1 Samuel 13:18

18 And another company turned the way to Bethhoron: and another company turned to the way of the border that looketh to the valley of Zeboim toward the wilderness.

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.

---

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 And Saul, and Jonathan his son, and the people that were present with them, abode in Gibeah of Benjamin: but the Philistines encamped in Michmash.

17 And the spoilers came out of the camp of the Philistines in three companies: one company turned unto the way that leadeth to Ophrah, unto the land of Shual:

18 And another company turned the way to Bethhoron: and another company turned to the way of the border that looketh to the valley of Zeboim toward the wilderness.

19 Now there was no smith found throughout all the land of Israel: for the Philistines said, Lest the Hebrews make them swords or spears:

20 But all the Israelites went down to the Philistines, to sharpen every man his share, and his coulter, and his axe, and his mattock.