What Does Judges 15:17 Mean?
And when he had come to the end of his speaking, he threw the jawbone from his hand, and called that place Ramathlehi.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And it came to pass, when he had made an end of speaking, that he cast away the jawbone out of his hand, and called that place Ramath-lehi.THE KEY
The jawbone leaves Samson’s hand, but the place-name keeps it as the landmark of the moment.
THE MEANING
The place-name means “height of the jawbone,” so the weapon leaves the hand while its trace stays in the name. You see an ending become a marker: what is cast aside is no longer held, yet it remains named. The verse holds casting aside and remembrance together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that letting go makes an event disappear: the jawbone leaves the hand, yet remains in the place’s name.
THE ROOT
וַיַּשְׁלֵךְ
wayyashlekh
GROWS FROM
שׁלך
sh-l-k
Throw, cast, hurl.
“threw” in this verse is wayyashlekh. The verb here is שָׁלַךְ (shalakh, “throw/cast”), distinct from שָׁלַח (shalach, “send forth/release”): the final consonant changes the root. The jawbone is physically thrown from his hand, and then its trace survives in the name of the place.
ALSO GROWS
va’ashlikh: I cast
וָאַשְׁלִךְ
In Deuteronomy 9:17 the same root describes Moses casting the tablets from his hands, keeping the image physical and forceful.
hashlekh: Cast
הַשְׁלֵךְ
In Psalm 55:22 a burden is cast upon the LORD; the shared root describes something moved out of one’s own hold.
וַיִּקְרָא
wayyiqra
GROWS FROM
קרא
q-r-ʾ
Call out, name, proclaim.
“called” in this verse is wayyiqra. The same root names the place here and describes Samson calling on the LORD in the next verse. Naming and crying out are both acts of voiced address: the discarded weapon is gone from his hand, but the event remains speakable.
ALSO GROWS
qeri’ah: Calling or reading aloud
קְרִיאָה
Its spoken quality helps show how a name becomes an audible marker of what happened.
miqra: Convocation or public reading
מִקְרָא
The same root extends from calling to words heard by a gathered community, giving a place-name a public, shareable quality.
רָמַת לְחִי
ramat leḥi
GROWS FROM
רום
r-w-m
Rise, be high, lift up.
“Ramathlehi” in this verse is ramat leḥi. רָמַת לְחִי (ramat leḥi) means “height of the jawbone”: רָמַת (ramat, “height”) comes from רום (rum, “rise/be high”), while לְחִי (leḥi) means “jawbone.” The name gives the discarded jawbone a place on the landscape, turning the scene into a landmark.
ALSO GROWS
rām: High, elevated
רָם
This form makes the height in the place-name explicit.
hērîm: Raised, lifted
הֵרִים
This form shows the same root’s movement from being high to raising something up.
THE PATTERN
A spoken name fixes an encounter to a place or marker so it can be remembered.
And he called the name of that place Bethel, house of God; but the name of that city was called Luz at the first.And Moses built an altar and called its name Jehovahnissi, the LORD my lifted banner.Then Samuel took a stone and set it between Mizpeh and Shen, and called its name Ebenezer, the stone of help, saying, Hitherto the LORD has helped us.THE THREAD
And he was parched with thirst, and called out to the LORD, and said, You have given this great deliverance into the hand of your servant, and now shall I die of thirst, and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised?The next verse uses the same root קרא (qara, “call”) when Samson calls on the LORD: here he calls the place by a name, then he calls out from thirst. The repeated verb links naming and crying out as forms of voiced address, as the scene moves from the battle’s marker to an immediate need.
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