He had forty sons and thirty sons’ sons who rode on seventy donkey colts. He judged Israel eight years.
Parallel Translations
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He had forty sons and thirty sons’ sons who rode on seventy donkey colts. He judged Israel eight years.
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And he had forty sons and thirty nephews, that rode on threescore and ten ass colts: and he judged Israel eight years.
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And he had forty sons and thirty sons' sons, that rode on threescore and ten ass colts; and he judged Israel eight years.
Cross-references (2)
Passages linked to Judges 12:14 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Judges 5:10 “Speak, you who ride on white donkeys, you who sit on rich carpets, and you who walk by the way.
- Judges 10:4 He had thirty sons who rode on thirty donkey colts. They had thirty cities, which are called Havvoth Jair to this day, which are in the land of Gilead.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (6 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Hebrew, sons’ sons.
Hebrew, sons’ sons.
Or, horse colts.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Jdg 12:14 And he had forty sons and thirty…
Jdg 12:14 And he had forty sons and thirty nephews, that rode on threescore and ten ass colts: and he judged Israel eight years.
Ver. 14. And he had forty sons and thirty nephews, that rode.] Equestris ordinis, potent and opulent. In Persia the peasant never rides; the gentleman never goes on foot, but fights, trades, confers, doth all on horseback. {a}
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{a} The Preacher’s Travels, 63.
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.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Forty sons. At this we need not be surprised,…
Forty sons. At this we need not be surprised, in a country where polygamy prevailed. Priam had 50 sons, and the Turks have often as many. --- Colts. This was as great a distinction as to keep one’s coach among us, chap. x. 4. (Calmet) --- This judge succeeded Ahialon, in the year of the world 2872, in the year before Christ 1182, the year after Troy was taken, having endured a ten years’ siege, by the treachery of Antenor, and of Æneas, Dictys, &c. Dares says the Greeks lost 886,000, and the Trojans 676,000, before the city was taken. (Salien)
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).
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 14. Thirty nephews — Rather, grandsons. His family greatness…
14. Thirty nephews — Rather, grandsons. His family greatness was much like that of Ibzan and of Jair. Forty sons and thirty grandsons, seventy in all, made up a perfect number, and was of itself a fact worth recording.
Threescore and ten ass colts — One for each child. Compare notes on Jdg_5:10; Jdg_10:4.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (14) Thirty nephews.—The Hebrew has “sons of sons” (benî…
(14) Thirty nephews.—The Hebrew has “sons of sons” (benî bhanîm), and the word nephews in our version always means “grandsons” (nepoles), e.g., in Job_18:19, Isa_14:22, 1Ti_5:4, as in old English generally; similarly nieces means “granddaughters” in Wiclif’s Bible (Gen_31:43, &c). “The Emperor Augustus . . . saw ere he died the nephew of his niece, that is to say, his progenie to the fourth degree of lineal descent” (Holland’s Pliny, vii. 13; Bible Word Book).
That rode on threescore and ten ass colts.—Riding on asses’ foals in trappings of state implies that they were all wealthy and distinguished persons (Jdg_10:4)—perhaps, like the Turkish pennon on the horsetail, that they commanded a division (Ewald, 2:38, 39). Again the LXX. euphemise the ass-colts into the grand and poetic word pôlous. Josephus says that Abdon used to ride in state with his seventy sons and grandsons, “who were all very skilful in riding horses.”
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 Nephews. Rather, grandsons. Hebrew, sons son. The number of…
Nephews. Rather, grandsons. Hebrew, sons son. The number of his family, and their being all mounted on asses, are indications of his wealth and state, (see above, Jud_1:8:30 10:4) and perhaps also of peaceful and prosperous times.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.