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Contemporary English Version

Judges 15:16

After the fighting was over, he made up this poem about what he had done to the Philistines: I used a donkey's jawbone to kill a thousand men; I beat them with this jawbone over and over again.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Ass (Donkey);   Lehi;   Samson;   Scofield Reference Index - Miracles;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Philistines, the;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Etam;   Lehi;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Ramath-Lehi;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Etam;   Shamgar;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Music, Instruments, Dancing;   Poetry;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Ass;   Israel;   Levi;   Marriage;   Philistines;   Samson;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Lehi ;   The Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary - Makaz;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Ass;   Heap;   Number;   Samson;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Alliteration and Kindred Figures;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Then Samson said:
Hebrew Names Version
Shimshon said, With the jawbone of a donkey, heaps on heaps, With the jawbone of a donkey I have struck a thousand men.
King James Version
And Samson said, With the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, with the jaw of an ass have I slain a thousand men.
Lexham English Bible
And Samson said, "With the jawbone of the donkey, heap upon heap; with the jawbone of the donkey, I struck dead one thousand men."
English Standard Version
And Samson said, "With the jawbone of a donkey, heaps upon heaps, with the jawbone of a donkey have I struck down a thousand men."
New Century Version
Then Samson said, "With a donkey's jawbone I made donkeys out of them. With a donkey's jawbone I killed a thousand men!"
New English Translation
Samson then said, "With the jawbone of a donkey I have left them in heaps; with the jawbone of a donkey I have struck down a thousand men!"
Amplified Bible
Then Samson said, "With the jawbone of a donkey, Heaps upon heaps, With the jawbone of a donkey I have struck down a thousand men."
New American Standard Bible
And Samson said, "With the jawbone of a donkey, Heaps upon heaps, With the jawbone of a donkey I have killed a thousand men."
Geneva Bible (1587)
Then Samson sayd, With the iaw of an asse are heapes vpon heapes: with the iawe of an asse haue I slaine a thousand men.
Legacy Standard Bible
These are grumblers, finding fault, following after their own lusts; and their mouth speaks arrogantly, flattering people for the sake of their own benefit.
Complete Jewish Bible
Shimshon said, "With the jawbone of a donkey I left heaps piled on heaps! With the jawbone of a donkey I killed a thousand men!"
Darby Translation
And Samson said, With the jawbone of an ass, a heap, two heaps, With the jawbone of an ass have I slain a thousand men.
Easy-to-Read Version
Then Samson said, "With a donkey's jawbone, I killed 1000 men! With a donkey's jawbone, I piled them into a tall pile."
George Lamsa Translation
And Samson said, With the jawbone of an ass I have made heaps upon heaps, with the jawbone of an ass I have slain a thousand men.
Good News Translation
So Samson sang, "With the jawbone of a donkey I killed a thousand men; With the jawbone of a donkey I piled them up in piles."
Literal Translation
And Samson said, With the jawbone of an ass, a heap, two heaps, with the jawbone of an ass I have killed a thousand men.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
And Samson sayde: With an olde asses cheke bone, yee eue with the cheke bone of an asse haue I slayne a thousande men.
American Standard Version
And Samson said, With the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, With the jawbone of an ass have I smitten a thousand men.
Bible in Basic English
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.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
And Samson sayde: With the iawe of an Asse, heapes vpon heapes: with the iawe of an Asse haue I slayne a thousande men.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
And Samson said: With the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, with the jawbone of an ass have I smitten a thousand men.
King James Version (1611)
And Samson said, With the iawbone of an asse, heapes vpon heapes, with the iaw of an asse haue I slaine a thousand men.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And Sampson said, With the jaw-bone of an ass I have utterly destroyed them, for with the jaw-bone of an ass I have smitten a thousand men.
English Revised Version
And Samson said, With the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, with the jawbone of an ass have I smitten a thousand men.
Berean Standard Bible
Then Samson said: "With the jawbone of a donkey I have piled them into heaps. With the jawbone of a donkey I have slain a thousand men."
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
With the cheke of an asse, that is, with the lowere cheke of a colt of femal assis, Y dide hem awey, and Y killide a thousynde men.
Young's Literal Translation
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.'
Update Bible Version
And Samson said, With the jawbone of a donkey, I have thrashed them good, With the jawbone of a donkey I have smitten a thousand men.
Webster's Bible Translation
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.
World English Bible
Samson said, With the jawbone of a donkey, heaps on heaps, With the jawbone of a donkey I have struck a thousand men.
New King James Version
Then Samson said: "With the jawbone of a donkey, Heaps upon heaps, With the jawbone of a donkey I have slain a thousand men!"
New Living Translation
Then Samson said, "With the jawbone of a donkey, I've piled them in heaps! With the jawbone of a donkey, I've killed a thousand men!"
New Life Bible
Then Samson said, "With the bone of a donkey there are bodies upon bodies. With the bone of a donkey I have killed 1,000 men."
New Revised Standard
And Samson said, "With the jawbone of a donkey, heaps upon heaps, with the jawbone of a donkey I have slain a thousand men."
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
And Samson said, With the jawbone of an ass, - have I piled them up in heaps! With the jawbone of an ass, have I smitten a thousand men!
Douay-Rheims Bible
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.
Revised Standard Version
And Samson said, "With the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, with the jawbone of an ass have I slain a thousand men."
New American Standard Bible (1995)
Then Samson said, "With the jawbone of a donkey, Heaps upon heaps, With the jawbone of a donkey I have killed a thousand men."

