Reference: Footman
Fausets
(1) Distinguished from the soldier on horseback or in a chariot.
(2) The swift runners who attended the king; foretold by Samuel 1Sa 8:11 (1Ki 14:27 margin). Swift running was much valued in a warrior (Ps 19:5; Joe 2:7; Job 16:14). A characteristic of David, for which he praises God (1Sa 17:22,48,51; 20:6; 2Sa 22:30; Ps 18:29; compare 1Ch 12:8 to end).
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And he said, This is the sort of king who will be your ruler: he will take your sons and make them his servants, his horsemen, and drivers of his war-carriages, and they will go running before his war-carriages;
And David gave his parcels into the hands of the keeper of the army stores, and went running to the army and came to his brothers to get knowledge about them.
Now when the Philistine made a move and came near to David, David quickly went at a run in the direction of the army, meeting the Philistine face to face.
So running up to the Philistine and putting his foot on him, David took his sword out of its cover, and put him to death, cutting off his head with it. And when the Philistines saw that their fighter was dead, they went in flight.
And if your father takes note of the fact that I am away, say, David made a request to me for himself that he might go to Beth-lehem, to his town: for it is the time when his family make their offering year by year.
So in their place King Rehoboam had other body-covers made of brass, and gave them into the care of the captains of the armed men who were stationed at the door of the king's house.
And some of the Gadites, siding with David, went to his strong place in the waste land, great and strong men, trained for war, expert in the use of arms, whose faces were like the faces of lions, and they were quick-footed like roes on the mountains;
I am broken with wound after wound; he comes rushing on me like a man of war.
By your help I have made a way through the wall which was shutting me in; by the help of my God I have gone over a wall.
Who is like a newly married man coming from his bride-tent, and is glad like a strong runner starting on his way.
They are running like strong men, they go over the wall like men of war; every man goes straight on his way, their lines are not broken.
Hastings
This word is used in two different senses: 1. A foot-soldier, always in plur. 'footmen,' foot-soldiers, infantry. Footmen probably composed the whole of the Isr. forces (1Sa 4:10; 15:4) before the time of David. 2. A runner on foot: 1Sa 22:17 (Authorized Version margin 'or guard, Heb. runners'; RV 'guard,' Revised Version margin 'Heb. runners'). 'Runners' would be the literal, and at the same time the most appropriate, rendering. The king had a body of runners about him, not so much to guard his person as to run his errands and do his bidding. They formed a recognized part of the royal state (1Sa 8:11; 2Sa 15:1); they served as executioners (1Sa 22:17; 2Ki 10:25); and, accompanying the king or his general into battle, they brought back official tidings of its progress or event (2Sa 18:18). In Jer 12:5 both the Heb. and the Eng. (footmen) seem to be used in the more general sense of racers on foot.
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So the Philistines went to the fight, and Israel was overcome, and every man went in flight to his tent: and great was the destruction, for thirty thousand footmen of Israel were put to the sword.
And he said, This is the sort of king who will be your ruler: he will take your sons and make them his servants, his horsemen, and drivers of his war-carriages, and they will go running before his war-carriages;
And Saul sent for the people and had them numbered in Telaim, two hundred thousand footmen and ten thousand men of Judah.
Then the king said to the runners who were waiting near him, Put the priests of the Lord to death; because they are on David's side, and having knowledge of his flight, did not give me word of it. But the king's servants would not put out their hands to make an attack on the Lord's priests.
Then the king said to the runners who were waiting near him, Put the priests of the Lord to death; because they are on David's side, and having knowledge of his flight, did not give me word of it. But the king's servants would not put out their hands to make an attack on the Lord's priests.
Now Absalom, before his death, had put up for himself a pillar in the king's valley, naming it after himself; for he said, I have no son to keep my name in memory: and to this day it is named Absalom's pillar.
If running with the fighting-men has made you tired, how will you be able to keep up with horses? and if in a land of peace you go in flight, what will become of you in the thick growth of Jordan?
Morish
1. ragli, 'on foot:' often used for the foot soldiers in distinction from those in chariots or on horseback. Nu 11:21; Jg 20:2; 1Ch 18:4; etc. In Jer 12:5 it is applied to those that ran.
2. ruts, 'runner.' 1Sa 22:17. Samuel said that their king would make some of them to run before his chariot. 1Sa 8:11. Such are commonly employed in the East to run before the great, to clear the way for them.
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Then Moses said, The people, among whom I am, are six hundred thousand men on foot; and you have said, I will give them flesh to be their food for a month.
And the chiefs of the people, out of all the tribes of Israel, took their places in the meeting of the people of God, four hundred thousand footmen armed with swords.
And he said, This is the sort of king who will be your ruler: he will take your sons and make them his servants, his horsemen, and drivers of his war-carriages, and they will go running before his war-carriages;
Then the king said to the runners who were waiting near him, Put the priests of the Lord to death; because they are on David's side, and having knowledge of his flight, did not give me word of it. But the king's servants would not put out their hands to make an attack on the Lord's priests.
If running with the fighting-men has made you tired, how will you be able to keep up with horses? and if in a land of peace you go in flight, what will become of you in the thick growth of Jordan?
Smith
Footman,
a word employed in the English Bible in two senses:
1. Generally, to distinguish those of the fighting men who went on foot from those who were on horseback or in chariots;
2. In a more special sense, in
only, and as the translation of a different term from the above --a body of swift runners in attendance on the king. This body appears to have been afterwards kept up, and to have been distinct from the body-guard --the six hundred and thirty-- who were originated by David. See
1Ki 14:27-28; 11/4/type/bbe'>2Ki 11:4,6,11,13,19; 2Ch 12:10-11
In each of these cases the word is the same as the above, and is rendered "guard," with "runners" in the margin in two instances -
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Then the king said to the runners who were waiting near him, Put the priests of the Lord to death; because they are on David's side, and having knowledge of his flight, did not give me word of it. But the king's servants would not put out their hands to make an attack on the Lord's priests.
So in their place King Rehoboam had other body-covers made of brass, and gave them into the care of the captains of the armed men who were stationed at the door of the king's house.
So in their place King Rehoboam had other body-covers made of brass, and gave them into the care of the captains of the armed men who were stationed at the door of the king's house. And whenever the king went into the house of the Lord, the armed men went with him taking the body-covers, and then took them back to their room.