to hear intelligently (often with implication of attent… · conjunction + verb, piel sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
people
הָעָ֔םha.'Am
H5971
a people (as a congregated unit) · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
together
שָׁמַעshâmaʻ
H8085
to hear intelligently (often with implication of attent…
numbered
וַֽיִּפְקְדֵם֙vai.yif.ke.Dem
H6485
to visit (with friendly or hostile intent) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
Telaim
בַּטְּלָאִ֔יםba.te.la.'Im
H2923
Telaim · preposition with the article + proper noun, a place name
hundred
מָאתַ֥יִםma.Ta.yim
H3967
a hundred · noun, common feminine dual absolute
thousand
אֶ֖לֶף'E.lef
H505
hence (the ox's head being the first letter of the alph… · noun, common both genders singular absolute
footmen
רַגְלִ֑יrag.Li
H7273
a footman (soldier) · adjective, masculine singular absolute
ten
וַעֲשֶׂ֥רֶתva.'a.Se.ret
H6235
ten (as an accumulation to the extent of the digits) · conjunction + noun, common feminine singular absolute
thousand
אֲלָפִ֖ים'a.la.Fim
H505
hence (the ox's head being the first letter of the alph… · noun, common both genders plural absolute
men
אִ֥ישׁ'ish
H376
a man as an individual or a male person · noun, common masculine singular construct
Judah
יְהוּדָֽהye.hu.Dah
H3063
Jehudah (or Judah) · proper noun, a place name
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
1 Samuel 11:8 And when he numbered them in Bezek, the children of Israel were three hundred thousand, and the men of Judah thirty thousand.
1 Samuel 13:15 And Samuel arose, and gat him up from Gilgal unto Gibeah of Benjamin. And Saul numbered the people that were present with him, about six hun…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on 1 Samuel 15:1-9
Here, I. Samuel, in God's name, solemnly requires Saul to be obedient to the command of God, and plainly intimates that he was now about to put him upon a trial, in one particular instance, whether he would be obedient or no, Sa1 15:1. And the making of this so expressly the trial of his obedience did very much aggravate his disobedience. 1. He reminds him of what God had done for him: "The Lord sent me to anoint thee to be a king. God gave thee thy power, and therefore he expects thou shouldst use thy power for him. He put honour upon thee, and now thou must study how to do him honour. He made thee king over Israel, and now thou must plead Israel's cause and avenge their quarrels. Thou art…
Saul gathered the people together--The alacrity with which he entered on the necessary preparations for the expedition gave a fair, but delusive promise of faithfulness in its execution.
Telaim--or Telem, among the uttermost cities of the tribe of Judah towards the coast of Edom (Jos 15:21, Jos 15:24).
Adam Clarke on 1 Samuel 15:4
Two hundred thousand - and ten thousand - The Septuagint, in the London Polyglot, have Four Hundred thousand companies of Israel, and Thirty thousand companies of Judah. The Codex Alexandrinus has Ten thousand of each. The Complutensian Polyglot has Two Hundred thousand companies of Israel, and Ten thousand of Judah. And Josephus has Four Hundred thousand of Israel, and Thirty thousand of Judah. All the other versions are the same with the Hebrew text; and there is no difference in the MSS.
John Gill on 1 Samuel 15:4
And Saul gathered the people together,.... Or "made them to hear" (r), by the sound of a trumpet; or by sending heralds into all parts of the land to proclaim the above order of the Lord, and summon them to come to him, perhaps at Gilgal; so the Septuagint version, and Josephus (s):
and numbered them in Telaim; thought to be the same with Telem, a place in the tribe of Judah, Joshua 15:24, the word signifies "lambs"; hence the Vulgate Latin version is,"he numbered them as lambs;''and the Jews (t) say, because it was forbid to number the children of Israel, which was the sin of David; therefore every man had a lamb given him, and so the lambs were numbered, by which it was known what was the…
The Church Fathers
Saul therefore commanded the people and counted them, etc. And we, in order to be able to conquer the battles of vices, must gather gentle and innocent thoughts in our heart; namely, imitators of that spotless Lamb, who deigned to redeem us with his blood from the Egypt of this world. These thoughts obeying the command of a modest spirit, because then they truly prevail against the enemy, when fortified with a twin love, that is, of God and neighbor, they walk the path of truth; when they scorn all the delights and miseries of earthly habitation with the sole hope of the heavenly denarius, rightly the foot soldiers mentioned are comprised by the number two hundred and ten: for it is no doubt that the thousandth number signifies the perfection of the thing or person being discussed.
