Neemia 13:24

Romanian Cornilescu Translation

Jumătate din fiii lor vorbeau limba asdodiană, şi nu ştiau să vorbească limba evreiască; nu cunoşteau decît limba cutărui sau cutărui popor.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

could not speak: Heb. they discerned not to speak

each people: Heb. people and people, Zephaniah 3:9

Reciprocal: Genesis 6:2 - and they Joshua 11:22 - Ashdod Joshua 15:46 - near Ezra 9:2 - taken of their Nehemiah 4:7 - Ashdodites Hosea 5:7 - begotten Malachi 2:15 - That he Matthew 26:73 - for

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And their children spoke half in the speech of Ashdod,.... Which they learned of their mothers, so that it was a mixed language they spoke, partly Jewish and partly Philistine; but some refer this not to their speech, but to the number of their children; that half of them, which Jarchi interprets many of them, spoke in the language of Ashdod, even as many as were most with their mothers, and chiefly brought up by them:

and could not speak in the Jews' language; not at all, or so much as to be understood well, which inclines to the last sense:

but according to the language of each people; their mothers were of, whether of Ashdod, or of Ammon, or of Moab.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The speech of Ashdod - The Philistine language, which was akin to that of Egypt.

According to the language of each people - The children spoke a mixed dialect - half-Philistine, half-Hebrew.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 24. Half in the speech of Ashdod — There were children in the same family by Jewish and Philistine mothers. As the Jewish mother would always speak to her children in Hebrew or Chaldee, so they learnt to speak these languages; and as the Ashdod mother would always speak to her children in the Ashdod language, so they learnt that tongue. Thus there were, in the same family, children who could not understand each other; half, or one part, speaking one language, and the other part another. Children of different wives did not ordinarily mingle together; and the wives had separate apartments. This is a better explanation than that which intimates that the same child spoke a jargon, half Ashdod and half Hebrew.