Judges 15:17
And when he had ended these words singing, he threw the jawbone out of his hand, and called the name of that place Ramathlechi, which is interpreted the lifting up of the jawbone.
Open Judges 15:17 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Cumque hæc verba canens complesset, projecit mandibulam de manu, et vocavit nomen loci illius Ramathlechi, quod interpretatur, Elevatio maxillæ.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ ἐγένετο ὡς ἐπαύσατο λαλῶν, καὶ ἔρριψεν τὴν σιαγόνα ἐκ τῆς χειρὸς αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἐκάλεσεν τὸν τόπον ἐκεῖνον Ἀναίρεσις σιαγόνος.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וַֽיְהִי֙ כְּכַלֹּת֣וֹ לְדַבֵּ֔ר וַיַּשְׁלֵ֥ךְ הַלְּחִ֖י מִיָּד֑וֹ וַיִּקְרָ֛א לַמָּק֥וֹם הַה֖וּא רָ֥מַת לֶֽחִי
Haydock's commentary
Which is, &c. This is added by the Vulgate being the interpretation of the Septuagint Lnairesis; (Calmet) though it also signify, "the slaughter." (St. Ambrose, ep. 19.) (Haydock)
The Syriac and Arabic have read domoth, "the blood," instead of ramath Lechi, "the lifting up;" or as others would have it, "the throwing down of the jaw-bone." (Calmet)
Samson had snatched it form the ground, slew the thousand Philistines, and left it as a monument of his victory. (Haydock)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St John Damascene An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, Concerning the honour due to the Saints and their remains
The Master Christ made the remains of the saints to be fountains of salvation to us, pouring forth manifold blessings and abounding in oil of sweet fragrance: and let no one disbelieve this. For if water burst in the desert from the steep and solid rock at God’s will and from the jaw-bone of an ass to quench Samson’s thirst, is it incredible that fragrant oil should burst forth from the martyrs’ remains? By no means, at least to those who know the power of God and the honour which He accords His saints.