Hebrew word · H3896

לֶחִי

lechi

Lehi

The common noun means 'jaw, jawbone, cheek'. As a place name it is Lehi, also called Ramath-lehi ('Jawbone Height', v. 17), somewhere in the hill country or lowlands of Judah near the rock of Etam. Its exact location is unknown.

Appears 3 times in 3 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

Lehi = "jaw"

a place in Judah which must have been in the Shephelah, near the border of the hill-country of Judah; site uncertain

place is noted for being the location of Samson's killing of 1000 men with the jawbone of an ass

Also named: le.chi (לְחִי "Lehi" H3895)

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Judges 15:14

Range of meaning

The common noun means 'jaw, jawbone, cheek'. As a place name it is Lehi, also called Ramath-lehi ('Jawbone Height', v. 17), somewhere in the hill country or lowlands of Judah near the rock of Etam. Its exact location is unknown.

Against the English

English versions simply write 'Lehi', so English readers miss that every Hebrew hearer heard 'Jaw'. The Greek Septuagint translated the name as Siagōn, 'Jaw', and kept the pun.

Used elsewhere in the period

Verses 15–19 of the same story play on the word: the leḥi (jawbone) of a donkey (v. 15), Ramath-lehi (v. 17), and the spring that YHWH splits open 'in the leḥi' (v. 19). Place-name stories like this are common in the Hebrew Bible.

From the study of Judges 15:9

Range of meaning

Common noun: jaw, jawbone, cheek (of humans and animals). It appears in phrases about striking someone on the cheek, an act of insult (1 Kgs 22:24; Mic 5:1), and about putting a hook or bridle in the jaws of an animal or nation (Isa 30:28; Ezek 29:4). As a place name, 'Lehi' or 'Ramath-lehi' ('Height of the Jaw') appears only in the Samson story and perhaps in 2 Sam 23:11.

Against the English

English versions simply print 'Lehi', so readers meet an opaque name. A Hebrew hearer heard 'the Jaw'. BSB's 'the town of Lehi' adds 'town', which the Hebrew does not say. The article ('the Lehi') points rather to a landmark, perhaps a jaw-shaped ridge or outcrop.

How it drifted

This is not drift in the usual sense. It is the normal loss that comes from transliterating a name instead of translating it.

Used elsewhere in the period

In this chapter the word recurs as a deliberate play on words: 'jawbone of a donkey' (leḥî ḥămôr, 15:15–16), Samson throws the jawbone away and the place is called Ramath-lehi (15:17), and God splits 'the hollow that is in Lehi' so water comes out (15:19). In 2 Sam 23:11 the Philistines gather 'laḥayyāh', which many scholars read as 'at Lehi', though others take it as 'into a troop'. The site has not been identified. It was probably in the hill country or foothills of Judah, near Etam.

Where it appears

Judges · 3

  1. Judges 15:9 בַּלֶּֽחִי׃ at <the> Lehi

    Then the Philistines went up, camped in Judah, and deployed themselves near the town of Lehi.

    Here: 'In the Lehi', that is, 'at the Jaw'. It is a place name, but it is also the ordinary word for 'jaw' and it carries the article ('the'). It sets up the coming scene, in which Samson kills a thousand men with the jawbone (leḥî) of a donkey (15:15–17).

  2. Judges 15:14 לֶ֔חִי Lehi

    When Samson arrived in Lehi, the Philistines came out shouting against him. And the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him. The ropes on his arms became like burnt flax, and the bonds broke loose from his hands.

    Here: A place name that is also the ordinary word for 'jaw'. A Hebrew listener heard 'he came to Jaw', which sets up the jawbone (leḥi) of a donkey in the next verse and the naming story in v. 17.

  3. Judges 15:19 בַּלֶּ֔חִי [is] at <the> Lehi

    So God opened up the hollow place in Lehi, and water came out of it. When Samson drank, his strength returned, and he was revived. That is why he named it En-hakkore, and it remains in Lehi to this day.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.