The children of Israel again did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight, and served the Baals, the Ashtaroth, the gods of Syria, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the children of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines. They abandoned Yahweh, and didn’t serve him. Yahweh’s anger burned against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of the Philistines and into the hand of the children of Ammon. They troubled and oppressed the children of Israel that year. For eighteen years they oppressed all the children of Israel that were beyond the Jordan in the land of the Amorites, which is in Gilead. The children of Ammon passed over the Jordan to fight also against Judah, and against Benjamin, and against the house of Ephraim, so that Israel was very distressed. The children of Israel cried to Yahweh, saying, “We have sinned against you, even because we have forsaken our God, and have served the Baals.”
Yahweh said to the children of Israel, “Didn’t I save you from the Egyptians, and from the Amorites, from the children of Ammon, and from the Philistines? The Sidonians also, and the Amalekites, and the Maonites, oppressed you; and you cried to me, and I saved you out of their hand. Yet you have forsaken me and served other gods. Therefore I will save you no more. Go and cry to the gods which you have chosen. Let them save you in the time of your distress!”
The children of Israel said to Yahweh, “We have sinned! Do to us whatever seems good to you; only deliver us, please, today.” They put away the foreign gods from among them and served Yahweh; and his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel.
Then the children of Ammon were gathered together and encamped in Gilead. The children of Israel assembled themselves together and encamped in Mizpah. The people, the princes of Gilead, said to one another, “Who is the man who will begin to fight against the children of Ammon? He shall be head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.”
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 15, 16 Or, Syrian.
Or, Syrian.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv6–18 Jdg 10:6 And the children of Israel did evil…
Jdg 10:6 And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the LORD, and served Baalim, and Ashtaroth, and the gods of Syria, and the gods of Zidon, and the gods of Moab, and the gods of the children of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines, and forsook the LORD, and served not him.
Ver. 6. And the children of Israel did evil again,] viz., After Jair’s death. Great is the loss of a good magistrate. Israel now did worse than ever; they did proficere in peius, as the apostle hath it. {2Ti 3:13} Now they affect a πολυθεσιης, such as the heathens round about them then had, and such as Socrates, an honest pagan, derided, and in despite of them swore by an oak, a goat, a dog, as holding these better gods than those. Cicero, albeit in his book, De Natura Deorum, he set forth the vanity of all those heathenish deities, yet in his oration for Flaccus he saith, that it became not the majesty of the Roman empire to worship one god only; they must have a multiplicity of gods, for reasons of state. But this was to speak and do evil things as they could. {Jer 3:5} Meanwhile they "forsook the Lord, and served not him," as it followeth in this verse. For when it was sometimes disputed among the Romans, - in the council using to deify great men, - whether Christ, having done many wonderful works, as Pilate witnessed before Tiberius, should be received into the number of the gods, and his image put in the Pantheon, the historian saith, that at length it was carried in the negative, for these two reasons: first, Because he persuaded poverty, and chose poor men; secondly, Because he had but few worshippers. Accordingly Peter Martyr giveth these two reasons here why the Israelites went so a whoring after these false gods of the several neighbour nations: (1.) Because they so flourished in wealth and honour, when themselves were so poor and contemptible; (2.) Because the worship of the true God was so severe, but the heathenish superstition licentious and pleasing to flesh and blood.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 He shows how they grew worse and worse, and…
He shows how they grew worse and worse, and so ripened themselves for the ruin which afterward came upon them. Before they worshipped God and idols together; now they utterly forsake God, and wholly cleave to idols.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv6, 10 While those two judges, Tola and Jair, presided in…
While those two judges, Tola and Jair, presided in the affairs of Israel, things went well, but afterwards,
I. Israel returned to their idolatry, that sin which did most easily beset them (Jdg 10:6): They did evil again in the sight of the Lord, from whom they were unaccountably bent to backslide, as a foolish people and unwise. 1. They worshipped many gods; not only their old demons Baalim and Ashtaroth, which the Canaanites had worshipped, but, as if they would proclaim their folly to all their neighbours, they served the gods of Syria, Zidon, Moab, Ammon, and the Philistines. It looks as if the chief trade of Israel had been to import deities from all countries. It is hard to say whether it was more impious or impolitic to do this. By introducing these foreign deities, they rendered themselves mean and despicable, for no nation that had any sense of honour changed their gods. Much of the wealth of Israel, we may suppose, was carried out, in offerings to the temples of the deities in the several countries whence they came, on which, as their mother-churches, their temples in Israel were expected to own their dependence; the priests and devotees of those sorry deities would follow their gods, no doubt, in crowds into the land of Israel, and, if they could not live in their own country, would take root there, and so strangers would devour their strength. If they did it in compliment to the neighbouring nations, and to ingratiate themselves with them, justly were they disappointed; for those nations which by their wicked arts they sought to make their friends by the righteous judgments of God became their enemies and oppressors. In quo quis peccat, in eo punitur - Wherein a person offends, therein he shall be punished. 2. They did not so much as admit the God of Israel to be one of those many deities they worshipped, but quite cast him off: They forsook the Lord, and served not him at all. Those that think to serve both God and Mammon will soon come entirely to forsake God, and to serve Mammon only. If God have not all the heart, he will soon have none of it.
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II. God renewed his judgments upon them, bringing them under the power of oppressing enemies. Had they fallen into the hands of the Lord immediately, they might have found that his mercies were great; but God let them fall into the hands of man, whose tender mercies are cruel. He sold them into the hands of the Philistines that lay south-west of Canaan, and of the Ammonites that lay north-east, both at the same time; so that between those two millstones they were miserably crushed, as the original word is (Jdg 10:8) for oppressed. God had appointed that, if any of the cities of Israel should revolt to idolatry, the rest should make war upon them and cut them off, Deu 13:12, etc. They had been jealous enough in this matter, almost to an extreme, in the case of the altar set up by the two tribes and a half (Jos. 22); but now they had grown so very bad that when one city was infected with idolatry the next took the infection and instead of punishing it, imitated and out-did it; and therefore, since those that should have been revengers to execute wrath on those that did this evil were themselves guilty, or bore the sword in vain, God brought the neighbouring nations upon them, to chastise them for their apostasy. The oppression of Israel by the Ammonites, the posterity of Lot, was, 1. Very long. It continued eighteen years. Some make those years to be part of the judgeship of Jair, who could not prevail to reform and deliver Israel as he would. Others make them to commence at the death of Jair, which seems the more probable because that part of Israel which was most infested by the Ammonites was Gilead, Jair's own country, which we cannot suppose to have suffered so much while he was living, but that part at least would be reformed and protected. 2. Very grievous. They vexed them and oppressed them. It was a great vexation to be oppressed by such a despicable people as the children of Ammon were. They began with those tribes that lay next them on the other side Jordan, here called the land of the Amorites (Jdg 10:8) because the Israelites had so wretchedly degenerated, and had made themselves so like the heathen, that they had become, in a manner, perfect Amorites (Eze 16:3), or because by their sin they forfeited their title to this land, so that it might justly be looked upon as the land of the Amorites again, from whom they took it. But by degrees they pushed forward, came over Jordan, and invaded Judah, and Benjamin, and Ephraim (Jdg 10:9), three of the most famous tribes of Israel, yet thus insulted when they had forsaken God, and unable to make head against the invader. Now the threatening was fulfilled that they should be slain before their enemies, and should have no power to stand before them, Lev 26:17, Lev 26:37. Their ways and their doings procure this to themselves; they have sadly degenerated, and so they come to be sorely distressed.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv6–18 And the children of Israel did evil again in…
And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord,.... After the death of the above judges they fell into idolatry again, as the following instances show:
and served Baalim, and Ashtaroth; as they had before; see Gill on Jdg 2:11, Jdg 2:13 and, besides these:
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also the gods of Syria; their gods and goddesses, Belus and Saturn, Astarte and the Dea Syria, Lucian writes of:
and the gods of Zidon; the goddess of the Zidonians was Ashtaroth, Kg1 11:5 and it seems they had other deities:
and the gods of Moab; the chief of which were Baalpeor and Chemosh, Num 25:3.
