Commentaria in Judices
Allegorically, Samson here was a type of Christ, who was bound by his fellow citizens the Jews and delivered to Pilate. So Augustine.
14. AND AS FLAX IS WONT TO BE CONSUMED AT THE APPROACH OF FIRE,—that is, Samson very easily broke the cords, just as flax, which is dry, is burnt as soon as it feels the heat of the fire. Metaphorically the sense of heat is called smell. Hence the Septuagint, as tow when it has smelt fire. Wrongly, therefore, some Codices read for “smell” heat, and for “flax” wood.
AND FINDING A JAWBONE, THAT IS THE CHEEK-BONE OF AN ASS, WHICH LAY THERE.—In Hebrew a moist jawbone, that is green, that is, moist and still dripping with gore. So the Chaldee.
AND SLEW WITH IT A THOUSAND MEN.—For asses, as they have large and hard heads, so also have jaws, especially in Syria, where they are larger and stronger than ours; although naturally it could hardly be that one jawbone should kill a thousand men; for by striking so many men it would often have broken the jawbone: but the power of God was with him, who also preserved the jawbone in its strength, that struck against hard bodies by so many blows it should not break, and gave Samson strength to slay a thousand men with it. Here was fulfilled that of Ps. iii, 8: “For thou hast struck all them that are my adversaries without cause,” where for “without cause” the Hebrew is lechi, that is jawbone.
Symbolically, Samson struck a thousand Philistines with the jawbone of an ass. For a man given to the flesh, gluttony and luxury (as the Philistines were) is nothing else than a cheek or jaw, says Clement of Alexandria, book II of the Pedagogue, chap. i, near the beginning. The cheek-bone of an ass therefore struck asses, that is asinine and carnal Philistines. As Hercules, therefore, cut down so many monsters not with a dart but with a club; so Samson turned the jawbone into a club, and with it laid low his enemies.
Mystically St. Ambrose, book II On the Holy Spirit, in the preface, understands by the jawbone patience, which is the conqueror of all: “Unconquered Samson,” he says, “and so insuperable that with the jawbone of an ass he struck a thousand men; so full of heavenly grace that even in thirst he found water in the jawbone of an ass; whether you refer to this miracle, or to the miracle of truth, that it should be in the humility of the Gentile people both rest and triumph, according to what is written: Matt. v. “Whosoever shall strike thee on thy cheek, turn to him also the other.” For by this patience of injuries, which the sacraments of baptism teach, we triumph also over certain goads of anger, so that, having undergone death, we may attain the rest of the resurrection.
Hence the Cabalists teach that chamor, that is ass, by anastrophe is the same as rechem, that is mercy, by which Christ, fighting for us, routed the demons and all our enemies.
16. AND HE SAID: WITH THE JAWBONE OF AN ASS, WITH THE CHEEK-BONE OF THE COLT OF ASSES, I HAVE DESTROYED THEM,—in the Hebrew there is a beautiful play on words: bilchi hachamor chamor chamorathaim, which Pagninus, Cajetan, Vatablus and the Rabbis render: With the jawbone of an ass I have struck a heap, two heaps, as if to say: I have cut down two heaps or piles of the Philistines. He plays on the word chamor, that is ass, which is derived from chomer, that is a heap or a measure called a cor, and contains thirty bushels: for this was the load of asses, which an ass bore in Palestine. So Villalpando, part II On the Temple, book III, chap. ix.
Moreover Josephus and St. Ambrose, epist. 70, think that Samson said this out of arrogance, and was therefore afflicted by God with thirst. Hear St. Ambrose: “Would that as brave as he was against the enemy, so moderate he had been in victory! But, as easily happens, a mind insolent in prosperity, which ought to have referred the issue of the battle to divine favour and protection, arrogated it to itself, saying: With the jawbone of an ass I have destroyed a thousand men. He neither set up an altar to God, nor immolated a victim, but neglecting sacrifice, assuming the glory, that he might consecrate his triumph with a perpetual name, called the place the slaughter of the jawbone.”
But Abulensis, Serarius and others better think that Samson in this song gave thanks to God that by his help he alone with one jawbone had cut down the army of the Philistines. Lyranus, Abulensis, Cajetan and Arias add (and it is gathered from the next verse) that Samson sang here to God a longer song, e.g. that which David afterwards sang, Ps. cxliii: “Blessed be the Lord my God, who teacheth my hands to fight, and my fingers to war,” etc., and after single verses repeated: “With the jawbone of an ass, with the cheek-bone of the colt of asses, I have destroyed them,” as a refrain.
