How we cite our quotes: (Chapter:Verse)
Quote #7
And Samson said, "With the jawbone of a donkey, heaps upon heaps, with the jawbone of a donkey I have slain a thousand men." (NRSV 15:16)
And Samson said, With the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, with the jaw of an ass have I slain a thousand men. (KJV 15:16)
He doesn't seem like a reluctant warrior in the least. Indeed, he talks about his feats in poetic, almost sing-song language, as if he enjoys the slaughter. Notice that Samson says that he—not God—killed these men. He was surely aware that his strength came from God. What does it say about him that he never really mentions this until his death?
Quote #8
So the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes. They brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze shackles; and he ground at the mill in the prison. (NRSV 16:21)
But the Philistines took him, and put out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with fetters of brass; and he did grind in the prison house. (KJV 16:21)
Why did the Philistines just maim Samson instead of killing him outright? It seems like they kept him alive in order to use him as an example of their dominance. Sometimes violence finds its fullest expression in merely incapacitating enemies rather than killing them.