Judges 15:16

Jdg 15:16 And Samson said, With the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, with the jaw of an ass have I slain a thousand men.

Ver. 16. With the jaw bone of an ass, heaps upon heaps.] Heb., A heap, two heaps. Here is an elegancy (antanaclasis) in the original; for the same word Chamor signifieth both an ass and a heap. And this was Samson’s epinicion, or song of thanksgiving to God; not a vain vaunt of his own strength and achievements, as Josephus and Ambrose will have it, for which cause also God punished him afterwards with so great thirst, say they.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Jdg 15:16. Heaps upon heaps, &c. — Hebrew, a heap, two heaps. As much as to say, I have not only slain enow to make one heap, but two or more. I have slain a thousand men — What could be too hard for him to do, on whom the Spirit of the Lord came mightily? This seems like a short hymn or song of triumph, which Samson uttered after he had routed the Philistines. It is strange that the men of Judah did not now, at least, come to his assistance. But he was to be a type of him who trod the wine-press alone.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

With the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, with the jaw of an ass have I slain a thousand men--The inadequacy of the weapon plainly shows this to have been a miraculous feat, "a case of supernatural strength," just as the gift of prophecy is a case of supernatural knowledge [CHALMERS].

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

(16) And Samson said, With the jawbone of an ass.—Here we once more find ourselves in very primitive regions of poetry and paronomasia. Samson’s exultation over his extraordinary achievement finds vent in a sort of punning couplet, which turns entirely on the identity of sound between chamor, a heap, and chamor, an ass, and the play of meaning between aleph, a thousand, and aleph, an ox. In the Hebrew the couplet runs:—

“Bi-lechi ha-chamor chamor chamorathaim.

Bi-lechi ha-chamor hicceythî eleph eesh.”

Literally, with some attempt, however clumsy, to keep up the play of words,

“With jaw of the ass, a (m)ass two (m) asses,

With jaw of the ass I smote an ox-load of men.”

The versions are, of course, unable to preserve these rough paronomasias, which are characteristic of the age. It would be quite a mistake to infer that they show any levity of spirit in Samson. On the contrary, such peculiarities of expression often arise out of deep emotion. When John of Gaunt begins his dying speech to Richard II. with—

“Old Gaunt, indeed! and gaunt in being old,” &c.,

the king asks:—

“Can sick men play so nicely with their names?”

and the dying prince makes the striking answer:—

“No; misery makes sport to mock herself.”

I have fully examined the whole subject in Chapters on Language, pp. 227-238. These sallies of playful fancy tended no less than the flashes of military prowess to prepare the nation for better times by keeping up their buoyant mood. “The nation felt unsubdued in mind and body, while its sons could flow out in such health and vivacity;” and thus Samson began to deliver them, though his actual deeds were casual—“a sort of teasing, reiterated mark of mortifying humiliation” (Ewald).

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

16. heaps upon heaps] See marg., and cf. Exo_8:14 [Hebrews 10, lit. heaps, heaps]. But a verb is wanted to complete the parallelism with clause b; and, simply pronouncing the words differently, we may render heaping I have heaped them, i. e. I have heaped them high. The verb ḥamar was chosen for its similarity to ḥamôr = ‘ass.’ The Verss. give a verb, LXX, Vulgate delevi, Peshitto ‘I have heaped heaps of them.’

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And Samson said,.... In a kind of triumphant song:

with the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps; that is, with such an instrument he had slain heaps of men, who lay dead in heaps upon one another; in the words for an "ass", and for an "heap", is an elegant "paronomosia", not easy to be expressed in our language:

with the jaw of an ass have I slain a thousand men: this he said not in a proud and haughty manner, ascribing it to himself, as Josephus suggests (m), since he takes notice of the mean instrument he used; which showed that he was sensible it was not done by his own power, but by the power of God, which enabled him by such weak means to do such wonderful things.

