1 Samuel 14:16-20

14:16 Saul’s watchmen at Gibeah in the territory of Benjamin looked on as the crowd of soldiers seemed to melt away first in one direction and then in another. 14:17 So Saul said to the army that was with him, “Muster the troops and see who is no longer with us.” When they mustered the troops, Jonathan and his armor bearer were not there. 14:18 So Saul said to Ahijah, “Bring near the ephod,” for he was at that time wearing the ephod. 14:19 While Saul spoke to the priest, the panic in the Philistines’ camp was becoming greater and greater. So Saul said to the priest, “Withdraw your hand!”

14:20 Saul and all the army that was with him assembled and marched into battle, where they found the Philistines in total panic killing one another with their swords.

1 Samuel 14:2

14:2 Now Saul was sitting under a pomegranate tree in Migron, on the outskirts of Gibeah. The army that was with him numbered about six hundred men.

1 Samuel 20:23

20:23 With regard to the matter that you and I discussed, the Lord is the witness between us forever!” 10 

Psalms 83:9

83:9 Do to them as you did to Midian 11 

as you did to Sisera and Jabin at the Kishon River! 12 

Isaiah 9:4

9:4 For their oppressive yoke

and the club that strikes their shoulders,

the cudgel the oppressor uses on them, 13 

you have shattered, as in the day of Midian’s defeat. 14 

Isaiah 19:2

19:2 “I will provoke civil strife in Egypt, 15 

brothers will fight with each other,

as will neighbors,

cities, and kingdoms. 16 


tn Heb “at Gibeah of Benjamin.” The words “in the territory” are supplied in the translation for clarity.

tn Heb “saw, and look!”

tn Heb “the crowd melted and went, even here.”

tn Heb “and they mustered the troops, and look!”

tc Heb “the ark of God.” It seems unlikely that Saul would call for the ark, which was several miles away in Kiriath-jearim (see 1 Sam 7:2). The LXX and an Old Latin ms have “ephod” here, a reading which harmonizes better with v. 3 and fits better with the verb “bring near” (see 1 Sam 23:9; 30:7) and with the expression “withdraw your hand” in v.19. This reading is followed in the present translation (cf. NAB, TEV, NLT).

tc Heb “for the ark of God was in that day, and the sons of Israel.” The translation follows the text of some Greek manuscripts. See the previous note.

tn Or perhaps “until.”

tn Heb “and look, there was”

tn Heb “the sword of a man against his companion, a very great panic.”

10 tc Heb “the Lord [is] between me and between you forever.” The translation assumes that the original text read עֵד עַד־עוֹלָם (’edad-olam), “a witness forever,” with the noun “a witness” accidentally falling out of the text by haplography. See P. K. McCarter, I Samuel (AB), 338.

11 tn Heb “do to them like Midian.”

12 sn The psalmist alludes here to Gideon’s victory over the Midianites (see Judg 7-8) and to Barak’s victory over Jabin’s army, which was led by his general Sisera (Judg 4-5).

13 tn Heb “for the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the scepter of the oppressor against him.” The singular pronouns are collective, referring to the people. The oppressed nation is compared to an ox weighed down by a heavy yoke and an animal that is prodded and beaten.

14 sn This alludes to Gideon’s victory over Midian (Judg 7-8), when the Lord delivered Israel from an oppressive foreign invader.

15 tn Heb I will provoke Egypt against Egypt” (NAB similar).

16 tn Heb “and they will fight, a man against his brother, and a man against his neighbor, city against city, kingdom against kingdom.” Civil strife will extend all the way from the domestic level to the provincial arena.