and the gods of the children of Ammon, as Milcom or Molech, Kg1 11:5.
and the gods of the Philistines; as Dagon the god of Ashdod, Beelzebub the god of Ekron, Marnas the god of Gaza, and Derceto the goddess of Ashkalon:
and forsook the Lord, and served not him; not even in conjunction with the above deities, as Jarchi and others observe; at other times, when they worshipped other gods, they pretended to worship the Lord also, they served the creature besides the Creator; but now they were so dreadfully sunk into idolatry, that they had wholly forsaken the Lord and his worship at the tabernacle, and made no pretensions to it, but entirely neglected it.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 Forsook the Lord - They grew worse and worse,…
Forsook the Lord - They grew worse and worse, and so ripened themselves for ruin. Before they worshipped God and idols together, now they forsake God, and wholly cleave to idols.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv6, 7, 11, 15, 16, 17, 18 Verse 6. And served Baalim] They became universal idolaters,…
Verse 6. And served Baalim] They became universal idolaters, adopting every god of the surrounding nations. Baalim and Ashtaroth may signify gods and goddesses in general. These are enumerated:
1. The gods of Syria; Bel and Saturn, or Jupiter and Astarte.
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2. Gods of Zidon; Ashtaroth, Astarte or Venus.
3. The gods of Moab; Chemosh.
4. Gods of the children of Ammon; Milcom.
5. Gods of the Philistines; Dagon.
See 1Kg 11:33, and 1Sa 5:2. These are called gods because their images and places of worship were multiplied throughout the land.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16 Jdg 10:6. Israel served the gods of Syria —…
Jdg 10:6. Israel served the gods of Syria — They added to their former idolatries the worship of new gods, particularly those of Syria, which were Bel, or Baal, Astarte, Dagon, Moloch, Thammuz. And the gods of Zidon — The supreme gods of the Sidonians were Baal and Ashtaroth: but it is likely they had more, such as Asaroth, Asarim, Asarah. And the gods of Moab — The principal of which was Chemosh, 1Ki 11:7. And the gods of the children of Ammon — The chief of which was Milcom, (1Ki 11:5,) where Ashtaroth is mentioned as the goddess of the Sidonians. And the gods of the Philistines — They had more, it seems, besides Dagon, but their names are not mentioned in Scripture. And forsook the Lord — They grew worse and worse, and ripened themselves for ruin. Before, they worshipped God and idols together: now they forsake God, and wholly cleave to idols.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv6, 7, 8, 11, 12, 17, 18 The gods of Syria - Or “Aram.” In the…
The gods of Syria - Or “Aram.” In the times of the Judges the various tribes of Aramites, or Syrians, were not compacted into one state, nor were they until after the time of Solomon. The national gods of these various Aramean tribes were probably the same; and their worship would be likely to be introduced into the trans-Jordanic tribes. It has been remarked that the Hebrew words for “to divine,” “to practice magic,” “idolatrous priests,” and other like words, are of Syrian origin. The Syriac ritual proved very attractive to king Ahaz 2Ki 16:10-12. For the national gods of the Zidonians, Moabites, Ammonites, and Philistines, see 1Ki 11:5, 1Ki 11:7,1Ki 11:33; 1Sa 5:2-5.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 Gods. The sun and moon were principally adored among…
Gods. The sun and moon were principally adored among these nations, under different names.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On vv6, 17 the oppression of the midianites. jephthah, the judge of…
SEVENTH SECTION
the oppression of the midianites. jephthah, the judge of the vow
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Renewed apostasy and punishment. Awakening and repentance.
Jdg_10:6-16
6And the children [sons] of Israel did evil again [continued to do evil] in the sight of the Lord [Jehovah], and served [the] Baalim, and [the] Ashtaroth, and the gods of Syria [Aram], and the gods of Zidon, and the gods of Moab, and the gods of the children [sons] of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines, and forsook the Lord [Jehovah], and served not Him. 7And the anger of the Lord [Jehovah] was hot [kindled] against Israel, and he sold [delivered] them into the hands of the Philistines, and into the hands of the children [sons] of Ammon. 8And that year they vexed and oppressed the children [sons] of Israel eighteen years,3 all the children of Israel that were on the other side Jordan in the land of the Amorites, 9which is in Gilead. Moreover, the children [sons] of Ammon passed over [the] Jordan, to fight also against Judah, and against Benjamin, and against the house of Ephraim: so that Israel was sore distressed.4 10And the children [sons] of Israel cried unto the Lord [Jehovah], saying, We have sinned against thee, both [namely], because we have forsaken our God, and also [omit: also; read: have] served [the] Baalim. 11And the Lord [Jehovah] said unto the children [sons] of Israel, Did not I deliver you from the Egyptians [from Mizraim, i. e. Egypt], and from the Amorites, from the children [sons] of Ammon, and from the Philistines?5 12The Zidonians also [And when the Sidonians], and the Amalekites, and the Maonites did oppress you; [,] and ye cried to me, and [then] I delivered you out of their hand. 13Yet ye have forsaken me, and served other gods: wherefore I will deliver you no more. 14Go and cry unto the gods which ye have chosen; let them deliver you in the time of your tribulation [distress]. 15And the children [sons] of Israel said unto the Lord [Jehovah], We have sinned: do thou unto us whatsoever seemeth good unto thee; deliver us only, we pray thee, this day. 16And they put away the strange gods from among them, and served the Lord [Jehovah]: and his soul was grieved for [endured no longer] the misery of Israel.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
[1 Jdg_10:8—Dr. Cassel translates this clause as follows (reading כַּשָּׁנָה, instead of בַּשָּׁנָח, see the Commentary below): “And they vexed and plagued the sons of Israel, as this year, eighteen years long,” etc. The better way is to repeat the idea of the verbs after “eighteen years,” thus: “And they broke and crushed the sons of Israel in that year; eighteen years did they oppress all the sons of Israel who were beyond the Jordan,” etc. רָעַץ and רָצַץ come from the same root, and are synonyms used to strengthen the idea.—Tr.]
[2 Jdg_10:9.—Literally: “and it became exceedingly strait to Israel,” cf. Jdg_2:15. On the use of the fem. gender (וַתֵּצֶר, from יָצַר) in impersonal constructions, see Green, Gram., 243, 3.—Tr.]
[3 Jdg_10:11.—For Dr. Cassel’s rendering of this verse, see the comments on it. The sentence is anacoluthic in the original; the construction being changed at the beginning of the next verse.—Tr.]
EXEGETICAL AND DOCTRINAL
Jdg_10:6. And the sons of Israel continued to do the evil in the sight of Jehovah. Sin and forgiveness are the hinges of all history; especially of the history of Israel, including in that term the spiritual Israel of modern times. They follow each other like night and morning. As soon as the prayers and faith of a great man cease from among the people, and the earth is heaped over his grave, the new generation breaks loose, like an unrestrained youth. After Jair’s death, idolatry spreads far and wide. Israel plays the harlot, in the east with Aram, in the west with the Phœnicians, in the southeast with Moab and Ammon, in the southwest with the Philistines. Those gods are named first, whose people have already oppressed Israel, and have been turned back by men of God. First, the Baalim and Ashtaroth, whose service Gideon especially, the Jerubbaal, overthrew (Jdg_6:25); next, the gods of Aram, whose king was defeated by the hero Othniel; then, the gods of Zidon, the mention of whom—since Zidon, the metropolis, stood for all Phœnicia, i. e. Canaan—reminds us of the victory of Deborah and Barak over Jabin, king of Canaan; and finally, the gods of Moab, smitten by Ehud. Israel served these gods, although they were unable to stand before the eternal God. And beside these, it now also serves the gods of the Ammonites and Philistines. These also will first cause it to experience oppression; but then, though only after long penance, become the occasion of divine displays of grace and mercy to Israel. In truth, this “young” Israel serves all gods, except only the living and the true. It runs after every superstition, every delusion, every sensual gratification, every self-deception, but forgets the truth and peace of God. It seeks false friends, and forsakes the true.
