That first slaughter, which Jonathan and his armor bearer made, was about twenty men, within as it were half a furrow’s length in an acre of land.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 14. Day. Varro, and so forth allow 120 feet, Columella only 70, for a day’s work, so that these twenty men were slain in the space of 60 or 35 feet. Louis de Dieu rejects all the other versions, and would translate the Hebrew “in almost the half of the length of a furrow, and in the breadth which is between two furrows in a field,” so that the enemy would be very close together. Lit. “almost in the half of a furrow of a yoke of the field,” which seems rather to be understood of the length, ( Calmet.) if indeed it have any meaning. Prot. are forced to help out the text: “within as it were a half acre of land, which a yoke of oxen might plough.” Bible.—But a whole acre was the usual allowance. Menochius.—Hallet observes, “the Septuagint read the Hebrew in a different manner, and have rendered the verse thus, ‘That first slaughter was … of about twenty men, with darts, and stones, and flints of the field:’ I suppose the read, Betsim ubomauth.” Kennicott adds, and ubgomri, as the Arabs still use gomer, to denote “a small flint.” Golius. Bible.