Lyrics · Judges
The Jawbone and the Gates
Judges 15:1-16:3
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About this song
About this song
This song belongs to the Judges collection. One recording is available to play here, with the complete lyrics below.
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Named in this songSamsonHebron
About the passage
Judges 15: Retaliation consumes the Philistine conflict
Judges 15 is driven by the logic of retaliation. Samson returns to his wife and learns she has been given to another man. He answers by burning Philistine crops, vineyards, and olives with animals carrying firebrands. The Philistines then burn the woman and her father, fulfilling the very threat that had hung over the wedding feast. Samson retaliates again. When Philistine forces enter Judah, three thousand Judahites do not mobilize against their rulers but to bind Samson and surrender him. The Spirit comes mightily upon him, the cords fall away, and he strikes a thousand men with a fresh jawbone. Triumph is immediately followed by thirst, and Samson must cry to the LORD for life-giving water. The chapter ends by preserving both his extraordinary deliverance and his continuing dependence.
Study Judges 15 in depthJudges 16: Strength, betrayal, blindness, and Samson’s final act
Judges 16 places Samson’s greatest visible strength beside his deepest vulnerability. At Gaza he escapes an ambush by carrying away the city gate, a public humiliation of Philistine security. Later he loves Delilah, who is paid by Philistine rulers to discover the source of his strength. Samson repeatedly gives false answers, and Delilah repeatedly tests them in front of hidden enemies. He eventually tells her all his heart and connects his uncut hair with consecration from the womb. Once he is shaved, the decisive loss is that the LORD departs. Samson is blinded, bound, and made to grind in prison. At a feast to Dagon, the Philistines display him as proof of their god’s victory. Samson prays once more for strength, pulls down the supporting pillars, and dies with his captors.
Study Judges 16 in depth


