Introduction: From a Private Quarrel to War With the Philistines
Chapter 15 of Sefer Shoftim continues the story that began with Shimshon's marriage to the woman from Timnah. What at first looked like a private family quarrel becomes here a full campaign between Shimshon and the Philistines: the burning of the fields, a great blow, Shimshon's being handed over by the men of Yehudah, the miracle of the jawbone and the miracle of Ein HaKoreh. We will proceed through the verses in order and see how the commentators, chief among them the Malbim, explain them.
"In the Days of the Wheat Harvest" - Why It Matters to Tell Us When This Happened
וַיְהִי מִיָּמִים בִּימֵי קְצִיר־חִטִּים וַיִּפְקֹד שִׁמְשׁוֹן אֶת־אִשְׁתּוֹ בִּגְדִי עִזִּים וַיֹּאמֶר אָבֹאָה אֶל־אִשְׁתִּי הֶחָדְרָה וְלֹא־נְתָנוֹ אָבִיהָ לָבוֹא׃ - And it came to pass after a time, in the days of the wheat harvest, that Shimshon visited his wife with a kid of the goats, and he said: I will go in to my wife, into the chamber. But her father would not let him enter.
At this stage Shimshon wishes to return to his wife, and so he comes and says, "I will go in to my wife, into the chamber." That her father does not let him enter is self evident, for as we recall the father had given her to his companion, as the father himself will explicitly say in the next verse. But note the opening: "And it came to pass after a time, in the days of the wheat harvest." Why the emphasis on the wheat harvest? Because we will immediately see that the wheat is the central factor in the action Shimshon will carry out against the Philistines: the burning of their standing grain. The verse comes to tell you that this was the stage when all the fields were full of standing grain, when the crop was already truly ready for the harvest. And once you know this, you will understand how enormous a loss the Philistines suffered as a result of this quarrel with Shimshon.
"Is Not Her Younger Sister Better Than She?" - The Hint in the Father in Law's Words
וַיֹּאמֶר אָבִיהָ אָמֹר אָמַרְתִּי כִּי־שָׂנֹא שְׂנֵאתָהּ וָאֶתְּנֶנָּה לְמֵרֵעֶךָ הֲלֹא אֲחוֹתָהּ הַקְּטַנָּה טוֹבָה מִמֶּנָּה תְּהִי־נָא לְךָ תַּחְתֶּיהָ׃ - And her father said: I truly thought that you utterly hated her, so I gave her to your companion. Is not her younger sister better than she? Let her be yours instead of her.
The father says to him, "I truly thought that you utterly hated her" - after all, "his anger was kindled and he went up to his father's house," so what did you expect me to understand from that? I understood that you hated her and left her, and so I gave her to another. And note the wording: he does not say "I gave her to her companion" but "to your companion" - to a friend of yours. As if this were a new man, and we did not return her to her former companion, for that would have caused Shimshon still greater anger.
And what is meant by "Is not her younger sister better than she?" The Malbim says that he hinted to him: your wife set her eyes on another, whereas her younger sister is still innocent and has not set her eyes on any man. In this she is better than she, and therefore "let her be yours instead of her."
"This Time I Am Blameless Toward the Philistines" - Why All the Philistines Are Punished
וַיֹּאמֶר לָהֶם שִׁמְשׁוֹן נִקֵּיתִי הַפַּעַם מִפְּלִשְׁתִּים כִּי־עֹשֶׂה אֲנִי עִמָּם רָעָה׃ - And Shimshon said to them: This time I am blameless toward the Philistines, though I do them harm.
Shimshon says: this time, for what I am about to do to them, I bear no guilt at all; I am blameless toward the Philistines. I am about to do them harm, and they deserve it by law. But one must ask: your dispute is with your father in law, so why do you harm all the Philistines? The Malbim explains: this marriage was carried out in public, and all the Philistines saw this injustice and did not protest. And the gentiles too were warned against forbidden unions - taking a married woman and handing her to another, and you keep silent? For this silence they all deserve punishment.
