The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Samuel — Section 244

gave hopes that by one of the long ledges we taking. God, he says, bade Gideon go to might be able to slide1 as it were, towards the the camp of the Midianites to obtain such a bottom. It is not likely that horses hnd si!pl as Jonathan looked for here (see Judges ever before been led along this ledge, or will vii. 11). perhaps ever ngnin cross the pathless chasm, Ver. 11.-Both of them diaoovered them- l:mt it "l"l"as just possible, nnd by jumping selves. They had crept up the precipice them do"l"l"Il one or two steps some three feet unseen, but at some convenient spot near the high, we succeeded in making the passage. top they so placed themselves that the gar- . . . Though we got do"l"l"Il Seneh, we did not rison must see them, e.nd waited there till attempt to climb up Bozez. . . . Horses their presence was observed. Behold, the could sr~rcely find a footing anywhere on the Hebrews. There is no article in the He- sides of the northern precipice; but judging brew. What the Philistines say is, See! from the descent, it seems possible that Hebrews come out of the holes wherein they Jonathan, mth immense labour, could have had hid themselves. ' climbed up upon his hands and upon his Ver. 12.-Come np to us, and we will feet, and his armour-bearer after him' (ver. show yon a thin,f. The Philistines thus 13). That a man exhausted by such an effort give Jonathan the very omen he had desired. oould have fought successfully on a1Tiving at The last clause ls 8. popular phrase, e.nd the top can only be accounted for on the expresses a sort of amused contempt for the supposition of a sudden panic among the two adventurers. Raillery of this sort is Philistines, when they found the enemy act- not e.t all uncommon between the outposts ually mthin their apparently impregnable of two armies. fortress." Ver. 13.=-Upon his hands and upon his Ver. 5.-Was situate, &c. The word thus feet. Of course a sin1)e stone rolled down translated is that rendered pillar in eh. ii upon them while thus clambering up the 8, and the verse should possibly be trans- precipitous side of the cllif would have sent lated, "And the one tooth (or crag) was a them to the bottom ; but the Philistines, rocky mass on the north over against Mich- apparently considering the ascent impossible, mash, and the other was on the south over seem entirely to have neglected them. The against Geba" (not Gibeah, as the A. V.; youthful appearance of the two no doubt see eh. xiii. 16). But the word is omitted in contributed to throw them off their guard. the versions, and may be an interpolation. And they fell before Jonathan. The brevity Ver. 6.-Uncircnmcised. An epithet of of the Hebrew very well expresses the dislike almost confined to the Philistines. rapidity of Jonathan's action. Used to But underneath the whole speech of Jona- mountaineering, he was ready, as soon as he than lies the conviction of the covenant had reached the summit, to commence the relation. of Israel to Jehovah, of which cir- attack, and the Philistines, little expecting cumcision was the outward sign. Notice so vigorous an onslaught from so feeble a also Jonathan's humble reliance upon God. force, were surprised, and made but a slight It may be that J"ehovah will work for us, resistance. The armour-bearer also behaved &c. with a bravery like his master's. Ver. 7.-Tnrn thee. The Hebrew seems Ver. H. -Within as it were an half acre to have preserved the very words of the of land, which a yoke of oxen might plow. young man, and the difficulty in rendering The Hebrew for this long circumlocution is, this phrase arises from its being a colloquial "within about a half furrow of a yoke of expression. "Face about" would be our land." The Septuagint translates, "with phrase ; but the sense is, "On with you; I darts and slings and stones of the field," but will follow." the other versions give no support to this ren- Ver. 9. -Tarry. Hebrew, "be still," dering. The Israelites, like most ancient " stand still," the word used by Joshua of nations, were accustomed to measure land by the sun (Josh. x. 12, 13); but not the word the quantity which a yoke of oxen could rendered stand still just below, where the plough in a day,-something really less than Hebrew has, "We will stand under us," i. e. an acre,-so that the A. V. gives the right we will stop just where we were. sense. When Jonathan made his attack, the Ver. 10.-A sign. The waiting of the garrison probably, not knowing how few their garrison for Jonathan and his armour-bearer assailants were, ran in confusion to the to mount up to them would be a sign of narrow tongue of land where the exit was, great indifference and supineness on their and getting in one another's way, were soon part; but what he rather meant was that they panic-stricken and helpless. were to regard it as an omen. Kim'hi has a Ver. 15. -Trembling. I. e. "terror," l011g digression in his commentary on this "fright." In the host. Hebrew, "in tne place to show that there was nothing super- camp,'' i. e. the main camp at Michmash, stitious in their looking for a prognostic to contrasted with the field, i. e. the OJ.leD e11counge thew in their hazardous under- country, in which the soldiers were foraging (JFl, XIV. 1-35.] THE FIRST BOOK OF SAMUEL. 245