Judges 15:8 - Printer Friendly

ESV: And he struck them hip and thigh with a great blow, and he went down and stayed in the cleft of the rock of Etam.

NIV: He attacked them viciously and slaughtered many of them. Then he went down and stayed in a cave in the rock of Etam.

NASB: So he struck them ruthlessly with a great slaughter; and afterward he went down and lived in the cleft of the rock of Etam.

CSB: He tore them limb from limb and then went down and stayed in the cave at the rock of Etam.

NLT: So he attacked the Philistines with great fury and killed many of them. Then he went to live in a cave in the rock of Etam.

KJV: And he smote them hip and thigh with a great slaughter: and he went down and dwelt in the top of the rock Etam.

NKJV: So he attacked them hip and thigh with a great slaughter; then he went down and dwelt in the cleft of the rock of Etam.

Samson has sworn to avenge the cruel deaths of his former wife and father-in-law. This was the Philistine region's revenge for when Samson burned the crops and harvests around their town. That, in turn, was Samson's retaliation for his father-in-law giving his former bride to another man. Perhaps Samson felt some sense of connection to them. Or, more likely, he simply understood their deaths to be an attack against him which required a response. This typifies the natural cycle of revenge which Scripture warns we should avoid (Romans 12:19–21; Deuteronomy 32:35; Hebrews 10:30).

Regardless of the exact motives, Samson has naively decided this will be his last act of vengeance against the Philistines. The form this revenge takes is unclear. The text uses a Hebrew figure of speech implying total dominance, brutality, and fierce intent. Modern English expressions carrying a similar meaning might be "he went for the throat," or "he kicked their teeth in," or "he made mincemeat out of them." The literal words are not as important as the effect they imply. Whatever Samson did to the Philistines, it was vicious and decisive. Given that he'd already torn a lion apart with his bare hands (Judges 14:6) and killed thirty Philistine men (Judges 14:19), this probably involved a considerable number of deaths.

Samson seems to know the Philistines will come after him this time. Following his "great blow" against them, he takes refuge at a specific place. This is labelled as "the cleft of the rock of Etam." Most likely, this was a local landmark along a valley not far from Samson's hometown of Zorah. As expected, the Philistines will mobilize to capture him, leading to even more escalation and further bloodshed (Judges 15:15).

Judges 15:1–8 follows some unspecified time after the scandalous events of the previous chapter. After Samson stormed out of his wedding feast, the bride's father gave her to someone else. Samson responds to this news by torching Philistine crops. They respond by burning his former bride and her father alive. Samson viciously retaliates, then hides. This leads to another confrontation between Israel and the Philistines.

Samson returns to Timnah to visit his bride, after leaving in a rage when she spoiled his unfair riddle. Her father thought Samson had abandoned her, so she was given to another man. Samson responds by tying animals to torches and setting them loose in Philistine wheat fields. He also burns the harvested crops and olive orchards. The Philistines kill Samson's former bride and father-in-law in retaliation. Samson's vengeance ensues. When the men of Judah turn Samson over to a Philistine army the Lord's Spirit empowers him. Samson slaughters the enemy soldiers with the jawbone of a donkey, and God rescues him from thirst with a miraculous spring of water.

Judges 15 describes a cycle of retribution which continues to spiral from the events of the previous chapter. This results in a Philistine army attempting to capture and kill Samson. Instead, God empowers him to kill masses of the enemy with only a donkey's jawbone. This furthers the Lord's intent to disrupt Philistine control over Israel (Judges 13:5). It does not seem to alter Samson's carnal nature, as his weakness for women continues in the following chapter.

The Book of Judges describes Israel's history from the death of Joshua to shortly before Israel's first king, Saul. Israel fails to complete God's command to purge the wicked Canaanites from the land (Deuteronomy 7:1–5; 9:4). This results in a centuries-long cycle where Israel falls into sin and is oppressed by local enemies. After each oppression, God sends a civil-military leader, labeled using a Hebrew word loosely translated into English as "judge." These appointed rescuers would free Israel from enemy control and govern for a certain time. After each judge's death, the cycle of sin and oppression begins again. This continues until the people of Israel choose a king, during the ministry of the prophet-and-judge Samuel (1 Samuel 1—7).