Bible Strands
1 Samuel 14:23
So the LORD saved Israel that day, and the battle moved on beyond Beth-aven.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator reports divine intervention immediately after Israelites from Ephraim join the pursuit of fleeing Philistines.
The words — The verb וַיּוֹשַׁע (va-yosh‘aʿ) translates "he delivered," with יְהוָה (Yahweh) as the subject, while עָבְרָה (‘avrah) records the battle "passing beyond" Beth-aven.
The thread — The declaration "that day the LORD saved Israel" mirrors Exodus 14:30, and the shifting combat aligns with the Philistine force mobilized in 1 Samuel 13:5.
Why it lands — It records God as the direct agent of deliverance and demands the reader acknowledge that military outcomes depend on divine action rather than human strategy.
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
So the Lord saved Israel that day: and the battle passed over unto Beth–aven.
Cross-references
- Exodus 14:30 That day the LORD saved Israel from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the shore.
- 1 Samuel 13:5 Now the Philistines assembled to fight against Israel with three thousand chariots, six thousand horsemen, and troops as numerous as the sand on the seashore. They went up and camped at Michmash, east of Beth-aven.
- Psalms 44:6 For I do not trust in my bow, nor does my sword save me.
- Hosea 1:7 Yet I will have compassion on the house of Judah, and I will save them—not by bow or sword or war, not by horses and cavalry, but by the LORD their God.”
- Judges 2:18 Whenever the LORD raised up a judge for the Israelites, He was with that judge and saved them from the hands of their enemies while the judge was still alive; for the LORD was moved to pity by their groaning under those who oppressed them and afflicted them.
- 2 Kings 14:27 and since the LORD had said that He would not blot out the name of Israel from under heaven, He saved them by the hand of Jeroboam son of Jehoash.