Jdg_10:7-10. And He delivered them into the hand of the Philistines, and into the hand of the sons of Ammon. As far as their sufferings and conflicts with the western nations are concerned, these are related subsequently under the history of Samson. The chastisement which they experience by means of Ammon, leads the way. This falls especially upon the people east of the Jordan, the neighbors of Ammon; and the enervating and weakening effects of sin and unbelief become clearly manifest in the fact that one of the most valiant of the Israelitish tribes, Gilead, the home, as it were, of heroes, is not able successfully to oppose the enemy. Israel is pressed, plagued, plundered; “as in the first year,6 so through eighteen years” (for בַּשָּׂנָה read כַּשָּׁנָה). The inflictions to which they were obliged to submit one year, the spoliation of their harvests, the plundering of their villages, the imposition of tribute, are repeated year after year, eighteen times. The manifest weakness of Israel, the dismemberment of the nation, so that one tribe finds no help from any other (Jdg_12:2), emboldens the oppressor. Ammon passes over the Jordan, and attacks Israel in the heart of its most powerful tribes, without meeting resistance. But how came Israel into such a condition of disruption? Whence this inability to unite its forces against the overbearing enemy? This question has already been answered in Jdg_10:6. The people has forsaken the one God, and worships many idol gods. Falling away from the national faith, it has fallen into the disintegration of egoism. The tribes are divided by their special idols, their respective evil consciences, and by local selfishness. Only one thing is common to all,—despondency and powerlessness; for the ideal spirit of the theocratic people, the source of union and courage, is wanting. Hence, after long distress, they all share in a common feeling of repentance. They come now to the tabernacle, long neglected—for while attending at near and local idol temples, they have forgotten to visit the House of God—and say: we have sinned.
Jdg_10:11-12. And Jehovah said to the sons of Israel, Not from Mizraim (Egypt), and from the Amorite, from the sons of Ammon, and from the Philistines! It is the Priest who answers the people, in the name of God, through Urim and Thummim, as in Jdg_1:1. It has been observed that in Jdg_10:6 seven different national idols are enumerated as having been served by Israel, and that in Jdg_10:11-12 seven nations are named, out of whose hand Israel had been delivered. The number seven is symbolical of consummation and completion. All false gods, whom Israel has foolishly served, are included with those that are named in Jdg_10:6, from the northeast and southeast, the northwest and southwest. Such, undoubtedly, is likewise the sense of Jdg_10:11-12. To Israel’s prayer for deliverance from Amnion in the land of the Amorite, and from the Philistines, God replies, reproachfully: that Israel bears itself as if it had sinned for the first time, and asked deliverance in consideration of its repentance. But, says God, from of old I have liberated you from all the nations that surround you,—from Egypt first, and from every nation that troubled you—east, west, north, and south,—in turn. The voice of God speaks not in the style of narrative, but in the tone of impassioned discourse. Under general descriptions, it comprehends, with rhetorical vigor, special occurrences. It introduces the Ammonites, Philistines, and Amorites, immediately after Egypt, because these nations are now in question. Have I not already, since your exodus from Egypt, given you peace, even from these very Philistines (Exo_13:17), Ammonites (Num_21:24), and Amorites (Num_21:21 ff )? Thereupon, the discourse passes over into another construction; for from the ancient part it turns now to events of more recent times. In those early times, when Moses led you, you saw no oppression, but only victory. Later, when Zidonians, Amalekites, and Maonites oppressed you, I helped you at your cry. All three names indicate only in a general way, the quarters from which the more recent attacks had come. Since Joshua’s death, Israel had experienced only one attack from the north and northeast, all others had come from the east and southwest. That from the north, was the act of Jabin, king of Canaan. It is true, that in the narrative of Barak’s victory, the name Zidonians does not occur; but Zidon is in emphatic language the representative, the mother as she is called, of Phœnicia, i. e. Canaan. In a like general sense do Amalek and Maon here stand for those eastern tribes from whose predatory incursions Israel had suffered; for Amalek, the earliest and most implacable enemy of Israel, assisted both Midian and Moab in their attacks. Thus also, the mention of Maon becomes intelligible. Modern expositors (even Keil) consider the Septuagint reading Μαδιάμ (Midian) to be the correct one. We cannot adopt this view; for this reason, if no other, that difficult readings are to be preferred to plain ones. Maon is the name of the southeastern wilderness, familiar to us from David’s history. The name has evidently been preserved in the Maon of Arabia Petræa (cf. Ritter, xiv. 1005). Amalek and Maon represent the Bedouin tribes, who from this quarter attacked Israel. Every point from which Israel could be assailed has thus been included; for the first three nations, Philistines, Ammonites, and Amorites, range from the southwest to the northeast, just as the other three, Zidonians, Amalekites, and Maonites, reach from the northwest to the southeast.
Jdg_10:13-16. Go, and cry unto the gods which ye have chosen. From all nations, says the voice of God, have I liberated you. It has been demonstrated to you that I am your true Deliverer, and that all the tribes round about you are your enemies, especially when they perceive that you have forsaken Me. Every part of your land teaches this lesson; and yet you apostatize always anew. I have chosen you without any merit on your part, to be a great nation, and you have left Me; go, therefore, in this your time of need, and get you help from the idol gods whom you have chosen in my place. This answer cuts the sharper, because the idols to whose service Israel apostatized, were identical with the very nations by whom they were oppressed. For every idol was national or local in its character. God speaks here with a sorrow like that of a human father who addresses an inconsiderate child. Nothing but a sharp goad of reprehension and threatening will drive it to serious and thorough consideration. But though inconsiderate, it nevertheless continues to be a child. The father, though for the present he disown it, cannot in good earnest intend to abandon it altogether. And, in truth, Israel did not miscalculate. When they not only confessed their sins, but even without any visible assistance, imitated Gideon, and in faith removed their idol altars, the anger of their Father was at an end. The phrase וַתִּקְצַ ר נַפְשׁוֹ, elsewhere employed of men (cf. Num_21:4, where the people find the way of the wilderness too long), is here applied with artless beauty to Israel’s tender Father. “His soul became too short” for the misery of Israel, i. e. the misery of the penitent people endured too long for Him. He could no longer bring himself to cherish anger against them. The love of God is no rigid human consistency: it is eternal freedom. Man’s parental love is its image, albeit an image obscured by sin. The parable of the Prodigal Son, especially, gives us some conception of the wonderful inconsistency of God, by which after chastisement He recalls the penitent sinner to himself. Nothing but the freedom of God’s love—ever right as well as free—secures the world’s existence. Love—as only God loves; love, which loves for God’s sake; love, that pardons the penitent offender seven and seventy times,—is true consistency. Put away the strange gods, and the withered stock will become green again. This Israel experiences anew, and first in Gilead.
This notice, however brief, of the removal of all strange gods, and of Israel’s return to Jehovah, is the necessary, intimately connected, introduction to the narrative of the deeds of Jephthah. It is indispensable to the understanding of his victory and suffering. It explains, moreover, why in the narrative concerning him, only the name Jehovah appears. It teaches us to consider the nature and measure of that life in which God, once lost but found again, reigns and rules.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Apostasy and Repentance. Neither Deborah’s jubilant song of triumph, nor Gideon’s exulting trumpet notes, could secure succeeding generations of Israel against renewed apostasy. It reappeared even after a season of quiet piety. But equally sure was the coming of divine judgments. They came from all sides, in ever-growing severity and magnitude. The gods of the heathen brought no help,—for they were nothing; and yet for their sake had Israel betrayed its living God. Then Israel began seriously to reflect. They not merely wept, they did works of true repentance. And whenever, by prayer and actions, they call upon their merciful God, He, like a tender father, cannot withstand them. He hears and answers.
Not so do men act toward each other; and yet they are called on to walk in the footsteps of Christ. What wonder that men find their kindness ill requited, when God experiences a similar treatment! But how then dare they cherish anger, when besought for reconciliation! If God was moved, how can we remain untouched? And yet grudge-bearing is a characteristic against which even pious Christians bear no grudge. The sinless God forgives, and gives ever anew,—and witnesses of God, men of theological pursuits, cherish ill-will and rancor for years!
