Paragraph 9:14–15

9:14a

Then the men of Israel sampled their provisions: The word men refers to the Israelite leaders. The term their provisions refers to the food that the Gibeonites brought with them.

sampled their provisions: There are three ways to interpret the meaning of the Hebrew clause that the Berean Standard Bible translates as sampled their provisions.

(1) The Hebrew clause means that the Israelite leaders examined the food and accepted it as evidence that the Gibeonites had traveled from a distant place. For example:

the Israelites examined their food (New Living Translation (2004))

(New Living Translation (2004), NET Bible, God’s Word, Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures)

(2) The Hebrew clause means that the Israelite leaders ate some of the food. For example:

the men of Israel sampled their provisions (New International Version)

(Berean Standard Bible, New International Version, Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, New American Bible, Revised Edition, King James Version)

(3) The Hebrew clause means that the Israelite leaders ate some of the food as part of a covenant ceremony. Some commentaries follow this interpretation, including the UBS Handbook Handbook, but no English version follows this interpretation.

It is recommended that you follow option (1). This seems most likely in the context. The Gibeonites provided evidence, and the Israelites examined the evidence and believed it.

Here is another way to translate this phrase:

the men believed the evidence they were shown (God’s Word)

sampled: The Hebrew word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as sampled is more literally “took.”

9:14b

but did not seek the counsel of the LORD: The clause did not seek the counsel of the LORD means that the Israelite leaders did not ask Yahweh to show them what to do. They decided what to do without listening to Yahweh.

This is an important point in the story. In the Hebrew text it is emphasized by a change of word order. Look for a natural way to emphasize it in your language. It might be clearer in some languages to translate this as an independent sentence with the subject made explicit: For example:

But the Israelite leaders did not ask Yahweh what they should do.

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