In Judges, why and how does Samson attack them (the philistines) hip and thigh with a great slaughter.
What in the world does that even mean?
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Sign up to join this communityAn explanation can easily be found in a commentary, for example at Biblehub. Ellicott's commentary says "There is no doubt that the expression intensifies the words “with a great slaughter;” but the origin of the phrase is a matter of conjecture". Apparently the idiom derives either from the idea that you strike both hip and thigh to insure destruction, or you pile up parts of bodies, thigh on top of hip.
It has been suggested that the hip was acceptable for sacrifice, but the thigh was not. That would allow for such interpretations as "the good with the bad" or "both the guilty and the innocent" if research backs this up.