Three Hundred Foxes and Torches
וַיֵּלֶךְ שִׁמְשׁוֹן וַיִּלְכֹּד שְׁלֹשׁ־מֵאוֹת שׁוּעָלִים וַיִּקַּח לַפִּדִים וַיֶּפֶן זָנָב אֶל־זָנָב וַיָּשֶׂם לַפִּיד אֶחָד בֵּין־שְׁנֵי הַזְּנָבוֹת בַּתָּוֶךְ׃ - And Shimshon went and caught three hundred foxes, and took torches, and turned tail to tail, and put one torch between two tails in the middle.
Shimshon catches three hundred foxes, takes torches, and turns tail to tail: he ties two foxes back to back by their tails, and between the two tails he ties one torch. The foxes would run, and in this way they set the fields ablaze without Shimshon himself having to run and set fires. A fox with a torch behind it becomes a "turbo fox": it does not run, it flies. And in such a state, in a short time he set all the standing grain of the Pelishtim on fire.
Chazal ask: why did Shimshon specifically use foxes? Because with any other animal, when one pulls to the right and the other pulls to the left, the torch would fall. The fox is the only animal that knows, as people say, how to go into reverse: all animals do not step backward, and only the fox also goes backward. That is why he chose it: when one pulls, the other would run after it, and in this way they would succeed in setting all the fields of the Pelishtim ablaze.
Chazal further expound: Shimshon said, let a fox that goes backward come and take retribution from the Pelishtim who went back on their oath. There are two hints in this. The first: you went back on your word: you gave me this woman, and suddenly you go back on it and give her to another. The second, regarding the Pelishtim as a whole: after all, Avimelech swore to Avraham "that you will not deal falsely with me, nor with my son, nor with my grandson," there was an agreement between them that they would not harm one another, so how do the Pelishtim suddenly come and rule over Israel? You went back on the oath. And who will exact retribution from you? An animal that also goes backward.
And why did he use torches? The Malbim says: he wanted to hint to them that you placed a torch between two friends: between a man and his wife you placed fire. And Chazal say: a man and a woman, if they merit, the Shechinah is between them; if they do not merit, fire consumes them. And certainly when it involves someone who cohabits with his fellow's wife, this is literal fire. And when there is fire, it is capable of burning, and if it does burn, do not be surprised that it will be your fields.
וַיַּבְעֶר־אֵשׁ בַּלַּפִּידִים וַיְשַׁלַּח בְּקָמוֹת פְּלִשְׁתִּים וַיַּבְעֵר מִגָּדִישׁ וְעַד־קָמָה וְעַד־כֶּרֶם זָיִת׃ - And he kindled fire in the torches, and sent them into the standing grain of the Pelishtim, and burned up both the stacked sheaves and the standing grain, and also the olive orchards.
"From the stacked sheaves": this is the harvested grain that was made into a stack; "and to the standing grain": the grain still standing in its stalks; "and to the olive orchard": an orchard of olive trees. Everything was burned.
A Question for Study: Why Two Foxes to One Torch?
There is something here that requires understanding: why did he need to tie two together? Seemingly it would have been enough to take one fox, tie a torch to it and let it run, and thus he would have doubled the number of torches: three hundred foxes would have given him three hundred torches, whereas here there are only one hundred and fifty. So why did he go to the trouble of gathering so many? One can say that it is precisely from here that the exposition of Chazal grew regarding the fox that goes backward: he could have made do with a hundred and fifty foxes and a hundred and fifty torches, but he wanted specifically to join two together, so that in practice a situation would arise in which the two foxes cannot run in opposite directions, and one of them necessarily goes backward. And thus the hint would find expression in the act itself: just as the fox goes backward, so too you went back on your oath.
Burning the Woman and Her Father: "Appeasement" the Pelishtim Way
וַיֹּאמְרוּ פְלִשְׁתִּים מִי עָשָׂה זֹאת וַיֹּאמְרוּ שִׁמְשׁוֹן חֲתַן הַתִּמְנִי כִּי לָקַח אֶת־אִשְׁתּוֹ וַיִּתְּנָהּ לְמֵרֵעֵהוּ וַיַּעֲלוּ פְלִשְׁתִּים וַיִּשְׂרְפוּ אוֹתָהּ וְאֶת־אָבִיהָ בָּאֵשׁ׃ - And the Pelishtim said, Who has done this? And they said, Shimshon, the son-in-law of the Timni, because he took his wife and gave her to his companion. And the Pelishtim went up and burned her and her father with fire.