“How well, my friend, in God thou livest,
Appears from how thy debtor thou forgivest.”
Starke: Men are very changeable and inconstant, and prone to decline from the right way; neither sufficiently moved by kindness, nor influenced by punishment.—The same: True repentance consists not in words but in deeds.—Lisco: Israel confesses its guilt and ill-desert and gives itself wholly up to God’s will and righteous chastening; yet, full of faith, asks for merciful, albeit unmerited, deliverance.—Gerlach: That the Lord first declares that He will no longer help Israel, afterwards, however, takes compassion on them and makes their cause his own, is a representation which repeats itself frequently in the Old Testament. Each of its opposite elements is true and consistent with the other, as soon as we call to mind that God, notwithstanding his eternity and unchangeableness, lives with and loves his people in time, and under human forms and conditions.
Footnotes:
[3][Jdg_10:8—Dr. Cassel translates this clause as follows (reading כַּשָּׁנָה, instead of בַּשָּׁנָח, see the Commentary below): “And they vexed and plagued the sons of Israel, as this year, eighteen years long,” etc. The better way is to repeat the idea of the verbs after “eighteen years,” thus: “And they broke and crushed the sons of Israel in that year; eighteen years did they oppress all the sons of Israel who were beyond the Jordan,” etc. רָעַץ and רָצַץ come from the same root, and are synonyms used to strengthen the idea.—Tr.]
[4][Jdg_10:9.—Literally: “and it became exceedingly strait to Israel,” cf. Jdg_2:15. On the use of the fem. gender (וַתֵּצֶר, from יָצַר) in impersonal constructions, see Green, Gram., 243, 3.—Tr.]
[5][Jdg_10:11.—For Dr. Cassel’s rendering of this verse, see the comments on it. The sentence is anacoluthic in the original; the construction being changed at the beginning of the next verse.—Tr.]
[6][On this translation, see note 1 under “Textual and Grammatical.” Dr. Cassel evidently takes שָׁנָה הָהִיא “this year,” to mean the first year of the oppression. Others (Usher, Bush, etc.) make it the last year both of the oppression and of Jair’s life. But this is altogether unlikely. Hitherto, apostasy and servitude have always followed the death of the Judge. If the present case were an exception, the narrator would certainly have noted it as such. The use of the word “this,” would perhaps be quite plain, if we could have a glance at the sources from which the narrator here draws.—Tr.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 16, 17 ISRAEL OPPRESSED BY THE PHILISTINES AND AMMONITES. (Jdg 10:6-9)
ISRAEL OPPRESSED BY THE PHILISTINES AND AMMONITES. (Jdg 10:6-9)
the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord--This apostasy seems to have exceeded every former one in the grossness and universality of the idolatry practised.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 PHILISTINE AND AMMONITE OPPRESSION, Jdg_10:6-9.
PHILISTINE AND AMMONITE OPPRESSION, Jdg_10:6-9.
6. Did evil again — This apostasy, as appears from what follows respecting the number of false gods they worshipped, was of a most aggravating character.
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Baalim, and Ashtaroth — See note on chap. Jdg_2:13.
Gods of Syria — These are nowhere in Scripture mentioned by name.
Gods of Zidon — The peculiar forms of the Baal and Asherah worship as practiced among the Phenicians. Compare 1Ki_11:33. This worship was, in its principles, common among several of the surrounding nations, but each nation seems to have given it some peculiar modification of its own.
Gods of Moab — Among whom Chemosh was the principal deity. Num_21:29; 1Ki_11:33.
Gods of… Ammon — Particularly the abominable Moloch, the fire-god, to whom human sacrifices were offered. 1Ki_11:7.
Gods of the Philistines — Dagon, the fish-god. Compare chap. Jdg_16:23. Here we have the mention of seven classes of gods to whose worship Israel had turned, thus filling up the measure of a sevenfold idolatry. This seems more execrable still when we compare with it the seven deliverances of Jehovah mentioned in Jdg_10:11-12. They had seemed to choose a new idol for every deliverance.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv6–18 6. again did that which was evil etc.] Cf.…
6. again did that which was evil etc.] Cf. Jdg_2:11; Jdg_2:13, Jdg_3:7, Jdg_4:1, Jdg_6:1, Jdg_13:1; phrases of the Dtc. editor.
the gods of Syria … Philistines] i.e. of all the surrounding nations; cf. Jdg_2:12 Strictly speaking, the mention of ‘the gods of the Ammonites’ alone is appropriate to the narrative Jdg_10:17 to Jdg_11:33. The sentence appears to be a generalizing expansion from the hand of the latest editor, like the list of oppressors in Jdg_10:11.
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6–8. Introduction to the story of Jephthah
Apostasy followed by oppression, the cry for help by deliverance: such is the religious interpretation of the succeeding period given by the Dtc. editor in his accustomed manner. His phrases appear in Jdg_10:6-7, cf. Jdg_2:11; Jdg_2:13, Jdg_3:7 etc. This summary is much longer than usual, and resembles Jdg_2:6 to Jdg_3:6 in its general character and scope (see Introd. § 2 b). The Dtc. editor seems to have expanded an earlier and shorter preface which is probably contained in Jdg_10:10-16, and shews signs of relationship with the source E. Jdg_10:6 b, Jdg_10:8 (in part), the end of Jdg_10:11 and the beginning of Jdg_10:12, appear to be still later expansions. It is surprising to find such a long introduction in the middle of the book; perhaps it was expanded, first by the Dtc. editor and then by a later hand, in order to cover not only the Ammonite, but the Philistine oppression, in fact all the remaining portion of the history. The last two verses (17 and 18) appear to be simply derived from the following chapter (as Jdg_8:33-35 from ch. 9), and intended to connect the passing reference to the Ammonite invasion in Jdg_10:7-8 with the more detailed narrative which follows.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 (6) Did evil again.—Literally, added to do evil: “joining…
(6) Did evil again.—Literally, added to do evil: “joining new sins to their old ones,” as the Vulg. paraphrases it (Jdg_2:11; Jdg_3:7, &c).
Served Baalim, and Ashtaroth.—Jdg_2:19. Seven kinds of idols are mentioned, in obvious symmetry with the seven retributive oppressions in Jdg_10:11-12.
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The gods of Syria.—Heb. Aram. (See Gen_35:2; Gen_35:4.) Manasseh seems to have had an Aramean concubine (1Ch_7:14), who was mother of Machir. Of Syrian idolatry we hear nothing definite till the days of Ahaz (2Ki_16:10; 2Ki_16:12):—
“Thammuz came next behind,
Whose annual wound in Lebanon allured
The Syrian damsels to lament his fate
In amorous ditties all a summer’s day.”—Par. Lost, 1
The gods of Zidon.—1Ki_11:5. As Milton borrowed his details from the learned Syntagma de Diis Syris of Selden, we cannot find better illustration of these allusions than in his stately verse:—
“Ashtoreth, whom the Phoenicians cali
Astarte, queen of heaven, with crescent horns,
To whose bright image nightly by the hour
Sidonian virgins paid their vows and songs, “—Id.
The gods of Moab.—1Ki_11:7.
“ Chemosh, the obscene dread of Moab’s sons.
From Areer to Nebo, and the wild
Of southmost Abarim . . .
Peor his other name.”—Id.
The gods of the children of Ammon—Lev_18:21; 1Ki_11:7.
“First Moloch, horrid king. . . . Him the Ammonite
Worshipped in Rabba and his watery plain,
In Argob and in Basan, to the stream
Of utmost Arnon.”—Id.
The gods of the Philistines.—1Sa_5:2; 1Sa_16:23.
“One
“Who mourned in earnest when the captive ark
Maimed his brute image; head and hands lopt off
In his own temple on the grunsel edge,
Where he fell flat and shamed his worshippers.
