And one of his servants answered and said, Let some take, I pray thee, five of the horses that remain, which are left in the city, (behold, they are as all the multitude of Israel that are left in it: behold, I say, they are even as all the multitude of the Israelites that are consumed:) and let us send and see.
One of his servants answered and said ... The sentence which follows as it stands in our version is very One of his servants answered and said ... The sentence which follows, as it stands in our version, is very obscure. Literally rendered it is thus: 'Let, then, I pray thee, five of the horses remaining, which are left in it (namely, the city), behold them like all the multitudes in Israel left in it, behold them like all the multitudes in Israel which are consumed.' The meaning seems to be, that those horses which still survive will, in all likelihood, soon share the doom of all others in Israel; wherefore, if we should employ them in this inquiry, and they should be surprised and killed, their fate will be no harder, in being cut down by the sword, than if they remained here to die of famine. The Septuagint represents the five horses as the whole stock remaining, which the people in their extremities had not killed and eaten [Labetoosan dee pente toon hippoon toon hupoleleimmenoon hoi kateleiftheesan hoode, idou eisi pros pan to pleethos Israeel to ekleipon].