Then the Philistines went up. — They “went up” in hostile array against the hill-country of Judea to take vengeance for the dreadful injury which Samson had inflicted on them.
Spread themselves in Lehi. — The use of the name before the incident from which a place is said to have received the name is found also in the case of Hormah (Numbers 14:45; Numbers 21:3). It was called in full Ramath-Lehi. (See on Judges 15:17.) The character of the narrative suggests the question whether the name may not have existed previously, and the play on words may not have been adapted by Samson to the incident. For the name of the place is Lechi (לֶ֫חִי), and “a jawbone” is Lehi (להי). Shen, “tooth,” is the name of an isolated sharp rock (1 Samuel 14:4), and therefore “jaw” would not be an unnatural name for a range of such rocks. Josephus, however, says that before Samson’s exploit the place “had no name.” It may be again alluded to in 2 Samuel 23:11, where the words rendered “into a troop” may mean “to Lehi,” as it is understood by Josephus (Antt. vii. 12, § 4) and some MSS. of the LXX.