1st Samuel Chapter 14 verse 14 Holy Bible
And that first slaughter, which Jonathan and his armorbearer made, was about twenty men, within as it were half a furrow's length in an acre of land.
read chapter 14 in ASV
And at their first attack, Jonathan and his servant put to the sword about twenty men, all inside the space of half an acre of land.
read chapter 14 in BBE
And that first slaughter which Jonathan and his armour-bearer wrought was about twenty men, as it were on the half-furrow of an acre of land.
read chapter 14 in DARBY
And that first slaughter, which Jonathan and his armourbearer made, was about twenty men, within as it were an half acre of land, which a yoke of oxen might plow.
read chapter 14 in KJV
And that first slaughter, which Jonathan and his armor-bearer made, was about twenty men, within as it were a half-acre of land, which a yoke of oxen might plow.
read chapter 14 in WBT
That first slaughter, which Jonathan and his armor bearer made, was about twenty men, within as it were half a furrow's length in an acre of land.
read chapter 14 in WEB
And the first smiting which Jonathan and the bearer of his weapons have smitten is of about twenty men, in about half a furrow of a yoke of a field,
read chapter 14 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 14. - Within as it were an half acre of land, which a yoke of oxen might plow. The Hebrew for this long circumlocution is, "within about a half furrow of a yoke of land." The Septuagint translates, "with darts and slings and stones of the field," but the other versions give no support to this rendering. The Israelites, like most ancient nations, were accustomed to measure land by the quantity which a yoke of oxen could plough in a day, - something really less than an acre, - so that the A.V. gives the fight sense. When Jonathan made his attack, the garrison probably, not knowing bow few their assailants were, ran in confusion to the narrow tongue of land where the exit was, and getting in one another's way, were soon panic stricken and helpless.
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(14) And that first slaughter . . .--Considerable doubt exists as to the exact meaning of this verse. The LXX. either had here a different text before them, or else translated, as has been suggested, "conjecturally, what they did not understand;" their rendering is "about twenty men, with darts and slings and stones of the field." Ewald explains the Hebrew words as follows: "At the very beginning he strikes down about twenty men at once, as if a yoke of land were in course of being ploughed, which must beware of offering opposition to the sharp ploughshare in the middle of its work." The simplest interpretation seems to be that twenty men were smitten down, one after the other, in the distance of half a rood of land. Bunsen considers this verse an extract from a poet.
