B-Hebrew: The Biblical Hebrew Forum

The later portion of 1 Samuel 14:14 appears untranslatable and absent in some bible versions, indeed most of 1 Samuel in the MSS is different in comparison to the Dead Sea Scroll and Septuagint. I believe 1 Samuel is one of the oldest books of the Hebrew scriptures.

מענה צמד/ἡμιόνου ζυγόν "mule's yoke" (GN)

Studying mule-yokes, i encountered ἄμαξα "four-wheeled wagon, mule-wagon" that defines משא.

2 Kings 5:17; משא צמד־פרדים

The Septuagint reads "γόμος ζεύγους ἡμιόνων", the word γόμος means "cargo"
- משא צמד־פרדים/ἄμαξα ζεύγους οὐρήων "wagon-load of a yoke of mules"

1 Samuel 19:13; כביר העזים (Sept. ἧπαρ τῶν αἰγῶν)
1 Samuel 19:16; כביר העזים (Sept. ἧπαρ τῶν αἰγῶν)

כביר is undefinable in Strong's lexicon, but the Sept reads "Liver of Goats", this is what Josephus reads.

The Antiquities of the Jews, 6.217
So she let him down by a cord out of the window, and saved him: and after she had done so, she fitted up a bed for him as if he were sick, and put under the bed-clothes a goat’s liver (ἧπαρ αἰγός) and when her father, as soon as it was day, sent to seize David, she said to those that were there, That he had not been well that night, and showed them the bed covered, and made them believe, by the leaping of the liver, which caused the bed-clothes to move also, that David breathed like one that was asthmatic.

ἧπαρ, ἥπατος = כביר, כבד "Liver"
- metaphor; seat of the passions, anger, fear, fruitful.

את־התרפים > τούς τρίπους
- Tripod, three-legged cauldron, votive gifts, used as κρατῆρες (mixing vessel)

None of the English translations of 1 Samuel 19 have "goat's liver" due to strong's false definitions.

Saboi wrote:None of the English translations of 1 Samuel 19 have "goat's liver" due to strong's false definitions.

I don't think you'll find a modern translation committee that would even refer to Strong's dictionary. Bringing it up here doesn't present an argument one way or another, since we all realize the weaknesses of that dictionary in every way.

Strong's "Lexicon" isn't even a lexicon: it's a concordance that lists the English words that the KJV used to translate said Hebrew/Greek word in the "lexicon" at the back. That you're even entertaining the use of Strong's is somewhat bizarre.

You need either the BDB Lexicon for Hebrew, or the LSJ Lexicon for Greek. Also the BDAG Lexicon of the NT and Other Early Christian Literature would do you good.

צמד שדה refer to the part of a field that two bulls plow in a day
and that was a known term that was used.

the מענה is basically the line that the plower does, and also comes to represent a part of a field.

and the חצי מענה (the half מענה is equal to the צמד שדה)