The Philistines ask who caused this terrible damage, and they are told: Shimshon, the son in law of the Timnite, and why did he do this? Because his father in law took his wife and gave her to his companion, an improper act, and Shimshon took revenge on him in this way. And immediately: "And the Philistines went up and burned her and her father with fire." It is all because of him? If so, they burn him and her and her father's house with fire.
This behavior reminds us of the Palestinians of our own day: someone causes trouble, they take him up to a roof and throw him off from above, another one, they cut off his head. This is the method and this is the way. And back then too: someone caused trouble, and immediately they burned him and her, and the matter was over. And what was the goal? To appease Shimshon. They did you harm, we took revenge on him, we settled the score with him, and now Shimshon is supposed to calm down.
"If you act like this" - four explanations of an obscure verse
וַיֹּאמֶר לָהֶם שִׁמְשׁוֹן אִם־תַּעֲשׂוּן כָּזֹאת כִּי אִם־נִקַּמְתִּי בָכֶם וְאַחַר אֶחְדָּל׃ - And Shimshon said to them: If you act like this, then I will surely take vengeance on you, and afterward I will cease.
This sentence is obscure, and therefore we find several explanations of it, some of which even contradict one another. According to the Radak, Shimshon says to them: This act is a good act, and had you done it at the outset, I would have taken a single revenge on you and that would suffice. But since you did it only now, I will yet take further revenge on you. When did you remember? Only when it hit you in the pocket, when I came and burned your fields, then you remembered that an injustice had been done here, and then you remembered to go and settle the score with the one who did the injustice. Shimshon says to them: Too late, and because of this I will take further revenge on you.
The Metzudat David explains it even more in their favor: Since you did this and took revenge on them, I will not be in a constant argument with you, I will take revenge on you one more time and that is enough. That is, even the late act is a good one, and thanks to it you will gain that I take revenge on you only once; had you not done it at all, I would have taken revenge many times. But since you did do it, I see that there is someone who sought my honor, and therefore I will take revenge only one more time.
The Ralbag goes in the opposite direction: "If you act like this" means, is this how you act? You went and burned my wife and her father with fire? The evil deed they did earlier was not enough, you also burned them? Now that you are acting against me, I am doing you harm. Had you done nothing, fine; but for what you did now there is no forgiveness, and here I take my revenge on you. It follows from this that he was not pleased that they burned them, unlike the first two explanations, according to which he was pleased and the only question was why they had not done it earlier.
And the Malbim, as is his way, is more original. In his view, it pained Shimshon that they burned them, and that is what disturbed him. Shimshon says to them: The fact that you burned them was not because she committed adultery, and not because a deed that ought not be done was carried out, taking a married woman and handing her over publicly to another. About this you were silent, this did not disturb you. What did disturb you? That your standing grain was burned, and then you came to burn them with fire in order to calm me down. I at first thought that a monetary punishment would suffice for that deed, and therefore I struck the fields. But I see that your rate is different, with you the rate is lives, you went and burned them with fire. If so, I too will go by your rate and collect lives from you. And this is what appears immediately afterward: the monetary rate did not suffice, and now I give you a rate according to your own reckoning.
"Leg upon thigh" - why not "thigh upon leg"?
וַיַּךְ אוֹתָם שׁוֹק עַל־יָרֵךְ מַכָּה גְדוֹלָה וַיֵּרֶד וַיֵּשֶׁב בִּסְעִיף סֶלַע עֵיטָם׃ - And he struck them leg upon thigh, a great blow, and he went down and dwelt in the cleft of the rock of Etam.
