JugesChapitre 15

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Some time later, during the wheat harvest, Samson went to visit his wife, bringing a young goat. He said, "I'm going in to my wife, into her room." But her father would not let him in.

"I was sure you hated her," her father said, "so I gave her to your best man. Isn't her younger sister better than she is? Take her instead."

But Samson said to them, "This time I have a right to get even with the Philistines. I am going to do them real harm."

So Samson went out and caught three hundred foxes. He took torches, tied the foxes tail to tail, and fastened a torch between each pair of tails.

Then he lit the torches and turned the foxes loose in the standing grain of the Philistines. He burned the stacked sheaves and the standing grain, and the vineyards and olive groves as well.

The Philistines asked, "Who did this?" And they were told, "Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because his wife was taken from him and given to his best man." So the Philistines went up and burned her and her father to death.

Samson said to them, "Since you have acted like this, I swear I will not stop until I have taken my revenge on you."

He struck them down, hip and thigh, with great slaughter. Then he went down and stayed in the cleft of the rock of Etam.

The Philistines came up and camped in Judah, spreading out near Lehi.

The men of Judah asked, "Why have you come up against us?" They answered, "We have come to take Samson prisoner, to do to him as he did to us."

Then three thousand men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam and said to Samson, "Don't you know that the Philistines rule over us? What is this you have done to us?" He answered, "I did to them what they did to me."

They said, "We have come down to tie you up and hand you over to the Philistines." Samson said, "Swear to me that you yourselves will not kill me."

"We will not," they said. "We will only tie you up and hand you over to them. We will certainly not kill you." So they bound him with two new ropes and led him up from the rock.

As he came to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting to meet him. Then the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon him. The ropes on his arms became like flax that has burned in the fire, and the bonds fell away from his hands.

Finding a fresh jawbone of a donkey, he reached out, took it, and struck down a thousand men.

Then Samson said: "With the jawbone of a donkey, heaps upon heaps! With the jawbone of a donkey I have struck down a thousand men." [Footnote: In Hebrew the word for "donkey" and the word for "heap" sound alike, making a play on words.]

When he had finished speaking, he threw the jawbone from his hand, and the place was called Ramath Lehi.

He was very thirsty, so he called out to the LORD: "You have given your servant this great victory. Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?"

Then God split open the hollow place at Lehi, and water came out of it. Samson drank, his strength returned, and he revived. That is why the spring is called En Hakkore, and it is at Lehi to this day.

Samson judged Israel for twenty years in the days of the Philistines.

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Résumé2

Chapitre 15

Main Theme: Samson's revenge campaign against the Philistines culminates in a mighty victory through God's power.

Content: When Samson's father-in-law gives his wife to another man, Samson takes revenge by burning the Philistines' crops with torches tied to 300 jackals. The Philistines kill his former wife and her father, and Samson strikes back with a great defeat of them. The men of Judah hand him over bound to the Philistines, but the Spirit of the Lord comes upon him—he breaks the bonds and kills a thousand men with an ass's jawbone. God answers his prayer for water by opening a spring, and Samson judges Israel for twenty years.

Key Words/Images:

Ass's Jawbone (לְחִי חֲמוֹר): Symbolizes how God uses simple tools for mighty victories.
The Spirit of the Lord (רוּחַ יְהוָה): God's power that comes upon Samson and gives him supernatural strength.
En-Hakkore (עֵין הַקּוֹרֵא): "The Spring of the Caller" – reminds us of God's answer to prayer in times of distress.
Twenty Years as Judge: Marks Samson's role as Israel's leader during Philistine domination.

Contexte historique

Historical and Cultural Context for Judges 15

Events and Customs

The Wheat Harvest (v. 1) took place in May–June in ancient Israel and was a critical economic period. Samson visiting his wife with a young goat as a gift reflects a common custom in antiquity where men brought gifts when visiting. The type of marriage described here, where the wife remains in her father's house and the husband visits, is known from other Semitic cultures and is often called a "visiting marriage." Her father interpreted Samson's absence as rejection and therefore gave his daughter to another—a action motivated economically to preserve the family's honor and secure the daughter's future.

The Burning of the Crops (vv. 4–5) was an extremely serious act in an agricultural culture where one year's harvest could mean the difference between survival and famine. The text mentions both grain shocks (harvested grain), standing grain, and olive groves—meaning both that year's crop and perennial trees that took generations to establish. Such destruction was a known act of war in antiquity and would have economically devastated an entire community for several years.

Places

The Rock of Etam (vv. 8, 11) was a natural fortress in the hill country between Judah and the Philistine coastal plain. The area has many caves and inaccessible rock formations that made it ideal as a refuge. A village named Etam is mentioned in other texts (1 Chron 4:3; 2 Chron 11:6), but the exact location of the rock formation is uncertain.

Lehi (vv. 9, 14, 17, 19) means "jaw" or "jawbone" in Hebrew. The place name "Lehi" may have existed before the event, or the name may have been given as a memorial to the incident with the jawbone. The text gives two explanations of the name: "Ramat-Lehi" (the height of the jaw) and "En-Hakkore" (the spring of the caller). Such double name explanations are common in biblical narratives and mark places' significance for later generations.

Language and Expressions

The Hebrew word שׁוּעָלִים (shu'alim, v. 4) is traditionally translated as "foxes," but can also mean jackals. Jackals live in larger packs than foxes and would have been easier to catch in large numbers. The number 300 may indicate a large-scale operation or be a round number for "many."

The expression "put hand on the thigh" (שׁוֹק עַל־יָרֵךְ, v. 8) is an idiom meaning complete destruction or a crushing defeat. It may originally refer to a wrestling technique or method of slaughter.

Maktesh (מַכְתֵּשׁ, v. 19), translated "depression" or "mortar," may refer to a natural hollow in the rock. That God "split open" this place to provide water has parallels with wilderness journey narratives where God gives water from the rock.

Personnages2

Samson7 Timna1

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Mots-clés7

Samson — A biblical judge and national hero in Israel known for his supernatural strength, given by God.
Philistines — An ancient people who lived in the coastal regions of Canaan and were enemies of Israel during several periods.
Jawbone of an donkey — The weapon Samson used to kill a thousand Philistines, serving as a symbol of his divine strength and victory over the enemy.
Lehi — The place where Samson defeated the Philistines with the jawbone of a donkey; it means "jaw" in Hebrew.
En-hakkeshet — A miraculous spring that appeared after Samson prayed to God for help when he was thirsty following his battle against the Philistines.
Saul — A town mentioned in Judges 15, where Samson was held captive by his own countrymen before being handed over to the Philistines.
TRAP — A technique or strategy used to deceive someone or cause them to be caught, as when the Philistines tried to capture Samson.