Dagon his name—sea-monster—upwards man
And downwards fish.”—Id.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18 Did evil again. We may conclude that Tola and…
Did evil again. We may conclude that Tola and Jair had used their influence to maintain the worship of Jehovah; but at their death idolatry broke out with more virulence than ever. Not only were the many altars of Baal and Ashtoreth honoured, as in former times, but new forms of idol-worship, according to the rites of all the neighbouring nations, were introduced among them. The gods of Syria, i.e. Aram, who are not usually named, but whose worship is spoken of, (2Ch_28:23) and whose altar attracted the attention of Ahaz, (2Ki_16:10) and one of whom was Rimmon; (2Ki_5:18) the gods of the Zidonians, Baal and Ashtoreth, probably with rites somewhat differing from those of Canaan; Chemosh, the god of the Moabites; Milcom or Moloch, the god of the children of Ammon; and Dagon, the god of the Philis-tines all were worshipped, while the service of Jehovah was thrust aside. (see 1Ki_11:5-7)
Vers. 6-18. The Ethiopian"s unchanged skin.
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Among the invaluable lessons of Holy Scripture, not the least valuable is the insight given by its histories into the true nature of the human heart. "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked," is the prophet"s description of the heart of man, and the history of the Israelites is a signal illustration of its truth. We are apt to think that if we had passed through the waters of the Red Sea, and seen Mount Sinai on a blaze, and eaten the manna from heaven, and drank the water out of the stony rock, and been led to victory by a Joshua, a Barak, a Deborah, or a Gideon, we never could have forgotten such signal mercies, could never have been unfaithful to the gracious Author of them, could never have preferred the vain idols of the heathen to the living God. Still more do we think that if we had seen the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, had heard his wondrous words and seen his mighty works, or had been witnesses of his cross and passion, and talked with him after his resurrection, we should not be the worldly, lukewarm disciples we now are But we are wrong in thinking so. The image of the human heart reflected in the history of the Israelite people is a more true and faithful one than that portrayed by our own self-love. And that image is one of the depraved human will constantly deflecting from rectitude, constantly drawn aside from truth and godliness by the power of selfish affections and corrupt lusts; occasionally, as it were, turned back toward God, either by strong influences from without, as stirring events, heavy chastisements, striking deliverances, powerful examples, faithful warnings; or by strong emotions from within, as fear, or gratitude, or hope; but as soon as these influences begin to cool, regularly returning to their old habit of thinking and acting, and falling back into their own evil ways. The particular kind of sins to which the heart is most prone varies indeed in different ages of the world, and with the different conditions of the human society. With the Israelites it was idolatry. The fascination of the heathen idols was incredibly strong. In spite of reason, in spite of experience, often of the most bitter kind, they were attracted to the rites of heathenism by the strongest sympathies of their own perverse hearts. While they shrunk from the lofty obligations of the holy service of God, they abandoned themselves with willingness of mind to the base servitude of the idols, consenting to their shameful requirements, and gloating in their abominable rites. The desire to be like the nations, the influence of example all around them, the mysterious power of superstition, the agreement between their sensual hearts and the sensual rites of idolatry, were forces steadily turning them away from God, and constantly prevailing over the temporary influences which from time to time had moved them to repentance. But it is just the same with other kinds of sin which strike their roots deep into the hearts of men, and find a ready consent in the diseased moral conditions of those hearts. For a moment perhaps their power may be weakened by some opposite force, but, unless the fountain of the will is really renewed and sweetened by the indwelling Spirit of God, the same spectacle will be exhibited, as in the case of the Israelites, of the character which had been forced back returning surely and steadily to its natural bent; of the old influences of pride, selfishness, and lust resuming their former sway; and of the previous tastes, and manners, and ways of life being restored to their old supremacy. And it will be found that neither reason, nor experience, nor common sense, nor even self-interest, are able to prevent this. The Ethiopian cannot change his skin, nor the leopard his spots. No more can they do good that are accustomed to do evil. (Jer_13:23) The evil bent of a corrupt nature will ever be towards evil. It is the knowledge of the evil that is in us, and the consequent distrust of ourselves, which is the first real step towards a lasting change. Not till this evil is experimentally felt do the two great doctrines of the gospel, atonement for sin by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and regeneration by the Holy Spirit of God, assume real significance and value in our eyes. When it is known and felt, the inestimable blessing of forgiveness of sin is known and valued too. So is the all-sufficient grace of the Holy Ghost. Then too comes watchfulness against the deceit and treachery of the heart; then a steady striving against sin; then a firm resolution not to open the heart to the subtle influences of sin, but rather to crucify the flesh with its affections and lusts; and so what was impossible to unassisted nature becomes an actuality through God"s all-sufficient grace. The Ethiopian skin is transformed to a holy whiteness, the leopard"s spots are done away, the corrupt heart is renewed in holiness after the image of God, and the old man becomes a new creature in Christ Jesus the Lord.
HOMILIES BY A.F. MUIR. Ver. 6. Recurring habits of evil.
The external. "peace and order do not break the entail of evil habitthey continued to do evil.
I OBSERVANCE OF EXTERNAL DECENCIES OF LIFE IS NO SAFEGUARD AGAINST INBRED DEPRAVITY. Only the hearty love and service of God. Probably the "whoring after other gods" began beneath the cloak of an orthodox worship. For a certain time material prosperity may consist with religious laxity.
II BESETTING SINS, UNREPENTED OF, ASSUME MORE AGGRAVATED PHASES. Like the man out of whom the devil had been cast, which, returning from the "dry places," and finding his heart "empty, swept, and garnished," "bringeth seven other devils," etc. It was an idolatrous confusion; there could be no rationale of these systems, harmonising them with the conscience, or even with one another. All sense of raceness has deserted Israel. It plunges heedlessly into a sea of obscurity and filth. M.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On v14 Cry unto the gods which ye have chosen.
Jdg_10:14
Cry unto the gods which ye have chosen.
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Man in trouble crying to his god
I. Every sinner is destined to meet with trouble. Personal afflictions; social bereavements; death.
II. in great trouble he instinctively cries to his god.
1. Every man has a god.
2. Every mans god ought to be able to help him when help is needed.
III. No god can help him in trouble but the true one. (Homilist.)
No help in trouble save from God
Travellers tell us that they who are at the top of the Alps can see great showers of rain fall under them, but not a drop of it falls on them. They who have God for their portion are in a high tower, and thereby safe from all troubles and showers. A drift rain of evil will beat in at the creatures windows, be they never so well pointed: all the garments this world can make up cannot keep them that travel in such weather from being wet to the skin. No creature is able to bear the weight of its fellow-creature, but as reeds break under, and as thorns run into the sides that lean on them. The bow drawn beyond its compass breaks in sunder, and the string wound above its strength snaps in pieces. Such are outward helps to all that trust to them in hardships. (G. Swinnock.)
Helpless gods
It is a most grievous casting them in the teeth, by an ironical mocking of them with their idolatry, as if he should say, Now ye prove and see what your gods can do. As Elias did the like to the prophets of Baal. Therefore by thus speaking, and bidding them go seek help at their idols hands, they having shaken off the Lord, he teacheth us that they whom we have served, and committed ourselves to, must pay us our wages, and to them the Lord justly doth and will send us to their patronage in our greatest need, even to our horror, yea, destruction, if He take us not, as He did these here, to His mercy. They therefore that have trusted, and still do in man, and have made flesh their arm, shall know by experience one day that they have trusted to a bruised reed. Briefly to conclude this doctrine with some other uses thereof, we see secondly by this that God doth import no less than that (by the law of like equity, and by virtue of a far stronger covenant) if this people had persisted faithful in His service He could not have denied their suit for help and defence against their enemies. Thirdly, these words note out this, that it is wisdom for a man to bestow his chief cost there whence he looks for best recompense and acknowledgment in the time of most need. A man is not ashamed of that labour which hath brought him in plentiful gain, but of that which answers not his cost and hope. Men that have run themselves out of breath all their life, groping after a blind happiness, in their unprofitable, superstitious, profane course, at length, seeing themselves deceived, wish they had served a Master who might have saved them and received them into everlasting habitations. Thus the Lord is fain to upbraid men (though not by word, saying, Go to your idols, yet in effect, in that He leaveth them shiftless), or else who should persuade one of a hundred that he soweth among thorns, or loseth his labour and cost, when he casteth it and himself away upon idols? (R. Rogers.)
