Judges 8:26

Jdg 8:26 And the weight of the golden earrings that he requested was a thousand and seven hundred [shekels] of gold; beside ornaments, and collars, and purple raiment that [was] on the kings of Midian, and beside the chains that [were] about their camels’ necks.

Ver. 26. And collars.] Or golden cabinets; wherein they carried balsam to pour into their wounds. {a}

{a} Vatab.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Or, sweet balls.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

ornaments--crescent-like plates of gold suspended from the necks, or placed on the breasts of the camels.

collars--rather, "earrings," or drops of gold or pearl.

purple--a royal color. The ancient, as well as modern Arabs, adorned the necks, breasts, and legs, of their riding animals with sumptuous housing.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 26. The weight of the golden ear-rings - was a thousand and seven hundred shekels of gold] Taking the shekel at half an ounce weight, the sum of the gold collected in ear-rings was seventy pounds ten ounces; and worth, as gold now rates, about £3,100 sterling.

This computation of the weight of the golden ear-rings, taken from the slaughtered Ishmaelites, will bring to the reader's mind the slaughter of the Roman knights by the Carthaginians at the battle of Cannae, from whose spoils Hannibal sent three bushels of gold rings to the city of Carthage!

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

(26) A thousand and seven hundred shekels of gold.—About seventy pounds of gold. This would imply a very large number of nose-rings or earrings (Gen_24:22), and therefore a slaughter of many leading Midianites. It is analogous to the “three bushels of knights’ rings” which Mago carried to Carthage, and emptied upon the floor of the Carthaginian Senate, after the massacre of the Romans at Cannae (Liv. xxiii. 12).

Beside ornaments.—Rather, beside the golden crescents (Jdg_8:21). Gideon seems to have gratified his love of vengeance, as goel, before he thought of booty.

And collars.—Marg., sweet jewels. Rather, and the eardrops (netiphoth, Isa_3:19). Wellsted, in his Travels in Arabia, says that the Arab women are accustomed to load themselves and their children with earrings and ornaments, of which he sometimes counted as many as fifteen on each side.

Purple raiment.—Comp. Exo_25:4.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

26. And the weight etc.] 1700 shekels of gold by the heavy standard = nearly 75 lbs. Troy = £3485, or by the light standard = nearly 37½ lbs. Troy = 742 10s. A single ring might weigh half a shekel, Gen_24:22.

beside the crescents … necks] The sentence interrupts the account of the ephod, and looks like a later addition. Pendants (Heb. neṭîfôth from naṭaf ‘to drop’) were perhaps single beads or gems attached to the lobe of the ear, cf. Arab. naṭafat ‘a small clear pearl’; the Verss. understood some kind of necklace, so AV. collars; some Jewish interpreters think of small boxes containing fragrant gum (nâṭâf ‘stacte,’ Exo_30:34), hence AVm. sweet jewels. For chains render necklaces, Son_4:9, Pro_1:9, contrast the crescents in Jdg_8:21.

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.

And the weight of the golden earrings he requested was one thousand and seven hundred shekels of gold,.... Which, as Schcuchzer (e) computes, was eight hundred and ten ounces, five drachms, one scruple, and ten grains, of the weight of physicians; but as reckoned by Moatanus (f) amounted to eight hundred and fifty ounces, and were of the value of 6800 crowns of gold; and, according to Waserus (g), it amounted to 3400 Hungarian pieces of gold, and of their money at Zurich upwards of 15,413 pounds, and of our money 2,380 pounds:

besides ornaments; such as were upon the necks of the camels, Jdg 8:21 for the same word is used here as there:

and collars; the Targum renders it a crown, and Ben Melech says in the Arabic language the word signifies clear crystal; but Kimchi and Ben Gersom take them to be golden vessels, in which they put "stacte", or some odoriferous liquor, and so were properly smelling bottles:

and purple raiment that was on the kings of Midian; which it seems was the colour that kings wore, as they now do; so Strabo (h) says of the kings of Arabia, that they are clothed in purple:

and besides the chains that were about their camels' necks; which seem to be different from the other ornaments about them, since another word is here used; now all these seem to have been what fell to his share, as the general of the army, and not what were given him by the people.

(e) Physica Sacra, vol. 3. p. 468. (f) Tubal Cain, p. 15. (g) De Numis. Heb. l. 2. c. 10. (h) Geograph. l. 16. p. 539.

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

If the Ishmaelite nose-rings were half a shekel in weight, then 1,700 shekels weight of gold implied that 3,400 persons wearing, gold rings had been slain. The “collars” were rather “ear-drops.”

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

And jewels. Some translate, "crescents (Septuagint, "little moons,") and boxes" (netiphoth, Menochius) of perfumes, such as Alexander found among the spoils of Darius, and reserved to put his Homer in. These ornaments were also used by women, Isaias iii. 18. (Calmet) --- The eastern nations delight in perfumes. (Menochius) --- The ear-rings alone would amount to 3102l. 10s. sterling. (Haydock)

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).

26. A thousand and seven hundred shekels of gold — About seventy pounds, Troy weight.

Ornaments — Note, Jdg_8:21.

Collars — Rather, pendants; probably some sort of drops suspended from the earrings.

Purple raiment — A costly article among the Orientals, and such as only the rich and great might wear.

Chains — Neck ornaments or collars. “Even at the present day the Arabs are accustomed to ornament the necks of their camels with a band of cloth or leather, upon which small shells are strung in the form of a crescent. The sheiks add silver ornaments to these, which make a rich booty in time of war. The women in Oman spend considerable amounts in the purchase of silver ornaments, and their children are literally laden with them. I have sometimes counted fifteen earrings upon each side; and the head, breast, arms, and ankles are adorned with the same profusion.” — Wellsted in Keil.

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

A thousand and seven hundred shekels equal to about fifty pounds weight, and probably to above worth of our money, reckoning a shekel of gold at 16s. 6d. If the rings, like that given to Rebekah, (Gen_24:22) weighed each half a shekel, they would be the spoil of 3400 dead bodies. If they each weighed less it would of course imply a larger number of slain. The ornaments, as in ver. 21, the collars. The word so rendered seems rather to mean drops or pendants. When worn by women (Isa_3:19, chains, A.V) they were often of single pearls. The purple raiment, the famous Tyrian purple, made from the juice of a shellfish which is found in the Mediterranean, which was the distinctive colour of royal and imperial raiment. Chains. Perhaps the ornaments mentioned in ver. 21 as on the camels" necks were suspended to these chains. In Son_4:9 the chain is mentioned as an ornament of a woman"s neck; in Pro_1:9 of a man"s neck. Many interpreters understand these last-mentioned articles as not being part of Gideon"s spoil, but being the people"s portion. But it seems much more probable that the spoil of the kings should be Gideon"s portion, as indeed ver. 21 implies. It is best, therefore, to take all these articles as being the property of the kings, and to understand the writer to tell us that Gideon had the rings, which were the people"s spoil, in addition to all the spoil which naturally fell to his own share.

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

1,700 shekels of gold

"one thousand seven hundred shekels of gold." If it is necessary to use modern weight units, here are two ways of doing it. AT: "18.7 kilograms of gold" or "about 20 kilograms of gold" (See: Numbers and Biblical Weight)

crescent ornaments

See how you translated this in Judges 8:21.

pendants

pieces of jewelry that hang at the end of the chains or cords of necklaces

that was worn by the kings of Midian

This can be stated in active form. AT: "that the kings of Midian wore" (See: Active or Passive)

translationWords

king

Midian

camel

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

The crescent chains and crowns. The neckbands and crowns.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.