And Saul gathered the people together, and numbered them in Telaim, two hundred thousand footmen, and ten thousand men of Judah.
Saul gathered the people together. The alacrity with which he entered (see a brief notice of it, 1 Samuel 14:48) on the necessary preparations for the expedition, gave a fair but delusive promise of faithfulness in its execution.
Telaim - or 'Telem' (according to Kimchi, Raumer, etc., though Keil is inclined, from the difference in the punctuation, to think they are separate places), among the uttermost cities of the tribe of Judah toward the coast of Edom (Joshua 15:21; Joshua 15:24). 'Saul would naturally choose a spot where the principal routes from north, east, and west converged in the direction of the Amalekite territory. Only one such place is to be found-namely, at el-Kuseir, about four miles south of 'Ar'ar'ah, where the junction of the wadies es-Seba', el-Khull, 'Ar'ar'ah, Milh, etc., brings together the various roads from Beer-sheba, Gaza, Hebron, Carmel (Saul's own route), and many other places, and thus gives convenient access to all parts of the country. Now, it is a most interesting fact that this very spot is occupied by the Arab tribe Dhullam-a word identical with Telem in its consonants, and with Telaim in its principal vowel also' ('Negeb,' p. 887, 888: cf. Robinson's 'Biblical Researches,' 2:, p. 619; Wilson's 'Lands of the Bible,' 1: p. 345). [Since the word Taaleh (H2924) occurs only in three passages, in each it bears the sense of a lamb (1 Samuel 7:9; Isaiah 40:2; Isaiah 65:25), the Jewish writers translate lambs here, and the Chaldee Paraphrase, paschal lambs; supposing that Saul deduced the number of the people from the number of lambs slain for the Passover. The Vulgate has quasi agnos, as lambs, apparently reading kaTªlaa'iym, instead of ba-Tªlaa'iym (H2923), in our present Hebrew text. It is alleged in support of this interpretation that Telaim is found nowhere else as a proper name. On the other hand, the leading versions have rendered it as the name of a place. The Septuagint has: en Galgalois, in Gilgal, which Bochart ('Hierozoicon,' lib. 2:, 100: 43) says was the error of a copyist for Talaiois (see the Septuagint on 2 Samuel 3:12). The Syriac retains it as here; but the Arabic has, in a certain place called Tarila.]