Judges 3

Notes

[Ver. 1. The nations which the Lord left to prove Israel. To prove, not to discover anything in them unknown to God, 'for he knows what is in man;' but to disclose to themselves their wickedness by the judgments that righteously followed it; and to display to other nations and churches, as well as to Israel, the nature of that moral government which God exercises over all. God also intended to prove—to demonstrate—the power of faith, that is, the believing reception of God's word, and a firm reliance upon his truth, mercy, and power; and thereby to bear witness to a faithless generation that 'God's arm was not shortened that it could not save,' seeing the arm of man, when nerved by faith, was instrumentally sufficient for their deliverance.—Note, The faith of these judges and their true followers was faith in Christ the promised deliverer, whose 'day they saw afar off and were glad.' C.]

Ver. 2. [Teach them war. Not to teach them war as an employment, but to let them feel it as a judgment; and only a duty when in self-defence or the commanded punishment of abandoned criminals. C.]

Ver. 3. [The 'five lords of the Philistines' resided in the five capital cities, Gaza, Ascalon, Ashdod, Gath, and Ekron. The Canaanites and Sidonians included the inhabitants of Lebanon and Phœnicia; the Hivites were the inhabitants of Anti-Lebanon, which extended from Hermon on the south to the entering in of Hamath on the north. Hermon had a noted sanctuary of Baal on its summit, and many others round its sides: hence it is called Baal-hermon. P.]

Ver. 7. [Served Baalim and the groves. How any one could worship Baal, and in the same sense worship a grove, is scarcely intelligible. The Hebrew word, however, translated 'groves,' signifies, according to the high authority of Castel, 'a wooden image dedicated to Astarte or Venus.' The word employed by the Septuagint to translate the Hebrew, Theodoret explains by Astarte, Venus, or Ashtaroth. A clear proof of this interpretation occurs 2 Ki. 23. 6, where it is recorded that 'Josiah brought out the groves from the house of the Lord.' Now a grove could not have grown in the house; the word must therefore signify an image for idolatrous worship. C.]

Ver. 8. [Mesopotamia is in Hebrew Aram-naharaim, i.e. 'Aram between the two rivers,' the Euphrates and Tigris. The king Chushan-rishathaim is not elsewhere mentioned; but it has been thought he is identical with the Assyrian monarch Asshur-ris-ilim, who conquered Southern Syria and Palestine, and who is called on Assyrian monuments 'the powerful king, the subduer of rebellious countries, he who has reduced all the accursed' (see Rawlinson's Ancient Monarchies, ii. 308). P.]

Ver. 9. [Caleb's younger brother. Family descent is neither proudly and foolishly to be overvalued, nor as proudly or foolishly despised. God gives many promises in family descent—he assigns his largest encouragements to family education—he delights to be called 'the God of our fathers;' and here the first deliverer illustrates the importance of family character, hereditary honour, courage, and piety. C.]

Ver. 13. [City of palm-trees. Whether this city was Jericho or Engedi, which lay near to each other, is matter of question. Brown Patterson, in his judicious notes, says it was Jericho, or a city erected by the Moabites on its site, but gives no authority, and in this opinion he is joined by the annotator in the Pictorial Bible. Syme in his Geography identifies Hazezon-tamar, the city of palm-trees, with Engedi. That it was not Jericho appears more than probable from consulting ch. 1. 16; for Jericho having been utterly destroyed, and its re-erection denounced, it can scarcely be imagined that the Kenites were inhabiting its ruins. C.]

Ver. 28. [It appears from the whole tenor of this singular narrative that the Moabites had crossed the Jordan and settled down on the plain of Jericho. The site of the ancient city may have been, and probably was, occupied by a village of huts; and the building of it subsequently by Hiel may refer to its regular fortification as a city. Be this as it may, Eglon had established himself at this place. Gilgal was only a mile or two distant; and the word translated 'quarries' doubtless signifies those stones or pillars which Joshua had set up. After accomplishing the bloody deed Ehud could easily escape. The wild ravines and rugged mountains of Benjamin and Ephraim were only a few miles distant. Taking advantage of the panic he suddenly collected the people of Israel and seized the passes of the Jordan. The Moabites were thus entrapped. Behind them were the mountains filled with an exasperated enemy; in front the Jordan with its difficult fords guarded by armed men. Conquest was thus easy, and the slaughter necessarily great. P.]

Ver. 29. [Ten thousand men. Moab had the country only by military occupation, not by agricultural or commercial settlements. There is therefore no account out of men—a sure note of the great moral corruption both of the occupying army and the conquered country. C.]

Ver. 31. [Slew of the Philistines six hundred men with an ox-goad. The Syrian ox-goad of modern times—and from the eastern tenacity of ancient forms, manners, and customs, we may infer of ancient times likewise—is a strong pole of wood, 7 or 8 feet long, with a pointed iron at one end and a broad chisel at the other—the one to goad the oxen, the other to clean the plough—a truly formidable weapon, and perhaps intended for defence in a country where still in many places, as travellers declare, the gun forms a regular appurtenance of the plough. The exploit of Shamgar is extraordinary; an infidel would say incredible. Not so, however, if Scripture language receive the same justice with other history; for we say, a general gained a battle, when we make no mention of the soldiers who alone fought for it, while he never struck a single blow. Shamgar may accordingly have led on a party of Israelites against Moabite marauders, he being armed merely with an ox-goad. Or if any say that the words describe the 600 as actually slain by his own hand, still it is not said that he slew them at once, but may have destroyed so many in successive encounters. C.]

Reflections.—While men are on earth, inward corruptions and outward enemies will be still left, to prove their steadfastness or exercise their graces. One of the most dangerous snares is an irreligious partner in marriage, which is ruinous in its consequences, as it opens a wide inlet to every abomination, and generally leads to forgetfulness of God. But God can easily find instruments to punish us, far or near, even among our own relations. And yet how light, especially at first, are his strokes of justice in comparison of what our iniquities deserve! God also can easily find and qualify instruments for the deliverance of his people: and ordinarily he employs such as have been most courageous and faithful in his work, or such as seem naturally most unfit for it. But if we, after deliverances, return to our own sins, we may expect that God will return to judgment: and if lighter corrections have been ineffectual, God will make them longer and heavier. Nor is any instrument so despicable but he can make it the rod of his anger. Wicked men, kings not excepted, are often fattened up to their own shame and destruction, and find their message from God in a ruinous stroke of his wrath. But easy work is the ruin of the strongest enemies when we are called, directed, and assisted by God!