10
During the days of Saul they waged war against the Hagrites, who were defeated at their hands, and they occupied the dwellings of the Hagrites throughout the region east of Gilead.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
ū·ḇî·mê šā·’ūl ‘ā·śū mil·ḥā·māh ‘im- ha·haḡ·ri·’îm way·yip·pə·lū bə·yā·ḏām way·yê·šə·ḇū bə·’ā·ho·lê·hem ‘al- kāl- pə·nê miz·rāḥ lag·gil·‘āḏ
Word by word15 · parsed
√ yôwm — a day (as the warm hours), whether literal (from sunrise to sunset, or from one sunset to the next), or figurative (a space of time defined by an associated term), (often used adverb)Conjunctive waw, Preposition-bNounmasculine plural construct
yôwm: a day, a space of time defined by an associated term The plural construct bîmê, "in the days of," is the Chronicler's ordinary way of anchoring an undated event to a known reign. It dates the war only as loosely as the reign itself: Cambridge and Gill both reach for Saul's Ammonite campaign (1 Samuel 11) as the likely occasion, but the text itself gives no month, no year, and no battle name.
√ Shâʼûwl — Shaul, the name of an Edomite and two IsraelitesNounpropermasculine singular
Shâʼûwl: Shaul, asked for Saul appears here not as an actor but as a clock. The Chronicler, who will devote his whole narrative from chapter 10 onward to David, mentions the first king only to timestamp a border war he did not fight. It is a quiet piece of the book's theology: the genealogies are already moving the reader past Saul before Saul has been introduced.
√ ʻâsâh — to do or make, in the broadest sense and widest applicationVerbQalPerfectthird person common plural
ʻâsâh: to do or make, in the broadest sense One of the most common verbs in the Hebrew Bible, here bearing no weight of its own; it is the noun milchâmâh that carries the sense.
√ milchâmâh — a battle (iNounfeminine singular
milchâmâh: a battle, war A common noun (308 verses), yet its placement matters: this is the only military act recorded of the Reubenites in Chronicles apart from the fuller account at 5:18-22, and Matthew Henry reads the whole chapter as two facts only, a shared victory and a shared captivity. The war that widens their border is the same border that will be first to fall.
√ ʻim — adverb or preposition, with (iPreposition
√ Hagrîy — a Hagrite or member of a certain Arabian clanArticleNounpropermasculine plural
Hagrîy: a Hagrite, member of an Arabian clan A genuinely rare word: the Verifier finds it in six verses in all (here, 5:19-20, 1 Chronicles 11:38, 27:31, Psalm 83:6). Every commentator in the file derives the name from Hagar. Gill takes pains to reject the Targum's reading of "Hungarians" as a people not then in being; Barnes and Pulpit connect the name instead to the Agraei of Strabo and Pliny and the district of Hejer. The derivation from Hagar is an inference from the name, widely held but not stated by the text.
√ nâphal — to fall, in a great variety of applications (intransitive or causative, literal or figurative)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine plural
nâphal: to fall, in a great variety of applications The common verb of falling does double duty in Hebrew battle narrative: men fall slain, and nations fall into a victor's hand. Here the second sense governs, since the next word is "in their hand." The consecutive imperfect makes the fall the immediate consequence of the war rather than a separate episode.
√ yâd — a hand (the open one (indicating power, means, direction, etcPreposition-bNounfeminine singular constructthird person masculine plural
yâd: a hand, the open one indicating power, means, direction The singular "hand" is the standard Hebrew figure for jurisdiction and power, not for a pair of limbs. To be given into the hand is the language used across the conquest narratives for a transfer that the giver, not the taker, controls. The Chronicler states the result and withholds the agent; Henry and Benson supply what the verse does not, that it was God who gave.
√ yâshab — properly, to sit down (specifically as judgeConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine plural
yâshab: properly, to sit down, to dwell The verb of settling, not of conquering. The sequence war, fall, sit is the whole grammar of the verse: three consecutive verbs, the last of which is the point. Possession in this chapter is a matter of sitting down where someone else sat.
√ ʼôhel — a tent (as clearly conspicuous from a distance)Preposition-bNounmasculine plural constructthird person masculine plural
ʼôhel: a tent, as clearly conspicuous from a distance The word for the nomad's dwelling and also, elsewhere, for the tent of meeting. Ellicott notes the phrase "They dwelt in their tents" goes back to Genesis 9:27; Gill observes that the Arabians dwelt in tents because of their flocks, so that some were called Scenites. The irony is real and unforced: tribes that chose pastureland take over a pastoral people's tents, and a tent is exactly what cannot be defended when the Assyrian comes.
√ ʻal — above, over, upon, or against (yet always in this last relation with a downward aspect) in a great variety of applicationsPreposition
√ kôl — properly, the wholeNounmasculine singular construct
√ pânîym — the face (as the part that turns)Nouncommon plural construct
pânîym: the face, as the part that turns Used spatially, "the face of" means the whole exposed surface or frontage of a region. The same root that names a face turned toward someone here names a land's open side, which is also the side by which it is entered.
√ mizrâch — sunrise, iNounmasculine singular
mizrâch: sunrise, the east Literally the place of the sun's rising. In Chronicles it is chiefly a survey term for the trans-Jordan frontier, but it is the same noun that Isaiah uses of the quarter from which the LORD's name is feared (Isaiah 59:19). Here it marks the outer edge of Israel's holding, the side facing the desert and, later, the empires.
√ Gilʻâd — Gilad, a region East of the JordanPreposition-l, ArticleNounproperfeminine singular
Gilʻâd: Gilad, a region east of the Jordan The pastureland claimed at Numbers 32 and the first territory lost: 2 Kings 10:33 records Hazael smiting all the land of Gilead, and 1 Chronicles 5:26 has the Reubenites carried off by Assyria. Henry's terse reading of the chapter is that they would have the best land, not considering that it lay most exposed.