The misery of forsaking God
I know not how anything can be imagined more sublime, more edifying, or more truly affecting than the delineations of the moral character of the Almighty Governor of the universe, afforded us by Scripture. Immensity of power, combined with the most unrestricted condescension to the wants of the meanest of His creatures; and purity, which charges the very heavens with comparative uncleanness, united with plenitude of compassion. Perhaps, however, there is no passage in the book of the Old Testament more completely to this purpose than the text. Now, be it remembered, that a correct theory of the Divine Being, and sound views of practical morality, are as closely connected with each other as cause and effect. All real morality being the adaptation of our actions to some authentic first rule, and that rule being the presumed will of the great Being who has an undisputed claim to our obedience, it follows as a matter of course that, in order that our standard of morals should be high, our notions of Him to whose approbation that standard is referable should be high in a like proportion. We might as well expect the subsequent course of a stream to be more elevated than its fountain as imagine holy and perfect actions to proceed from belief in an imperfect or impure deity. This con- sideration will at once show us that spiritual debasement is a necessary result of false worship; and will point out the fallaciousness of that favourite assertion of the unbeliever, that accuracy of our abstract notions respecting the Deity is of no consequence provided our practical theory of morality be correct, And now, then, by this infallible test let us try the Christian revelation, comparing it with all that the most plausible surmises of pagan philosophy, or of modern infidelity, have at any time suggested in opposition or rivalry to it. The more substantial theories of paganism on this subject lie in very small compass. It is true that the better disposed heathens in all ages have, from an instinctive feeling of religion, been ready to admit the occasional intervention of Providence with the affairs of mankind, and something like a general system of rewards and punishments, having reference to the morality of human actions. These opinions, however, so far as they went, were, I believe, on all such occasions, rather the spontaneous suggestion of the moral feeling within them, acting against theory, than the result of any deliberate assent of the understanding, founded upon rational inquiry. In fact, I know only of two views of the great question, What is God? or, What is the great moral sanction for the guidance of mans actions? as taken up after mature deliberation by the philosophers of antiquity, which can lay claim to the character of a regular system; the one is that adopted by the Stoics, which pronounces virtue to be so intrinsically lovely in itself as, under all external circumstances, to prove its own reward; the other, that which, though not formally avowed, would, if strictly reasoned out, necessarily result from the principles of the Peripatetics, which, considering the Creator of the universe as the summit of all possible perfection, would represent Him as eternally wrapt up in the contemplation of His own transcendental nature, and consequently indifferent to the vicissitudes which may befall inferior beings. Now it is obvious that both these views, either if entertained as physically true, as affording a substantial first principle of religious morality, are quite unsatisfactory and inoperative. Strange, then, as the proposition may sound in the ears of those who have not been accustomed to consider the doctrines of paganism in all their strictness and in all their consequences, it is undoubtedly true that the belief in a Being at once all perfect in His own nature, and yet at the same time watchfully attentive to all that passes in the creation beneath Him, is the result of revelation only. Our natural reason not only never could have arrived at such a conclusion, but in fact, at the first blush of the question, it absolutely recoils from it. Can God really regard, not merely perishable man, but even the very worms that creep at our feet? Our first impulse, when we consider the presumed impassiveness of its nature, is to say, Certainly not. How can He be at once complete in His own perfection and happiness and accessible to prayer; or, in other words, liable to be influenced by causes external to Himself? Our natural reason is quite unequal to the solution of this difficulty. It is only, I repeat, when we reflect how entirely the whole sum and substance of religion, the elevation of our souls, the establishment of all morality, and the consequent entire welfare of society turn upon this very doctrine, that we learn how much more complete is the revealed wisdom which is from heaven than that which it is given to unassisted man to find out. The question is, not what God might have done, but what He actually has done. The infidel may try to get rid of the difficulty by turning the whole discussion into ridicule, and attempting to show that human life, and all connected with it, is merely like a feverish dream or an ill-told tale without object or connection. The worldly man may assert that, after all that may be said against it, life is still a state of tolerable ease and comfort, and contented with living like the brutes, may think it unnecessary to inquire further; or the more stern philosopher, arguing upon the principles of the ancient Stoics, may assert, contrary to self-evident fact, that life in reality possesses no evil for the truly wise, and that the theory of a future state is not necessary for the vindication of the ways of Providence. But meanwhile the really painful circumstances of our existence will make themselves felt, whether we will or not; and, if we would explain them in a manner satisfactory to our highest notions of Gods goodness, we must have recourse to our Bible. I do not, indeed, say that even in our Bibles we shall find all our difficulties removed. Very far from it; but I do say, that the Bible presupposes the existence of all these very difficulties; that the theory of the Bible would be false did we not find the world precisely what we do find it; and that the great object of the Bible is to show how this very state of things (the great stumbling-block of every other form of religious belief) is part and parcel of the Divine arrangements for the accomplishment of Gods wise and beneficent purposes. Let us pass on to the inferences resulting from these momentous facts. Consider, then, in what a new position, with respect to everything around us, we are all of us placed by this circumstance of the intimate, and almost social, connection which revelation thus declares to exist between ourselves arid our Maker. What a vast interest is communicated to the whole tenor of our existence when we recollect that we are not, as heathen speculation would teach us, placed as in a dreary moral solitude, withdrawn from the superintendence of the Divine mind, who has other and better occupations than to trouble Himself with the details of our sorrows or of our pleasures, of our good or of our bad actions; but that we subsist day and night under His all-searching eye; that not a thought passes through our breasts, not a word escapes our lips, but is pregnant with the consequences of our future weal or woe; that every apparent blessing, every seeming evil with which we are visited, has its peculiar errand and object, viz., the disciplining of our hearts, and the preparing us for immortality! (Bp. Shuttleworth.)
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F. W. Grant 1903 · Public Domain On v6 Subdivision 5. (Jdg 10:6-12.)
Subdivision 5. (Jdg 10:6-12.)
Sowing and reaping: the Ammonite raids.
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The story of Jephthah and his successors comes in the fifth place among these captivities and deliverances; and where all show so strongly the divine government that is over all, it might seem little likely that this should specialize the lesson. Yet it seems really to do so when -and perhaps only when -we bring in the spiritual to interpret the literal. For if Ammon be typically what we have taken it to be, then we can see clearly how the Church, in its departure from God, sows in its own unbelief the seed of every heresy; or, to keep more strictly to the Lord’s illustration, how when men sleep the enemy sows his tares. The Word neglected and despised, opens the way for every perversion of it. And this is righteous retribution.
But from first to last in this subdivision, the lesson seems especially enforced that as the sowing so is the reaping. Look at the Ephraimites in proof, where their own taunt is returned upon them to the full, as well as their harshness.
(1) Again the story is repeated of Israel’s departure from God, and their chastening by the hand of those after whose gods they had gone. Indeed, the gods of every nation round had now their worship, and Jehovah alone is deprived of His. He sells them, therefore, again into the hands of the Philistines and of the Ammonites at once. The Ammonite scourge is spoken of in the section now before us; the Philistine bondage is not broken until we reach the book of Samuel, although Samson, as prophesied of him, begins the deliverance (Jdg 13:5).
The Ammonites depict, as we have found reason to believe (Deu 2:19, sq. n.), what the tares" do in the second parable of the thirteenth of Matthew, the fruit of the seed of Satan’s sowing within the limits of the kingdom of heaven. The good seed is the word of God, and the product of it the children of the kingdom; but the word of God is not what Satan sows, but some corruption of the truth, and the fruit of this is in errorists of multiple forms. This interpretation is confirmed as to the Ammonites by the fact that we find them not content with the subjugation of Israel: they claim, on the ground of their own title to it, to take away the land. From Ammon to Jabbok, the kingdom of Sihon formerly, now the inheritance of Reuben and of Gad, they contend that Israel had robbed firm of all this when they came out of Egypt; and they ask plainly for its restoration. Thus it is plain would heresy take away the portion of the people of God. And it is noteworthy that it is the land east of the Jordan which they openly demand, though, in fact, making this a vantage-ground for their attack upon the tribes across the river.