The expression "leg upon thigh" is not understood, and seemingly it is also not correct: the leg is the lower part of the leg, and the thigh is the upper part connected to the body, and if so it should have said "thigh upon leg," for the thigh is always above the leg. The Radak explains: when the men flee from Shimshon, none of them turns his face toward him, there is no one who tries to confront and fight him, no one stood against him and they all fled from him. And as they flee, he strikes them a blow such that they are overturned on their faces with their legs up, and then the leg is upon the thigh. A person standing upright has his thigh above his leg; and when he is overturned, the matter is reversed and the leg is above the thigh. And this is "and he struck them leg upon thigh": he overturned them all so that they fell on their faces, the leg above and the thigh below.
"And they dwelt in Lechi" - naming the place for the future
וַיַּעֲלוּ פְלִשְׁתִּים וַיַּחֲנוּ בִּיהוּדָה וַיִּנָּטְשׁוּ בַּלֶּחִי׃ - The Philistines went up and camped in Judah, and spread out at Lechi.
The Philistines see the massive blow that Shimshon dealt them, and they come to take revenge on the people of Israel. As we recall, the Philistines rule over Israel, and therefore they allow themselves to come and take revenge on the community if Shimshon is not handed over to them. "Vayinatshu" is a term of spreading out, as in "behold they are spread (nial) over the face of the earth," meaning that they spread out their army in the place called Lechi.
And why is the place called Lechi? This is on account of the future, for later the place will be called this following the miracle of the jawbone (lechi). Similarly we find in the Torah, "and they came to the valley of Eshkol" - why is it called the valley of Eshkol? Because on their return they brought from there a cluster (eshkol); but on the way there was as yet no cluster there. And the answer: since today the name is known as the valley of Eshkol on account of what happened, the narrator describes things as you know them today, and therefore he can tell you that they passed through the valley of Eshkol. But in truth the name came on account of the cluster that was taken on their return. And so too here: on account of the deed that Shimshon is about to do, the place is called Lechi.
"Why have you come up against us" - the claim of the men of Judah
וַיֹּאמְרוּ אִישׁ יְהוּדָה לָמָה עֲלִיתֶם עָלֵינוּ וַיֹּאמְרוּ לֶאֱסוֹר אֶת־שִׁמְשׁוֹן עָלִינוּ לַעֲשׂוֹת לוֹ כַּאֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה לָנוּ׃ - And the men of Judah said: Why have you come up against us? And they said: We have come to bind Shimshon, to do to him as he did to us.
The men of Judah ask the Philistines: Why have you come up against us, are we not your servants? The rule was that a nation ruling over another nation, where the subject nation is a servant to it and pays it taxes, the ruling nation has no permission to come and strike the subject nation. After all, I am your servant and I fulfill your will; you want taxes, I pay you taxes, and paying taxes means that I am subject to your authority. And if I am subject to your authority, what is the point? So that my life should be spared as spoil. It is impossible, then, that I should be subject to your authority and yet you come and strike me. This is their question. And to this the Philistines reply: we have come only to bind Shimshon, to do to him as he did to us.
"Do you not know that the Philistines rule over us" - the law of handing over
וַיֵּרְדוּ שְׁלֹשֶׁת אֲלָפִים אִישׁ מִיהוּדָה אֶל־סְעִיף סֶלַע עֵיטָם וַיֹּאמְרוּ לְשִׁמְשׁוֹן הֲלֹא יָדַעְתָּ כִּי־מֹשְׁלִים בָּנוּ פְּלִשְׁתִּים וּמַה־זֹּאת עָשִׂיתָ לָּנוּ וַיֹּאמֶר לָהֶם כַּאֲשֶׁר עָשׂוּ לִי כֵּן עָשִׂיתִי לָהֶם׃ - And three thousand men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Eitam, and said to Shimshon: Do you not know that the Philistines rule over us? What is this that you have done to us? And he said to them: As they did to me, so I did to them.
The Malbim explains according to the halacha that the Rambam rules: idolaters who said to Israel "give us one of you and we will kill him" - bring us Reuven and we will kill him and spare all of you - they do not hand him over to them, even though they will kill all of them. I do not hand over to you a person of Israel; you want to, take, but I will not deliver Reuven into your hand. And consequently they will kill all of them? Even so, they do not hand him over. And the same law applies to "give us one of you and we will defile her, and if not we will defile all of you" - the same law and the same halacha, I do not hand her over to you; you want to, take.
