Deuteronomy Chapter 20 verse 9 Holy Bible
And it shall be, when the officers have made an end of speaking unto the people, that they shall appoint captains of hosts at the head of the people.
read chapter 20 in ASV
Then, after saying these words to the people, let the overseers put captains over the army.
read chapter 20 in BBE
And it shall be, when the officers have ended speaking unto the people, that they shall place captains of the hosts at the head of the people.
read chapter 20 in DARBY
And it shall be, when the officers have made an end of speaking unto the people that they shall make captains of the armies to lead the people.
read chapter 20 in KJV
And it shall be, when the officers have made an end of speaking to the people, that they shall make captains of the armies to lead the people.
read chapter 20 in WBT
It shall be, when the officers have made an end of speaking to the people, that they shall appoint captains of hosts at the head of the people.
read chapter 20 in WEB
and it hath come to pass as the authorities finish to speak unto the people, that they have appointed princes of the hosts at the head of the people.
read chapter 20 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 9. - The next thing the shoterim had to do was to appoint captains to head the people who were going to war. The army was divided into bands or companies, and over each of these a captain was placed, whose it was to command and lead (cf. Numbers 31:14, 48; 1 Samuel 8:12; 1 Samuel 22:7; 2 Samuel 18:1). Captains of the armies. The phrase, "captain of a host" (שַׂר צָבָא), usually designates the general or commander-in-chief of the entire army (Genesis 21:22; 2 Samuel 2:8; 1 Kings 16:16, etc.); but here the phrase is used in the plural of the chiefs of the companies or detachments of which the whole was composed.
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(9) Captains of the armies--i.e., special leaders for the campaigns, whose command would probably cease when it was over. We may suppose from mention of the "thousands" in the army--"the captain of their thousand" (1Samuel 17:18)--that the military divisions corresponded with the civil organization of the people so far as this, that the men of the same "thousand," according to Jethro's arrangement, would be brigaded together, and have one captain. If, as is also possible, the word "thousand" in military language signifies the contingent furnished by a "thousand" in Israel, irrespective of its number, it would remove many difficulties; for the whole thousand would very rarely be in the field together, and the contingent sent by a given "thousand" might consist of a very few men. If, therefore, the contingent of sixty "thousands" were to be described as 60,000, and the sixty companies were all cut up or annihilated, it might be reported as a slaughter of 60,000 men, while the lives actually lost would be nothing like so many.