Now Sihon’s kingdom we have taken to be the dominion of reason, which faith (Reuben) is to reconstitute and hold; and here is commonly where error begins the attack. Even in its superstitious forms it will be found to have its root in rationalism": the word of God is displaced from its authority, as we see in Romanism. Hence we find Jephthah quoting the Word against the king of the Ammonites: much of what he says being simply a quotation from the book of Numbers. The word of God has, indeed, given faith secure title to the whole province of reason, which rationalistic error has ever proved itself incompetent to hold, soon losing it to the Amorites, the infidel "talkers" against God. This is Jephthah’s plea, in fact, against Ammon, that they had so lost it to Sihon before Israel had gained possession, and that from Sihon, in fact, Israel had wrested it. Faith is ever and only the fullest reason and the word of God it is that is alone able to make the whole field of reason a fruitful and goodly portion. If we do not hold it, we expose Judah, Benjamin, and Ephraim, to the Ammonite attack, and open a way to the loss of all heavenly blessings. "If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not," says the Son of God Himself, "how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?"
Of how much importance is it to insist upon this, today! Scripture is true and trustworthy every where, or it is to be trusted nowhere. Let us take our stand boldly there, if we would retain anything of what God has given to us. And away with the unbelieving thought that Scripture is not meant to teach us science! Let us rather say that it is meant to teach whatever it does teach. It is light, not darkness; truth, and only truth; the soul of reason; the illumination of all it touches.
And here the name of the deliverer seems to be most significant. Jephthah is a word we have had already: it is the Jiphtah of Jos 15:43, and the Jiphtah-[el] of Jos 19:14; Jos 19:27. It means "he opens," and in the first place we have taken it as applying to Christ opening the heavenly places for us; in the others, to God’s opening -El being added -whether of spiritual truth, or of the heart to receive it. How simply does this show us the deliverer from the children of Ammon, whether we may apply it to Scripture as opening truth, or Christ as the subject of Scripture, and the true light everywhere. These things are practically one, and in closest relation to what we have just been saying. "Scripture opens" -is truth, is science, puts Sihon’s king into the hand of faith. To maintain it thus is true deliverance from Ammonite heresy; while thus our portion in the land is covered from attack -Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim, are made secure from every inroad of this kind.
Jepththah, too, is a Gileadite, and thus a Manassite. His being made head of Gilead figures largely, as we see, in the deliverance. It is only he who goes on in the truth, making progress in the acquisition of the divine treasure, who can preserve from the Ammonite raider the treasure of the past. But as a Manassite also, let us remember, he enters into the things that are beyond, the heritage across Jordan also, and connects it with the inheritance on this side. He who in the spiritual reality can hold these things together is the true deliverer from the raids of the Ammonite.
(4) As to Jephthah’s vow, there seem haste and failure in it, but surely not the human sacrifice that many have imagined. Most recent commentators agree in this, and believe that his daughter was simply consecrated to God, to live an unmarried life, as verses 37-39 seem plainly to show. There is not a word about death in her case, save what is supposed to be involved in the 31st verse, "I will offer it up a burnt-offering."* But Jephthah’s words to the king of Ammon show him to be acquainted with the law; and by the law such an offering was forbidden as an abomination. (Lev 18:21, etc.) No altar could have been found for it; no priest would have performed it; and the two months of mourning on the mountains would have given ample time for the news of the contemplated sacrifice to have spread far in Israel. To suppose that under the circumstances he could have been ignorant of the law, or that, knowing it, he could have had such a passion to sacrifice the daughter he loved, as in the face of it to persevere in offering to Jehovah an abomination that He hated, seems incredible enough. Everything is against the perpetration of such a crime; and the Hebrew certainly allows the translation of or "instead of" and I will offer it." "The great Jewish commentators of the Middle Ages," says Edersheim, "have, in opposition to the Talmud, pointed out that these two last clauses are not identical. It is never said of an animal burnt-offering that it should be to Jehovah, -for the simple reason that as a burnt-offering it is such. But where human beings are offered to Jehovah, there the expression is used, as in the case of the first-born among Israel and of Levi (Num 3:12-13). But in these cases it has never been suggested that there was actual human sacrifice." He urges, as do others: "If the loving daughter had devoted herself to death, it is next to incredible that she should have wished to have spent the two months of life conceded to her, not with her broken-hearted father, but in the mountains with her companions."
{*The same word as translated elsewhere "burnt-offering," but the idea of burning is not necessarily implied. Solomon’s "ascent by which he went up to the house of Jehovah" (1Ki 10:5) is the same word: it means "what ascends," and it seems well to avoid here the unnecessary difficulty connected with the use of the common English term. (See the Notes.)}
After all, the word does not actually mean, in Hebrew, "burnt-offering," but simply an "offering that ascends" -all ascends -to God. And this makes a great difference. Jephthah did not pledge himself that the offering should be burnt, though that were the way in which an animal sacrifice would "ascend." I have felt a necessity, therefore, of omitting this word from the translation. It is probably all that is really needed to avoid the difficulty.
In any case the history remains a witness to and against the terrible legality of the human heart which could thus shadow the joy of such a deliverance at the moment of its being granted. Such vowing is now expressly forbidden by our Lord: "Ye have heard that it was said to them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths; but I say unto you, Swear not at all." God’s will needs not man’s will to supplement, but only to obey, it. To undertake obedience all uncalled for is only to subject one’s self to bondage to one’s own infirmity.
As tested, however, by the consequences of his vow, Jephthah, though smitten to the heart, abides the test, and proves his loyalty to Jehovah, a loyalty shared to the full by his noble daughter. Not even her name is inscribed upon the record here, but she fully takes her place among the great historic women of Israel.
(5) We have still to speak of the Ephraimite outrage and its chastisement. It is a more violent repetition of their conduct toward Gideon, but which meets in this case a terrible retribution. The pride of Ephraim is typically an admonition for us, -a much-needed one. How readily does "fruitfulness" get spoiled by the blight of self-complacency! -and what sore rebukes does it necessitate for us, that we may be delivered from that which was the condemnation of the devil! (1Ti 3:6). Their taunting words as to the Gileadites became true to the letter as to themselves when they became, indeed, "fugitives of Ephraim among the Manassites," who, alas, do not spare them. The quarrels of brethren are, of all, the severest: in proportion to the closeness of the ties sundered is the bitterness aroused: civil strife is proverbially the most uncivil.
2. Very briefly indeed we have now the account of Jephthah’s successors. As the quiet for twenty-five years after his death was doubtless the result of his victory, so also do they seem to represent, in their names and connection, the consequences spiritually. We have scarcely anything except names here; so that, if these are meaningless, the history as a whole can be little else. Any escape from such a conclusion -any light where otherwise all must be darkness cannot then but be welcome.
(1) There are three successors, the first two of whom are Zebulonites; the third apparently an Ephraimite. Of Ibzan himself we have only the fact of his being a Bethlehemite. This Bethlehem is not that of Judah, but the one named in Joshua (19: 15) as belonging to Zebulon. Of course it has the same significance. Ibzan is said to mean "labor," "great labor." This is from the near-akin Chaldee. If from the Hebrew directly, then we must decide for "white," perhaps "shining." Taking the first, and remembering that Jephthah speaks of "opening" the truth, "labor" in the "place of bread" seems nearly and naturally connected as a consequence. On, the other hand, "white," the common symbol of purity, is no less natural; and more suitable, perhaps, in the place in which he stands here, first in succession. Sanctification is by the truth, and that satisfaction for the soul which "bread" -the "bread of life" -denotes, is a main element in sanctification. That he is a Zebulonite is quite in keeping; and the ties that we find spoken of as binding him with others may well imply the spiritual links that form where the word of God is felt in power and spread abroad. He is a fitting successor; then, to Jephthah.