Contextual Overview

9 But it wasn't long before the Philistines invaded Judah and set up a huge army camp at Jawbone. 10 The people of Judah asked, "Why have you invaded our land?" The Philistines answered, "We've come to get Samson. We're going to do the same things to him that he did to our people." 11 Three thousand men from Judah went to the cave at Etam Rock and said to Samson, "Don't you know that the Philistines rule us, and they will punish us for what you did?" "I was only getting even with them," Samson replied. "They did the same things to me first." 12 "We came here to tie you up and turn you over to them," said the men of Judah. "I won't put up a fight," Samson answered, "but you have to promise not to hurt me yourselves." 13"We promise," the men said. "We will only tie you up and turn you over to the Philistines. We won't kill you." Then they tied up his hands and arms with two brand-new ropes and led him away from Etam Rock. When the Philistines saw that Samson was being brought to their camp at Jawbone, they started shouting and ran toward him. But the Lord 's Spirit took control of Samson, and Samson broke the ropes, as though they were pieces of burnt cloth. 15 Samson glanced around and spotted the jawbone of a donkey. The jawbone had not yet dried out, so it was still hard and heavy. Samson grabbed it and started hitting Philistines—he killed a thousand of them! 16 After the fighting was over, he made up this poem about what he had done to the Philistines: I used a donkey's jawbone to kill a thousand men; I beat them with this jawbone over and over again. 17 Samson tossed the jawbone on the ground and decided to call the place Jawbone Hill. It is still called that today.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

with the jawbone: There is here a fine paronomasia upon the word chamor, "an ass," which also signifies "a heap;" bilchee hachamor, chamor chamorathayim, "With the jaw-bone of an ass, a heap upon two heaps."

heaps upon heaps: Heb. an heap, two heaps, Judges 15:16

Reciprocal: Judges 16:24 - which slew many of us 1 Samuel 17:40 - staff 1 Corinthians 1:25 - the foolishness

Cross-References

Genesis 15:5
Then the Lord took Abram outside and said, "Look at the sky and see if you can count the stars. That's how many descendants you will have."
Genesis 15:8
Abram asked, " Lord God, how can I know the land will be mine?"
Genesis 15:9
Then the Lord told him, "Bring me a three-year-old cow, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a dove, and a young pigeon."
Genesis 15:11
And when birds came down to eat the animals, Abram chased them away.
Exodus 12:40
The Lord 's people left Egypt exactly four hundred thirty years after they had arrived.
Daniel 8:23
When these rulers have become as evil as possible, their power will end, and then a king who is dangerous and cannot be trusted will appear.
1 Thessalonians 2:16
They keep us from speaking his message to the Gentiles and from leading them to be saved. The Jews have always gone too far with their sins. Now God has finally become angry and will punish them.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

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.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

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).


 
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