1 Samuel 13:18

18 Otro escuadrón marchaba hacia Bet-horón, y el tercer escuadrón marchaba hacia la región que mira al valle de Zeboim hacia el desierto

1 Samuel 13:18 Meaning and Commentary

1 Samuel 13:18

And another company turned the way to Bethhoron
Of which name there were two cities, the upper and nether, and both in the tribe of Ephraim, of which see ( Joshua 16:3 Joshua 16:5 ) this lay northwest from the camp of the Philistines at Michmash; eight miles from it, according to Bunting ^F4:

and another company turned to the way of the border, that looketh
towards the valley of Zeboim, toward the wilderness;
some take this to be the Zeboim which was destroyed with Sodom and Gomorrah; and the wilderness, the wilderness of Jordan; but as that, so the valley in which it stood, was turned into a bituminous lake; this seems to be a city in the land of Benjamin, ( Nehemiah 11:34 ) near to which was a valley, and this towards the wilderness of Jericho, and so lay eastward; the Targum calls it the valley of vipers, perhaps from its being infested with many; and so David de Pomis ^F5 says it is the name of a place where plenty of serpents were found, and which he says were called so because of the variety of colours in them; with which agrees Kimchi's note on the place; they seem to mean serpents spotted ^F6, as if they were painted and dyed of various colours, as the Hebrew word which is thus paraphrased signifies: according to Bunting ^F7, it was eight miles from Michmash.

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FOOTNOTES:

F4 Travels of the Patriarchs p. 133.
F5 Tzemach David, fol. 13. 2. & 153. 1.
F6 (aiolon ofin) , Homer. Iliad. 12. ver. 208. "notis maculosus grandibus", Virgil. Georgic. l. 3. v. 427.
F7 Ut supra. (Travels of the Patriarchs p. 133.)

1 Samuel 13:18 In-Context

16 Saúl, pues, Jonatán su hijo, y el pueblo que con ellos se hallaba, se quedaron en Gabaa de Benjamín; mas los filisteos habían puesto su campamento en Micmas

17 Y salieron del campamento de los filisteos tres escuadrones a destruir la tierra. Un escuadrón marchaba por el camino de Ofra hacia la tierra de Sual

18 Otro escuadrón marchaba hacia Bet-horón, y el tercer escuadrón marchaba hacia la región que mira al valle de Zeboim hacia el desierto

19 Y en toda la tierra de Israel no se hallaba herrero; porque los filisteos habían dicho: Para que por ventura los hebreos no hagan espada o lanza

20 Y así todos los de Israel descendían a los filisteos cada cual a amolar su reja, su azadón, su hacha, o su sacho