &c.) A focket, in which was faftened one of the teeth, and was in the form of a mortar; fo Farchi and, Ben Melech, as the word for an hollow place fignifies; one of the grinders was knocked out, and fo the place where it had been was left hollow, and out of that fprung a ftream or flow of water; 600 which was very wonderful, fince out of fuch a place rather blood, or purulent matter, would na- | turally have iffued; the Zargum is, *¢ the Lord ~ clave the rock which was in the jaw;” which Kimcdi interprets thus, the rock was under the jaw, tudes to himfelf. and the rock,was made as a hollow place, and “ y¥. 16. nd Samfon faid, 8&c.] In a kind of triumphant fong: with the jaw-bone of an afs, heaps upon heaps; that is, with fuch an inftrument he had flain heaps of men, who lay dead in heaps upon one another; in the words for an 4/3, and for an heap, is an elegant paronomefia, not eafy be exprefied in our language: with the jaw.of an| als bave I flain 1000 men;

y.17. And it came to pafs, when he had made an end of fpeaking, 8c.) Of delivering out the above fong, which very probably confifted of much more than what is here exprefled: that he caft away the jaw-bone out of his hand; which he held in his hand while he was fpeaking, as a token of the wonders God had wrought by him through the means of it, and fo ferved to animate him to praife and thankfulnefs; but having no further ule for it, threw it away: and called the place Ramath-lehi therefore they call it maéées, a mortar: the fenfe feems to be this, that. the place on which Sam/ow caft the jaw-bone, was a rock, and there God clave. an hollow-place,.out of which water {fprung, and which perhaps,was under the jaw-bone, and fprung tojunder it, and through it; and fo Fofepbus fays °y that God at his prayer brought a fweet and large: this he faid not in a fountain out of a certain rock; and the words of the text will bear to be rendered, and Ged clave’ an hollow place, which is in Lebi; that is, in the place called Lehi, ¥. 9, 14. and not in the jawbone itfelf: and when he had drank, his fpirit came again, and he revived; his {pirit was funk and gone, as it were, but upon drinking a draught of this: water he was refrefhed.and cheered, recovered his fpirits, and became brifk and lively: wherefore be called the name thereof En-bakkore; that is, * the fountain of him that was calling;” of Sam/on that called upon God in prayer, and was heard, in me+ mory of which he gave it this name; fo the Zargum, ‘¢ therefore its name was called the fountain | that was given through the prayer of Saimfon ec he! which is in Lebi unto this day; or in the jaw-bone; snot that the jaw-bone continued unto the time of = proud and haughty manner, afcribing it to himfelf, as Fofephus fuggefts ™, fince he takes notice of the mean inftrument he ufed; which fhewed that he was fenfible it was not done by his own power, but by the power of God, which enabled him by fuch weak means to do fuch wonderful things.

the writer of this book, but the name of the place where this miracle was wrought, which was in many Lehi; continued to be called Ex-hakkore unto time, and it ntay be the fountain itfelf alfo; nay, Glycas ® fays, who lived but about 600 years ago, that the fountain continued unto his time, and was to be feen in the fuburbs of Eveztheropolis, and was called the fountain of the jawfalvations and deliverances, yet was not the that!author of perfect falvation, fee ch. xiii. 5. howcontinued!ever he was a check upon the Péiliftines, and protected the Draelites from heavier oppreffions, which otherwife they would have come under; and no doubt adminiftred juftice and judgment among them, and was an inftrument of their reformation, bone. and of preferving them from idolatry; for in fuch

¥. 20. And he judged Ifrael in the days of the Phi-\things the work of a judge chiefly lay: fome from iiftines 20 years.| Whilft they had the power over hence obferve, that this fhews the years of fervi- the J/raelites, who were not entirely delivered out;tude and bondage are included in the years of the of their hands by Sam/on, he only began to deli- Judges, ver them, but did not completely do it; though| he got many advantages over them, and wrought