Richtere 20:16

16 Onder al dit volk waren zevenhonderd uitgelezene mannen, welke links waren; deze allen slingerden met een steen op een haar, dat het hun niet miste.

Richtere 20:16 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 20:16

Among all this people there were seven hundred chosen men
lefthanded
According to Ben Gersom, these were the seven hundred men of Gibeah; but this does not appear from the text, but, on the contrary, that these were among all the people; or there were so many to be selected out of them all, who were lefthanded men; nor is it likely that all the inhabitants of one place should be such. Benjamin signifies a son of the right hand, yet this tribe had a great number of lefthanded men in it, see ( Judges 3:15 ) . Josephus ^F8 wrongly reduces the number to five hundred:

everyone could sling stones at an hair's breadth, and not miss:
the mark they slung the stone at, so very expert were they at it; and perhaps their having such a number of skilful men in this art made them more confident of success, and emboldened them in this daring undertaking, to point to which this circumstance seems to be mentioned. There were a people that inhabited the islands, now called Majorca and Minorca, anciently Baleares, from their skilfulness in slinging stones, to which they brought up from their childhood, as it is related various writers, Strabo ^F9, Diodorus Siculus ^F11, Floras ^F12 and others ^F13; that their mothers used to set their breakfast on a beam or post, or some such thing, at a distance, which they were not to have, unless they could strike it off; and the first of these writers says, that they exercised this art from the time that the Phoenicians held these islands; and, according to Pliny ^F14, the Phoenicians, the old inhabitants of Canaan, were the first inventors of slings, and from these the Benjaminites might learn it. The Indians are said ^F15 to be very expert in slinging stones to an hair's breadth.

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FOOTNOTES:

F8 Antiqu. l. 5. c. 2. sect. 10.
F9 Geograph l. 3. p. 116.
F11 Bibliothec. l. 5. p. 298.
F12 Roman Cost. l. 3. c. 8.
F13 Vid. Barthii Ammadv. ad Claudian. in 3 Consul. Honor. ver. 50.
F14 Nat. Hist. l. 7. c. 56.
F15 Philoetrat. Vit. Apollon. l. 2. c. 12.

Richtere 20:16 In-Context

14 Maar de kinderen van Benjamin verzamelden zich uit de steden naar Gibea, om uit te trekken ten strijde tegen de kinderen Israels.

15 En de kinderen van Benjamin werden te dien dage geteld uit de steden, zes en twintig duizend mannen, die het zwaard uittrokken, behalve dat de inwoners van Gibea geteld werden, zevenhonderd uitgelezene mannen.

16 Onder al dit volk waren zevenhonderd uitgelezene mannen, welke links waren; deze allen slingerden met een steen op een haar, dat het hun niet miste.

17 En de mannen van Israel werden geteld, behalve Benjamin, vierhonderd duizend mannen, die het zwaard uittrokken; deze allen waren mannen van oorlog.

18 En de kinderen Israels maakten zich op, en togen opwaarts ten huize Gods, en vraagden God, en zeiden: Wie zal onder ons vooreerst optrekken ten strijde tegen de kinderen van Benjamin? En de HEERE zeide: Juda vooreerst.