Unless, says the Rambam, this was a person liable to death like Sheva ben Bichri. Sheva ben Bichri was liable to death, and there the wise woman handed his head over the wall, and thereby Yoav lifted the siege from the city. If so, when it concerns a person liable to death - on the contrary, why should you cause harm to all of us? You are liable to death by the government, and let them take you. And all that we said, that they do not hand over, this is when the person bears no guilt and is not liable to death. And the Malbim adds: "liable to death" is not specifically liability to death according to Torah law; rather, even if according to the law he did nothing, if according to the laws of the government he is liable to death, we do not let him endanger all of us. Since they demand specifically you and you are indeed liable to death by them, and it is not that they merely attached themselves to you baselessly, we hand him over. And likewise if he was a pursuer of the many, that is, endangering the community and doing deeds that bring danger upon all of them, they hand him over, even if they did not single him out and say "bring us Reuven," since he has the status of a pursuer and he causes us harm through his deeds.
According to this, says the Malbim, at first the men of Judah made against him the claim of a pursuer: "Do you not know that the Philistines rule over us, and what is this that you have done to us" - there are people here ruling over us and you strike them? You are pursuing the community and harming all of Israel. And Shimshon answered them: "As they did to me, so I did to them" - I understood that I have a private dispute with them, I did not know that you were connected to the matter, and I did not think that harm would come from this to you.
"Swear to me that you yourselves will not fall upon me"
וַיֹּאמְרוּ לוֹ לֶאֱסׇרְךָ יָרַדְנוּ לְתִתְּךָ בְּיַד־פְּלִשְׁתִּים וַיֹּאמֶר לָהֶם שִׁמְשׁוֹן הִשָּׁבְעוּ לִי פֶּן־תִּפְגְּעוּן בִּי אַתֶּם׃ - They said to him: We have come down to bind you, to hand you over to the Philistines. And Shimshon said to them: Swear to me that you yourselves will not attack me.
They tell him: We came down to bind you, because they had singled you out, and since they singled you out and you are liable to death under the laws of the kingdom, we are therefore permitted to hand you over. Shimshon says to them: I am ready, but swear to me that you yourselves will not attack me. This is puzzling: you are not afraid of the Philistines, yet you are afraid of Israel? The answer is that Shimshon set a boundary for himself never to harm any person from Israel, and therefore he said: If you attack me I will be in trouble, since I cannot strike any of you. Shimshon was no ordinary man; he judged Israel, he was a great man. Chazal say of him that he never even asked one of Israel to carry his staff from one place to another for him. And he tells them: If one of you attacks me or strikes me, I am restricted, I will do nothing to him, and therefore swear to me that you will not strike me. As for the Philistines, if they try to do something, I will deal with them; but toward you I have set a boundary for myself not to harm any person from Israel.
וַיֹּאמְרוּ לוֹ לֵאמֹר לֹא כִּי־אָסֹר נֶאֱסׇרְךָ וּנְתַנּוּךָ בְיָדָם וְהָמֵת לֹא נְמִיתֶךָ וַיַּאַסְרֻהוּ בִּשְׁנַיִם עֲבֹתִים חֲדָשִׁים וַיַּעֲלוּהוּ מִן־הַסָּלַע׃ - They said to him: No, we will only bind you and hand you over to them, but we will not put you to death. And they bound him with two new ropes and brought him up from the rock.
They answer him: You have nothing to worry about, we will only bind you and hand you over to them, but we will not put you to death. And so they bind him with two new ropes and hand him over to the Philistines.
The Miracle at Lechi
הוּא־בָא עַד־לֶחִי וּפְלִשְׁתִּים הֵרִיעוּ לִקְרָאתוֹ וַתִּצְלַח עָלָיו רוּחַ יְהֹוָה וַתִּהְיֶינָה הָעֲבֹתִים אֲשֶׁר עַל־זְרוֹעוֹתָיו כַּפִּשְׁתִּים אֲשֶׁר בָּעֲרוּ בָאֵשׁ וַיִּמַּסּוּ אֱסוּרָיו מֵעַל יָדָיו׃ - He came to Lechi, and the Philistines shouted to meet him. Then the spirit of Hashem came upon him, and the ropes that were on his arms became like flax burned in fire, and his bonds melted off his hands.
