2 Samuel 23:11 New English Translation
11 Next in command[a] was Shammah son of Agee the Hararite. When the Philistines assembled at Lehi,[b] where there happened to be an area of a field that was full of lentils, the army retreated before the Philistines.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 2 Samuel 23:11 tn Heb “after him.”
- 2 Samuel 23:11 tn The Hebrew text is difficult here. The MT reads לַחַיָּה (lachayyah), which implies a rare use of the word חַיָּה (chayyah). The word normally refers to an animal, but if the MT is accepted it would here have the sense of a troop or community of people. BDB 312 s.v. II. חַיָּה, for example, understands the similar reference in v. 13 to be to “a group of allied families, making a raid together.” But this works better in v. 13 than it does in v. 11, where the context seems to suggest a particular staging location for a military operation. (See 1 Chr 11:15.) It therefore seems best to understand the word in v. 11 as a place name with ה (he) directive. In that case the Masoretes mistook the word for the common term for an animal and then tried to make sense of it in this context.
New English Translation (NET)
NET Bible® copyright ©1996-2017 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. http://netbible.com All rights reserved.