He counted them in Bezek; and the children of Israel were three hundred thousand, and the men of Judah thirty thousand.
Parallel Translations
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He counted them in Bezek; and the children of Israel were three hundred thousand, and the men of Judah thirty thousand.
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And when he numbered them in Bezek, the children of Israel were three hundred thousand, and the men of Judah thirty thousand.
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And he numbered them in Bezek; and the children of Israel were three hundred thousand, and the men of Judah thirty thousand.
Cross-references (6)
Passages linked to 1 Samuel 11:8 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Judges 1:4-5 Judah went up, and Yahweh delivered the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hand. They struck ten thousand men in Bezek. They found Adoni-Bezek in Bezek, and they fought against him. They struck the Canaanites and the Perizzites.
- 2 Samuel 24:9 Joab gave up the sum of the counting of the people to the king: and there were in Israel eight hundred thousand valiant men who drew the sword; and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men.
- Judges 20:2 The chiefs of all the people, even of all the tribes of Israel, presented themselves in the assembly of the people of God, four hundred thousand footmen who drew sword.
- 1 Samuel 13:15 Samuel arose, and went from Gilgal to Gibeah of Benjamin. Saul counted the people who were present with him, about six hundred men.
- 1 Samuel 15:4 Saul summoned the people, and counted them in Telaim, two hundred thousand footmen, and ten thousand men of Judah.
- 2 Chronicles 17:12-19 Jehoshaphat grew great exceedingly; and he built fortresses and store cities in Judah. He had many works in the cities of Judah; and men of war, mighty men of valor, in Jerusalem. This was the numbering of them according to their fathers’ houses: From Judah, the captains of thousands: Adnah the captain, and with him three hundred thousand mighty men of valor; and next to him Jehohanan the captain, and with him two hundred eighty thousand; and next to him Amasiah the son of Zichri, who willingly offered himself to Yahweh, and with him two hundred thousand mighty men of valor. From Benjamin: Eliada, a mighty man of valor, and with him two hundred thousand armed with bow and shield; and next to him Jehozabad, and with him one hundred eighty thousand ready and prepared for war. These were those who waited on the king, in addition to those whom the king put in the fortified cities throughout all Judah.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (14 sources)
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 1Sa 11:8 And when he numbered them in Bezek,…
1Sa 11:8 And when he numbered them in Bezek, the children of Israel were three hundred thousand, and the men of Judah thirty thousand.
Ver. 8. And the men of Judah thirty thousand.] All which yielded, now that God had signified his will, to be commanded by Benjamin, the least of the tribes.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain This great terror drew so many forth; which is…
This great terror drew so many forth; which is not so strange to him that knows what none deny, that the land of Canaan contained vast numbers of people in a little compass.
The men of Judah are numbered apart to their honour, to show how readily they, to whom the kingdom was promised, Gen 49:10, submitted to their king, though of another and far meaner tribe; and how willing they were to hazard themselves for their brethren’s rescue, although they might have excused themselves from the necessity of defending their own country from their dangerous neighbours the Philistines.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And they said unto the messengers that came,.... From…
And they said unto the messengers that came,.... From Jabeshgilead, that is, Saul and Samuel said to them, as follows:
thus shall ye say unto the men of Jabeshgilead: when they returned unto them, as they were now upon the departure:
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tomorrow, by that time the sun be hot; when it smites with the greatest heat, as at noon: this morrow seems not to be the next from their return home, or going from Saul, but the morrow after they were got home, and should deliver the message to those that sent them, Sa1 11:10 and so Josephus (z) says, it was on the third day the assistance was promised them:
ye shall have help; Saul with his army by that time would come and raise the siege: and the messengers came and showed it to the men of Jabesh; what Saul had promised, and what a numerous army he had raised, and had now upon the march for their relief, and tomorrow would be with them:
and they were glad; it was good news and glad tidings to them; it cheered their hearts, and gave them spirit.
(z) Ut supra, (Antiqu. l. 6. c. 5.) sect. 3.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Men of Judah - Who are numbered apart to…
Men of Judah - Who are numbered apart to their honour, to shew how readily they, to whom the kingdom was promised, Gen. xlix, 10, submitted to their king, though of another tribe; and how willing they were to hazard themselves for their brethren although they might have excused themselves from the necessity of defending their own country from their dangerous neighbours the Philistines.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 8. The children of Israel were three hundred…
Verse 8. The children of Israel were three hundred thousand, and the men of Judah thirty thousand.] This was a vast army, but the Septuagint make it even more: "All the men of Israel were ἑξακοσιας χιλιαδας, SIX HUNDRED thousand; and the men of Judah ̔βδομηκοντα χιλιαδας, SEVENTY thousand." Josephus goes yet higher with the number of the Israelites: "He found the number of those whom he had gathered together to be ̔βδομηκοντα μυριαδας SEVEN HUNDRED thousand." Those of the tribe of Judah he makes seventy thousand, with the Septuagint. These numbers are not all right; and I suspect even the Hebrew text to be exaggerated, by the mistake or design of some ancient scribe.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain 1Sa 11:8. The men of Judah thirty thousand —…
1Sa 11:8. The men of Judah thirty thousand — They were numbered apart to their honour, to show how readily they, to whom the kingdom was promised, (Gen 49:10,) submitted to their king, though of another tribe, and how willing they were to hazard themselves for their brethren, although they might have excused themselves from the necessity of defending their own country from their dangerous neighbours the Philistines.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain He numbered them - This was done to see…
He numbered them - This was done to see who was absent (compare Jdg 21:9).
Bezek has been conjectured to be the name of a district rather than of a town. Two villages retained the name in the time of Eusebius 17 miles from Nablous, on the way to Beth-shean.