Miraculously his bonds became like flax burning in fire, for as soon as it smells fire it is immediately consumed, and so his bonds melted off his hands.
וַיִּמְצָא לְחִי־חֲמוֹר טְרִיָּה וַיִּשְׁלַח יָדוֹ וַיִּקָּחֶהָ וַיַּךְ־בָּהּ אֶלֶף אִישׁ׃ - He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, and he reached out his hand and took it, and struck down a thousand men with it.
He searches for a weapon to strike with, and the only thing he finds is a fresh jawbone of a donkey. "Fresh" means that the donkey had died not long before, and therefore the jawbone was still strong and fresh. He strikes with it and kills a thousand men.
"A Heap, Two Heaps" - Shimshon's Song
וַיֹּאמֶר שִׁמְשׁוֹן בִּלְחִי הַחֲמוֹר חֲמוֹר חֲמֹרָתָיִם בִּלְחִי הַחֲמוֹר הִכֵּיתִי אֶלֶף אִישׁ׃ - And Shimshon said: With the jawbone of a donkey, a heap, two heaps, with the jawbone of a donkey I have struck down a thousand men.
Shimshon composes a song. The Radak explains that "chamor chamoratayim" means a heap and heaps, piles upon piles, for "chamarim chamarim" means heaps. The reference here is not to the donkey (chamor) as an animal, but the word rhymes with "the jawbone of the donkey," and therefore he used the expression chamarim chamarim, heaps upon heaps, piles upon piles.
The Malbim explains: "heaps fell from a nation resembling a donkey." For there is a difficulty here: had the verse said "with the jawbone of a donkey heaps upon heaps" it would have sufficed, since "chamorasayim" is a term of piles and heaps; so what is "chamor chamorasayim"? Rather, "with the jawbone of the donkey" refers to the animal, the donkey; the second "chamor" means heaps; and "chamorasayim" refers to the nation resembling a donkey, which I struck. It emerges that the one struck is also expressed within the word "chamorasayim."
"Ramat Lechi" - a term of casting
וַיְהִי כְּכַלֹּתוֹ לְדַבֵּר וַיַּשְׁלֵךְ הַלְּחִי מִיָּדוֹ וַיִּקְרָא לַמָּקוֹם הַהוּא רָמַת לֶחִי׃ - And it was, when he finished speaking, that he cast the jawbone from his hand, and he called that place Ramat Lechi.
When he finished his song he took the jawbone and cast it from his hand, and called the place "Ramat Lechi." "Ramah" is a term of casting, as in "the horse and its rider He cast into the sea," which the Targum renders "shadi bima." So too in the Gemara: "u'rminhu," "ramya ahadadi," "rami lei" - all these expressions denote casting, throwing from place to place. Here too, because he cast the jawbone from his hand, he called the place Ramat Lechi.
The thirst and the correction: "You have granted through the hand of Your servant"
וַיִּצְמָא מְאֹד וַיִּקְרָא אֶל־יְהֹוָה וַיֹּאמַר אַתָּה נָתַתָּ בְיַד־עַבְדְּךָ אֶת־הַתְּשׁוּעָה הַגְּדֹלָה הַזֹּאת וְעַתָּה אָמוּת בַּצָּמָא וְנָפַלְתִּי בְּיַד הָעֲרֵלִים׃ - And he was very thirsty, and he called out to Hashem and said: You have granted through the hand of Your servant this great deliverance, and now shall I die of thirst and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised?
Shimshon reaches a great thirst and cries out to Hashem. And his claim is: Master of the Universe, You granted through the hand of Your servant this great deliverance, and now shall I die of thirst? What is the connection? Rather, "the Holy One, blessed be He, does not perform a miracle for nothing." It cannot be that He performed a miracle to save me and in the end I die. Was the miracle performed in order to kill me?
