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Friday, September 27th, 2024
the Week of Proper 20 / Ordinary 25
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New Living Translation

Psalms 78:9

The warriors of Ephraim, though armed with bows, turned their backs and fled on the day of battle.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Cowardice;   God Continued...;   Wicked (People);   Scofield Reference Index - Israel;   Test-Tempt;   Thompson Chain Reference - Courage-Fear;   Cowardice;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Psalms, the Book of;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Ephraim (1);   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Anger (Wrath) of God;   Asaph;   Priests and Levites;   Psalms;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Shiloh ;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Psalms the book of;   Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types - Ephraim;   Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary - Armies;  

Parallel Translations

Legacy Standard Bible
The sons of Ephraim were archers equipped with bows,Yet they turned back in the day of battle.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
The sons of Ephraim were archers equipped with bows, Yet they turned back in the day of battle.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
[Like as] the children of Ephraim, which beyng harnessed & carying bowes: turned their backes in the day of battayle.
Darby Translation
The sons of Ephraim, armed bowmen, turned back in the day of battle.
New King James Version
The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, Turned back in the day of battle.
Literal Translation
The sons of Ephraim, armed shooters of bows, turned back in the day of battle.
Easy-to-Read Version
The men from Ephraim had their weapons, but they ran from the battle.
World English Bible
The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, Turned back in the day of battle.
King James Version (1611)
The children of Ephraim being armed, and carying bowes, turned backe in the day of battell.
King James Version
The children of Ephraim, being armed, and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
And not to be as their forefathers, a frowarde and ouerthwarte generacion, a generacion that set not their herte a right, and whose sprete was not true towarde God.
THE MESSAGE
The Ephraimites, armed to the teeth, ran off when the battle began. They were cowards to God's Covenant, refused to walk by his Word. They forgot what he had done— marvels he'd done right before their eyes. He performed miracles in plain sight of their parents in Egypt, out on the fields of Zoan. He split the Sea and they walked right through it; he piled the waters to the right and the left. He led them by day with a cloud, led them all the night long with a fiery torch. He split rocks in the wilderness, gave them all they could drink from underground springs; He made creeks flow out from sheer rock, and water pour out like a river.
Amplified Bible
The sons of Ephraim were armed as archers and carrying bows, Yet they turned back in the day of battle.
American Standard Version
The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, Turned back in the day of battle.
Bible in Basic English
The children of Ephraim, armed with bows, were turned back on the day of the fight.
Update Bible Version
The sons of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, Turned back in the day of battle.
Webster's Bible Translation
The children of Ephraim, [being] armed, [and] carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.
New English Translation
The Ephraimites were armed with bows, but they retreated in the day of battle.
Contemporary English Version
The warriors from Ephraim were armed with arrows, but they ran away when the battle began.
Complete Jewish Bible
The people of Efrayim, though armed with bows and arrows, turned their backs on the day of battle.
Geneva Bible (1587)
The children of Ephraim being armed and shooting with the bowe, turned backe in the day of battell.
George Lamsa Translation
The children of Ephraim, being armed and throwing forth bows, turned back in the day of battle.
Hebrew Names Version
The children of Efrayim, being armed and carrying bows, Turned back in the day of battle.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
The children of Ephraim were as archers handling the bow, that turned back in the day of battle.
New Life Bible
The sons of Ephraim were ready with their bows. But they turned away in the day of fighting.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
The children of Ephraim, bending and shooting with the bow, turned back in the day of battle.
English Revised Version
The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.
Berean Standard Bible
The archers of Ephraim turned back on the day of battle.
New Revised Standard
The Ephraimites, armed with the bow, turned back on the day of battle.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
The sons of Ephraim - armed bowmen, Turned in the day of battle;
Douay-Rheims Bible
(77-9) The sons of Ephraim who bend and shoot with the bow: they have turned back in the day of battle.
Lexham English Bible
The sons of Ephraim, armed with archers, turned back on the day of battle.
English Standard Version
The Ephraimites, armed with the bow, turned back on the day of battle.
New American Standard Bible
The sons of Ephraim were archers equipped with bows, Yet they turned back on the day of battle.
New Century Version
The men of Ephraim had bows for weapons, but they ran away on the day of battle.
Good News Translation
The Ephraimites, armed with bows and arrows, ran away on the day of battle.
Christian Standard Bible®
The Ephraimite archers turned back on the day of battle.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
The sones of Effraym, bendinge a bouwe and sendynge arowis; weren turned in the dai of batel.
Young's Literal Translation
Sons of Ephraim -- armed bearers of bow, Have turned in a day of conflict.
Revised Standard Version
The E'phraimites, armed with the bow, turned back on the day of battle.

