Lehi

Lehi is a district of Judah, the setting for Samson's slaughter of a thousand Philistines with the jawbone of a donkey and for the subsequent miracle of water.

The Philistines encamp in Lehi

After Samson's earlier reprisals, the Philistines come up into Judah and "spread themselves in Lehi" (Jud 15:9). The men of Judah parley with them and explain, "we have come up to bind Samson, to do to him as he has done to us" (Jud 15:10). Three thousand men of Judah descend to the cleft of the rock of Etam to confront Samson; he agrees to be bound on condition that they not kill him themselves, and is brought up "with two new ropes" (Jud 15:13).

The jawbone of a donkey

"When he came to Lehi, the Philistines shouted as they met him: and the Spirit of Yahweh came mightily on him, and the ropes that were on his arms became as flax that was burned with fire, and his bindings dropped from off his hands" (Jud 15:14). Samson finds "a fresh jawbone of a donkey" and strikes down a thousand men with it (Jud 15:15). His victory chant plays on the weapon: "With the jawbone of a donkey, I have thrashed them good, With the jawbone of a donkey I have struck a thousand men" (Jud 15:16). Casting the jawbone away, he gives the place its name: "that place was called Ramath-lehi" (Jud 15:17).

En-hakkore

Exhausted and parched after the battle, Samson calls on Yahweh: "You have given this great deliverance by the hand of your slave; and now I will die for thirst, and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised" (Jud 15:18). The answer comes in the terrain itself: "God split the hollow place that is in Lehi, and there came water thereout; and when he drank, his spirit came again, and he revived: therefore its name was called En-hakkore, which is in Lehi, to this day" (Jud 15:19).