1 Sam 6:19

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he smote.

Exod 19:21; Lev 10:1-3; Num 4:4; Num 4:5; Num 4:15; Num 4:20; Deut 29:29; 2Sam 6:7 1Chr 13:9; 1Chr 13:10; Col 2:18; 1Pet 4:17

fifty thousand.

As it is very improbable that the village of Beth-shemesh should contain, or be capable of employing, 50,070 men in the fields at wheat harvest, much less that they could all peep into the ark, and from the uncommon manner in which it is expressed in the original, it is generally allowed that there is some corruption in the text, or that some explanatory word is omitted. The Hebrew is {shivim ish, chamishim aileph ish,} literally, "seventy men, fifty thousand men:" so LXX.

Vulgate, {septuaginta viros, et quinquaginta millia plebis,} "70 (chief) men, and 50,000 common people." Targum, {besabey �ma,} "of the elders of the people 70 men, {ovekahala,} and in the congregation 50,000 men."

But the Syriac, {chamsho alphin weshivin gavrin,} "5,000 and 70 men;" with which the Arabic agrees; while Josephus has only,seventy men; and three reputable MSS. of Dr. Kennicott's also omit "50,000 men." Some learned men, however, would render, by supplying [M�,] {mem,} "70 men; fifty out of a thousand;" which supposes about 1,400 present, and that a twentieth part were slain.