Contextual Overview

9 The warriors of Ephraim, though armed with bows, turned their backs and fled on the day of battle. 10 They did not keep God's covenant and refused to live by his instructions. 11 They forgot what he had done— the great wonders he had shown them, 12 the miracles he did for their ancestors on the plain of Zoan in the land of Egypt. 13 For he divided the sea and led them through, making the water stand up like walls! 14 In the daytime he led them by a cloud, and all night by a pillar of fire. 15 He split open the rocks in the wilderness to give them water, as from a gushing spring. 16 He made streams pour from the rock, making the waters flow down like a river! 17 Yet they kept on sinning against him, rebelling against the Most High in the desert. 18 They stubbornly tested God in their hearts, demanding the foods they craved.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

The children: Some think this refers to a defeat of the Ephraimites mentioned in 1 Chronicles 7:20-22, but it probably refers to the conduct and defeat of the ten tribes of which Ephraim was the head. Nothing is recorded in the history of Israel concerning the cowardice of the Ephraimites, as distinct from that of the other tribes: some therefore think, "that the children of Ephraim" is put by a figure of speech for the nation in general. Deuteronomy 1:41-44, Joshua 17:16-18, 1 Samuel 4:10, 1 Samuel 31:1

carrying: Heb. throwing forth

turned: Judges 9:28, Judges 9:38-40, Luke 22:33

Reciprocal: Judges 12:4 - fugitives Zechariah 11:8 - and my Luke 9:62 - No Acts 15:38 - who

Gill's Notes on the Bible

The children of Ephraim being armed, and carrying bows,.... Or "casting" arrows out of the "bow" a; they went out well armed to meet the enemy, and they trusted in their armour, and not in the Lord; and being skilful in throwing darts, or shooting arrows, promised themselves victory:

but turned back in the day of battle; fled from the enemy, could not stand their ground when the onset was made: what this refers to is not easy to determine; some think this with what follows respects the defection of the ten tribes in Rehoboam's time, which frequently go under the name of Ephraim; but we have no account of any battle then fought, and lost by them; and besides the history of this psalm reaches no further than the times of David; others are of opinion that it regards the time of Eli, when the Israelites were beaten by the Philistines, the ark of God was taken, Eli's two sons slain, and thirty thousand more, 1 Samuel 4:1. Ephraim being put for the rest of the tribes, the ark being in that tribe; others suppose that the affair between the Gileadites and Ephraimites, in the times of Jephthah, is referred to, when there fell of the Ephraimites forty and two thousand,

Judges 12:1, many of the Jewish b writers take it to be the history of a fact that was done in Egypt before the children of Israel came out from thence; see 1 Chronicles 7:20, so the Targum,

"when they dwelt in Egypt, the children of Ephraim grew proud, they appointed the end (or term of going out of Egypt), and they erred, and went out thirty years before the end, with warlike arms, and mighty men carrying bows, turned back, and were slain in the day of battle;''

though it seems most likely to have respect to what was done in the wilderness, as Kimchi observes, after they were come out of Egypt, and had seen the wonders of God there, and at the Red sea, and in the wilderness; and perhaps reference is had to the discomfiture of the Israelites by the Amalekites, when they went up the hill they were forbid to do, and in which, it may be, the Ephraimites were most forward, and suffered most; see Numbers 14:40.

a רומי קשת "jacientes arcu", Pagninus, Montanus; "jaculantes arcu", Tigurine version, Musculus, Junius & Tremellius, Gejerus, Michaelis. b See Pirke Eliezer, c. 48. Shalshalet Hakabala, fol. 7. 2.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The children of Ephraim - The sons of Ephraim; that is, the descendants of Ephraim; the tribe of Ephraim. Ephraim was one of the “largest” of the tribes of Israel, and was the “chief” tribe in the rebellion, and hence, the term is often used to denote the “ten” tribes, or the kingdom of Israel, in contradistinction from that of Judah. See Isaiah 7:2, Isaiah 7:5,Isaiah 7:8-9, Isaiah 7:17; Isaiah 11:13; Isaiah 28:1. The word is evidently used in this sense here, not as denoting that one tribe only, but that tribe as the head of the revolted kingdom; or, in other words, the name is used as representing the kingdom of that name after the revolt. See 1 Kings 12:0. This verse evidently contains the gist or the main idea of the psalm - to wit, that Ephraim, or the ten tribes, had turned away from the worship of the true God, and that, in consequence of that apostasy, the government had been transferred to another tribe - the tribe of Judah. See Psalms 78:67-68.

Being armed - The idea in this phrase is, that they had abundant means for maintaining their independence in connection with the other tribes, or as a part of the nation, but that they refused to cooperate with their brethren.

And carrying bows - Margin, “throwing forth.” Literally, “lifting up.” The idea is, that they were armed with bows; or, that they were fully armed.

Turned back in the day of battle - That is, they did not stand by their brethren, or assist them in defending their country. There is probably no reference here to any particular battle, but the idea is, that in the wars of the nation - in those wars which were waged for national purposes - they refused to join with the tribes of Judah and Benjamin in defense of the lawful government.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Psalms 78:9. The children of Ephraim - turned back — This refers to some defeat of the Ephraimites; and some think to that by the men of Gath, mentioned 1 Chronicles 7:21. R. D. Kimchi says this defeat of the Ephraimites was in the desert; and although the story be not mentioned in the law, yet it is written in the Books of the Chronicles, where we read, on the occasion of "Zabad the Ephraimite, and Shuthelah, c., whom the men of Gath, who were born in the land, slew and Ephraim their father mourned many days, and his brethren came to comfort him," 1 Chronicles 7:20-22: but to what defeat of the Ephraimites this refers is not certainly known; probably the Israelites after the division of the two kingdoms are intended.


 
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