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Judges 9:37

in Judges 9

Then Gaal spoke up again, “Look, people are coming down from the center of the land, and one company is coming by way of the Diviners’ Oak.”

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

And Gaal spake again and said, See, there come people down by the middle of the land, and one company cometh by the way of the oak of Meonenim.

KJV

And Gaal spake again and said, See there come people down by the middle of the land, and another company come along by the plain of Meonenim.

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This verse in Judges 9

Commentary

5 notes on this verse
And Gaal spake again, and said,.... Looking towards the mountains, and taking another view of what he before saw, for further satisfaction: see, there come people down by the middle of the land; either in the valley between the two mountains; or rather those he first saw on the top of the mountains were now come down about the middle of them, called in the Hebrew text the navel, from the prominence of the mountains thereabout, or because the navel is in the middle of the body, as this part of them was the middle on which he saw them.

This site's exposition

coming by way of the Diviners’ Oak

on Judges 9:37-39

Meonenim means the soothsayers, so the second company comes past the "Diviners’ Oak," a landmark named for the practice Deuteronomy 18:10 to 14 forbids. Gaal goes out "before the leaders of Shechem," and the town he talked into rebellion is the only army he has.

The record, by era

The Nineteenth Century3 voices

The plain of Meonenim - Translate “the oak of the soothsayers” (see the margin). Some well-known oak, so called, but which is not mentioned elsewhere.

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

proposed

The consequence was that he allowed himself to be drawn into an ambush, was defeated, the city of Shechem destroyed and strewn with salt. The people took refuge in the stronghold, which was set on fire, and all in it perished.

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

proposed

By the plain of Meonenim - Some translate, by the way of the oaks, or oaken groves; others, by the way of the magicians, or regarders of the times, as in our margin. Probably it was a place in which augurs and soothsayers dwelt.

The words behind it

17 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וַיֹּ֨סֶףand he repeated

    vaiyosefH3254 →212 times

  • ע֣וֹדagain

    odH5750 →490 times

  • גַּעַל֮Gaal

    gaalH1603 →9 times

  • לְדַבֵּר֒to speak

    ledaberH1696 →1141 times

  • וַיֹּ֕אמֶרand he said

    vaiyomerH559 →5305 times

  • הִנֵּה־there!

    hineh-H2009 →843 times

  • עָם֙a people

    ʾamH5971 →1873 times

  • יֽוֹרְדִ֔ים[are] coming down

    yordimH3381 →381 times

  • מֵעִ֖םfrom with

    meimH5973 →1050 times

  • טַבּ֣וּר[the] center of

    taburH2872 →

  • הָאָ֑רֶץthe land

    haaretzH776 →2504 times

  • וְרֹאשׁ־and a company

    verosh-H7218 →599 times

  • אֶחָ֣דone

    ʾechadH259 →971 times

  • בָּ֔א[is] coming

    ba'H935 →2568 times

  • מִדֶּ֖רֶךְfrom [the] direction of

    miderekhH1870 →707 times

  • אֵל֥וֹן[the] great tree of

    ʾelonH436 →9 times

  • מְעוֹנְנִֽים׃[the] soothsayer

    meonimH6049 →

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Related verses

2 in all, six open

The walk

4 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Deuteronomy 18:14

    Though these nations, which you will dispossess, listen to conjurers and diviners, the LORD your God has not permitted you to do so.

    it leads to

    • Acts 14:16

      In past generations, He let all nations go their own way.

    • Deuteronomy 18:10

      Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, practices divination or conjury, interprets omens, practices sorcery,

    • Genesis 20:6

      Then God said to Abimelech in the dream, “Yes, I know that you did this with a clear conscience, and so I have kept you from sinning against Me. That is why I did…

    • Psalms 147:19–20

      He declares His word to Jacob, His statutes and judgments to Israel.

Where this verse is studied

About Judges

The Death of Gideon's Sons — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain
The Death of Gideon's Sons — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain
Judges: the study guide →Read Judges 9 →

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth.

Read on in Judges 9 →