Then the Philistines went up, and pitched in Judah, and spread themselves in Lehi.
Then the Philistines went up - to the high land of Judah.
And spread themselves in Lehi - a district on the border of the Philistine territory, now el-Lekieh, abounding with limestone cliffs, the sides of which are perforated with caves. The object of the Philistines in this expedition was to apprehend Samson, in revenge for the great slaughter he had committed on their people. With a view of freeing his own countrymen from all danger from the infuriated Philistines he allowed himself to be bound and surrendered a fettered prisoner into their power. Exulting with joy at the near prospect of riddance from so formidable an enemy, they went to meet him. But by a sudden illapse of the Spirit he exerted his superhuman strength, and finding a new (or moist) jawbone of an ass, he laid hold of it, and, with no other weapon, killed one thousand men at a place which he called Ramath-lehi - i:e., the hill of the jawbone, a chain of steep, craggy rocks. The origin of the name is traced by the sacred historian not to the rugged character of the hill, but to Samson's throwing away of the jawbone [as if written, not as in the Hebrew text (Judges 15:17), Raamat-Lechiy (H7437), but Rªmat-Lehiy, from raamah, to throw (Gesenius, sub voce)].