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King James Version

Judges 15:15

And he found a new jawbone of an ass, and put forth his hand, and took it, and slew a thousand men therewith.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Ass (Donkey);   Lehi;   Samson;   Scofield Reference Index - Miracles;   Thompson Chain Reference - Instrumentalities, Weak;   Power;   Small Things God Uses;   Weak;   Weakness-Power;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Miracles Wrought through Servants of God;   Philistines, the;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Etam;   Lehi;   Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Samson;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Ramath-Lehi;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Etam;   Shamgar;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Israel;   Levi;   Marriage;   Philistines;   Samson;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Lehi ;   The Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary - Makaz;   Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types - Ass;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Cheek;   Fresh;   Jaw;   New;   Numbers, Book of;   Shamgar;  

Devotionals:

- Every Day Light - Devotion for January 9;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, reached out his hand, took it, and killed a thousand men with it.
Hebrew Names Version
He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, and put forth his hand, and took it, and struck a thousand men therewith.
Lexham English Bible
And he found a fresh jawbone of a donkey; he reached down and took it and killed one thousand men with it.
English Standard Version
And he found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, and put out his hand and took it, and with it he struck 1,000 men.
New Century Version
Samson found the jawbone of a dead donkey, took it, and killed a thousand men with it!
New English Translation
He happened to see a solid jawbone of a donkey. He grabbed it and struck down a thousand men.
Amplified Bible
He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, so he reached out his hand and took it and killed a thousand men with it.
New American Standard Bible
Then he found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, so he reached out with his hand and took it, and killed a thousand men with it.
Geneva Bible (1587)
And he found a new iawebone of an asse, and put forth his hand, and caught it, and slewe a thousand men therewith.
Legacy Standard Bible
to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him."
Contemporary English Version
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!
Complete Jewish Bible
He found a fresh donkey jawbone, took it in his hand, and with it he struck down a thousand men.
Darby Translation
And he found a fresh jawbone of an ass, and put forth his hand and took it, and slew with it a thousand men.
Easy-to-Read Version
Samson found a jawbone of a dead donkey and killed 1000 Philistine men with it.
George Lamsa Translation
And he found a hard jawbone of an ass, and put forth his hand and took it, and slew a thousand men with it.
Good News Translation
Then he found a jawbone of a donkey that had recently died. He reached down and picked it up, and killed a thousand men with it.
Literal Translation
And he found a fresh jawbone of an ass, and put out his hand and took it. And he struck a thousand men with it.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
And he founde the cheke bone of a deed asse: then put he forth his hande, and toke it, & slewe a thousande men therwith:
American Standard Version
And he found a fresh jawbone of an ass, and put forth his hand, and took it, and smote a thousand men therewith.
Bible in Basic English
And taking up the mouth-bone of an ass newly dead, which he saw by chance on the earth, he put to death a thousand men with it.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
And he founde a newe iawe bone of an Asse, & put foorth his hande, and caught it, and slue a thousande men therwith.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
And he found a new jawbone of an ass, and put forth his hand, and took it, and smote a thousand men therewith.
King James Version (1611)
And he found a new iawbone of an asse, and put foorth his hand, and tooke it, and slewe a thousand men therewith.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And he found the jaw-bone of an ass that had been cast away, and he put forth his hand and took it, and smote with it a thousand men.
English Revised Version
And he found a new jawbone of an ass, and put forth his hand, and took it, and smote a thousand men therewith.
Berean Standard Bible
He found the fresh jawbone of a donkey, reached out his hand and took it, and struck down a thousand men.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And he took a cheke foundun, that is, the lowere cheke boon of an asse, that lay, `and he killyde `with it a thousinde men; and seide,
Young's Literal Translation
and he findeth a fresh jaw-bone of an ass, and putteth forth his hand and taketh it, and smiteth with it -- a thousand men.
Update Bible Version
And he found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, and put forth his hand, and took it, and smote a thousand men therewith.
Webster's Bible Translation
And he found a fresh jaw-bone of an ass, and put forth his hand, and took it, and slew a thousand men with it.
World English Bible
He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, and put forth his hand, and took it, and struck a thousand men therewith.
New King James Version
He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, reached out his hand and took it, and killed a thousand men with it.
New Living Translation
Then he found the jawbone of a recently killed donkey. He picked it up and killed 1,000 Philistines with it.
New Life Bible
Samson found a jawbone of a donkey and took it in his hand. He killed 1,000 men with it.
New Revised Standard
Then he found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, reached down and took it, and with it he killed a thousand men.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Then found he the jawbone of an ass newly-slain, - so he thrust forth his hand, and took it, and smote therewith, a thousand men.
Douay-Rheims Bible
And finding a jawbone, even the jawbone of an ass, which lay there, catching it up, he slew therewith a thousand men.
Revised Standard Version
And he found a fresh jawbone of an ass, and put out his hand and seized it, and with it he slew a thousand men.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, so he reached out and took it and killed a thousand men with it.

Contextual Overview

9 Then the Philistines went up, and pitched in Judah, and spread themselves in Lehi. 10 And the men of Judah said, Why are ye come up against us? And they answered, To bind Samson are we come up, to do to him as he hath done to us. 11 Then three thousand men of Judah went to the top of the rock Etam, and said to Samson, Knowest thou not that the Philistines are rulers over us? what is this that thou hast done unto us? And he said unto them, As they did unto me, so have I done unto them. 12 And they said unto him, We are come down to bind thee, that we may deliver thee into the hand of the Philistines. And Samson said unto them, Swear unto me, that ye will not fall upon me yourselves. 13 And they spake unto him, saying, No; but we will bind thee fast, and deliver thee into their hand: but surely we will not kill thee. And they bound him with two new cords, and brought him up from the rock. 14 And when he came unto Lehi, the Philistines shouted against him: and the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and the cords that were upon his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire, and his bands loosed from off his hands. 15 And he found a new jawbone of an ass, and put forth his hand, and took it, and slew a thousand men therewith. 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. 17 And it came to pass, when he had made an end of speaking, that he cast away the jawbone out of his hand, and called that place Ramathlehi.

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

Cross-References

Genesis 15:1
After these things the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.
Genesis 15:2
And Abram said, Lord God, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus?
Genesis 15:7
And he said unto him, I am the Lord that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it.
Genesis 15:9
And he said unto him, Take me an heifer of three years old, and a she goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon.
Genesis 15:13
And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;
Genesis 15:16
But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.
Genesis 15:19
The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites,
Genesis 23:4
I am a stranger and a sojourner with you: give me a possession of a buryingplace with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.
Genesis 23:19
And after this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah before Mamre: the same is Hebron in the land of Canaan.
Genesis 35:29
And Isaac gave up the ghost, and died, and was gathered unto his people, being old and full of days: and his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.

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.


 
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