nn nss, menns also om, heap. If one were to thence ; whereas the statement is quite clear imitnto tho passnge in English, snpposing that God clave the holl!YID place wM.ch is that the jaw of e. sheep ha.d been the imple- in Lehi (hal-Lehi, ver. 9, note), and that a ment, it might run something like thi&-By spring of water came out, to which Samson the jaw of a sheep they fell heap 'UJ}O'TI, heap. gave the name E71,-hakkoreh, the spring of A Latin imitation is, Ma:r,illa cervi, acervwm him that called upon God, which name con- acervos (Bochart). He e.dds, as if in explana- tinued till the time of the writer. The spring tion, With the jaw of om, ass have I suuim, a apparently continued till the time of St. thoiisand, men. So the women sang, Saul Jerome, and of other later writers, in tho hath slain his thousands, and David his seventh, twelfth, and fourteenth centuries; ten thousand,s (1 Sam. xviii. 7). And a Latin but Robinson was unable to identify it with song is quoted, in which Aurelian is made any certainty ('B. R.,' ii. 64). The worcl to say after the Sarmatic war-" Mille Sar- translated the (not a) hollow place (ham· matas, mille Francos, Semel et semel occidi- maktesh) means a mortar; also the =ity in mus, Mille Persas qumrimus" (Bp. Patrick the jaw from which the molar teeth grow. on Judges xv.). The hollow ground from which the spring Ver. 17 .-lll:&de an end of speaking, i. e. rose, with which Samson -quenched his of reciting the song about the heaps of slain. thirst, from its shape and from the connec· It is singular that the word rendered speak- tiou with hal-Lechi (the jawbone) was called ing might also be rendered destroying, as in hammaktesh. In Zeph. i. 11 it is also a. 2 Chron. xxii. 10. Called that place Re.me.th- proper name, apparently of some spot near lechi, i. e. the height of Lechi, or of the jaw- Jerusalem. The name thereof, i. e. of the bO'Tl,C, or, rather, the throwing away of the fountain, with which thereof, which is in the jawbone. He commemorated the exact spot feminine gender, agrees. Which is in Lehi where the slaughter ceased and the weapon unto this day. Tia.is punctnation does not was thrown away by giving it the name of agree with the Hebrew accents, which put a Ramath-Lechi, or, as it was called for short- strong stop after Lehi. The Hebrew accents ness, Lechi (or hal-Lechi). rather convey the sense that the name En- Ver. 18.-He was sore a.thirst. The in- hakkoreh continued to be the name of the credible exertions which he had made in pur· well unto the day of the writer. suing and slaying the Philistines put him in Ver. 20. -And he judged Israel, &c. danger of his life from'.thirst. He thought he See eh. xvi. 31. It looks as if it had been. the should die, and be found and abused by his intention to close the history of S_amson uncircumcised foes. His only resource was with· these words, but that eh. xvi. was sub- prayer to God, who had helped him hitherto. sequently added, possibly from other sources. We may note by the way the.t the more God Compare the close of chs. xx. and n:i. •of the gives, the more he encourages us to ask. .. Gospel of St. John. A ppssible explanation, Ver. 19. -But (or, and) God elave, &c. however, of this verse bemg,.placed here is Cf. Exod. xvii. 6 ; Numb. :x:x. 8', ·n. The that it results from the stat~ment in ver. 19, A. V. (o.s the Septuagint and Vulgate seem that Samson's spirit came again, and he re- to have done, and Luther and others) has vived, or came to life again, after being on quite misconceived the statement in the the very point of death; and, adds the text, as if God had cloven e. hollow place in writer, he judged Israel after this for twenty the jawbone, and brought out the water • years.
HOMILETICS. Vers--: 9=.20.--.:..:.Man witlwut God, and man with God. • These 3000 men of Judah of wnom we read in ver. 11 present us with a pitiable view of man's spirit crushed by misfortune, when it is not upheld by trust in Almighty God. These men of Judah were among those who did evil in the sight of the Lord, a.nd were m conse- quence delivered into the hand of the Philistines. But this chastisement, instead of loading them to repent of their sin and folly in forsaking God and putting their trust in false gods, only led to a kind of sullen despair. They said in their heads," There is no hope: no; for I have loved strangers, and after them will I go" (Jer. ii. 25). Utterly unmindful of their high privileges and vocation as the people of God, they acquiesce in their own degradation: "The Philistines are rulers over us." They had rather not be disturbed. Let us alone, they said. Let us be as we are, fallen, sunken, degraded. All good within them was blunted and quenched. Self-respect was gone;' love of country was gone; aspiration after all that is good and high was gone; courage, honour, enterprise, love of freedom, pride in their own matchle~s institutions, remembrance of a glorious past, hope for a glorious future, all was crushed within M2 164 THE BOOK OF JUDGES. [CH. XV. 9--20.