Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Samson, because his wife was taken from him and given to another, sets fire to the crops of the Philistines by means of 150 torches tied to the tails of three hundred foxes. Therefore the Philistines burn his wife with her father. Next, in verse 8, Samson strikes them with a great slaughter. Therefore they, having assembled an army, demand that the men of Judah hand Samson over to them. These deliver him bound, but he, breaking his bonds, kills a thousand Philistines with the jawbone of a donkey, verse 15. Then, being thirsty, he prays and draws water from the same jawbone, quenching his thirst, verse 18.
Vulgate Text: Judges 15:1-20
1. After a little while, when the days of the wheat harvest were at hand, Samson came, wishing to visit his wife, and brought her a kid of the goats. And when he wished to enter her room as usual, her father prevented him, saying: 2. I thought you hated her, and so I gave her to your friend; but she has a sister who is younger and more beautiful — let her be your wife instead. 3. Samson answered him: From this day there will be no fault in me against the Philistines; for I will do you harm. 4. And he went and caught three hundred foxes, and tied their tails together, and fastened torches in the middle; 5. which he set on fire and released, so that they might run here and there. They immediately went into the fields of the Philistines. When these were set ablaze, both the already gathered grain and the still standing stalks were burned, to such an extent that the flame also consumed vineyards and olive groves. 6. And the Philistines said: Who did this? They were told: Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnathite — because he took his wife and gave her to another, he has done this. And the Philistines went up and burned both the woman and her father. 7. Samson said to them: Even though you have done this, I will still take vengeance on you, and then I will be satisfied. 8. And he struck them with a great slaughter, so that in astonishment they placed their legs on their thighs. And going down, he dwelt in the cave of the rock of Etam. 9. Therefore the Philistines went up into the land of Judah and encamped in the place that was later called Lehi, that is, jawbone, where their army was deployed. 10. And the men of the tribe of Judah said to them: Why have you come up against us? They answered: We have come to bind Samson and repay him for what he has done to us. 11. Three thousand men of Judah therefore went down to the cave of the rock of Etam and said to Samson: Do you not know that the Philistines rule over us? Why did you wish to do this? He said to them: As they did to me, so I did to them. 12. We have come to bind you, they said, and deliver you into the hands of the Philistines. Samson said to them: Swear and promise me that you will not kill me. 13. They said: We will not kill you, but we will deliver you bound. And they bound him with two new ropes and took him from the rock of Etam. 14. When he came to the place of the Jawbone, and the Philistines came shouting to meet him, the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him, and just as linen threads are consumed at the smell of fire, so the bonds with which he was tied were broken and loosed. 15. And finding a jawbone, that is, the mandible of a donkey, which was lying there, he seized it and killed with it a thousand men. 16. And he said: With the jawbone of a donkey, with the mandible of a colt of donkeys, I have destroyed them and struck down a thousand men. 17. And when he had finished singing these words, he threw the jawbone from his hand and called the name of that place Ramath-Lehi, which means the lifting up of the jawbone. 18. And being very thirsty, he cried to the Lord and said: You have given this great salvation and victory into the hand of Your servant; behold, I die of thirst and will fall into the hands of the uncircumcised. 19. So the Lord opened the molar tooth in the jawbone of the donkey, and waters came forth from it. Having drunk them, he revived his spirit and recovered his strength. For this reason the name of that place was called the Spring of the One Who Called Upon, from the Jawbone, to the present day. 20. And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines for twenty years.
Verse 3: No Fault in Me against the Philistines
3. FROM THIS DAY THERE WILL BE NO FAULT IN ME AGAINST THE PHILISTINES; FOR I WILL DO YOU HARM — as if to say: I will avenge the injury inflicted on me in the taking of my wife; therefore impute the calamities I will bring upon you to yourselves, not to me. Moreover Samson chiefly intended to avenge the public injuries inflicted on the whole people by the Philistines, but passing these over in silence, he casts his private wrongs at them, lest the Philistines turn their anger and arms against the whole people, rather than against himself alone. For he was challenging them all, as it were, to a duel — which was a work of heroic strength, as well as of prudence and charity toward his own countrymen.
