And their children spoke half in the speech of Ashdod
Which they learned of their mothers, so that it was a mixed language they spoke, partly Jewish and partly Philistine; but some refer this not to their speech, but to the number of their children; that half of them, which Jarchi interprets many of them, spoke in the language of Ashdod, even as many as were most with their mothers, and chiefly brought up by them:
and could not speak in the Jews' language;
not at all, or so much as to be understood well, which inclines to the last sense:
but according to the language of each people;
their mothers were of, whether of Ashdod, or of Ammon, or of Moab.