Bible Strands
1 Samuel 11:2
But Nahash the Ammonite replied, “I will make a treaty with you on one condition, that I may put out everyone’s right eye and bring reproach upon all Israel.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Nahash the Ammonite speaks to the men of Jabesh-gilead during their siege negotiations. He responds to their request for a treaty by declaring his single condition for their surrender.
The words — The Hebrew בִּנְקוֹר (bi/n.Kor) specifies the physical act of gouging out. It directly modifies אֶכְרֹת (ekh.Rot), "I will make [treaty]," to define the mutilation required as the price of peace.
The thread — The demand for public shame and bodily violation aligns with the disgrace motif in Genesis 34:14 and the forced subjugation in Numbers 16:14. The theme of using physical threat to assert dominance continues in 1 Samuel 17:26.
Why it lands — The text states that the proposed covenant is a mechanism for enforcing humiliation rather than mutual agreement. It requires the reader to identify how political surrender is framed as the systematic imposition of shame and bodily control.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And Nahash the Ammonite answered them, On this condition will I make a covenant with you, that I may thrust out all your right eyes, and lay it for a reproach upon all Israel.
Cross-references
- 1 Samuel 17:26 David asked the men who were standing with him, “What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel? Just who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?”
- Genesis 34:14 “We cannot do such a thing,” they said. “To give our sister to an uncircumcised man would be a disgrace to us.
- Numbers 16:14 Moreover, you have not brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey or given us an inheritance of fields and vineyards. Will you gouge out the eyes of these men? No, we will not come!”
- Exodus 3:6 Then He said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
- Judges 16:21 Then the Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, where he was bound with bronze shackles and forced to grind grain in the prison.
- 2 Kings 18:31 Do not listen to Hezekiah, for this is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me and come out to me. Then every one of you will eat from his own vine and his own fig tree and drink water from his own cistern,
- Proverbs 12:10 A righteous man regards the life of his animal, but the tender mercies of the wicked are only cruelty.
- Jeremiah 39:7 Then he put out Zedekiah’s eyes and bound him with bronze chains to take him to Babylon.