Verse 4: Three Hundred Foxes
4. HE CAUGHT THREE HUNDRED FOXES. — From this it is clear that Samson was as cunning as he was strong, since he overcame and caught by guile foxes so full of guile. The saying is well-known: "An old fox is not caught in a trap." But he himself knew how to play the fox with foxes, and did what Lysander used to say: "If the lion's skin is not enough, sew on the fox's hide" — that is, what you cannot accomplish by force, accomplish by cunning.
AND HE TIED THEIR TAILS TOGETHER. — Samson did not wish to tie torches to individual foxes, lest each one hide in its own den and extinguish the torches. Rather, he tied individual torches to the tails of pairs of foxes, so that while one tries to escape the torches in one direction and the other in another direction, they would flee into the fields full of grain and set them on fire.
AND HE FASTENED TORCHES IN THE MIDDLE. — For "torches," the Hebrew has lappidim, that is, firebrands, torches, burning sticks made of pine, cedar, cypress, and other resinous material. Moreover, these foxes, continually fleeing from the fire pursuing their tails (for foxes greatly dread fire), ran to the grain fields to hide in them, thinking they could escape the fire. But then fleeing again from the burning fields, they ran into more and more fields, and likewise set those on fire. Therefore they burned not only a great many crops, but also vineyards and olive groves. Thus Samson inflicted enormous damage on the Philistines.
Tropologically, St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, and others take foxes to mean heretics: first, because in both there is great deceit and the art of deception. Second, these foxes are separated at the head but joined at the tail; because among heretics there are as many opinions as there are heads, yet all conspire in the end to attack the orthodox faith. Samson therefore catching foxes represents a teacher refuting heretics and through them burning the books and synagogues of heresies.
Verse 5: The Crops Burned
5. BOTH THE ALREADY GATHERED GRAIN AND THAT STILL STANDING ON THE STALK — that is, the crops both already reaped and gathered into heaps, and those not yet reaped and still standing in the field.
Verse 6: They Burned the Woman and Her Father
6. AND THEY BURNED BOTH THE WOMAN AND HER FATHER — because by her second marriage she had given Samson the occasion for burning their crops. Josephus adds that her relatives also were burned. Behold, this woman, wishing to escape the burning that the Philistines had threatened her with, by her treachery fell back into the same fire.
Verse 8: He Struck Them with a Great Slaughter
8. AND HE STRUCK THEM WITH A GREAT SLAUGHTER; SO THAT IN ASTONISHMENT THEY PLACED THEIR LEGS ON THEIR THIGHS — which is a sign of intense and anxious thought, for when we are as it were stupefied, we tend to place the shin of one leg on the other thigh. So St. Augustine and Hugh of St. Victor.
This is the second blow inflicted by Samson on the Philistines in this chapter; we shall hear of the third, dealt with the jawbone, at verse 15.
HE DWELT IN THE CAVE OF THE ROCK OF ETAM — which was situated in the tribe of Judah. He did not withdraw there out of fear, but, as Dionysius says, so that he might more quietly devote himself to God, at whose impulse he was performing these deeds.
Verse 13: They Bound Him
13. AND THEY BOUND HIM. — Samson could have resisted his own people, but he chose not to, so as to keep them safe and unharmed from the Philistines. In this he gave a distinguished example of legal justice and civic charity alike, because he exposed his own life to the danger of death for the public safety of his citizens and the commonwealth.
Allegorically, Samson here was a type of Christ, who was bound by His own countrymen the Jews and delivered to Pilate and the Romans, to be crucified by them. So St. Augustine.
Verse 14: The Bonds Were Broken
14. AND JUST AS LINEN THREADS ARE CONSUMED AT THE SMELL OF FIRE — that is, Samson broke the ropes most easily, just as dry linen threads, as soon as they sense the heat of fire, are burned.
