And Nahash the Ammonite answered them, On this condition will I make a covenant with you, that I may thrust out all your right eyes, and lay it for a reproach upon all Israel.
Thrust out all your right eyes - literally, scoop or hollow out the ball. This barbarous mutilation is the usual punishment of usurpers in the East-inflicted on chiefs; sometimes also, even in modern history, on the whole male population of a town. Nabash meant to keep the Jabeshites useful as tributaries, whence he did not wish to render them wholly blind, but only to deprive them of their right eye, which would disqualify them for war. Besides, his object was, through the people of Jabesh-gilead, to insult the Israelite nation.