Judges 9:37

37 But Gaal spoke up again: “Look, people are coming down from the central hill,[a] and a company is coming from the direction of the diviners’ tree.”

Judges 9:37 in Other Translations

KJV
37 And Gaal spake again and said, See there come people down by the middle of the land, and another company come along by the plain of Meonenim.
ESV
37 Gaal spoke again and said, "Look, people are coming down from the center of the land, and one company is coming from the direction of the Diviners' Oak."
NLT
37 But again Gaal said, “No, people are coming down from the hills. And another group is coming down the road past the Diviners’ Oak. ”
MSG
37 Then he said again, "Look at the troops coming down off Tabbur-erez (the Navel of the World) - and one company coming straight from the Oracle Oak."
CSB
37 Then Gaal spoke again: "Look, people are coming down from the central part of the land, and one unit is coming from the direction of the Diviners' Oak."

Judges 9:37 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 9:37

And Gaal spake again, and said
Looking towards the mountains, and taking another view of what he before saw, for further satisfaction:

see, there come people down by the middle of the land;
either in the valley between the two mountains; or rather those he first saw on the top of the mountains were now come down about the middle of them, called in the Hebrew text the navel, from the prominence of the mountains thereabout, or because the navel is in the middle of the body, as this part of them was the middle on which he saw them. R. Isaiah interprets it, between the two cities:

and another company come along by the plain of Meonenim;
of which we read nowhere else. Montanus renders it, "the oak of Meonenim"; or of the soothsayers; oaks being had in great esteem with idolaters for their oracles and divinations; and perhaps this was a place, whether an oak or, a plain, where such persons used to meet to make their divinations.

Judges 9:37 In-Context

35 Now Gaal son of Ebed had gone out and was standing at the entrance of the city gate just as Abimelek and his troops came out from their hiding place.
36 When Gaal saw them, he said to Zebul, “Look, people are coming down from the tops of the mountains!” Zebul replied, “You mistake the shadows of the mountains for men.”
37 But Gaal spoke up again: “Look, people are coming down from the central hill, and a company is coming from the direction of the diviners’ tree.”
38 Then Zebul said to him, “Where is your big talk now, you who said, ‘Who is Abimelek that we should be subject to him?’ Aren’t these the men you ridiculed? Go out and fight them!”
39 So Gaal led out the citizens of Shechem and fought Abimelek.

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. The Hebrew for this phrase means "the navel of the earth" .
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