Judges15:1–20

The companion who took the bride — the rare word that stitches chapter 14 to chapter 15 verbal / quotation — confirmed

The father's excuse in v. 2 and the Philistines' report in v. 6 both turn on מֵרֵעַ (mêrêaʻ, H4828), the bridal companion or best man — a noun the Verifier finds in only 7 verses of the canon. Judges 14:20 used it for the man who received Samson's wife, and our chapter uses it twice more, with Samson's own name (Shimshôwn, H8123) attached. The link is lexical, not thematic guesswork: chapter 15 is narrated as the legal consequence of one sentence in chapter 14.

Judges 14:20

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H4828 mêrêaʻ (rare — in 7 vv) and H8123 Shimshôwn (in 37 vv). A genuine verbal link within one continuous narrative; no quotation is claimed.

The mortar at Lehi — a word that elsewhere pounds a fool verbal / quotation — confirmed

The vessel God splits in v. 19 is הַמַּכְתֵּשׁ (maktêsh, H4388), and the Verifier reports it as occurring in only 2 other verses. One is Proverbs 27:22: though you bray a fool in a mortar among crushed grain, his folly will not depart. The other, named by both K&D and Cambridge, is Zephaniah 1:11, where Maktesh is a quarter of Jerusalem. Cambridge derives the noun from a root meaning “to pound,” so that maktçsh is a “pounding place.” The commentators agree that the name here belongs to a mortar-shaped hollow in the hillside, not to a tooth-socket in the jawbone (Ellicott calls that reading one of “the childish misinterpretations with which Scripture exegesis is constantly defaced”). ⚙ The resonance we note, and do not press: at Lehi the pounding-vessel yields water instead of powder, and the man in it is not a fool being ground but a servant being revived.

Proverbs 27:22 · Zephaniah 1:11

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexeme H4388 maktêsh (rare — in 2 vv), with H8432 tâvek (in 390 vv) also shared with Proverbs 27:22. Zephaniah 1:11 is added on the named authority of K&D and Cambridge, not on a Verifier computation. The link is lexical; no quotation is claimed, and the thematic reading is marked as ⚙.

Fire in the standing grain — the case Torah already legislates verbal / quotation — confirmed

Exodus 22:6: if fire (ʼêsh, H784) breaks out and catches thorns so that stacked or standing grain (qâmâh, H7054 — rare, 8 verses) is consumed (bâʻar, H1197), he that kindled the fire shall surely make restitution. Judges 15:5 uses all three words, twice over for bâʻar, and adds the stacks and the standing grain in the same order. Ellicott reaches for the same verse at this point (“Comp. Exodus 22:6”). The Verifier confirms the three shared lexemes independently. ⚙ The reading we offer as fallible: Israel's judge does to Philistia precisely the tort Israel's law prices, and the restitution is exacted from his own family instead.

Exodus 22:6

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H7054 qâmâh (rare — in 8 vv), H1197 bâʻar (in 90 vv), H784 ʼêsh (in 346 vv). Verbal link only — Judges does not cite the statute, and the moral inference is marked ⚙.

Into the clefts of the rock — where a people hides from what it will not fight structural / thematic — confirmed

Samson's refuge in vv. 8 and 11 is a סְעִיף (çâʻîyph, H5585), a fissure in the çelaʻ (H5553), the crag. The Verifier finds the same rare noun (6 verses) in Isaiah 2:21 — men going “into the clefts of the rocks… for fear of the LORD” — and Isaiah 57:5, the clefts where the idolaters slay their children. Ellicott and Barnes both cite exactly these verses to establish the translation “cleft” against the older “top.” ⚙ The structural note: in Isaiah 2 the clefts hide men from God's terror; in Judges 15 the cleft hides the man God has raised up, and the people who come down to it come to hand him over.

Isaiah 2:21 · Isaiah 57:5

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H5585 çâʻîyph (rare — in 6 vv) and H5553 çelaʻ (in 52 vv). The lexeme is rare enough to support a verbal tier; we downgrade to structural because the connection we are actually drawing is a shared motif of refuge, not a citation.

