1. Judges 15:17 (ESV)
  2. Exposition

Why does Samson rename the place “Ramath-lehi”?

Judges 15:17 (ESV)

17 As soon as he had finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone out of his hand. And that place was called Ramath-lehi.

More often, military action happened on hilltops. Samson's renaming the place Ramath-Lehi might at first seem to be his naming the site of the victory. But this is not so. He names the place in honour of his feat. Ramath-Lehi means Jawbone Hill, and is thus a reference to the hill, the heap he made with the corpses of the Philistines.1