When these traitors promised not to harm him, Sam'son agreed to be bount with strong ropes and delivered to the enemy. When the Phi-lis'tines saw Sam'son being led to them with strong ropes around his hands, they set up a terrific howl of scorn and triumph. This awakened the power which slumbered in the arms of the giant, and the cords which held him fast were instantly parted like flax touched by a flame of fire. "The Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him," and Sam'son made use of the jaw-bone of an ass to slay a thousand Phi-lis'tines. The whole army was paralyzed with terror, unable to fight against the sudden avalanche of power which appeared among them. Those who were not slain fled in confusion, and Sam'son voiced his triumph in these words:
"With the jaw-bone of an ass, heaps upon heaps,
With the jaw-bone of an ass have I smitten a thousand men."
Suffering from thirst in a place where no water could be had, Sam'son cried unto the LORD, "Thou hast given this great deliverance by the hand of thy servant; and now shall I die from thirst, and fall into the hands of the heathens?" The LORD miraculously opened a spring of water where Sam'son threw the jaw-bone, and the name of the place was changed to En-hak'ko-re, which means "the spring of him that called."
Thus in the zenith of his supernatural power Sam'son left to all future generations a memorial to the fact that his exploits and triumphs were dependent on faith and prayer. The Phi-lis'tines, like an over-running flood, had swept over the land of Is'ra-el. In a manner unthought of and unheard of up to this time, God had raised up one lone man to serve as a breakwater against these destructive torrents. By super-human strength he manifested sufficient power to defeat a whole nation. But it was only when Sam'son fully relied upon Divine help, looked to God in faith and with humble supplications, that he triumphed against his enemies.
