And Nahash said unto them, On this condition will I make a covenant with you, that I may thrust out all your right eyes — Nahash's demand is horrifically cruel: he will gouge out the right eye of every man, rendering them useless for warfare and maimed in appearance. The loss of the right eye, the dominant eye for a right-handed warrior, would cripple military capacity. and lay it for a reproach upon all Israel — the mutilation is designed not merely to weaken Jabesh-gilead but to humiliate all Israel, making the nation's inability to defend its citizens a public disgrace. The tactic is psychological as well as military: Israel's honor is at stake.

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