303
We have purposely adopted this rendering.
304
Comp. Cassel, p. 122.
305
Thomson, The Land and the Book, vol. 2 p. 361.
306
The conjunction of the two in the text (Judges 13:5) indicates that they were to be regarded as cause and
effect.
307
The name has been variously interpreted. By the Rabbis it is rendered "sunlike," in allusion to Psalm
84:11. Others render it "mighty,", "daring," or "he who lays waste."
308
The exact locality cannot be ascertained. The Spirit of Jehovah began to push, to drive, or impel him.
309
Hence the expression "Samson went down to Timnath." See Thomson.
310
Thomson.
311
Besides the parallel cases in Scripture (1 Samuel 17:34; 2 Samu el 23:20), such writers as Winer and Cassel
have collated many similar instances from well-accredited history.
312
Cassel notes the affinity between the Hebrew devash, honey, and the Saxon wahs or wax; and again
between the Hebrew doneg, wax, and the Saxon honec or honey.
313
These "change-garments" were costly raiment, frequently changed.
314
Cassel thinks that the words were addressed by Samson to his Jewish countrymen; but this seems
contrary to the whole context.
315
So literally translated.
316
This is unquestionably the meaning of the text, and not, as in the Authorized Version, "a hollow place
that was in the jaw." The mistake has arisen from the circumstance that Lehi means a jaw-bone, the locality
having obtained the name from Samson's victory with the jaw-bone (Ramath-lehi, "the hill or height of the
jaw-bone," Judges 15:17). The name Lehi is used proleptically in ver. 9, 14, that is, by anticipation.
317
Cassel tries to prove that the place to which Samson went in Gaza was merely a hostelry - and s o the
ancient commentaries understood it But the language of the text does not bear out such interpretation.
318
So the text literally, and not, as in the Authorized Version, "the top of an hill that is before Hebron," for
which, besides, the distance would have been far too great.
319
The Rabbis have it, that if her name had not been Delilah, she would have obtained it, because she
softened and weakened Samson's strength.
320
The suggestion was first made by Cassel.
321
Critics differ widely as to the exact time when the events recorded in the Book of Ruth took place. Keil
makes Boaz a contemporary of Gideon; but we have seen no reason to depart from the account of Josephus,
who lays this history in the days of Eli.