Commentaries:
Adam Clarke
He found a new jaw-bone of an ass - I rather think that the word 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 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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