The Book of Judges
Judges 2
Chapter II · Vol. II, pp. 585–586
1 An angel rebuketh the people at Bochim. 6 The wickedness of the new generation after Joshua. 14 God's anger and pity towards them. 20 The Canaanites are therefore left to prove Israel.
1 And an aangel of the LORD came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said, bI made you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you unto the land which I sware unto your fathers; and I said, I will never break my covenant with you.
2 And cye shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land; ye shall throw down their altars: but ye have not obeyed my voice: why have ye done this?
3 Wherefore dI also said, I will not drive them out from before you;1 but they shall be as thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare unto you.
d ver.20. Jos.23.13. Ex.23.33; 34.12. Nu.33.55. De.7.16. 1 Ki.11.1,7. Ps.106.34-40.
1 Is not this a breach of covenant and promise on the part of God? No. For he had commanded the Israelites to drive out the wicked idolaters, and that, thus using their obedience, he would drive them out; but with disobedience he had made no covenant, and to rebels no such promise.—C.
4 And it came to pass, when the angel of the LORD spake these words unto all the children of Israel, that the epeople lifted up their voice, and wept.
6 And when hJoshua had let the people go,2 the children of Israel went every man unto his inheritance to possess the land.
2 When he disbanded the national army, including, as appears from the quota of the two tribes and half, nearly two-thirds of the fencible men of the nation.—C.
7 And the people served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua,3 who had seen all the great works of the LORD that he did for Israel.
3 Heb. prolonged days after Joshua.
8 Andi Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died, being an hundred and ten years old.
i Jos.24.29,30. Job 30.23; 5.26. Ps.49.7,9,10; 89.48. Zec.1.5. Ec.12.5,7.
9 And they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnath-heres, in the mount of Ephraim, on the north side of the hill Gaash.
10 And also all that generation were gatheredk unto their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, which lknew not the LORD, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel.
12 And they nforsook the LORD God of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the people that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked the LORD to anger.
13 And they forsook the LORD, and served Baalo and Ashtaroth.5
o 1 Ki.11.5,33. 2 Ki.23.13. 1 Sa.31.10. 1 Co.8.5. Ge.35.2.
5 Ashtaroth literally signifies flocks or riches; as a proper name it is applied to the Sidonian Venus, and other of their female deities, by whose impure worship Israel was seduced from the Lord. C.——Baal was the sun-god, universally worshipped in Western Asia, and indeed in almost all heathen nations. His altars and sanctuaries were on eminences—sometimes, as in the case of Hermon, on the summits of high mountains, whence the first view of the rising and the last view of the setting sun might be gained by his devotees. The sun was regarded as the source and emblem of life, and of the generative power of nature. Ashtaroth, a plural form, the singular being Ashtoreth, was the name of the principal female deity of the Canaanites. The feminine principle of nature was supposed to be embodied in the moon, to which the name Ashtoreth was given. But the idol set up in the temples and worshipped under this name had the form of a woman with the crescent moon on her brow.—P.
14 Andp the anger of the LORD was hot6 against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them, and he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about, so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies.
p Ne.1.6. Le.26.14-39. De.28.15-68; 29.19-21; 31.17,18; 32.22-30; 8.19; 30.18. ch.3.8; 6.1-6; 10.7. Ps.44.12,13. 2 Ki.17.20. 2 Ch.15.5.
6 He that would understand what is meant by the anger of the Lord, may read its meaning in the national calamities inflicted by a retributive providence.—C.
15 Whithersoever they went out, the hand of the LORD was against them for evil, as the LORD had said, and as the LORD had sworn unto them: and they were greatly distressed.
16 Nevertheless the LORD qraised up judges,7 which delivered8 them out of the hand of those that spoiled them.
A.M. 2574 B.C. 1430
q ch.3.9,15; 4.5,6; 6.14; xi. xiii. 1 Sa. vii.
7 Judges, not mere judicial functionaries, but generally reformers in religion, ver.19, and leaders in battle, ver. 18, two characters not often seen joined, but, as the case of Joshua and David will prove, by no means incompatible.—C.
8 Heb. saved.
17 And ryet they would not hearken unto their judges, but they went a whoring9 after other gods, and bowed themselves unto them; they turned quickly out of the sway which their fathers walked in, obeying the commandments of the LORD; but they did not so.
r 2 Ch.36.15,16. 2 Ki.17.7-17. Ps.106.43. Le.17.7. Ho.2.2.
