Open place

(1) The "open place" of Gen 38:14 the King James Version, in which Tamar sat, has come from a misunderstanding of the Hebrew, the translators having taken bephethach `enayim to mean "in an opening publicly," instead of "in an opening (i.e. a gate) of Enaim" (compare Prov 1:21 in the Hebrew). The Revised Version (British and American) has corrected; see ENAIM.

(2) In 1 Kgs 22:10 parallel 2 Chr 18:9 the Revised Version (British and American) relates that Ahab and Jehoshaphat sat "each on his throne, arrayed in their robes, in an open place (margin "Hebrew: a threshing-floor," the King James Version "a void place") at the entrance of the gate of Samaria." The Hebrew here is awkward, and neither the Septuagint nor the Syriac seems to have read the present text in 1 Kgs 22:10, the former having "in arms, at the gate of Samaria," and the latter "in many-colored garments." Consequently various attempts have been made to emend the text, of which the simplest is the omission of beghoren, "in an open place." If, however, the text is right--as is not impossible--the open place is a threshing-floor close to the gate. See the commentaries.

Burton Scott Easton