Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Judges 20:16
Among all this people [there were] seven hundred chosen men left-handed; every one could sling stones at a hair [breadth], and not miss.
16. Then, keeping the text of this v. as it stands, we are told that the Benjamite host included a company of 700 left-handed and exceptionally skilful warriors, just as David’s army was strengthened by a similar band, 1Ch 12:2. Josephus understood the narrative in this way, Ant. Jdg 20:2; Jdg 20:10. The alternative is to omit the first half of this verse, and make the 700 chosen men refer to the inhabitants of Gibeah, and every one (rather, all this army) could sling and not miss refer to the entire host. But this does not seem natural, and to cut out left-handed as merely borrowed from Jdg 3:15 is to remove a feature which has the appearance of originality.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 16. Left-handed] They were ambidexters – could use the right hand and the left with equal ease and effect. See Clarke on Jud 3:15.
Could sling stones at a hair – and not miss] velo yachati, and not sin: ; Sept. Here we have the true import of the term sin; it signifies simply to miss the mark, and is well translated in the New Testament by , from , negative, and , to hit the mark. Men miss the mark of true happiness in aiming at sensual gratifications; which happiness is to be found only in the possession and enjoyment of the favour of God, from whom their passions continually lead them. He alone hits the mark, and ceases from sin, who attains to God through Christ Jesus.
It is worthy of remark that the Persian [Persian] khuta kerden, which literally signifies to sin or mistake, is used by the Mohammedans to express to miss the mark.
The sling was a very ancient warlike instrument, and, in the hands of those who were skilled in the use of it, it produced astonishing effects. The inhabitants of the isles called Baleares, now Majorca and Minorca, were the most celebrated slingers of antiquity. They did not permit their children to break their fast till they had struck down the bread they were to eat from the top of a pole, or some distant eminence. They had their name Baleares from the Greek word to dart, cast, or throw.
Concerning the velocity of the ball out of the sling, there are strange and almost incredible things told by the ancients. The leaden ball, when thus projected, is said to have melted in its course. So OVID, Met. lib. ii.. ver. 726.
Obstupuit forma Jove natus: et aethere pendens
Non secus exarsit, quam cum balearica plumbum
Funda jacit; volat illud, et incandescit eundo;
Et, quos non habuit, sub nubibus invenit ignes.
Hermes was fired as in the clouds he hung;
So the cold bullet that, with fury slung
From Balearic engines, mounts on high,
Glows in the whirl, and burns along the sky.
DRYDEN.
This is not a poetic fiction; SENECA, the philosopher, in lib. iii. Quaest. Natural., c. 57, says the same thing: Sic liquescit excussa glans funda, et adtritu aeris velut igne distillat; “Thus the ball projected from the sling melts, and is liquefied by the friction of the air, as if it were exposed to the action of fire.” I have often, by the sudden and violent compression of the air, produced fire; and by this alone inflamed tinder, and lighted a match.
Vegetius de Re Militari, lib. ii., cap. 23, tells us that slingers could in general hit the mark at six hundred feet distance. Funditores scopas-pro signo ponebant; ita ut SEXCENTOS PEDES removerentur a signo-signum saepius tangerent. These things render credible what is spoken here of the Benjamite slingers.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Left-handed, Heb. shut up on their right hand, i.e. using their left hand instead of their right.
Every one could sling stones at an hair breadth, and not miss; an hyperbolical expression, signifying that they could do this with great exactness. There are many parallel instances in historians of persons that could throw stones or shoot arrows with great certainty, so as seldom or never to miss; of which see my Latin Synopsis. And this was very considerable, and one ground of the Benjamites confidence, because in those times they had no guns.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
16. left-handed; every one couldsling stones at an hair-breadth, and not missThe sling was oneof the earliest weapons used in war. The Hebrew sling was probablysimilar to that of the Egyptian, consisting of a leather thong, broadin the middle, with a loop at one end, by which it was firmly heldwith the hand; the other end terminated in a lash, which was let slipwhen the stone was thrown. Those skilled in the use of it, as theBenjamites were, could hit the mark with unerring certainty. A goodsling could carry its full force to the distance of two hundredyards.
Jud20:18-28. THEISRAELITES LOSEFORTY THOUSAND.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
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 Jud 3:15. Josephus h 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 i, Diodorus Siculus k, Floras l and others m; 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 n, 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 o to be very expert in slinging stones to an hair’s breadth.
h Antiqu. l. 5. c. 2. sect. 10. i Geograph l. 3. p. 116. k Bibliothec. l. 5. p. 298. l Roman Cost. l. 3. c. 8. m Vid. Barthii Ammadv. ad Claudian. in 3 Consul. Honor. ver. 50. n Nat. Hist. l. 7. c. 56. o Philoetrat. Vit. Apollon. l. 2. c. 12.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(16) Seven hundred chosen men.These words are omitted in the LXX. and Vulg.
Left handed.The same phrase as that employed in Jdg. 3:15.
