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Judges 15:16-18
New English Translation
Judges 15:16-18
New English Translation
16 Samson then said,
“With the jawbone of a donkey
I have left them in heaps;[a]
with the jawbone of a donkey
I have struck down a thousand men!”
17 When he finished speaking, he threw the jawbone down[b] and named that place Ramath Lehi.[c]
18 He was very thirsty, so he cried out to the Lord and said, “You have given your servant[d] this great victory. But now must I die of thirst and fall into the hands of these uncircumcised Philistines?”[e]
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Judges 15:16 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”).
- Judges 15:17 tn Heb “from his hand.”
- Judges 15:17 sn The name Ramath Lehi means “Height of the Jawbone.”
- Judges 15:18 tn Heb “you have placed into the hand of your servant.”
- Judges 15:18 tn Heb “the hand of uncircumcised.” “Hand” often represents power or control. “The uncircumcised [ones]” is used as a pejorative and in the context refers to the Philistines.
New English Translation (NET)
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