And he adds: "and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised" - one of two things: if I remain here I will die of thirst; and if you say I will go to the towns of the Pelishtim so they give me to drink, then the moment I arrive they will see me, and I am weak from all the thirst and from all the battle I waged against the Pelishtim, and in such a state I will fall into their hand.
And what was the significance of Shimshon suddenly becoming thirsty, and what was the reason for it? Let us note: "And Shimshon said: with the jawbone of the donkey heaps upon heaps, with the jawbone of the donkey I struck a thousand men" - where is the Holy One, blessed be He, in this verse? He is not present here. By contrast, immediately after he became thirsty: "and he called out to Hashem and said: You have granted through the hand of Your servant this great deliverance." Shimshon understands the mistake: instead of thanking the Holy One, blessed be He, he said "I struck" - I struck a thousand men, with the jawbone of a donkey I killed a thousand men, I made heaps upon heaps of them. And where is the Holy One, blessed be He? Why did you not say "with the jawbone of the donkey Hashem delivered into my hand a thousand men"? Therefore Shimshon grows weary, and suddenly he discovers that of himself he has no strength at all - he does not even have water and is incapable. And immediately he recalls: Master of the Universe, You are right, in truth everything is from You, and all that I did was not by my own strength but solely by the strength of the Holy One, blessed be He - "You have granted through the hand of Your servant this great deliverance."
"The hollow that was in Lechi" - three views among Chazal
וַיִּבְקַע אֱלֹהִים אֶת־הַמַּכְתֵּשׁ אֲשֶׁר־בַּלֶּחִי וַיֵּצְאוּ מִמֶּנּוּ מַיִם וַיֵּשְׁתְּ וַתָּשׇׁב רוּחוֹ וַיֶּחִי עַל־כֵּן קָרָא שְׁמָהּ עֵין הַקּוֹרֵא אֲשֶׁר בַּלֶּחִי עַד הַיּוֹם הַזֶּה׃ - And Elohim split the hollow that was in Lechi, and water came out of it, and he drank, and his spirit returned and he revived; therefore he called its name Ein HaKoreh, which is in Lechi to this day.
Rashi explains "the hollow that was in Lechi" - a socket in which the tooth sits. "Machtesh" always means a socket, and every tooth of ours sits within a machtesh, within a socket. Yet Rashi does not reveal to us which jawbone is being discussed, and upon examination it becomes clear that there are several views on this among Chazal.
The Gemara in Massechet Sotah (9b) says that water came forth for him from the tooth in the jawbone of the donkey, and from there Shimshon drank: he cast down the jawbone of the donkey, and from the tooth in the jawbone came water. And regarding this they say: he desired something impure, therefore they gave him from an impure place. Must you drink water from a donkey? A donkey is an impure animal. But since he desired something impure, as they said there about the first wife he sought, therefore they gave him from an impure source.
By contrast, in the Midrash Rabbah (Bereishit Rabbah, parashah 98) Chazal expound that Hashem opened a spring for Shimshon in the hollow that was in his jaw: beneath the socket of Shimshon's tooth a spring opened up, and from this spring he drank. And thus they expound "leaping from the Bashan" - do not read "from the Bashan" but rather "from between the teeth" (mibein shinav), that from between Shimshon's teeth a spring came forth for him. And why? Because according to this view Shimshon was so exhausted and weak that he was not even able to walk over to the jawbone of the donkey that he had cast down in order to drink from there. Therefore there was no choice but to give him a flowing spring inside his mouth, that a miracle be done for him and a spring flow in his mouth so that he could drink and not die of thirst.
And there is a third explanation, not like Rashi's: "the hollow that was in the jaw" is not connected to the tooth at all, but rather refers to that place which was called Lechi (jaw), where there was a mortar-hollow, a rock, and Hashem split that hollow and from the rock water came forth. According to this, the matter is connected neither to Shimshon's jaw nor to the donkey's jaw. These are the three views among Chazal.