Caught, and then bound — the snare that closes on the trapper structural / thematic — confirmed

Samson catches three hundred animals (lâkad, H3920, v. 4) and is himself tied with אֱסוּרָיו (ʼêçûwr, H612, v. 14) — “a bond, especially manacles of a prisoner,” a noun the Verifier finds in only 3 verses. One is Jeremiah 37:15, the prophet in the house of bonds; the other is Ecclesiastes 7:26, where the woman whose heart is snares has hands that are fetters, and where the verb for being caught is lâkad — both of our unit's words in a single proverb. ⚙ Qoheleth's sentence reads like a caption to Samson's whole life, and chapter 16 will supply the illustration; we offer that as an observation, not as a claim about the author's intent.

Ecclesiastes 7:26 · Jeremiah 37:15

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H612 ʼêçûwr (rare — in 3 vv) and H3920 lâkad (in 112 vv) with Ecclesiastes 7:26; H612 ʼêçûwr with Jeremiah 37:15. Real verbal contact, but the reading drawn from it is thematic, so the tier is set low deliberately.

A fresh jaw, an unbound wound — the two-verse word structural / thematic — confirmed

טְרִיָּה (ṭârîy, H2961, “properly, dripping”) occurs in only two verses of the canon. One is Judges 15:15, the fresh jawbone. The other is Isaiah 1:6, where from the sole of the foot to the head there is no soundness in Israel — wounds and bruises and fresh stripes, “they have not been closed, neither bound up.” Isaiah's verse also carries makkâh (H4347), the very noun used of Samson's “great blow” in Judges 15:8; the Verifier confirms both lexemes as shared. ⚙ The observation, offered to be tested: the two words that arm Israel's judge and measure his slaughter are the two words Isaiah uses of Israel's own untended body. A judge who wounds a thousand does not close his people's wound — which is the same verdict Judges 13:5 already gave in advance, that he would only begin to deliver them.

Isaiah 1:6

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H2961 ṭârîy (rare — in 2 vv) and H4347 makkâh (in 46 vv). The lexical contact is real and rare enough to support a verbal tier; it is deliberately downgraded because Isaiah is not citing Judges and the connection drawn is a motif, not a quotation.

Which Etam? — a place-name the sources cannot agree on flagged — verify source

ʻÊyṭâm (H5862) occurs in 5 verses. The Verifier offers 2 Chronicles 11:6 (Rehoboam's fortress between Bethlehem and Tekoa) and 1 Chronicles 4:32 (a Simeonite town). K&D argues for the Simeonite Etam on the strength of the verb “he went down” and against Robinson's identification with Urtas; Cambridge rejects both and follows Schick to ʻAraḳ Ismaʻîn near ʻArtuf; Pulpit and Barnes leave the site unidentified; Benson denies the argument from “went down” altogether, since Hebrew uses up and down loosely. The lexeme is shared and rare; the identification is not settled.

1 Chronicles 4:32 · 2 Chronicles 11:6

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexeme H5862 ʻÊyṭâm (rare — in 5 vv). The name is certainly shared; whether these verses denote the same place as Judges 15:8 is disputed among K&D, Cambridge, Benson, Barnes and Pulpit, so the geographical claim is flagged rather than asserted.

Shammah at Lehi — a link that depends on an emended text flagged — verify source

The Verifier's top-ranked candidate, 2 Samuel 23:11, shares only Pᵉlishtîy (H6430), a lexeme in 244 verses — far too common to carry a link by itself. The real proposal is textual: Cambridge notes that the exploit of Shammah, one of David's heroes, “also took place at Lehi, 2 Samuel 23:11 (reading unto Lehi for into a troop),” and Ellicott reports the same, with Josephus and some LXX manuscripts. If the emendation stands, the same jaw-shaped ridge produced two one-man stands against the Philistines in a field of grain. If it does not, there is no link here at all.

2 Samuel 23:11

basis: Verifier's computed basis is H6430 Pᵉlishtîy (in 244 vv) — common, and insufficient on its own. The substantive connection rests on a disputed emendation of 2 Samuel 23:11 (Cambridge, Ellicott, citing Josephus and some LXX mss), so provenance is flagged.

The deliverer his own people hand over — a cross-Testament pattern, not a shared word structural / thematic — confirmed

Three thousand men of Judah come down to bind the man God raised up to save them (vv. 11–13). Pulpit sets the scene beside Moses: “it is not very unlike the spirit in which the Hebrews looked upon Moses when he first began to work to rescue them from their Egyptian bondage (Exodus 2:14; Acts 7:25–28),” where Stephen states the pattern outright — his brethren did not understand that God by his hand would deliver them. ⚙ We record the shape and nothing stronger: a deliverer rejected by the people he is sent to, then vindicated by God's act alone.

