What Does Judges 15:16 Mean?
And Samson said, With the jawbone of a donkey, heaps upon heaps, with the jaw of a donkey I have struck down a thousand men.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
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.THE KEY
The Hebrew makes “donkey” echo through “heaps,” so Samson’s weapon and the aftermath of his killing ring with the same consonants.
THE MEANING
You hear Samson boast of mass killing: he names the jawbone as his weapon and a thousand men as the dead. The soundplay between the donkey’s name and the word for heaps makes the instrument and the piled aftermath chime together.
THE ROOT
חֲמֹרָתָיִם
ḥămōrātayim
GROWS FROM
חמר
To heap or pile up; here, those consonants echo in חֲמוֹר (ḥămōr), “donkey.”
“heaps upon heaps” in this verse is ḥămōrātayim. The Hebrew soundplay folds the animal’s name into the piling image, binding the jawbone to the aftermath of the killing. The line’s boast is carried by the repeated sound as well as by its count.
ALSO GROWS
ḥōmer: A heap or mound
חֹמֶר
This form makes the pile beneath “heaps upon heaps” visible.
ḥomārim: Heaps
חֳמָרִם
Exodus 8:14 uses this plural for piles of dead frogs, giving the same heap-word a concrete scene.
THE PATTERN
Victory language can compress killing into a tally, a repeated image, or a refrain.
Between her feet he knelt, he fell, he lay down. Between her feet he bowed, he fell. Where he knelt, there he fell, ravaged.And the women answered one another as they played, and said, Saul has struck down his thousands, and David his ten thousands.They circle me like bees; they go out like a fire of thorns; in the nature of the LORD I cut them off.THE THREAD
And they piled them, heap upon heap, and the land stank.Exodus uses the same חמר heap-word for piles of dead frogs. In Judges, that pile-sound echoes beside חֲמוֹר (ḥămōr, “donkey”), so the jawbone’s name and the aftermath chime together.
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