Judices 15:15

Nova Vulgata

Inventamque maxillam asini recentem arripiens percussit in ea mille viros

Parallel Translations

Clementine Latin Vulgate (1592)
Atque inde conscendens venit ad habitatores Dabir, qu� prius vocabatur Cariath Sepher, id est, civitas litterarum.

Jerome's Latin Vulgate (405)
Inventamque maxillam, id est, mandibulam asini, qu� jacebat, arripiens interfecit in ea mille viros,

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

new jawbone: Heb. moist

slew: Judges 3:31, Judges 4:21, Judges 7:16, Leviticus 26:8, Joshua 23:10, 1 Samuel 14:6, 1 Samuel 14:14, 1 Samuel 17:49, 1 Samuel 17:50, 1 Corinthians 1:27, 1 Corinthians 1:28

a thousand: Some would render the words aileph ish, "a chief;" but it is alluph, and not aileph, which signifies a chief; besides which, the Hebrew idiom would, even in that case, require it to be ish alluph, "a man, a chief," and not alluph ish, "a chief, a man." Add to which, that every version renders it "a thousand men."

Reciprocal: Deuteronomy 33:22 - General Judges 14:6 - rent him Judges 16:30 - So the dead 1 Samuel 17:40 - staff 1 Corinthians 1:25 - the foolishness

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And he found a new jawbone of an ass,.... That is, the jawbone of an ass lately killed, which perhaps had some of the flesh upon it, the blood or purulent matter on it; for Jarchi says, he had read in the books of physicians, that the word here used signifies the sanies or purulent matter of a wound; however, it was moist, and fresh, and so tough and strong, and would bear to strike with, and give hard blows with, when an old jawbone would have been dry and brittle; and perhaps the asses of those countries were larger than ours, and so their jawbones bigger and stronger:

and put forth his hand and took it; it lay near him, being so disposed by the providence of God at the time and place where his cords were loosed from him, and he reached and took it up:

and slew one thousand men therewith, such was his great strength, that every blow he gave in all probability killed a man; there have been wonderful things done by mighty warriors, but none like this; they have by the use of warlike weapons destroyed many, as with the sword or spear, but not with such an instrument. One of David's worthies slew three hundred men at one time with his spear, 1 Chronicles 11:11 and Scanderbeg with his sword slew great numbers of the Turks with his own hand at different times; what comes nearest to this is Shamgar's killing six hundred Philistines with an ox goad, Judges 3:31, this may be an emblem of the weak and contemptible means of the Gospel, the foolishness of preaching, by which Christ has conquered and subdued multitudes to himself.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Slew a thousand men therewith - Compare the marginal references. The Philistines, seized with a panic at seeing Samson suddenly burst his cords and rush at them, offered no resistance, but fell an easy prey to the blows of their mighty foe. Some perhaps were dashed down the cliffs in their flight.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Judges 15:15. He found a new jaw-bone of an ass — I rather think that the word טריה teriyah, which we translate new, and the margin moist, should be understood as signifying the tabia or putrid state of the ass from which this jawbone was taken. He found there a dead ass in a state of putrefaction; on which account he could the more easily separate the jaw from its integuments; this was a circumstance proper to be recorded by the historian, and a mark of the providence of God. But were we to understand it of a fresh jaw-bone, very lately separated from the head of an ass, the circumstance does not seem worthy of being recorded.

With the jaw-bore of an ass, heaps upon heaps — I cannot see the propriety of this rendering of the Hebrew words בלחי החמור חמור חמרתים bilchi hachamor, chemor chamorathayim; I believe they should be translated thus: -

"With the jaw-bone of this ass,

an ass (the foal) of two asses;

"With the jaw-bone of this ass

I have slain a thousand men."

This appears to have been a triumphal song on the occasion; and the words are variously rendered both by the versions, and by expositors.