AND FINDING A JAWBONE, THAT IS, THE MANDIBLE OF A DONKEY, WHICH WAS LYING THERE. — In Hebrew: a jawbone teria, that is, fresh — meaning moist and still dripping with fluid. So the Chaldean.
Verse 15: A Thousand Men with the Jawbone
HE KILLED A THOUSAND MEN WITH IT. — For donkeys, just as they have large and hard heads, so also have hard jawbones, especially in Syria, where they are larger and stronger than ours. Although naturally it could hardly happen that a single jawbone could kill a thousand men, the power of God was with him, which both preserved the jawbone in its strength and gave Samson the strength to kill a thousand men with it.
Symbolically, with the jawbone of a donkey Samson struck a thousand Philistines: For a man given over to the flesh, to gluttony, and to luxury (as the Philistines were) is nothing other than a jaw or cheekbone, says Clement of Alexandria. Just as Hercules felled so many monsters not with a spear but with a club, so Samson turned the jawbone into a club and laid low his enemies with it.
Mystically, St. Ambrose takes the jawbone to mean patience, which is the conqueror of all things.
Verse 16: With the Jawbone of a Donkey
16. AND HE SAID: WITH THE JAWBONE OF A DONKEY, WITH THE MANDIBLE OF A COLT OF DONKEYS, I HAVE DESTROYED THEM — in Hebrew there is a beautiful paronomasia: Bilchi chamor chamorathaim, which Pagninus, Cajetan, Vatablus, and the Rabbis translate: With the jawbone of a donkey I struck a heap of two heaps. He plays on the word chamor, that is, donkey, which is derived from chomer, that is, a heap.
Abulensis, Serarius, and others more correctly judge that by this canticle Samson was giving thanks to God, because by His help alone, through a single jawbone, he had felled the army of the Philistines.
Verse 18: He Was Very Thirsty
18. AND BEING VERY THIRSTY — from the exertion both of the journey and of slaying so many Philistines.
Verse 19: The Lord Opened the Molar Tooth
19. SO THE LORD OPENED A MOLAR TOOTH IN THE JAWBONE OF THE DONKEY, AND WATERS CAME FORTH FROM IT. — St. Ambrose, Epistle 70: "By God's mercy, when he had thrown down the jawbone, He opened a cleft in it, and a spring burst forth from it." St. Jerome in the Epitaph of Paula: "He brought forth a spring from the molar tooth of the jawbone."
Note that the spring burst forth from the ground into the jawbone, and from there it gushed, so that the miracle would appear greater. For since he, fighting most vigorously and slaying Philistines with the jawbone, had worked up an enormous thirst, God through the same jawbone provided a remedy for his thirst, drawing forth from it a perennial spring of water. Learn here how God works great things through vile and small things, such as through a jawbone.
THE SPRING OF THE ONE WHO CALLED, FROM THE JAWBONE. — St. Jerome in the Epitaph of Paula relates that this spring had lasted until his own times. Indeed Glycas too says: "This spring is seen to this day in the suburb of Eleutheropolis, and is called the Spring of the Jawbone."
Tropologically, St. Gregory, Book XIII of the Morals, chapter VI: "The jawbone represents the holy preachers of the Church. Through them the holy Church crushes the wicked from their vices and, as it were swallowing them, converts them into her own members. And the jawbone thrown to the ground afterwards poured forth water, because the bodies of preachers given over to death showed great miracles to the peoples."
Verse 20: He Judged Israel Twenty Years
20. AND HE JUDGED ISRAEL IN THE DAYS OF THE PHILISTINES FOR TWENTY YEARS — during which the Philistines were oppressing the Hebrews. From this it is clear, first, that Samson's years ran concurrently with the 40 years of servitude, as I said at chapter 13, verse 1. It is clear, second, that Samson truly was a Judge of Israel. However, he was unlike the other Judges, who fought through armies; for he alone fought against armies, routed them, and killed them. It is clear, third, that he judged for 20 years.