LECHI. This Word signifies the Jaw; and the Particular which gave Occasion for this Name was as follows. Samson having some Reason to be dissatisfied with the Philistines, let loose three hundred Foxes upon their Lands, with lighted Torches at their Tails, and so set Fire to all their Corn Fields. He farther beat them afterwards in several Skirmishes: Whereupon they set an Army on Foot, and entred the Territories of Judah. The Inhabitants of Judah desired to know for what Reason they made War against them. The Philistines answered: We have no Design upon any but Samson, in Order to return all the Evil upon him which he has done to us. Hereupon three Thousand Men of Judah went to Samson, and told him, that they came to bind him, and give him up to the Philistines. Promise me said Samson that you will not kill me, and I will suffer myself to be bound and carried to the Philistines. They promised him, and he permitted them to bind him.
When they were come near to the Army of the Philistines, these came against him with great Cries. But the Spirit of God having on a sudden seized on Samson, he broke the Cords, wherewith he was bound; and finding the Jaw-bone of an Ass which was upon the Ground, he took it, and falling upon the Philistines, killed a Thousand of them. He sung therefore this Song upon his Victory, “ With the Jaw-bone of an “ Ass, Heaps upon Heaps, with the Jaw-“ bone of an Ass have I slain a Thousand “ Men.” After this he threw down his Jaw-bone, and called the Place Ramath-Lechi, the lifting up of the Jaw-bone. Being afterwards very thirsty, he cried unto the Lord and said, It is thou, Lord, who hast given this great Deliverance into the Hand of thy Servant: And now shall I die for Thirst, and fall into the Hand of the uncircumcised. Hereupon God opened one of the large Teeth in the Jaw-bone, and a Fountain sprung out of it, which seemed to allay Samson’s Thirst, and retained the Name of Lechi or Jaw-bone.
The Hebrews sometimes called naked 1 Sam. xiv. 4, 5. Job. xxxix. 28.and steep Rocks, Teeth. God therefore opened a Rock called Machtes, or the Cheek- Tooth, which was situated at the Place where Samson obtained his Victory with the Jaw-bone of an Ass, and which for this Reason he called Lechi, or the Jaw-bone. This Fountain issuing out of a Rock called the Cheek-Tooth, situated at a Place named the Jaw-bone, has persuaded several Persons1, that the Fountain here spoken of, came immediately out of a Tooth-hole in the Asses Jaw-bone, which would be a very surprizing Miracle. But as we have just now explained the Matter, the Miracle of the Fountain issuing out of the Rock at Samson’s Prayer is acknowledged, and Wonders are not to be multiplied without Necessity. The Opinion, which we have proposed, is followed by Josephus2, by the Paraphrast Jonathan, and a good Number of Commentators3. This Fountain subsisted for a long Time, and is still probably in Being in Palestine. Glycas4, and the Martyr Antoninus, speak of it, and say, that it is to be seen in the Suburbs of Eleutheropolis.
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