1-Samuel - 5:9



9 It was so, that after they had carried it about, the hand of Yahweh was against the city with a very great confusion: and he struck the men of the city, both small and great; and tumors broke out on them.

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Explanation and meaning of 1-Samuel 5:9.

Differing Translations

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And it was so, that, after they had carried it about, the hand of the LORD was against the city with a very great destruction: and he smote the men of the city, both small and great, and they had emerods in their secret parts.
And it was so, that, after they had carried it about, the hand of Jehovah was against the city with a very great discomfiture: and he smote the men of the city, both small and great; and tumors brake out upon them.
And while they were carrying it about, the band of the Lord came upon every city with an exceeding great slaughter: and he smote the men of every city, both small and great, and they had emerods in their secret parts. And the Gethrites consulted together, and made themselves seats of skins.
And it came to pass that, after they had carried it about, the hand of Jehovah was against the city with very great panic; and he smote the men of the city, both small and great, and hemorrhoids broke out upon them.
And it was so, that, after they had carried it about, the hand of the LORD was against the city with a very great discomfiture: and he smote the men of the city, both small and great, and tumours brake out upon them.
And it was so, that after they had carried it thither, the hand of the LORD was against the city with a very great destruction: and he smote the men of the city both small and great, and they had emerods in their secret parts.
and it cometh to pass after they have brought it round, that the hand of Jehovah is against the city, a very great destruction; and He smiteth the men of the city, from small even unto great; and break forth on them do emerods.
And it was so, that, after they had carried it about, the hand of the LORD was against the city with a very great destruction: and he smote the men of the city, both small and great, and they had tumors in their secret parts.
But after they had taken it away, the hand of the Lord was stretched out against the town for its destruction: and the signs of disease came out on all the men of the town, small and great.
And it was so, that, after they had carried it about, the hand of the LORD was against the city with a very great discomfiture; and He smote the men of the city, both small and great, and emerods broke out upon them.
And it happened after they had brought it around, the hand of the LORD was against the city with a very great confusion: and he struck the men of the city, both small and great; and tumors broke out on them.
And as they were carrying it around, the hand of the Lord fell upon every single city with an exceedingly great slaughter. And he struck down the men of each and every city, from the small even to the great. And cysts were festering at their buttocks. And the Gathites took counsel, and they made for themselves seat covers from pelts.

*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.


Historical Commentaries

Scholarly Analysis and Interpretation.

The hand of the Lord was against the city - As it was at Ashdod, so it was at Gath. The Vulgate says, Et computrescebant prominenter extales eorum; which conveys the idea of a bloody flux, dysentery, and ulcerated anus; and it adds, what is not to be found in the Hebrew text, nor many of the versions, except some traces in the Septuagint, Et fecerunt sibi sedes pelliceas, "And they made unto themselves seats of skins;" for the purpose of sitting more easy, on account of the malady already mentioned.

And it was so, that after they had carried it about,.... And at last placed it in the city of Gath:
the hand of the Lord was against the city with a very great destruction: greater than that at Ashdod, more persons were destroyed; the distemper sent among them was more epidemic and mortal:
and he smote the men of the city, both small and great; high and low, persons of every class, rank, and station, young and old, men, women, and children:
and they had emerods in their secret parts; and so had the men of Ashdod; and the design of this expression is, not to point at the place where they were, which it is well known they are always in those parts, but the different nature of them; the emerods or piles of the men of Ashdod were more outward, these more inward, and so more painful, and not so easy to come at, and more difficult of cure; for the words may be rendered:
and the emerods were hidden unto them (z); were inward, and out of sight; and perhaps this disease as inflicted on them might be more grievous than it commonly is now. Josephus (a) wrongly makes these to be the Ashkalonites, when they were the men of Gath.
(z) "et absconditi erant", Montanus; so Vatablus, Junius & Tremellius. (a) Ut supra. (Antiqu. l. 6. c. 1. sect. 1.)

But when the ark was brought to Gath, the hand of Jehovah came upon that city also with very great alarm. גּדולה מהוּמה is subordinated to the main sentence either adverbially or in the accusative. Jehovah smote the people of the city, small and great, so that boils broke out upon their hinder parts.

Hidden parts - In the inwards of their hinder parts: which is the worst kind of emerods, as all physicians acknowledge, both because its pains are far more sharp than the other; and because the malady is more out of the reach of remedies.

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