"Ein HaKore that is in Lechi" - why he named the place
What is "Ein HaKore"? Rashi says: a spring that came about through the cry of the one who called out to Hashem. "Ein" always means a spring: "Rosh HaAyin" means the head of the spring, "and I came today to the spring" means to the spring. If so, "Ein HaKore" is the spring that was created following Shimshon's calling out to Hashem.
And the Malbim asks: what is the meaning of "therefore he called its name," and why is there significance in naming the place? He explains: it is known that a person for whom a miracle was done in a certain place, when he arrives at that place he must thank Hashem and bless "Blessed is He who performed a miracle for me in this place." And if that person is famous, even others who come to that place must bless that He performed a miracle in this place for so-and-so. Therefore he named the place "Ein HaKore that is in Lechi," so that whoever would come there would know that in this place one must bless and thank Hashem for having performed a miracle for the savior of Israel, for Shimshon.
Let us also note, says the Malbim: at first Shimshon called the place "Ramat Lechi" after the miracle of the jawbone, and now he added a name to it and called it "Ein HaKore that is in Lechi." What is the reason? The Malbim brings an interesting explanation from the Gemara in Massechet Berachot (54): Mar the son of Ravina was walking in a place called Pakta deArvot, and he came to great thirst, and a miracle was done for him and a spring was created for him and he drank. Another time he was walking in Ristaka deMechoza and a vicious camel fell upon him, a very dangerous camel, for when it goes wild the chances of coming out of it alive are slim, and a wall broke apart for him, he entered into it and was saved, for had it not been so the camel would have trampled him in an instant. And the Gemara says: when he would arrive at Arvot he would bless "Blessed is He who performed a miracle for me at Arvot and with the camel," and when he would arrive at Ristaka deMechoza he would bless "Blessed is He who performed a miracle for me with the camel and at Arvot." We learn that one must always remember the additional miracles as well. And so it was here: now a new miracle happened to me, Ein HaKore, but I must also remember the first miracle, that I struck here a thousand Pelishtim with the jawbone. Therefore the place was called "Ein HaKore that is in Lechi," recalling the present miracle and also the earlier miracle, the miracle of the jawbone, the two of them together.
"And he judged Israel in the days of the Pelishtim"
וַיִּשְׁפֹּט אֶת־יִשְׂרָאֵל בִּימֵי פְלִשְׁתִּים עֶשְׂרִים שָׁנָה׃ - And he judged Israel in the days of the Pelishtim twenty years.
What is "in the days of the Pelishtim"? The Radak says that the verse comes to tell you that these were the days when the Pelishtim ruled over Israel, and he saved them from them for twenty years. And know that his salvation was not a complete salvation, for he judged Israel "in the days of the Pelishtim," that is, even during the time he was judging them the Pelishtim still ruled. His salvation helped to weaken the strength of the Pelishtim a bit, but not to abolish their rule entirely, as we explained above that the condition of Israel was not one in which they would merit to be completely delivered, but only to exact a little from the Pelishtim and to subdue them so that they would not rule over us with a strong hand.
In summary:
In this chapter Shimshon moves from a private battle to a national one: the handing over of his wife to his friend led to the burning of the Pelishtim's standing grain by means of the foxes and the torches, and in every detail of the act there is a hint - a fox that turns backward corresponds to the Pelishtim who turned back on the oath of Avimelech, and a torch corresponds to the fire they placed between a man and his wife. The burning of the woman and her father by the Pelishtim raised the "price" in lives, and from this came the great blow, hip upon thigh. The men of Yehudah, under the pressure of the Pelishtim who ruled over them, hand Shimshon over according to the laws of handing over, and he agrees on the condition that they themselves not harm him, for he had bound himself not to harm any of Israel. The miracle of the jawbone led to the striking of a thousand men, and in his song the name of Hashem was omitted, and immediately thirst came to teach him that his strength was not his own. When he cried out "You have given into the hand of Your servant," a spring was split open for him, and in naming it "Ein HaKore that is in Lechi" he immortalized together the new miracle and the earlier one. And finally the verse teaches us through "in the days of the Pelishtim" that even the twenty years of his judging did not bring complete salvation, but only a lightening of the rule of the Pelishtim.