(2) Elon, the "oak," comes next, implying strength as the product of life and growth. Growth by the truth fits well the second place, -Elon being again a Zebulonite. Nothing else is recorded of him but that he judged Israel ten years and was buried in Ajalon.
(3) The third judge is Abdon, "service," the son of Hillel, "praising," a Pirathonite, or dweller in "freedom," -thoughts which are too coherent and too easily understood in their connection by every Christian heart to need either expansion or insisting on. That Pirathon is in Ephraim connects again liberty with fruitfulness; and "in the mount of the Amalekites" may refer to some past victory over them, or at least to a possession of the land on their part which no longer existed. In the whole of this the spirit of consecration speaks, and that is doubtless the truth presented here. The free service which is the fruit of praise has succeeded to the old Amalekite misrule of "lusts that war in the members": and this, with what has been brought before us in the judges preceding Abdon, gives us well the fruit of such victories as those of Jephthah typify, -for us the victories of the Word of truth.
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v6 5. Fifth Declension: Under the Philistines and Ammon. Jephthah,…
5. Fifth Declension: Under the Philistines and Ammon. Jephthah, Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon
CHAPTER 10:6-18
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1. The great declension (Jdg 10:6-9)
2. Their cry and the Lord’s answer (Jdg 10:10-14)
3. Confession and self-judgment (Jdg 10:15-18)
This is the greatest declension yet. They did evil again, served Baalim, Ashtaroth, the gods of Syria, Zidon, Moab, Ammon and the Philistines. They were then sold by the Lord into the hands of the Philistines and into the hands of the children of Ammon. Ammon has rightly been taken to typify rationalism in every form and the wicked doctrines, the denials of the faith, which follow in its train. Christian Science, Russellism, higher criticism, Seventh Day Adventism, Unitarianism and a host of other “isms” are of the Ammonite tribe. The Philistines typify ritualism. Like Ammon and the Philistines, these two enemies distress sorely the people of God from all sides. Then they cried unto Him and confessed their sins, and Jehovah reminded them of all His goodness in past deliverances and threatened them that He would not deliver them. “Go and cry unto the gods which ye have chosen; let them deliver you in the time of your tribulation.” But when they continued to plead and to confess, when they put away the strange gods, when they began to serve Him again, though He had denied their first cry--His soul was grieved for the misery of Israel. What a compassionate Lord He is! Then they gathered together and encamped at Mizpah--the watchtower.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v6 The Oppression of the Philistines and Amorites
The Oppression of the Philistines and Amorites
v. 6. And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord, this being some fifty years after the death of Gideon, and served Baalim and Ashtaroth, the male and female deities of the Canaanites, whose service Gideon had overthrown, and the gods of Syria, or Aram, whose king had been defeated by Othniel, and the gods of Zidon, or Phenicia, and the gods of Moab, whom Ehud had smitten, and the gods of the children of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines, and forsook the Lord, and served not Him, preferring, instead, Baal in his various forms, Ashtaroth, Astarte, Camos, Milcom, or Moldch, and Dagon, as the idols of these heathen were called. The service of these false gods was often connected with the most revolting immorality, the most unnatural rites, not the least of which was the sacrifice of children.
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v. 7. And the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel, kindled to a consuming flame, and He sold them into the hands of the Philistines, who oppressed them from the west, and into the hands of the children of Ammon, who made their raids from the east.
v. 8. And that year, when the Lord first delivered Israel into their hands, they vexed and oppressed, broke and crushed, the children of Israel, but that was merely the beginning of the punishment; eighteen years, all the children of Israel that were on the other side Jordan in the land of the Amorites, which is in Gilead. So the two and one half tribes were the chief sufferers in this oppression at the hands of the children of Ammon.
v. 9. Moreover, the children of Ammon passed over Jordan to fight also against Judah, the powerful tribe which had, till now, practically been spared, and against Benjamin and against the house of Ephraim, so that Israel was sore distressed, powerless before the robbing of their harvests, the plundering of their villages, the exacting of tribute.
v. 10. And the children of Israel, brought to their senses at last, cried unto the Lord, saying, We have sinned against Thee, both because we have forsaken our God, whose worship naturally had fallen into decay, and also served Baalim.
v. 11. And the Lord said unto the children of Israel, very likely through the high priest then in office, for their representatives had undoubtedly come to Shiloh to make their confession of guilt, Did not I deliver you from the Egyptians, Exodus 1-14, and from the Amorites, Numbers 21, from the children of Ammon, Jdg 3:13, and from the Philistines, Jdg 3:31?
v. 12. The Zidonians also, who were allies of Jabin, Jdg 4:2, and the Amalekites, Exodus 17, and the Maonites, who were allies of the Amalekites, did oppress you; and ye cried to Me, and I delivered you out of their hand. His kindness toward them had been untiring, His goodness unparalleled.
v. 13. Yet ye have forsaken Me and served other gods; wherefore I will deliver you no more. Cf Deu 32:37-38. They had chosen their gods; let these gods help them; this was a just punishment.
v. 14. Go and cry unto the gods which ye have chosen; let them deliver you in the time of your tribulation. If a person has repeatedly experienced God’s help and yet has time and again turned back to sin, God will finally refuse to hear his pleading.
v. 15. And the children of Israel, truly repentant and fully conscious of their utter helplessness, said unto the Lord, We have sinned; do Thou unto us whatsoever seemeth good unto Thee, anything in the line of a direct punishment; deliver us only, we pray Thee, this day.
v. 16. And they put away the strange gods, introduced among them by the strange, the heathen nations, from among them and served the Lord, thus giving evidence of their sincere repentance; and His soul was grieved for the misery of Israel, literally, "it became too short," the misery of the penitent people now lasted too long for Him, He no longer felt anger against them.
v. 17. Then the children of Ammon were gathered together and encamped in Gilead, in the part of Gilead occupied by them. And the children of Israel, at least the tribes concerned in the present oppression, if not the entire nation, assembled themselves together and encamped in Mizpeh, that is, Ramoth in Gilead, some ten miles west of Jordan.
v. 18. And the people and princes of Gilead, all the nobles and rulers of the tribes east of Jordan, together with all their hosts, said one to another, What man is he that will begin to fight against the children of Ammon, the advantage being on the side of the aggressor? He shall be head over all the inhabitants of Gilead, not king, but leader, whom they would gladly follow as the man selected by God. God is rich in grace, patience, and mercy. He who seeks Him in earnest repentance is accepted by Him and delivered from all his afflictions.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv6, 8, 10, 13, 15, 17 added to the evil they had done in the…
added to the evil they had done in the sight of Yahweh
This speaks of evil as if it were an object that a person could add to and make bigger. AT: "continued doing what Yahweh said was evil" (See: Metaphor)
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in the sight of Yahweh
The sight of Yahweh represents Yahweh's judgment or evaluation. AT: "according to Yahweh" (See: Metaphor)
Ashtoreths
This is the plural of Ashtoroth, who was worshiped as a goddess in many different forms. See how you translated this in Judges 2:13.
They abandoned Yahweh and no longer worshiped him
The author basically said the same thing twice for emphasis. These can be combined. AT: "They completely stopped worshiping Yahweh" (See: Parallelism)
They abandoned Yahweh
No longer obeying and worshiping Yahweh is spoken of as if the people left Yahweh and went somewhere else. (See: Metaphor)
Yahweh burned with anger toward Israel
Yahweh becoming angry is spoken of as if anger were a burning fire. AT: "Yahweh was very angry at Israel" (See: Metaphor)
he sold them into the hand of the Philistines and into the hand of the Ammonites
Yahweh allowing the Philistines and the Ammonites to defeat the Israelites is spoken of as if he sold the Israelites to them. (See: Metaphor)
into the hand
Here "hand" represents power or control. (See: Metonymy)
translationWords
Israel
evil
Yahweh
worship
Baal
false god
Aram
Sidon
Moab
Ammon
Philistines
anger
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.