Judges Chapter 9 verse 37 Holy Bible
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.
read chapter 9 in ASV
And Gaal said again, See! people are coming down from the middle of the land, and one band is coming by way of the oak-tree of the Seers.
read chapter 9 in BBE
Ga'al spoke again and said, "Look, men are coming down from the center of the land, and one company is coming from the direction of the Diviners' Oak."
read chapter 9 in DARBY
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.
read chapter 9 in KJV
And Gaal spoke again, and said, See, there come people down by the middle of the land, and another company come along by the plain of Meonenim.
read chapter 9 in WBT
Gaal spoke again and said, Behold, there come people down by the middle of the land, and one company comes by the way of the oak of Meonenim.
read chapter 9 in WEB
And Gaal addeth yet to speak, and saith, `Lo, people are coming down from the high part of the land, and another detachment is coming by the way of the oak of Meonenim.'
read chapter 9 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 37. - Gaal spake again, etc. Of course, as the men got nearer, it was impossible to mistake them for anything but men. Gaal could see two bands distinctly, one coming down the hill-side, the other marching by the road of the soothsayers' oak. The middle of the land. The word rendered middle only occurs again in Ezekiel 38:12, "the midst of the land," A.V. It is so rendered from the notion of the old interpreters that it was connected with a word meaning "the navel." It is usually explained now to mean the height. There may have been some particular height in the ridge called Tabbur ha-aretz. The plain of Meonenim. Rather, the oak (or terebinth tree) of the soothsayers, some large terebinth or turpentine tree under which the soothsayers used to take their auguries. Dean Stanley would identify it with the oak of the pillar in ver. 6, where see note.
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(37) By the middle of the land.--Literally, by the navel of the land. Probably the expression means some gently-swelling hill, but it perplexed the translators. The Chaldee renders it "the strength," and the Svriac "the fortification of the land." In Ezekiel 38:12 it is rendered "in the midst of the land." The LXX. here have the strangely blundering addition, "by sea."Another company.--Literally, one head (Vulg., cuneus unus).By the plain of Meonenim.--Rather, from the way to the Enchanters' Terebinth (LXX., "of the oak of those that look away;" Vulg., "which looks toward the oak;" Luther, more correctly, "zur Zaubereiche"). Meonen in Leviticus 19:28 is rendered "enchantment," and means especially the kind of "enchantment" which affects the eye (the "evil eye," &c.), and therefore implies the use of amulets, &c. Hence, though the terebinth is nowhere else mentioned by this particular name, it is at least a probable conjecture that it may be the ancient tree under which Jacob's family had buried their idolatrous amulets (Genesis 35:4).
