Judges 15:16-20 - With a donkey's jawbone

15:16,17

While in some ways Samson was a rather stupid person (think what a bit of self-control and devotion to the Lord would have enabled him to do), he did have a way with words. So we get one of his little poems, the full value of which we do not get in the English translation. After this he discarded the jawbone, and the place was named Ramath Lehi, or “jawbone hill” (sounds like the name of a place out of a western).

15:18-20

Samson was very thirsty. He knows that his strength came from the Lord, but now claims that he is about to die of thirst. The Lord opened up a place of water for him. Samson drank and was revived. God doing miracles in a person’s life is no indication of moral rectitude. 

We then read that Samson led Israel for twenty years. Perhaps “judged” is a better term here. For there is no record of him being an actual leader in terms of governing the nation. This was “the days of the Philistines”. What it means is that he, his life and actions, were the dominant feature in the nation over that period.