And let it be, when thou hearest the sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry trees, that then thou shalt bestir thyself: for then shall the LORD go out before thee, to smite the host of the Philistines.
The sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry trees х habªkaa'iym (H1057)] - now generally thought not to be mulberry trees, but the aspen or trembling poplar, which delights in moist situations, and the leaves of which are rustled by the slightest movement of the zephyr. It abounds in the ravines of southern Palestine, and in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem, where, according to tradition, a solitary mulberry in the valley of Jehoshaphat still marks the spot of Isaiah's martyrdom. "Hearest the sound of a going" - namely, of God (cf. 1 Chronicles 14:15) - "in the tops of the mulberry trees" х bªraa'sheey (H7218) habªkaa'iym (H1057)] - at the entrance of the mulberry (poplar) groves [Septuagint, apo tou alsous tou klathmoonos, from the valley of weeping]. But see the notes at 1 Chronicles 14:14, where that version regards becaim as pear trees. The meaning is, that at the extremity of the mulberry (poplar) forest, God caused a sound to be heard, which, having been mistaken by the Philistines for the march of an army, diffused a sudden panic through their ranks, on which David attacked them, and both in the battle and the long tumultuous rout which followed, committed great havoc on their discomfited hosts.