Exodus 2:14 · Acts 7:25-28

basis: No shared Strong's numbers are possible between a Greek text (Acts) and Hebrew (Judges, Exodus), so no verbal tier is available. The basis is a shared narrative pattern, named by the Pulpit Commentary at this verse and stated explicitly by Stephen in Acts 7:25.

Bound by his own and given into the hands of others ancient/widely-held

Samson asks only that his countrymen not kill him themselves; they bind him with two new ropes and give him (nâthan, H5414) into the hand of the Philistines. Gill draws the figure at this verse: Samson “consented to be bound by them, and delivered into their hands; which he was a type of Christ, who was betrayed by the Jews, and delivered by them into the hands of the Romans,” and at v. 13 he presses the parallel to “surely we will not kill thee” against John 18:31 and Acts 2:23. Benson: “Thus was he a type of Christ, who yielded himself to be bound, yea, and led as a lamb to the slaughter.” Geneva turns it on Judah: “Thus they would rather betray their brother than use the means that God had given for their deliverance.” ⚙ The limit we mark: the analogy is in the handing-over, not in the man. Samson is bound because he has burned a harvest; Christ is bound having done no violence. Where Samson says as they did to me, so I did to them, the antitype says Father, forgive them.

Judges 15:12-13 · John 18:12 · Acts 2:23

The bands that melted — and the bands of death ancient/widely-held

The ropes do not break; they melt (mâçaç, H4549 — Ellicott: “Literally, melted, or flowed off, a highly poetic expression”), and the Spirit of YHWH is the reason. Benson, quoting Henry, makes the redemptive-historical reading: “This typified the resurrection of Christ, by the power of the Spirit of holiness. In this he loosed the bands of death, it being impossible he should be holden of them. And thus he triumphed over the power of darkness, which had shouted against him.” Henry adds the Philistine shout to the figure — “Thus Christ triumphed over the powers of darkness that shouted against him, as if they had him in their power” — and Gill says the loosing “may be an emblem of Christ's loosing himself from the cords of death, Acts 2:24.” The shout at Lehi (rûwaʻ, H7321) is a shout of premature victory, which is the exact note Acts 2:24 answers.

Acts 2:24 · Romans 1:4 · Colossians 2:15

“I thirst” — the victor who asks for water ancient/widely-held

Samson's cry in v. 18 comes after the victory, not before it, and Gill hears the pattern: “it was so ordered in Providence, that he might in this be a type of the Messiah, who on the cross, as he was spoiling principalities and powers, and triumphing over them in it, said, "I thirst", John 19:28.” The well that answers is named for a crier — ʻÊyn haq-Qôwrêʼ (H5875), “the fountain of him that cried,” which Poole glosses as “the fountain or well which was given in answer to my prayer,” and JFB as “the supplication well.” K&D notes the water came at Lehi as it came at Horeb and Kadesh (Exodus 17:6; Numbers 20:8, 11) — the rock-water of the wilderness which Paul reads christologically in 1 Corinthians 10:4, and which stands behind John 7:37–38. ⚙ Our own line, offered as fallible: here God splits a rock to keep a thirsty deliverer alive; at Calvary the deliverer is not kept alive, and the water comes out of him.

John 19:28 · Exodus 17:6 · 1 Corinthians 10:4 · John 7:37-38

A thousand men and a sorry jawbone — the foolishness of the instrument ancient/widely-held

The weapon is a discarded bone from an unclean animal. Henry: “To take the bone of an ass for this, was to do wonders by the foolish things of the world, that the excellency of the power might be of God, not of man. This victory was not in the weapon, was not in the arm; but it was in the Spirit of God, which moved the weapon by the arm.” Gill draws the same line forward: it “may be an emblem of the weak and contemptible means of the Gospel, the foolishness of preaching, by which Christ has conquered and subdued multitudes to himself.” JFB, citing Chalmers, keeps the event itself supernatural rather than symbolic: “a case of supernatural strength.” ⚙ The reading is figural rather than predictive, and we mark it as such; but it is not novel — it is the apostolic principle of 1 Corinthians 1:27 and 2 Corinthians 4:7 applied by two named public-domain expositors to this verse.

1 Corinthians 1:27 · 2 Corinthians 4:7