1 Samuel 4:9
◄  1 Samuel 4:9  ►
New International Version (©2011)
Be strong, Philistines! Be men, or you will be subject to the Hebrews, as they have been to you. Be men, and fight!"

New Living Translation (©2007)
Fight as never before, Philistines! If you don't, we will become the Hebrews' slaves just as they have been ours! Stand up like men and fight!"

English Standard Version (©2001)
Take courage, and be men, O Philistines, lest you become slaves to the Hebrews as they have been to you; be men and fight.”

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
"Take courage and be men, O Philistines, or you will become slaves to the Hebrews, as they have been slaves to you; therefore, be men and fight."

King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
Be strong, and quit yourselves like men, O ye Philistines, that ye be not servants unto the Hebrews, as they have been to you: quit yourselves like men, and fight.

Holman Christian Standard Bible (©2009)
Show some courage and be men, Philistines! Otherwise, you'll serve the Hebrews just as they served you. Now be men and fight!"

International Standard Version (©2012)
Philistines, be strong and be men, or you will become slaves to the Hebrews just as they have been slaves to you! Be men and fight!"

NET Bible (©2006)
Be strong and act like men, you Philistines, or else you will wind up serving the Hebrews the way they have served you! Act like men and fight!"

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
Be strong, Philistines, and act like men, or else you will serve the Hebrews as they served you. Act like men and fight."

King James 2000 Bible (©2003)
Be strong, and conduct yourselves like men, O you Philistines, that you be not servants unto the Hebrews, as they have been to you: conduct yourselves like men, and fight.

American King James Version
Be strong and quit yourselves like men, O you Philistines, that you be not servants to the Hebrews, as they have been to you: quit yourselves like men, and fight.

American Standard Version
Be strong, and quit yourselves like men, O ye Philistines, that ye be not servants unto the Hebrews, as they have been to you: quit yourselves like men, and fight.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Take courage and behave like men, ye Philistines: lest you come to be servants to the Hebrews, as they have served you: take courage and fight.

Darby Bible Translation
Shew yourselves valiant and be men, ye Philistines, that ye may not have to be servants to the Hebrews, as they have been servants to you: be men, and fight.

English Revised Version
Be strong, and quit yourselves like men, O ye Philistines, that ye be not servants unto the Hebrews, as they have been to you: quit yourselves like men, and fight.

Webster's Bible Translation
Be strong, and acquit yourselves like men, O ye Philistines, that ye may not be servants to the Hebrews, as they have been to you: acquit yourselves like men, and fight.

World English Bible
Be strong, and behave like men, O you Philistines, that you not be servants to the Hebrews, as they have been to you. Strengthen yourselves like men, and fight!"

Young's Literal Translation
Strengthen yourselves, and become men, O Philistines, lest ye do service to Hebrews, as they have done to you -- then ye have become men, and have fought.'

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

4:1-9 Israel is smitten before the Philistines. Sin, the accursed thing, was in the camp, and gave their enemies all the advantage they could wish for. They own the hand of God in their trouble; but, instead of submitting, they speak angrily, as not aware of any just provocation they had given him. The foolishness of man perverts his way, and then his heart frets against the Lord, Pr 19:3, and finds fault with him. They supposed that they could oblige God to appear for them, by bringing the ark into their camp. Those who have gone back in the life of religion, sometimes discover great fondness for the outward observances of it, as if those would save them; and as if the ark, God's throne, in the camp, would bring them to heaven, though the world and the flesh are on the throne in the heart.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 9. - Be strong. But, as is often the case, despair served only to nerve them to bitter determination. The greatness of the danger - for as heathen the Philistines fully believed that the ark would act as a charm - and the fearful alternative of being servants, i.e. slaves to those who not so very long ago had been slaves to them, made them resolve to do their very utmost. The result was a complete victory.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Be strong, and quit yourselves like men, O ye Philistines,.... Since this was all they had to depend upon, their manly courage; if they did not exert that it was all over with them; and seeing their case was desperate, having gods as well as men to fight with, it became them to exert themselves to the uttermost; which did they, there was a possibility still of gaining victory, and so immortal honour to themselves; these words seem to be spoken by the generals and officers of the army of the Philistines to the common soldiers:

that ye be not servants to the Hebrews, as they have been to you; that is, before and in the times of Samson; but it appears from hence that at this time neither the Philistines ruled over the Israelites, nor the Israelites over them; but as there was danger of their becoming subject to Israel, they had better die gloriously in the field of battle than to be in the base state of servitude:

quit yourselves like men, and fight; this is repeated to animate them to battle, which they supposed was not far off by the shoutings of the Israelites, and which they must prepare for.

1 Samuel 4:9 Parallel Commentaries

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The Philistines Capture the Ark
…8Woe to us! who shall deliver us out of the hand of these mighty Gods? these are the Gods that smote the Egyptians with all the plagues in the wilderness. 9Be strong and quit yourselves like men, O you Philistines, that you be not servants to the Hebrews, as they have been to you: quit yourselves like men, and fight. 10And the Philistines fought, and Israel was smitten, and they fled every man into his tent: and there was a very great slaughter; for there fell of Israel thirty thousand footmen.

1 Corinthians 16:13 Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong.
Judges 13:1 Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD, so the LORD delivered them into the hands of the Philistines for forty years.
1 Samuel 4:8 We're doomed! Who will deliver us from the hand of these mighty gods? They are the gods who struck the Egyptians with all kinds of plagues in the wilderness.
1 Samuel 14:21 Those Hebrews who had previously been with the Philistines and had gone up with them to their camp went over to the Israelites who were with Saul and Jonathan.