Hakim-hakim 15:14--16:3
Konteks15:14 When he arrived in Lehi, the Philistines shouted as they approached him. But the Lord’s spirit empowered 1 him. The ropes around his arms were like flax dissolving in 2 fire, and they 3 melted away from his hands. 15:15 He happened to see 4 a solid 5 jawbone of a donkey. He grabbed it 6 and struck down 7 a thousand men. 15:16 Samson then said,
“With the jawbone of a donkey
I have left them in heaps; 8
with the jawbone of a donkey
I have struck down a thousand men!”
15:17 When he finished speaking, he threw the jawbone down 9 and named that place Ramath Lehi. 10
15:18 He was very thirsty, so he cried out to the Lord and said, “You have given your servant 11 this great victory. But now must I die of thirst and fall into hands of the Philistines?” 12 15:19 So God split open the basin 13 at Lehi and water flowed out from it. When he took a drink, his strength 14 was restored and he revived. For this reason he named the spring 15 En Hakkore. 16 It remains in Lehi to this very day. 15:20 Samson led 17 Israel for twenty years during the days of Philistine prominence. 18
16:1 Samson went to Gaza. There he saw a prostitute and went in to have sex with her. 19 16:2 The Gazites were told, 20 “Samson has come here!” So they surrounded the town 21 and hid all night at the city gate, waiting for him to leave. 22 They relaxed 23 all night, thinking, 24 “He will not leave 25 until morning comes; 26 then we will kill him!” 16:3 Samson spent half the night with the prostitute; then he got up in the middle of the night and left. 27 He grabbed the doors of the city gate, as well as the two posts, and pulled them right off, bar and all. 28 He put them on his shoulders and carried them up to the top of a hill east of Hebron. 29
[15:14] 2 tn Heb “burned with.”
[15:15] 5 tn Heb “fresh,” i.e., not decayed and brittle.
[15:15] 6 tn Heb “he reached out his hand and took it.”
[15:15] 7 tn The Hebrew text adds “with it.” This has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.
[15:16] 8 tn The precise meaning of the second half of the line (חֲמוֹר חֲמֹרָתָיִם, khamor khamoratayim) is uncertain. The present translation assumes that the phrase means, “a heap, two heaps” and refers to the heaps of corpses littering the battlefield. Other options include: (a) “I have made donkeys of them” (cf. NIV; see C. F. Burney, Judges, 373, for a discussion of this view, which understands a denominative verb from the noun “donkey”); (b) “I have thoroughly skinned them” (see HALOT 330 s.v. IV cj. חמר, which appeals to an Arabic cognate for support); (c) “I have stormed mightily against them,” which assumes the verb חָמַר (khamar, “to ferment; to foam; to boil up”).
[15:17] 9 tn Heb “from his hand.”
[15:17] 10 sn The name Ramath Lehi means “Height of the Jawbone.”
[15:18] 11 tn Heb “you have placed into the hand of your servant.”
[15:18] 12 tn Heb “the uncircumcised,” which in context refers to the Philistines.
[15:19] 13 tn The word translated “basin” refers to a circular-shaped depression in the land’s surface.
[15:19] 15 tn Heb “named it”; the referent (the spring) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[15:19] 16 sn The name En Hakkore means “Spring of the one who cries out.”
[15:20] 17 tn Traditionally, “judged.”
[15:20] 18 tn Heb “in the days of the Philistines.”
[16:1] 19 tn Heb “and he went in to her.” The idiom בּוֹא אֶל (bo’ ’el, “to go to”) often has sexual connotations.
[16:2] 20 tc Heb “To the Gazites, saying.” A verb is missing from the MT; some ancient Greek witnesses add “it was reported.”
[16:2] 21 tn Heb “And they surrounded.” The rest of the verse suggests that “the town” is the object, not “the house.” Though the Gazites knew Samson was in the town, apparently they did not know exactly where he had gone. Otherwise, they would could have just gone into or surrounded the house and would not have needed to post guards at the city gate.
[16:2] 22 tn Heb “and they lay in wait for him all night in the city gate.”
[16:2] 23 tn Heb “were silent.”
[16:2] 25 tn The words “He will not leave” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
[16:2] 26 tn Heb “until the light of the morning.”
[16:3] 27 tn Heb “And Samson lay until the middle of the night and arose in the middle of the night.”
