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Bible Encyclopedias
Lehi
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
or (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.).
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McClintock, John. Strong, James. Entry for 'Lehi'. Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/tce/l/lehi.html. Harper & Brothers. New York. 1870.