18. AND BEING VERY THIRSTY,—from the labour both of the journey and of slaying so many Philistines.
19. THEN THE LORD OPENED A MOLAR TOOTH (the Septuagint, a hollow which was in the jawbone; wrongly the Chaldee, a rock which was in the jawbone, unless by rock you understand the hard socket of a tooth hard as rock. For in Hebrew machtesh signifies a molar tooth) IN THE JAWBONE OF THE ASS, AND WATERS CAME OUT OF IT.—St. Ambrose, epist. 70: “By the mercy of God, when he had cast away the jawbone, he opened its cleft.” Paulinus: “A fountain from the molar tooth of the jawbone; from the lion’s mouth honey flows: the ass’s jawbone pours forth a fountain of its own accord, Folly overflows with waters, virtue with sweetness.” And St. Ephrem, tom. I, p. 128: “So great was the holiness of Samson that once, when he was thirsty and praying in want of water, waters gushed out from the dead ass’s jawbone he had taken up.” St. Chrysostom, homily 15, from various places on Matthew: “Samson was holy, and so holy that, when he was thirsty after the labour of the battle, praying to the Lord in a dry place in the failing of his soul, at once water bursting out from the very jawbone which he held in his hand, he drank, and quenched the heat of thirst, refreshed from the same bone of the dead beast with which he had conquered.”
Note that Chrysostom says, “which he held in his hand,” that is, which he had held in his hand; for he had already cast it on the ground, and there, as he prayed, a fountain burst out from it. Moreover this fountain burst out here from the earth into the jawbone, and thence flowed, that the miracle might appear greater, and this fittingly to Samson’s merit and reward: for because he, fighting most strongly with the jawbone and striking down the Philistines, had contracted a vast thirst; hence God through the same jawbone furnished the remedy of thirst, drawing from it a perennial fountain of water. Learn here how great God, through vile and small things, as through a jawbone, works great things; wherefore let no one despair of doing great things by his help, provided he cooperate strenuously with him.
THEREFORE THE NAME OF THAT PLACE WAS CALLED: THE FOUNTAIN OF HIM THAT CALLED, as is plain from the Hebrew, as if to say: The fountain of the caller (Samson), which is in Lechi, that is in the place called Ramathlechi, the lifting up of the jawbone, because in that place Samson praying drew this fountain from the jawbone.
UNTIL THIS DAY.—That this fountain lasted to his times St. Jerome relates in the Epitaph of Paula, and Glycas also expressly, part II of the Annals: “This fountain,” he says, “is seen to this day in the suburb of Eleutheropolis, and is called the Fountain of the jawbone.” Hence Serarius thinks that this fountain still exists and pours forth waters. For Glycas, he says, preceded our age by hardly 3500 years, since he carried down his annals to John Comnenus, son of the Emperor Alexius. For who since that time would have either dried it up with heat, or choked it with mud, or scattered it by hand?
Tropologically St. Gregory, book XIII of the Morals, chap. vi: “The jawbone,” he says, “of the Church are the holy preachers, as under the person of Juda it is said through Jeremias: Weeping she hath wept in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks; because in the adversity of the Church those lament more who by preaching have known how to break the life of carnal men. For through them holy Church grinds the wicked from their vices, and as it were swallowing converts them into her members. Whence to the first preacher also, as to the jawbone of the Church, it is said: Kill and eat. Hence it is also that Samson held the jawbone of an ass, and slew the enemies; because our Redeemer, holding in the hand of virtue the simplicity and patience of preachers, slew the carnal from their vices. And the jawbone cast on the earth afterwards poured out waters, because the bodies of preachers given to death showed great miracles to the peoples.” Aptly Baronius in the Martyrology on the 24th day of January: “St. Babylas,” he says, “dead as if revived undertook greater fights against the Gentiles. For after the manner of Samson, fighting with bones, he turned the Philistines to flight.”
20. AND HE JUDGED ISRAEL IN THE DAYS OF THE PHILISTINES TWENTY YEARS,—during which, namely, the Philistines oppressed the Hebrews. Hence it is plain first that the years of Samson run together with the 40 years of servitude in which the Hebrews served the Philistines, as I said chap. xiii, verse 1. It is plain secondly that Samson was truly Judge of Israel, because he “judged,” that is, vindicated and delivered it from the servitude of the Philistines. He was nevertheless unlike and dissimilar to the other Judges, who fought by armies; for he alone fought against armies, and routed and slew them. It is plain thirdly that he judged for 20 years.