Judges 20:16
◄  Judges 20:16  ►
New International Version (©2011)
Among all these soldiers there were seven hundred select troops who were left-handed, each of whom could sling a stone at a hair and not miss.

New Living Translation (©2007)
Among Benjamin's elite troops, 700 were left-handed, and each of them could sling a rock and hit a target within a hairsbreadth without missing.

English Standard Version (©2001)
Among all these were 700 chosen men who were left-handed; every one could sling a stone at a hair and not miss.

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
Out of all these people 700 choice men were left-handed; each one could sling a stone at a hair and not miss.

King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
Among all this people there were seven hundred chosen men lefthanded; every one could sling stones at an hair breadth, and not miss.

Holman Christian Standard Bible (©2009)
There were 700 choice men who were left-handed among all these people; all could sling a stone at a hair and not miss.

International Standard Version (©2012)
Out of all these soldiers, 700 of them were left-handed—and each one could sling a stone at a hair and never miss.

NET Bible (©2006)
Among this army were seven hundred specially-trained left-handed soldiers. Each one could sling a stone and hit even the smallest target.

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
Out of all these troops, the best 700 were left-handed. Each could sling a stone at a hair and not miss.

King James 2000 Bible (©2003)
Among all this people there were seven hundred chosen men, left-handed; every one could sling stones at a hair's breadth, and not miss.

American King James Version
Among all this people there were seven hundred chosen men left handed; every one could sling stones at an hair breadth, and not miss.

American Standard Version
Among all this people there were seven hundred chosen men lefthanded; every one could sling stones at a hair-breadth, and not miss.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Who were seven hundred most valiant men, fighting with the left hand as well as with the right: and slinging stones so sure that they could hit even a hair, and not miss by the stone's going on either side.

Darby Bible Translation
Among all these were seven hundred picked men who were left-handed; every one could sling a stone at a hair, and not miss.

English Revised Version
Among all this people there were seven hundred chosen men lefthanded; every one could sling stones at an hair-breadth, and not miss.

Webster's Bible Translation
Among all this people there were seven hundred chosen men left-handed; every one could sling stones to a hair-breadth, and not miss.

World English Bible
Among all this people there were seven hundred chosen men left-handed; everyone could sling stones at a hair-breadth, and not miss.

Young's Literal Translation
among all this people are seven hundred chosen men, bound of their right hand, each of these slinging with a stone at the hair, and he doth not err.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

17:7-13 Micah thought it was a sign of God's favour to him and his images, that a Levite should come to his door. Thus those who please themselves with their own delusions, if Providence unexpectedly bring any thing to their hands that further them in their evil way, are apt from thence to think that God is pleased with them.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 16. - Seven hundred... men left-handed. It is curious that the tribe of Benjamin, which means son of the right hand, should have this peculiar institution of a corps of left-handed men. Ehud the Benjamite was a man left-handed (Judges 3:15; see also 1 Chronicles 12:2). The Roman name Scaexola means left-handed. For the use of the sling see 1 Samuel 17:40, 49. Diodorus Siculus (quoted by Rosenmuller) mentions the remarkable skill of the inhabitants of the Balearic Islands in the use of the sling, adding, in terms very similar to those of the text, that they seldom miss their aim.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Among all this people there were seven hundred chosen men lefthanded,.... According to Ben Gersom, these were the seven hundred men of Gibeah; but this does not appear from the text, but, on the contrary, that these were among all the people; or there were so many to be selected out of them all, who were lefthanded men; nor is it likely that all the inhabitants of one place should be such. Benjamin signifies a son of the right hand, yet this tribe had a great number of lefthanded men in it, see Judges 3:15. Josephus (h) wrongly reduces the number to five hundred:

everyone could sling stones at an hair's breadth, and not miss: the mark they slung the stone at, so very expert were they at it; and perhaps their having such a number of skilful men in this art made them more confident of success, and emboldened them in this daring undertaking, to point to which this circumstance seems to be mentioned. There were a people that inhabited the islands, now called Majorca and Minorca, anciently Baleares, from their skilfulness in slinging stones, to which they brought up from their childhood, as it is related various writers, Strabo (i), Diodorus Siculus (k), Floras (l) and others (m); that their mothers used to set their breakfast on a beam or post, or some such thing, at a distance, which they were not to have, unless they could strike it off; and the first of these writers says, that they exercised this art from the time that the Phoenicians held these islands; and, according to Pliny (n), the Phoenicians, the old inhabitants of Canaan, were the first inventors of slings, and from these the Benjaminites might learn it. The Indians are said (o) to be very expert in slinging stones to an hair's breadth.

(h) Antiqu. l. 5. c. 2. sect. 10. (i) Geograph l. 3. p. 116. (k) Bibliothec. l. 5. p. 298. (l) Roman Cost. l. 3. c. 8. (m) Vid. Barthii Ammadv. ad Claudian. in 3 Consul. Honor. ver. 50. (n) Nat. Hist. l. 7. c. 56. (o) Philoetrat. Vit. Apollon. l. 2. c. 12.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

16. left-handed; every one could sling stones at an hair-breadth, and not miss—The sling was one of the earliest weapons used in war. The Hebrew sling was probably similar to that of the Egyptian, consisting of a leather thong, broad in the middle, with a loop at one end, by which it was firmly held with the hand; the other end terminated in a lash, which was let slip when the stone was thrown. Those skilled in the use of it, as the Benjamites were, could hit the mark with unerring certainty. A good sling could carry its full force to the distance of two hundred yards.

Judges 20:16 Parallel Commentaries

Judges 20:16 NIV
Judges 20:16 NLT
Judges 20:16 ESV
Judges 20:16 NASB
Judges 20:16 KJV

Bible Hub: Online Parallel Bible


The Decree of the Assembly
…15And the children of Benjamin were numbered at that time out of the cities twenty and six thousand men that drew sword, beside the inhabitants of Gibeah, which were numbered seven hundred chosen men. 16Among all this people there were seven hundred chosen men left handed; every one could sling stones at an hair breadth, and not miss. 17And the men of Israel, beside Benjamin, were numbered four hundred thousand men that drew sword: all these were men of war.

Judges 3:15 Again the Israelites cried out to the LORD, and he gave them a deliverer--Ehud, a left-handed man, the son of Gera the Benjamite. The Israelites sent him with tribute to Eglon king of Moab.
Judges 20:17 Israel, apart from Benjamin, mustered four hundred thousand swordsmen, all of them fit for battle.
1 Samuel 17:40 Then he took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd's bag and, with his sling in his hand, approached the Philistine.
1 Chronicles 12:2 they were armed with bows and were able to shoot arrows or to sling stones right-handed or left-handed; they were relatives of Saul from the tribe of Benjamin):