1Ch 5:20 | KD | STEP | The Israelites, with God’s help, gained the victory. יעזרוּ, “it was helped to them,” i.e., by God “against them” - the Hagarites and their allies. שׁעמּהם contracted from עמּהם אשׁר. נעתּור is not an uncommon form of the perf. Niph., which would not be suitable in a continuous sentence, but the inf. absol. Niph. used instead of the third pers. perf. (cf. Gesen. Heb. Gramm. §131, 4): “and (God) was entreated of them, because they trusted in Him.” From these words we may conclude that the war was a very serious one, in which the possession of the land was at stake. As the trans-Jordanic tribes lived mainly by cattle-breeding, and the Arabian tribes on the eastern frontier of their land were also a shepherd people, quarrels could easily arise as to the possession of the pasture grounds, which might lead to a war of extermination.

‏ 1 Chronicles 5:20

The Israelites, with God’s help, gained the victory. יעזרוּ, “it was helped to them,” i.e., by God “against them” - the Hagarites and their allies. שׁעמּהם contracted from עמּהם אשׁר. נעתּור is not an uncommon form of the perf. Niph., which would not be suitable in a continuous sentence, but the inf. absol. Niph. used instead of the third pers. perf. (cf. Gesen. Heb. Gramm. §131, 4): “and (God) was entreated of them, because they trusted in Him.” From these words we may conclude that the war was a very serious one, in which the possession of the land was at stake. As the trans-Jordanic tribes lived mainly by cattle-breeding, and the Arabian tribes on the eastern frontier of their land were also a shepherd people, quarrels could easily arise as to the possession of the pasture grounds, which might lead to a war of extermination.