(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 hicceythi 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).
Verse 16. - 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 an 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 (1 Samuel 18:7), And a Latin song is quoted, in which Aurelian is made to say after the Sarmatic war - "Mille Sarmatas, mille Frances, Semel et semel occidimus, Mille Persas quaerimus" (Bp. Patrick on Judges 15.).
15:9-17 Sin dispirits men, it hides from their eyes the things that belong to their peace. The Israelites blamed Samson for what he had done against the Philistines, as if he had done them a great injury. Thus our Lord Jesus did many good works, and for those the Jews were ready to stone him. When the Spirit of the Lord came upon Samson, his cords were loosed: where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty, and those are free indeed who are thus set free. Thus Christ triumphed over the powers of darkness that shouted against him, as if they had him in their power. Samson made great destruction among the Philistines. To take the bone of an ass for this, was to do wonders by the foolish things of the world, that the excellency of the power might be of God, not of man. This victory was not in the weapon, was not in the arm; but it was in the Spirit of God, which moved the weapon by the arm. We can do all things through Him that strengtheneth us. Seest thou a poor Christian, who is enabled to overcome a temptation by weak, feeble counsel, there is the Philistine vanquished by a sorry jaw-bone.
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.
"Bi-lechi ha-chamor chamor chamorathaim.
Bi-lechi ha-chamor hicceythi 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).
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.