9 The common name of idolatry in the scriptures of the Old Testament, being in a great degree literally descriptive of the impure rites of heathenism; and little less so of several forms of modern infidelity, in some of which the name and tie of husband and wife are openly reprobated, and the time anticipated for their utter extinction. Should such time ever arrive, which God in his mercy forbid, then should these lands, having imitated Israel's sins, speedily be subjected to Israel's punishment.—C.
s ver.7. Jos.24.24,31.
18 And when the LORD raised them up judges, then the LORD twas with the judge, and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge: for it urepented1 the LORD because of their groanings, by reason of them that oppressed them, and vexed them.
t Jos.1.5. ch. iii. iv. vii. xi. xv. 1 Sa. vii. Ro.8.31.
u ch.10.16. Ps.106.44,45; 12.5; 102.17. Ex.2.24.
1 Produced in God a change, not of purpose, but of relation to Israel. God says, 'I am the Lord, I change not.' But the relation between God and an idolater rejoicing in his idols, and between that same God and that same idolater 'bemoaning' his apostasy, is changed. In the former case God's purpose was judgment, now it is mercy.—C.
19 And it came to pass, when xthe judge was dead, that they returned, and 3corrupted themselves more than their fathers, in following other gods, to serve them, and to bow down unto them; they ceased not from their own doings, nor from their stubborn way.
x Ps.106.43. ch.3.12; 4.1; 6.1; 10.6; 13.1. Jos.24.31. 2 Ch.24.17,18.
3 Or, were corrupt.
20 And ythe anger of the LORD was hot against Israel; and he said, Because that this people hath transgressed my covenant which I commanded their fathers, and have not hearkened unto my voice,
21 I also zwill not henceforth drive out any from before them of the nations which Joshua left when he died;
z ver.3. Ps.81.11. Eze.20.24-26. ch.3.3. Pr.1.31. Je.2.17,19; 4.18; 5.25; 6.19.
Notes
[Ver. 1. An angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bochim. Having first appeared in Gilgal, as the star of our Lord first appeared in the east, the angel came to the place of a general assembly of the nation then met, which place received thence the name of Bochim, or weepers, as a memorial of the miraculous appearance. This angel was Jehovah, 'the Son of God,' 'God manifest,' as appears from comparing Ge. 24. 7; 26. 3 with the oath recorded in this verse, and again repeated, He. 6. 13. C.]
Ver. 10. [Which knew not the Lord. The rapid change to idolatry would appear, if not incredible, at least peculiar, to hard-hearted and stiff-necked Israel, were not the experience of all ages in perfect accordance with the inspired narrative. The reformations under David, Josiah, Hezekiah, and Ezra lasted little beyond the lives of their promoters. The greater reformation under our Lord scarcely outlived the days of the apostles. Nay, while an apostle lived to write, there were those who had forgotten their first love. The glorious reformation of the sixteenth century ceased to grow even during the lives of the reformers; and the various revivals since bestowed in different parts of the churches have seldom continued even during the generation that has experienced them.—Note, The word of God requires no confirmation beyond its own authority; yet, that men may be without excuse, all historical record and universal experience confirm it by their perfect concurrence. C.——They knew not Jehovah, as their fathers had known him, by the miraculous displays of power and mercy cognizable by the senses. The great body of the Israelites appear to have been incapable of studying or apprehending abstract truth. They could form no conception of a spiritual God. They were a sensual people. They required something visible and tangible in their worship. Hence the tendency of the national mind to idolatry. P.]
Reflections.—Inexcusable are the sins of such as enjoy the oracles of God: and it is but madness and self-deceiving to expect advantage from friendship with the enemies of God around us, or our own corruptions within us! for in offending God by one sin, we provoke him to give us up to a greater, with the misery which attends it. And none know how brutish in sin they may become if once given up to their hearts' lusts; nor what plagues and misery they may meet with in their course. What pains God uses to check his people's sinful rebellion against him or revolting from him! And deep are the impressions of his rebukes when effectually blessed. But even then not our tears, however sincere and penitential, but the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ, can make us pure from our iniquity. Faithful ministers and magistrates are a beneficial restraint upon nations and churches; yet we may commonly observe that the power and life of religion rarely flourish in a place for more than one generation at a time. And it is an awful sign to this effect when young ones grow up in ignorance and forgetfulness of God and his mighty works. But how infinite the extent of God's mercy and patience! he bears with, and even pardons and delivers, transgressors in the moment of their greatest extremity, and calls and blesses instruments for that end. But, Lord, what are men! they often become more hardened under such mercies and judgments—at the hazard of provoking thee to the uttermost, they return again and again to the very abomination for which they had formerly smarted! No wonder then that they are given up to uncommon rage of lusts or of lasting punishment.