They are crossing the pass and are camping at Geba. Fear strikes the town of Ramah. All the people of Gibeah, the hometown of Saul, are running for their lives.
Parallel translations
- WEB They have gone over the pass. They have taken up their lodging at Geba. Ramah trembles. Gibeah of Saul has fled.
- KJV They are gone over the passage: they have taken up their lodging at Geba; Ramah is afraid; Gibeah of Saul is fled.
- BSB They have crossed at the ford: “We will spend the night at Geba.” Ramah trembles; Gibeah of Saul flees.
- NKJV They have gone along the ridge, They have taken up lodging at Geba. Ramah is afraid, Gibeah of Saul has fled.
- NASB They have gone through the pass, saying, “Geba will be our encampment for the night.” Ramah is terrified, and Gibeah of Saul has fled.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The advancing army crosses the pass and terror spreads through the towns near Jerusalem. Fear ripples ahead of the invader.
Overview
As the host moves past Geba and Ramah, towns like Gibeah of Saul flee in panic. The mounting dread underscores how helpless human strongholds are before such force. The scene sets the stage for the contrast with God, who alone can halt the advance.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- 1 Sam 13:23The garrison of the Philistines went out to the pass of Michmash.
- 1 Sam 7:17His return was to Ramah, for his house was there; and he judged Israel there; and he built an altar to Yahweh there.
- Josh 21:17Out of the tribe of Benjamin, Gibeon with its suburbs, Geba with its suburbs,
- 1 Sam 11:4Then the messengers came to Gibeah of Saul, and spoke these words in the ears of the people, then all the people lifted up their voice, and wept.
- Jer 31:15Yahweh says: “A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping, Rachel weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more.”
- Hos 5:8“Blow the cornet in Gibeah, and the trumpet in Ramah! Sound a battle cry at Beth Aven, behind you, Benjamin!
- 1 Sam 13:16Saul, and Jonathan his son, and the people who were present with them, stayed in Geba of Benjamin; but the Philistines encamped in Michmash.
- Hos 9:9They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah. He will remember their iniquity. He will punish them for their sins.
- 1 Sam 14:4Between the passes, by which Jonathan sought to go over to the Philistines’ garrison, there was a rocky crag on the one side, and a rocky crag on the other side: and the name of the one was Bozez, and the name of the other Seneh.
- 1 Kgs 15:23Now the rest of all the acts of Asa, and all his might, and all that he did, and the cities which he built, aren’t they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? But in the time of his old age he was diseased in his feet.
- Josh 18:24–25Chephar Ammoni, Ophni, and Geba; twelve cities with their villages.
- 1 Sam 13:2Saul chose for himself three thousand men of Israel, of which two thousand were with Saul in Michmash and in the Mount of Bethel, and one thousand were with Jonathan in Gibeah of Benjamin. He sent the rest of the people to their own tents.
- Hos 10:9“Israel, you have sinned from the days of Gibeah. There they remained. The battle against the children of iniquity doesn’t overtake them in Gibeah.
- 1 Sam 15:34Then Samuel went to Ramah; and Saul went up to his house to Gibeah of Saul.
- Judg 19:12–15His master said to him, “We won’t turn aside into the city of a foreigner that is not of the children of Israel; but we will pass over to Gibeah.”
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Christ at the center
Isaiah sees him most clearly: the virgin's son Immanuel, the child on David's throne, the shoot from Jesse, the light to the nations, and above all the Suffering Servant pierced for our transgressions (ch. 53).
How Isaiah 10:29 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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