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 will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you: He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some will run before his chariots.
And David left his furniture in the hand of the keeper of the vessels, and ran into the army, and came and saluted his brethren.
And it came to pass, when the Philistine arose, and came and drew nigh to meet David, that David hasted, and ran towards the army to meet the Philistine.
Therefore David ran and stood upon the Philistine, and took his sword, and drew it out of its sheath, and slew him, and cut off his head with it. And when the Philistines saw their champion was dead, they fled.
If thy father shall at all miss me, then say, David earnestly asked leave of me, that he might run to Beth-lehem his city: for there is a yearly sacrifice there for all the family.
And king Rehoboam made in their stead brazen shields, and committed them to the hands of the chief of the guard, who kept the door of the king's house.
And of the Gadites there separated themselves to David in the hold in the wilderness men of might, and men of war fit for the battle, that could handle shield and buckler, whose faces were like the faces of lions, and were as swift as the roes upon the mountains;
He breaketh me with breach upon breach, he runneth upon me like a giant.
For by thee I have run through a troop; and by my God have I leaped over a wall.
Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race.
They shall run like mighty men; they shall climb the wall like men of war; and they shall march every one on his ways, and they shall not break their ranks:
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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And the Philistines fought, and Israel was smitten, and they fled every man into his tent: and there was a very great slaughter, for there fell of Israel thirty thousand footmen.
And he said, This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you: He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some will run before his chariots.
And Saul assembled the people, and numbered them in Telaim, two hundred thousand footmen, and ten thousand men of Judah.
And the king said to the footmen that stood about him, Turn, and slay the priests of the LORD: because their hand also is with David, and because they knew when he fled, and did not show it to me. But the servants of the king would not put forth their hand to fall upon the priests of the LORD.
And the king said to the footmen that stood about him, Turn, and slay the priests of the LORD: because their hand also is with David, and because they knew when he fled, and did not show it to me. But the servants of the king would not put forth their hand to fall upon the priests of the LORD.
Now Absalom in his life-time had taken and raised for himself a pillar, which is in the king's dale: for he said, I have no son to keep my name in remembrance: and he called the pillar after his own name: and it is called to this day, Absalom's place.
If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses? and if in the land of peace, in which thou hast trusted, they wearied thee, then how wilt thou do in the swelling 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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And Moses said, The people among whom I am, are six hundred thousand footmen; and thou hast said, I will give them flesh, that they may eat a whole month.
And the chief of all the people, even of all the tribes of Israel, presented themselves in the assembly of the people of God, four hundred thousand footmen that drew sword.
And he said, This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you: He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some will run before his chariots.
And the king said to the footmen that stood about him, Turn, and slay the priests of the LORD: because their hand also is with David, and because they knew when he fled, and did not show it to me. But the servants of the king would not put forth their hand to fall upon the priests of the LORD.
If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses? and if in the land of peace, in which thou hast trusted, they wearied thee, then how wilt thou do in the swelling 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/wbs'>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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And the king said to the footmen that stood about him, Turn, and slay the priests of the LORD: because their hand also is with David, and because they knew when he fled, and did not show it to me. But the servants of the king would not put forth their hand to fall upon the priests of the LORD.
And king Rehoboam made in their stead brazen shields, and committed them to the hands of the chief of the guard, who kept the door of the king's house.
And king Rehoboam made in their stead brazen shields, and committed them to the hands of the chief of the guard, who kept the door of the king's house. And it was so, when the king went into the house of the LORD, that the guard bore them, and brought them back into the guard chamber.