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Bible Dictionaries
Band, Army
Vine's Expository Dictionary of OT Words
or Gedûd (גְּדוּד, Strong's #1416), “band (of raiders); marauding band; raiding party; army; units (of an army); troops; bandits; raid.” The 33 occurrences of this noun are distributed throughout every period of biblical Hebrew. Basically, this word represents individuals or a band of individuals who raid and plunder an enemy. The units that perform such raids may be a group of outlaws (“bandits”), a special unit of any army, or an entire army. Ancient peoples frequently suffered raids from their neighbors. When the Amalekites “raided” Ziklag, looting and burning it while taking captive the wives and families of the men who followed David, he inquired of God, “Shall I pursue after this troop? shall I overtake them?” (1 Sam. 30:8). In this case, the “raiding band” consisted of the entire army of Amalek. This meaning of gedûd occurs for the first time in Gen. 49:19: “… A troop shall overcome him.” Here the word is a collective noun referring to all the “band of raiders” to come. When Job described the glory of days gone by, he said he “dwelt as a king in the army [NASB, “troops”]” (Job 29:25). When David and his followers were called a |gedud,they were being branded outlaws—men who lived by fighting and raiding (1 Kings 11:24).
In some passages, gedûd signifies a smaller detachment of troops or a military unit or division: “And Saul’s son had two men that were captains of bands” (2 Sam. 4:2). God sent against Jehoiakim “units” from the Babylonian army—“bands of the Chaldees, and bands of the Syrians, and bands of the Moabites, and bands of the children of Ammon …” (2 Kings 24:2).
The word can also represent individuals who are members of such raiding or military bands. The individuals in the household of Izrahiah, the descendant of Issachar, formed a military unit, “and with them by their generations, after the house of their fathers, were bands of soldiers for war, six and thirty thousand men …” (1 Chron. 7:4). Bildad asks the rhetorical question concerning God, “Is there any number [numbering] of his armies?” (Job 25:3).
The verb gadad means “to gather together against” (Ps. 94:21), “to make incisions into oneself” as a religious act (Deut. 14:1), “to roam about” (Jer. 30:23), or “to muster troops” (Mic. 5:1).
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Vines, W. E., M. A. Entry for 'Band, Army'. Vine's Expository Dictionary of OT Words. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/vot/b/band-army.html. 1940.