Could sling stones at an hair breadth, and not miss.The expression is perfectly simple, and merely implies extreme accuracy of aim. Bocharts attempt (Hieroz. Ii. 162) to explain it by a passage in Quintus Smyrnus, which says that archers used to contend which should be able to shoot off the horsehair crest of a helmet, is a mere specimen of learning fantastically misapplied. Skill with the sling was not confined to the Benjamites, as we see from the case of David (1Sa. 17:49). The sling is the natural weapon of a people which is poor and imperfectly armed. Cyrus valued his force of 400 slingers (Xen. Anab. iii. 3-6). The inhabitants of the Balearic Isles were as skilful as the Benjamites, and children were trained to sling their breakfasts down from the top of high poles. They once prevented the Carthaginian fleet from coming to anchor by showers of stones (liv. xxviii. 37, solo eo telo utebantur). Practice made them so expert that the stones they slung came with as much force as though hurled by a catapult, and pierced shields and helmets (Diod. Sic. Bibl. v. 18). Exactly similar tales are told of the trained skill of our English archers. The advantage of slinging with the left hand was very obvious, for it enabled the slinger to strike his enemy on the right, i.e., the undefended side.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
16. Lefthanded See on Jdg 3:15.
Sling stones at a hair breadth Literally, to the hair. Seven hundred men thus disciplined argues that this lefthanded skill of Benjamin was acquired. “This is a region where such a mode of warfare would be cultivated in ancient times, and be very effective. The stones for the sling are everywhere at hand, and the country is cut up by deep gorges with impracticable banks; and before the invention of guns there was no other weapon that would carry across these profound depths, and reach the ranks of the enemy. David, while following his flocks over these rough mountains, practised other arts besides that of playing on the shepherd’s pipe, for he became as expert in the use of the sling as any of the chosen men of Benjamin.” Thomson. This writer also states that he had seen boys fighting battles with slings among the gorges of Mount Hermon, and at times almost darkening the air with their whizzing pebbles. By similar practices, perhaps, the ancient youth of Benjamin and other tribes were disciplined for warfare.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘ Among all this people there were seven hundred chosen men, left-handed, every one could sling stones at a hair breadth and not miss.’
Each unit would have a number of slingers and in all they numbered seven hundred. They slung left-handed and were deadly accurate (compare 1Ch 12:2 where they were also Benjaminites, but ambidextrous). The sling was composed of a piece of cloth or leather, a cord going from each side. The stone was put in the piece of cloth and the two cords held by the end and whirled round the head. Then one cord was released at the right moment and the stone sped to its target at deadly speed. The Benjaminites had perfected slinging into an art of war. Having men with such expertise may have boosted the confidence of the Benjaminites, and is mentioned to explain their later victories.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Jdg 20:16 Among all this people [there were] seven hundred chosen men lefthanded; every one could sling stones at an hair [breadth], and not miss.
Ver. 16. Lefthanded; every one could sling stones, &c. ] See Jdg 3:15 . David had an excellency in slinging: so had Domitian and Commodus the Emperors. The Indians are much commended for their faculty herein by Philostratus and Plutarch. The Boeotians and the Baleares in Spain were bred up to it of children, their mothers allowing them no more meat than they could hit with a sling stone. We have musketeers amongst us that are notable marksmen, as they call them.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
lefthanded. Hebrew lame, or bound, in his right hand.
hair breadth = a hair. No Ellipsis, omit “breadth”.
miss. Hebrew. chata’. See App-44.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
lefthanded: Itter yad yemeeno, “obstructed in his right hand;” so the Chaldee Targum, gemid beedaih deyammeena, contracted or impeded in his right hand.” Lev. Clerc observes, that the 700 men left-handed seem therefore to have been made slingers, because they could not use the right hand, which is employed in managing heavier arms; and they could discharge the stones from the sling in a direction against which their opponents were not upon their guard, and thus do the greater execution. Jdg 3:15, 1Ch 12:2
sling stones: The sling was a very ancient warlike instrument; and, in the hands of those who were skilled in the use of it, produced astonishing effects. The inhabitants of the islands of Baleares, now Majorca and Minorca, were the most celebrated slingers of antiquity. They did not permit their children to break their fast, till they had struck down the bread they had to eat from the top of a pole, or some distant eminence. Vegetius tells us, that slingers could in general hit the mark at 600 feet distance. 1Sa 17:40, 1Sa 17:49, 1Sa 17:50, 1Sa 25:29, 2Ch 26:14
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jdg 20:16. Could sling stones at a hairs breadth, and not miss A hyperbolical expression, signifying that they could do this with great exactness. This extraordinary skill in their arms (for it is likely they handled other weapons with the like dexterity) and their natural courage, imboldened the Benjamites with such a small number to undertake a war against such a vast multitude of their brethren, the other Israelites; which warlike disposition of theirs was foretold by Jacob, for he said of them, when he spake of the character and fortune of each tribe, (Gen 49:27,) Benjamin shall raven as a wolf, which is an undaunted, fearless creature.