* he smote.
Ex 19:21 Le 10:1-3 Nu 4:4,5,15,20 De 29:29 2Sa 6:7
1Ch 13:9,10 Col 2:18 1Pe 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
(836d)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(886d),] {mem,} "70; men; fifty out of a thousand;" which
supposes about 1,400; present, and that a twentieth part were
slain.
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