Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Samuel 11:2
And Nahash the Ammonite answered them, On this [condition] will I make [a covenant] with you, that I may thrust out all your right eyes, and lay it [for] a reproach upon all Israel.
2. that I may thrust out all your right eyes ] Such barbarities are not unknown in the East even now. Vambry describes the blinding of prisoners as a regular practice at Khiva. Travels in Central Asia, p. 138. The savage character of the Ammonites is attested by Amo 1:13. The loss of the right eye was intended to disable them for war, the left eye being covered by the shield, as the amputation of his thumbs and great toes (Jdg 1:7-8) was designed to incapacitate a man for the use of the bow and destroy his swiftness of foot.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 2. I may thrust out all your right eves] This cruel condition would serve at once as a badge of their slavery, and a means of incapacitating them from being effective warriors. Theodoret observes, “He who opposes his shield to the enemy with his left hand, thereby hides his left eye, and looks at his enemy with his right eye; he therefore who plucks out that right eye makes men useless in war.” Josephus gives the same reason.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
That I may thrust out all your right eyes; partly for a reproach, as it here follows; and partly to disable them from managing offensive weapons in battle; for their left eye served only or chiefly for defence, being covered by those large shields which then they used, and held in their left hand. He leaves them one eye, that they might be fit to serve him in any mean and base office.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
2. thrust out all your righteyesliterally, “scoop” or “hollow out” theball. This barbarous mutilation is the usual punishment of usurpersin the East, inflicted on chiefs; sometimes, also, even in modernhistory, on the whole male population of a town. Nahash meant to keepthe Jabeshites useful as tributaries, whence he did not wish torender them wholly blind, but only to deprive them of their righteye, which would disqualify them for war. Besides, his object was,through the people of Jabesh-gilead, to insult the Israelitishnation.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And Nahash the Ammonite answered them,…. In a very haughty and scornful manner:
on this condition will I make a covenant with you, that I may thrust out all your right eyes; some Jewish writers go into a mystical and allegorical sense of these words, as that Nahash ordered the book of the law to be brought, which was their right eye, that he might erase out of it these words,
an Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord; others understand it of the sanhedrim, which were the eyes of Israel; and others, which come a little nearer to the sense, of the slingers and archers, the desire of the eyes of Israel; and who, by having their right eyes thrust out, would be in a great measure spoiled for taking aim; for the words are to be understood literally; the intention of Nahash was to disable them for war, and that they might become quite unfit for it, as Josephus observes r; the left eye being under the shield, as it usually was in war, and the right eye plucked out, they would be as blind men: he did not choose to have both their eyes thrust out, for then they could have been of no use and service to him as slaves or tributaries:
and lay it for a reproach upon all Israel; that they did not come up to the relief of their brethren, and defend them, and signifying that they must all expect the same treatment from him.
r Antiqu. l. 6. c. 5. sect. 1.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(2) On this condition.The horrible cruelty of this scornful proposal gives us an insight into the barbarous customs of this imperfectly civilised age. Indeed, many of the crimes we read of in these bookscrimes which, to modern ears, justly sound shocking and scarcely credibleare referable to the fact that civilisation and its humanizing influences had made but little way as yet among the nations of the world.
The object of Nahashs cruelty was to incapacitate the inhabitants of Jabesh from ever further assisting his enemies in war; they would henceforth be blinded in the right eye, while the left eye would be concealed by the shield which fighting-men were in the habit of holding before them.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
2. Thrust out all your right eyes This would incapacitate them for war, because the shield was carried on the left arm, and would thus partially be in the way of the left eye; but this loss of one eye would not render them unfit for other service, and the conqueror might still use them as slaves.
A reproach upon all Israel Because they were unable to defend a part of their nation from such a barbarous treatment; and also to remind Israel that the Ammonites still claimed, as they did in the days of Jephthah, that a part of their land had been unjustly taken from them. Jdg 11:13.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
(2) And Nahash the Ammonite answered them, On this condition will I make a covenant with you, that I may thrust out all your right eyes, and lay it for a reproach upon all Israel.
Observe, what fear must have taken possession of the minds of Israel, when the people are ready to submit to the yoke of Gentile nations, and to be tributaries to them. But reader, depend upon it, the same is in every instance. Guilt breeds fear.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
1Sa 11:2 And Nahash the Ammonite answered them, On this [condition] will I make [a covenant] with you, that I may thrust out all your right eyes, and lay it [for] a reproach upon all Israel.
Ver. 2. On this condition will I make a covenant. ] Slaves he would make them, and perpetually so, – stigmatical slaves, utterly disabled to deliver themselves out of his hands.
That I may thrust out all your right eyes.
And lay it for a reproach upon all Israel.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
a covenant. Some codices, with Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate, read this word in the text, which already implies it.
right eyes. As the shield covered the left eye, the right was necessary for seeing. The loss of it incapacitated men from fighting.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
On this: 2Ki 18:31
thrust: Jdg 16:21, Exo 3:6, Pro 12:10, Jer 39:7
reproach: 1Sa 17:26, Gen 34:14
Reciprocal: 1Sa 11:10 – To morrow 1Sa 11:11 – slew 1Sa 12:12 – Nahash 1Ch 19:1 – Nahash Neh 2:17 – a reproach Neh 4:7 – the Ammonites Amo 1:13 – and for
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1Sa 11:2. And lay it for a reproach upon all Israel That is, disgrace the whole Hebrew nation, by serving some of their people in this opprobrious manner; for it must necessarily have reflected great dishonour upon the whole state, that they should suffer any of their people to be served so. He probably meant also to disable them for war, in which the right eye was of most use, their shields, which they carried in their left hands, in a great measure covering their left eyes. He proposes, however, to leave them one eye, that they might be fit to serve in any mean and base office.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
11:2 And Nahash the Ammonite answered them, On this [condition] will I make [a covenant] with you, that I may thrust out all your {b} right eyes, and lay it [for] a reproach upon all Israel.
(b) This declares that the closer the tyrants are to their destruction, the more cruel they are.