Joshua 18:24

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

and Chephar Ammoni, and Ophni, and Geba; twelve cities with their villages:

World English Bible · Public Domain

Highlights

1 hapax legomenon — only here in the Hebrew Bible
3 first appearances in the Hebrew Bible

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Word by word

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וְהָֽעָפְנִ֖י

ʻOphnîy

H6078

“and · the · Ophni”

Conjunction + Particle, Definite Article + Noun, Proper

Appears 1× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears here

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from an unused noun [denoting a place in Palestine]

TWOT: None

Ophni = "mouldy" - a town of Benjamin located 2.5 (4.5 kilometers) miles northwest of Bethel; modern 'Jifna'

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

9: words
7: distinct lemmas
Historical: section

Notable vocabulary

1 hapax legomenon — a word that appears only here in the entire Hebrew Bible:

וְהָֽעָפְנִ֖י Ophni H6078

First appearance in Scripture

These words make their first canonical appearance in the Hebrew Bible here:

וּכְפַ֧ר Chephar-haammonai H3726
וְהָֽעָפְנִ֖י Ophni H6078
וָגָ֑בַע Geba H1387

Grammatical profile

7 nouns
2 adjectives

Repetition

A word recurs within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

וּכְפַ֧ר Chephar-haammonai H3726 ×3

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 12 words from the Hebrew and 13 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

In the original languages it is 9 Hebrew tokens and 15 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Joshua 18:24 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Ezra 2:26 The children of Ramah and Geba, six hundred twenty-one.
Joshua 21:17 Out of the tribe of Benjamin, Gibeon with its suburbs, Geba with its suburbs,
Nehemiah 7:30 The men of Ramah and Geba, six hundred twenty-one.
Isaiah 10:29 they are gone over the pass; they have taken up their lodging at Geba; Ramah trembles; Gibeah of Saul is fled.

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Joshua 18:24 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וּכְפַ֧ר העמני הָֽעַמֹּנָ֛ה וְהָֽעָפְנִ֖י וָגָ֑בַע עָרִ֥ים שְׁתֵּים עֶשְׂרֵ֖ה וְחַצְרֵיהֶֽן

and Chephar Ammoni, and Ophni, and Geba; twelve cities with their villages:

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Joshua 18:24 Septuagint · lemma form

καί καραφα καί κεφιρα καί μονι καί γαβαα πόλις δέκα δύο καί ὁ κώμη αὐτός

and Carapha, and Cephira, and Moni, and Gabaa, twelve cities and their villages:

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)

The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.

Targum Jonathan Prophets (Joshua–Malachi)

וּכְפַר הָעַמוֹנָה וְהָעָפְנִי וְגָבַע קִרְוִין תַּרְתָּא עַסְרֵי וּפַצְחַיהֶן:

(no public-domain English translation for this verse)

Targum Jonathan — Aramaic: “Mikraot Gedolot” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “London "Chaldee Paraphrase," 1871” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.

Commentary

Notes on Joshua 18:24 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Adam Clarke's Commentary

Verse 24. And Gaba] Supposed to be the same as Gibeah of Saul, a place famous for having given birth to the first king of Israel; and infamous for the shocking act towards the Levite's wife, mentioned Jdg 19:16-30, which was the cause of a war in which the tribe of Benjamin was nearly exterminated. Jdg 20:29-48.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

24. 10. Chephar-haammonai] is quite unknown, so also is ii. Ophni; 12. Gaba, or Geba = “height,” “hill,” not the Geba or Gibeah of Saul, is mentioned in 2Ki_23:8; Zec_14:10.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill's Exposition

And Chepharhaammonai, and Ophni,.... Of the two first of these no mention is made elsewhere:

and Gaba is the same with Gibeah, a well known place, because of the foul fact committed there, which had like to have been the ruin of this tribe, Jdg 19:14; and for being the native place of King Saul, hence called "Gibeah of Saul", Sa1 11:4; it was about six or seven miles from Jerusalem; see Gill on Hos 5:8; twelve cities with their villages; which agrees with the account of them.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

