Bible Strands
1 Samuel 14:14
In that first assault, Jonathan and his armor-bearer struck down about twenty men in about half an acre of land.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator describes Jonathan and his armor-bearer during the initial attack against the Philistine outpost, immediately following their ascent on hands and feet.
The words — הַמַּכָּה הָרִאשֹׁנָה (ha.ma.Kah ha.ri.sho.Nah) translates literally as "the first assault," marking the beginning of the localized strike that precedes the wider rout.
The thread — This localized strike triggers the panic described in 1 Samuel 14:15, where the terror spreads to the camp, fields, and outposts, culminating in an earth trembling from divine intervention.
Why it lands — The text records a precise, limited engagement before expanding to a mass rout, requiring the reader to track how a focused action initiates a chain of events attributed to God.
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 that first slaughter, which Jonathan and his armourbearer made, was about twenty men, within as it were an half acre of land, which a yoke of oxen might plow.