Judges 9:37
◄  Judges 9:37  ►
New International Version (©2011)
But Gaal spoke up again: "Look, people are coming down from the central hill, and a company is coming from the direction of the diviners' tree."

New Living Translation (©2007)
But again Gaal said, "No, people are coming down from the hills. And another group is coming down the road past the Diviners' Oak."

English Standard Version (©2001)
Gaal spoke again and said, “Look, people are coming down from the center of the land, and one company is coming from the direction of the Diviners’ Oak.”

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
Gaal spoke again and said, "Behold, people are coming down from the highest part of the land, and one company comes by the way of the diviners' oak."

King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
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.

Holman Christian Standard Bible (©2009)
Then Gaal spoke again, "Look, people are coming down from the central part of the land, and one unit is coming from the direction of the Diviners' Oak."

International Standard Version (©2012)
Gaal spoke up again to say, "Look! People are coming down from the highest part of the land, and there's a company approaching from the diviner's oak tree."

NET Bible (©2006)
Gaal again said, "Look, men are coming down from the very center of the land. A unit is coming by way of the Oak Tree of the Diviners."

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
Gaal spoke again, "No, there are troops coming down from Tabbur Haares. One company is coming along the road by the Fortunetellers' Tree."

King James 2000 Bible (©2003)
And Gaal spoke again and said, See there come people down from the middle of the land, and another company comes along by the oak of Meonenim.

American King James Version
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.

American Standard Version
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.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Again Gaal said: Behold there cometh people down from the middle of the land, and one troop cometh by the way that looketh towards the oak.

Darby Bible Translation
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."

English Revised Version
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.

Webster's Bible Translation
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.

World English Bible
Gaal spoke again and said, "Behold, people are coming down by the middle of the land, and one company comes by the way of the oak of Meonenim."

Young's Literal Translation
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.'

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

9:30-49 Abimelech intended to punish the Schechemites for slighting him now, but God punished them for their serving him formerly in the murder of Gideon's sons. When God uses men as instruments in his hand to do his work, he means one thing, and they another. That, which they hoped would have been for their welfare, proved a snare and a trap, as those will certainly find, who run to idols for shelter; such will prove a refuge of lies.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 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.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And Gaal spake again, and said,.... Looking towards the mountains, and taking another view of what he before saw, for further satisfaction:

see, there come people down by the middle of the land; either in the valley between the two mountains; or rather those he first saw on the top of the mountains were now come down about the middle of them, called in the Hebrew text the navel, from the prominence of the mountains thereabout, or because the navel is in the middle of the body, as this part of them was the middle on which he saw them. R. Isaiah interprets it, between the two cities:

and another company come along by the plain of Meonenim; of which we read nowhere else. Montanus renders it, "the oak of Meonenim"; or of the soothsayers; oaks being had in great esteem with idolaters for their oracles and divinations; and perhaps this was a place, whether an oak or, a plain, where such persons used to meet to make their divinations.

Judges 9:37 Parallel Commentaries

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Bible Hub: Online Parallel Bible


Abimelech Sows the City with Salt
…36And when Gaal saw the people, he said to Zebul, Behold, there come people down from the top of the mountains. And Zebul said to him, You see the shadow of the mountains as if they were men. 37And 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. 38Then said Zebul to him, Where is now your mouth, with which you said, Who is Abimelech, that we should serve him? is not this the people that you have despised? go out, I pray now, and fight with them. …

Judges 9:36 When Gaal saw them, he said to Zebul, "Look, people are coming down from the tops of the mountains!" Zebul replied, "You mistake the shadows of the mountains for men."
Judges 9:38 Then Zebul said to him, "Where is your big talk now, you who said, 'Who is Abimelek that we should be subject to him?' Aren't these the men you ridiculed? Go out and fight them!"
Ezekiel 38:12 I will plunder and loot and turn my hand against the resettled ruins and the people gathered from the nations, rich in livestock and goods, living at the center of the land."