So extraordinary was the slaughter that Samson celebrated it with a poem of victory. In verse form the poem would appear as follows:

“With the jawbone of an ass,

heaps upon heaps,

With the jawbone of an ass,

have I slain a thousand men.”

The poem also displays an interesting play on words, which is apparent in the Hebrew but untranslatable into English. The sounds for “ass” and “heap” are identical. The couplet is transliterated so that the effect may be illustrated:

Bilchi hachchamor

chamor chamoratayim

Bilchi hachchamor

hikkiti ’eleph ’ish.