Jaw-bone

The jaw-bone of an ass was the improvised weapon with which Samson slew a thousand Philistines at Lehi (Judg. 15:15–17). After the Philistines bound him and delivered him over, the Spirit of the LORD came upon Samson, the ropes burst, and he seized a fresh jaw-bone and struck down a thousand men. He then composed a brief battle poem: "With the jaw-bone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, with the jaw of an ass have I slain a thousand men." The place was called Ramath-lehi ("the hill of the jaw-bone") in commemoration. Immediately after the battle, dying of thirst, Samson cried to God and water miraculously came from a hollow in Lehi. The episode illustrates Samson's pattern of supernatural strength combined with personal vulnerability.