(m) Antiqu. l. 5. c. 8. sect. 9.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

There is a play upon the word, three times repeated, which means both “an ass” and also “a heap.” The spirit of riddle-making Jdg 14:12, Jdg 14:18 is apparent in this song of triumph (compare Jdg 5:1; Exo 15:1; 1Sa 18:6-7).

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Asses. He insists on this particular, as such an unusual weapon rendering his victory more astonishing, and he would not leave any room for doubt. Hebrew is variously translated, "with the jaw-bone of an ass, I have made a heap, yea two heaps; with the jaw-bone of an ass, I have defeated a thousand men." (Syriac, &c.) Castalion and Bonfrere defend the Vulgate. The Septuagint have, "with the jaw-bone of an ass I have entirely taken them off, (Haydock; defending them) with," &c. They have explained chamorathayim, as the first person of emor, rubefecit, or Chaldean destruxit, "I have covered them with blood;" and indeed to understand it of "two she asses," is impossible. (Calmet) --- This verse formed the chorus of Samson’s song. (Haydock) --- He did not take the glory to himself, as Josephus ([Antiquities?] v. 10,) would insinuate, but attributed the victory to God, ver. 18. (Salien, in the year before Christ 1172.) This miracle of strength can no more be accounted for by reason, than many others. (Worthington)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

This, though it might seem difficult, yet is not at all impossible or incredible; especially seeing the learned affirm of the asses of Syria, that they were larger and stronger than ours, and so consequently were their bones. And withal, it must be acknowledged that there was something extraordinary and miraculous in this, as there was unquestionably in Samson’s strength, and so all the difficulty vanisheth.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

16. Samson said — Samson’s words form a short poetical distich, and contain, in the Hebrew, a noticeable paronomasia, which may be thus presented in English:

With a jawbone of the ass, a mass, two masses, With a jawbone of the ass have I slain a thousand men.

It deserves notice, also, that the Hebrew word for mass or heaps is the same as that for ass and the word for thousand means also an ox; so that a further idea of Samson’s pun may be given by rendering:

With a jawbone of the ass, an ass, two asses, With a jawbone of the ass have I slain an ox of men.

This saying, like the method devised to burn the Philistines’ corn, shows us the extent of Samson’s humour. “His most valiant, his most cruel actions, are done with a smile on his face and a jest in his mouth. It relieves his character from the sternness of Phenician fanaticism. As a peal of hearty laughter often breaks in upon the despondency of individual sorrow, so the joviality of Samson becomes a pledge of the revival of the greatness of his nation. The whole point of the massacre of the thousand Philistines lies in the cleverness with which their clumsy triumph is suddenly turned into discomfiture; and their discomfiture is celebrated by the punning turn of the hero, not forgotten even in the exultation or the weariness of victory.” — Stanley.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And Samson said, etc. The exploit gave birth to one of Sam son"s punning, enigmatical, sayings: "With the jawbone of the ass, one heap, two heads of slain." Hamor, an ass, means also a heap . If one were to imitate the passage in English, supposing that the jaw of a sheep had been the implement, it might run something like this By the jaw of a sheep they fell heap upon heap. A Latin imitation is, Maxilla cervi, acervum acervos (Bochart). He adds, as if in explanation, With the jaw of an ass have I slain a thousand men. So the women sang, Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands, (1Sa_18:7) And a Latin song is quoted, in which Aurelian is made to say after the Sarmatic war Sarmatas, mille Frances, Semel et semel occidimus, Mille Persas quaerimus" (Bp. Patrick on Judges 15).

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Slain a thousand men - What could be too hard for him to do, on whom the Spirit of the Lord came mightily? It was strange the men of Judah did now at least come in to his assistance. But he was to be a type of him, who trod the wine-press alone.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

I amassed mounds with the jawbone of a donkey, amassing numerous mounds. "With the jawbone of a donkey I hurled them into mounds."

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.