Ophni, the Gophna so celebrated in latter times, fifteen miles from Gabaa. St. Jerome attributes it to Ephraim, as perhaps it was chiefly inhabited by people of that tribe. --- Gabee. The wickedness of its citizens almost involved the whole tribe in destruction, Judges xix. It was twenty mile north of Jerusalem. (Josephus, [Antiquities?] v. 2.)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible

Daniel D. Whedon

24. Ophni is doubtless the Gophna of Josephus, (Wars, Jos_3:3; Jos_3:5,) and is represented in the modern Jifna, three miles northwest of Beth-el. [Gaba, better spelled Geba, is not to be confounded with Gibeah of Jos_18:28, (as the English version and some interpreters do at 1Sa_13:16, where see note.) It still exists under the scarcely altered name Jeba, on the top of a steep hill between the Wadies Suweinit and Farah, about six miles southeast by south from Beth-el. This height was held by a Philistine garrison in the time of Saul, (1Sa_13:3,) but was taken from them by the daring feat of Jonathan. At a later period it was fortified by Asa, (1Ki_15:22,) and was inhabited again after the captivity. Ezr_2:26.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Pulpit Commentary

Ophrah. Not the Ophrah of Gideon, who (Jud_1:6:11 8:2, 32) was a Manassite. Gaba. Some (as Knobel) think this the same as Gibeah of Saul. But see below, ver. 28. Also Isa_10:29. Gibeah and Gaba, however, must have been near together, for Ramah is near both of them. (see Ezr_2:26)

Ramah. Now er-Ram. This would seem, from Jer_31:15, and from a comparison of Jer_1:1 Jer_40:1, to have been the Ramah of later history, famous as the dwelling place of Samuel. (1Sa_1:1, etc., for Mount Ephraim is applied to territory in Benjamin. Jud_1:4:5 2Sa_20:1, 2Sa_20:21) It was near Gibeah, (Jud_1:19:13 Isa_10:29) and not far from Bethel. (Cf. Jud_1:4:5) It was rebuilt by Baasha. (1Ki_15:17, 1Ki_15:21) Mizpeh. This is the Mizpeh, or Mizpah, of Benjamin, whither the tribes were wont to gather together, and where the tabernacle appears to have been removed. (see Jud_1:20:1, 3 21:1-8) If, as Lieut. Conder supposes, Nob and Mizpeh were identical, and were near Jerusalem, this would explain the presence of the tribes within the border of Benjamin on this occasion. They were near the border; and the Benjamites had retired to their mountain fastnesses. This seems almost implied in Jud_1:20:3. Similar gatherings are recorded in the Book of Samuel. (1Sa_7:5-7, 1Sa_7:11, 1Sa_7:12, 16 10:17) Mizpeh was the seat of Gedaliah"s administration, and of the tragedy of his assassination. (2Ki_25:23-25 Jer_40:10-13 Jos 41)

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Joshua, in the Historical, opens this verse with 9 words (7 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is ʻOphnîy (“Ophni”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

How does “Ophni” (ʻOphnîy) shape what this verse is saying?
1 word here appears nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible. Why might the author reach for such rare wording?
3 words make their first appearance in Scripture here. What does this debut establish?
How does Ezra 2:26, which shares this passage’s theme, read alongside this verse?
What does the repetition of “Chephar-haammonai” (3× in this one verse) do in this verse?
These translations render this verse differently; the difference is in the English rendering, not the original. What questions does that raise?
Compare how Adam Clarke's Commentary and The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

1 word in this verse appears nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible.
3 words make their first canonical appearance in Scripture here.
This verse counts 9 Hebrew ↔ 15 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 8 words in this verse.
“Chephar-haammonai” occurs 3× in this single verse.