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

And Samson said, With the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, With the jawbone of an ass have I smitten a thousand men.

And he said: With the jawbone of an ass, with the jaw of the colt of asses I have destroyed them, and have slain a thousand men.

And Samson said, |With the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, with the jawbone of an ass have I slain a thousand men.|

And Samson said, With the jaw-bone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, with the jaw of an ass have I slain a thousand men.

And Samson saith, 'With a jaw-bone of the ass, an ass upon asses, with a jaw-bone of the ass I have smitten a thousand men.'

And Samson said, With a red ass's mouth-bone I have made them red with blood, with a red ass's mouth-bone I have sent destruction on a thousand men.

And he said, "With the jawbone of a donkey, with the jaw of the colt of a donkey, I have destroyed them, and I have struck down a thousand men."

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

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.

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].

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.