Among all this people there were seven hundred chosen men lefthanded; every one could sling stones at an hair breadth, and not miss.
Parallel translations
- WEB Among all these soldiers there were seven hundred chosen men who were left-handed. Every one of them could sling a stone at a hair and not miss.
- BSB Among all these soldiers there were 700 select left-handers, each of whom could sling a stone at a hair without missing.
- NKJV Among all this people were seven hundred select men who were left-handed; every one could sling a stone at a hair’s breadth and not miss.
- NASB Out of all these people seven hundred choice men were left-handed; each one could sling a stone at a hair and not miss.
- NLT 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.
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
Benjamin fielded 700 elite left-handed slingers of deadly accuracy, showing the tribe's formidable military strength.
Overview
In defending the guilty men of Gibeah, Benjamin mustered a small but skilled army, including these renowned left-handed slingers (a recurring trait of Benjamin, whose name ironically means 'son of the right hand'; cf. Ehud in 3:15). Their precision underscores that Israel's coming victory would not be by superior weaponry but by God's hand. The detail heightens the tragedy: gifted warriors were squandered defending sin rather than serving the Lord.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Judg 3:15But when the children of Israel cried unto the LORD, the LORD raised them up a deliverer, Ehud the son of Gera, a Benjamite, a man lefthanded: and by him the children of Israel sent a present unto Eglon the king of Moab.
- 1 Chr 12:2They were armed with bows, and could use both the right hand and the left in hurling stones and shooting arrows out of a bow, even of Saul’s brethren of Benjamin.
- 1 Sam 25:29Yet a man is risen to pursue thee, and to seek thy soul: but the soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with the LORD thy God; and the souls of thine enemies, them shall he sling out, as out of the middle of a sling.
- 1 Sam 17:40And he took his staff in his hand, and chose him five smooth stones out of the brook, and put them in a shepherd’s bag which he had, even in a scrip; and his sling was in his hand: and he drew near to the Philistine.
- 1 Sam 17:49–50And David put his hand in his bag, and took thence a stone, and slang it, and smote the Philistine in his forehead, that the stone sunk into his forehead; and he fell upon his face to the earth.
- 2 Chr 26:14And Uzziah prepared for them throughout all the host shields, and spears, and helmets, and habergeons, and bows, and slings to cast stones.
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Christ at the center
Israel's cycle of sin and rescue through flawed deliverers cries out for a Savior who never fails — the true and final Judge and Deliverer who saves his people not for a season but forever.
How Judges 20:16 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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