士师记 20:16

Chinese NCV (Simplified)

在這些人中，還有七百精兵是善用左手的，個個都能用機弦拋石，毫髮不差。

Parallel Translations

Chinese Union (Simplified)
在 众 军 之 中 有 拣 选 的 七 百 精 兵 ， 都 是 左 手 便 利 的 ， 能 用 机 弦 甩 石 打 人 ， 毫 发 不 差 。

Contextual Overview

¹² The tribes of Israel sent men throughout the tribe of Benjamin demanding, "What is this evil thing some of your men have done? ¹³ Hand over the wicked men in Gibeah so that we can put them to death. We must remove this evil from Israel." But the Benjaminites would not listen to their fellow Israelites. ¹⁴ The Benjaminites left their own cities and met at Gibeah to fight the Israelites. ¹⁵ In only one day the Benjaminites got 26,000 soldiers together who were trained with swords. They also had 700 chosen men from Gibeah. ¹⁶ Seven hundred of these trained soldiers were left-handed, each of whom could sling a stone at a hair and not miss! ¹⁷ The Israelites, except for the Benjaminites, gathered 400,000 soldiers with swords.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

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. Judges 3:15, 1 Chronicles 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. 1 Samuel 17:40, 1 Samuel 17:49, 1 Samuel 17:50, 1 Samuel 25:29, 2 Chronicles 26:14

Cross-References

Genesis 20:3
But one night God spoke to Abimelech in a dream and said, "You will die. The woman you took is married."

Genesis 20:5
Abraham himself told me, ‘This woman is my sister,' and she also said, ‘He is my brother.' I am innocent. I did not know I was doing anything wrong."

Genesis 20:6
Then God said to Abimelech in the dream, "Yes, I know you did not realize what you were doing. So I did not allow you to sin against me and touch her.

Genesis 20:8
So early the next morning, Abimelech called all his officers and told them everything that had happened in the dream. They were very afraid.

Genesis 20:9
Then Abimelech called Abraham to him and said, "What have you done to us? What wrong did I do against you? Why did you bring this trouble to my kingdom? You should not have done these things to me.

Genesis 24:65
and asked the servant, "Who is that man walking in the field to meet us?" The servant answered, "That is my master." So Rebekah covered her face with her veil.

Genesis 26:11
So Abimelech warned everyone, "Anyone who touches this man or his wife will be put to death."

Proverbs 12:1
Anyone who loves learning accepts correction, but a person who hates being corrected is stupid.

Proverbs 25:12
A wise warning to someone who will listen is as valuable as gold earrings or fine gold jewelry.

Proverbs 27:5
It is better to correct someone openly than to have love and not show it.

Gill's Notes on the 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 Judges 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.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Comparing the numbers here with those in Numbers 1:0; Numbers 26:0, it is seen that in the case both of the Benjamites and the Israelites the numbers are diminished by about one-third, i. e., they appear as about two-thirds only of what they were at the last numbering in the plains of Moab. This diminution seems to indicate disturbed and harassing times. With this agrees the mention of the cities, as containing the whole Benjamite population. The inference is that the open country and unwalled villages were not safe, but that the Benjamites kept the Canaanites in subjection only by dwelling in fortified towns.

Judges 20:16

See Judges 3:15, and note. In the Septuagint and Vulgate the 700 chosen men of Gibeah are represented as the seven hundred left-handed slingers.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Judges 20:16. Left-handed — They were ambidexters - could use the right hand and the left with equal ease and effect. Judges 1:3; Judges 1:3- :.

Could sling stones at a hair - and not miss — ולא יחטא velo yachati, and not sin: και ουκ εξαμαρτανοντες; 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 αμαρτανω, from α, negative, and μαρπτω, 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 βαλλειν 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.