Lehi

American Tract Society Bible Dictionary

Jawbone, a place in Judah, where Samson was enabled to slay one thousand Philistines with the jawbone of an ass, and where, in answer to his petition, a fountain sprung up to relieve his thirst, Judges 15:9-19 . Probably the Hebrew word Lehi in, should be left untranslated, "God clave a hollow place that was in Lehi, and there came water thereout." This spring he called En-hakkore, the fountain of him that prayed. It continued to flow, and may even to this day be testifying that God hears the cry of his people, and can turn a dry land into springs of water for their use, Genesis 21:19; Numbers 20:11 .

Easton's Bible Dictionary

Judges 15:9,14,16

Fausset's Bible Dictionary

Judges 15:9; Judges 15:14; Judges 15:19 (where translated "in Lehi"), Hebrew "the Lehi." (See EN HAKKORE, "the spring"; Ramath Lehi was the eminence.) Lihiy strictly is the Hebrew for "jawbone"; LEHI the name of the place. God did not make water to flow out of the tooth socket of the jawbone which Samson threw away, to slake his thirst, but "cleft an hollow place (maqtesh; Zephaniah 1:11) in Lehi," from whence" water" miraculously "came out." In Judah, between Philistia and the cliff Etam, now Beit Likiyeh, a village on the northern side of the wady Suleiman; at the entrance of the hill country of Judah, the outermost stronghold toward the S.

Holman Bible Dictionary

Judges 15:12 Samuel 23:11

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

LEHI (‘jawbone’). The scene of Samson’s well-known adventure with the jawbone of an ass ( Judges 15:9; Judges 15:14; Judges 15:18 ). The site has been placed in Judah, between the Cliff of Etam and the country of the Philistines.

Morrish Bible Dictionary

Place in Judah, near to the land of the Philistines. It was where Samson slew a thousand men with the jaw-bone of an ass. Judges 15:9-17 . Lehi signifies 'jaw-bone,' but whether the place had this name before the victory or after is not clear. Samson called the place RAMATHLEHI, 'hill of the jaw-bone.' Judges 15:19 is better translated, "God clave the hollow place that is in Lehi," that is, in the rock, not in the jaw-bone.

Smith's Bible Dictionary

Le'hi. (jaw bone). A place, in Judah, probably, on the confines of the Philistines' country, between it and the cliff Etam; the scene of Samson's well-known exploit with the jaw bone. Judges 15:9; Judges 15:14; Judges 15:19. It may perhaps be identified with Beit-Likiyeh, a village about two miles below the upper Beth-horon.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

lē´hı̄ . See Ramath-Lehi .

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

(Heb. Lechi', לְחַי, in pause Le'chi, לֶחַי, a cheek or jaw-bone [usually with the art. הִלְּחַי,]; Sept. Λεχί v. r. Λευί ), a place in the tribe of Judah where Samson achieved one of his single-handed victories over the Philistines (Judges 15:9; Judges 15:14; Judges 15:19, in which last passages the Sept. translates (σιάγων,Vulg. maxilla). It contained an eminence — Ramath- lehi, and a spring of great and lasting repute (see Ortlob, De fonte Simeonis, Lips. 1703) — En hak-kore (Judges 15:17). The name of the place before the conflict was evidently Lehi, as appears from Judges 15:9; Judges 15:14; perhaps so called from the form of some hill or rock (Gesenius, Thesaur. p. 752). After the slaughter of the Philistines, Samson, with a characteristic play upon the name, makes it descriptive of his signal and singular victory. Lehi is possibly mentioned in 2 Samuel 23:11 — the relation of another encounter with the Philistines hardly less disastrous than that of Samson. The Heb. there has לִחִיָּה, as if חִיָּה, from the root חִי (Gesenius, Thesaur. p. 470). In this sense the word very rarely occurs (see A. V. of Psalms 68:10; Psalms 68:30; Psalms 74:19). It elsewhere has the sense of "living," and thence of wild animals, which is adopted by the Sept. in this place, as remarked above. In Psalms 74:13 it is again rendered "troop."

In the parallel narrative of 1 Chronicles (1 Chronicles 11:15), the word מחנה , a "camp," is substituted. In the passage 2 Samuel, it is rendered in the A. V. "into a troop," but by alteration of the vowel-points becomes "to Lehi," which gives a new and certainly an appropriate sense. This reading first appears in Josephus (Ant. 7:12, 4), who gives it "a place called Siagona" — the jaw — the word which he employs in the story of Samson (Ant. 5:8, 9). It is also given in the Complutensian Sept., and among modern interpreters by Bochart (Hieroz. 1:2, ch. 13), Kennicott (Dissert. p. 140), J. D. Michaelis (Bibelfiir Ungfelehrt.), Ewald (Geschichte, 3:180, note). The great similarity between the two names in the original (Gesenius, Thsctur. p. 175 b), has led to the supposition that Beer-Lahai-roi was the same as Lehi. But the situations do not suit. The well Lahai-roi was below Kadesh, very far from the locality to which Samson's adventures seem to have been confined. Jerome states that Paula, when on her way from Bethlehem to Egypt, passed from Sochoth to the fountain of Samson (Opera, 1:705, ed. Migne). Later writers locate it beside Eleutheropolis (Anton. Mar. liin. 30; Reland, p. 872); but the tradition appears to have been vague and uncertain (Robinson, 2:64 sq.). There is only a deep old well, which would not answer to the Scripture narrative (Robinson, 2:26 sq.). — Smith; Kitto. Van de Velde (Narrative, 2:140, 141) proposes to identify Ramoth-Lehi with Ramoth Nekeb (1 Samuel 30:27), as well as with Baalath (1 Kings 9:18; 2 Chronicles 8:6), Baalath-beer (Joshua 19:8), or Bealoth (Joshua 15:24); and all these with some ruins on tell Lekiyeh, three or four miles north of Bir es-Seba (comp. Memoir, p. 343), a view to which we yield an assent, reluctantly, however, owing to its great distance from the Philistine territory, and the want of exact agreement in the Arabic name (Lechi and Legiyeh). The Beit-Likiyeh, mentioned by Tobler (Dritte Wanderung, p. 189) as a village on the northern slopes of the great wady Suleiman, about two miles below the upper Beth-horon, is a position at once on the borders of both Judah and the Philistines, and within reasonable proximity to Zorah, Eshtaol, Timnlath, and other places familiar to the history of the great Danite hero. But this, again, is too far north for any known position of the adjoining rock Etamn (q.v.).