By the name of lambs, men of great prudence are usually designated. Hence through John it is said: "I saw upon Mount Sion a Lamb standing, and with him a hundred forty-four thousand having his name and the name of his Father written on their foreheads" (Rev. 14:1). For those who had taken up the name of the Lamb were called lambs. Explaining who they are, he also says: "These are they who were not defiled with women, for they are virgins." What then does it mean that when Amalek is commanded to be destroyed, the soldiers of the king are counted as it were lambs, unless that when we wish to destroy the spirit of fornication by preaching, we ought to bring forth the examples of the perfect? For however many men distinguished by the glory of chastity we present to the worldly who are to be converted, we bring as it were so many soldiers, like lambs mustered, to the wars against Amalek. Moreover, by the name of those mustered, the ministers of divine preaching themselves can be understood. They are therefore as it were lambs, because through the glory of perfect chastity they are now made like those virgins rejoicing with Christ in the kingdom. By these words it is surely shown that those who undertake the ministry of preaching must first be adorned with the outstanding splendor of chastity, because if they fall away through incontinence, they can in no way make others continent, and those who do not have the rays of that light in the splendor of their own manner of life cannot prevail in calling others to the good of so great a light. Rightly therefore it is said: "He mustered them as lambs," because those who ought to drive out the spirit of fornication through the power of the office they have received must necessarily be very chaste. Hence the Lord says to them in the Gospel: "Let your loins be girded and your lamps burning in your hands" (Luke 12:35), so that their subjects may hear the word of preaching, but the examples of a most luminous manner of life may draw them to the good of chastity that they hear. Hence they are fittingly designated by a perfect number, when it is added: (Verse 3.) "Two hundred thousand foot soldiers and ten thousand men of Judah." By the name of footsoldiers the elect are figured, not when they preach lofty things, but when through good examples they demonstrate to others the straightness of the heavenly journey. Footsoldiers…
Dictionary and topics
Army — The Israelites marched out of Egypt in military order (Ex. 13:18, “harnessed;” marg., “five in a rank”). Each tribe formed a battalion, with its own banner and leader (Num. 2:2; 10:14). In war the…
Garrison — (1.) Heb. matstsab, a station; a place where one stands (1 Sam. 14:12); a military or fortified post (1 Sam. 13:23; 14:1, 4, 6, etc.). (2.) Heb. netsib, a prefect, superintendent; hence a military…
Samuel — Heard of God. The peculiar circumstances connected with his birth are recorded in 1 Sam. 1:20. Hannah, one of the two wives of Elkanah, who came up to Shiloh to worship before the Lord, earnestly…
Saul — Asked for. (1.) A king of Edom (Gen. 36:37, 38); called Shaul in 1 Chr. 1:48. (2.) The son of Kish (probably his only son, and a child of prayer, “asked for”), of the tribe of Benjamin, the first…
Telaim — Young lambs, a place at which Saul gathered his army to fight against Amalek (1 Sam. 15:4); probably the same as Telem (2).
Agency · IN EXECUTING — IN EXECUTING
Amalekites · General references — General references
Amalekites, The · Saul: Massacred — Saul: Massacred
Armies Of Israel, The · Often led by the king in person — Often led by the king in person
Church And State · .Directs administration — .Directs administration
Judah, The Tribe Of · Aided Saul in his wars — Aided Saul in his wars
Saul summoned the people to war, and mustered them (those who were summoned) at Telaim (this was probably the same place as the Telem mentioned in Jos 15:24, and is to be looked for in the eastern portion of the Negeb). "Two hundred thousand foot, and ten thousand of the men of Judah:" this implies that the two hundred thousand were from the other tribes. These numbers are not too large; for a powerful Bedouin nation, such as the Amalekites were, could not possibly be successfully attacked with a small army, but only by raising the whole of the military force of Israel.
Sa1 15:5
He then advanced as far as the city of the Amalekites, the situation of which is altogether unknown, and placed an…
Shaul summoned. An expression of announcing [meaning the same] as in .3Above 14:20.וַיִזָּעֵק שָׁאוּל
And he counted them with lambs. He told each one to take a lamb4According to Targum this occurred just before Pesach, and the lambs were Pascal sacrifices. from the king's flocks, and afterwards he counted the lambs, because it is forbidden to count Jewish people.5 See Maseches Yoma 22b which states that in order to avoid counting the Bnei Yisroel directly which is forbidden by the Torah, each man took a lamb from the king’s flock and the lambs were then counted. See also Kli Yokor in Bamidbar 1:2 who discusses the exceptions to this rule. for it is stated concerning them, '[which] are too…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
— .The Israelites on the Amalekites
Telaim · A place of unknown lo — A place of unknown lo
War · Of extermination — Of extermination
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