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The children of Israel and the men of Judah - This looks like the language of later times, times perhaps subsequent to the establishment of the two kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Israel here (including Benjamin) is as ten to one compared with Judah. This is about the true proportion.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Bezec, where Adonibezec had reigned, (Judges i.; Menochius) near…
Bezec, where Adonibezec had reigned, (Judges i.; Menochius) near the place where they crossed the Jordan, a little below Scythopolis, to go to Jabes, which was about thirty miles distant. (Calmet) --- Thousand. Josephus makes the army consist of 770,000, who were collected at Bala. Septuagint have 600,000 of Israel; and they agree with this author, in allowing also 70,000 to Juda alone. But this is a larger army than what came out of Egypt, and exceeds the limits of probability, unless all assembled, as the preceding verse seems (Haydock) to insinuate; (Menochius) and we find far greater numbers, 2 Paralipomenon xiii. 3, 17., if no (Haydock) error have there crept in. (Kennicott)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain Bezek--This place of general muster was not far from…
Bezek--This place of general muster was not far from Shechem, on the road to Beth-shan, and nearly opposite the ford for crossing to Jabesh-gilead. The great number on the muster-roll showed the effect of Saul's wisdom and promptitude.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 8. Bezek — At this place Judah had defeated…
8. Bezek — At this place Judah had defeated Adoni-bezek. Jdg_1:4. When Saul issued his call to all the tribes he probably designated this place as the rendezvous, where every warrior must report himself without the least delay. No traveller has yet satisfactorily identified Bezek with any modern site. From the next verse we infer that it was within a day’s journey of Jabesh, and therefore a very proper place to muster the army into battle array.
Israel… three hundred thousand… Judah thirty thousand — This distinction between Judah and Israel is considered by many as clear evidence that this narrative was written after the division of the nation into two kingdoms; but it may also indicate that long before that division was completed there were growing rivalries and jealousies that silently prepared the way for it, so that in Saul’s time Judah and Israel began to reckon themselves apart, as if they were two different states. Compare 2Sa_2:10; 2Sa_19:41; 2Sa_20:1-2. Three hundred thousand men was indeed a vast army, but there is no sufficient reason to believe that the number is exaggerated. At the time of the march through the desert all that were able to go forth to war in Israel were six hundred and three thousand five hundred and fifty, (Num_1:46,) and it would have been exceedingly strange if now, from all the coasts of Israel, the call of Saul had brought together less than half that number.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 8. in Bezek] Probably to be identified with Ibzîk,…
8. in Bezek] Probably to be identified with Ibzîk, about half way between Shechem and Beth-shan, and 7 miles W. of the Jordan. It was within a day’s march of Jabesh.
three hundred thousand, &c.] The numbers seem large, but not too large for a general levy of the nation. Cp. Jdg_20:2. The separate numbering of Israel and Judah has been taken to mark the date of the book as posterior to the Division of the Kingdom. It may however be only an indication of a tendency on the part of Judah to isolation which was confirmed by the separation in the early part of David’s reign, and prepared the way for the Disruption.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (8) Bezek.—Bezek was in the tribe of Issachar, in…
(8) Bezek.—Bezek was in the tribe of Issachar, in the plain of Jezreel, an open district, well adapted for the assembling of the great host which so promptly obeyed the peremptory summons of the war-signal of King Saul.
The children of Israel were three hundred thousand, and the men of Judah thirty thousand.—It has been suggested that this verse was the addition of some late reviser of the book, who lived in the northern kingdom after the final separation of Israel and Judah, but such a supposition is not necessary to account for the separate mention of Judah and Israel, or for the apparently great disproportion in the numbers supplied by the great southern tribe. The chronicler, with pardonable exultation, specially mentions the splendid result of the young hero’s first summons to the tribes, adding, with perhaps an undertone of sadness, that the rich and populous Judah to that great host only contributed 30,000. There is no doubt, as Dean Payne Smith well observes, that “as a matter of fact Judah always stood apart until there was a king who belonged to itself. Then, in David’s time, it first took an active interest in the national welfare, and it was its vast power and numbers which made the shepherd-king, who sprang from Judah, so powerful.” In the reign of King Asa of Judah, the numbers of the men of war of that proud tribe amounted to 300,000. It is, however, to be remembered that in the Old Testament Books, owing to the mistakes of copyists, numbers are not always to be strictly relied upon.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain He numbered them in Bezek. This place was in…
He numbered them in Bezek. This place was in the tribe of Issachar, and must be distinguished from that mentioned in Jud_1:3, 4, which was in Judah, and too remote from the scene of operations. And here Saul appears as the commander-in-chief; for the numbering included the forming of battalions, arranged in thousands, hundreds, and fifties, and the setting officers over them. These, naturally, were the chief men in each district. The result would be that, coming to Bezek, the appointed rendezvous, a disorderly multitude, they would leave it as an army arranged in order, and Saul, in the many difficulties that would arise, would have his first opportunity of showing his powers of command. Children of Israel, men of Judah the distinction which ended in the disruption of the nation. Judah, too, with its 30, 000 men, is but poorly represented, nor is it a sufficient explanation of the small number who came that the tribe had enough to do at home in making head against the Philistines. As a matter of fact, Judah always stood apart until there was a king who belonged to itself. Then, in David"s time, it first took an active interest in the national welfare, and it was its vast power and numbers which made him so powerful. Had it been so nearly overpowered by the Philistines, it could not so suddenly have sprung forth with a might which made it well nigh a match for all the rest.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 11:8 Bezek was about fourteen miles west of Jabesh-gilead.…
11:8 Bezek was about fourteen miles west of Jabesh-gilead. • The narrator’s use of the terms Israel and Judah anticipates the later division of the kingdom (1 Kgs 12).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.