Judges 3:3

[Namely], five lords of the Philistines,.... The places they were lords of were Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron; see Joshua 13:3; three of these, Gaza, Ashkelon, and Ekron, had been taken

Only that the generations of the children of Israel might know, to teach them war, at the least such as before knew nothing thereof; No JFB commentary on these verses.

Five lords of the Philistines; whereof three had been in some sort subdued, , but afterwards rescued themselves, and recovered their former strength. See Poole on "". The Canaanites; properly so called, who were very numerous, and dispersed through several parts of the land whence they gave denomination to all the rest of the people. The Sidonians; the people living near Sidon, and subject to its jurisdiction. Mount Baal-hermon was the eastern part of Mount Lebanon: see ,9.

Judges 3:3 [Namely], five lords of the Philistines, and all the Canaanites, and the Sidonians, and the Hivites that dwelt in mount Lebanon, from mount Baalhermon unto the entering in of Hamath.Ver. 3. Five lords of the Philistines.] Three of them had been subdued; but were now lost again.

(3) Five lords of the Philistines.—The princes of the Pentapolis, Gaza, Ashdod, Askelon, Gath, Ekron. The word rendered “lords” is evidently a technical or local title—Seranim. It is rendered by the LXX. “satrapies,” and by the Vulgate, “satraps.” It is variously derived from seren, “a hinge” (comp. “cardinal” from “cardo”); from sar, “a prince,” being interchanged with sarim, in 1 Sam. 13:30; 1 Samuel 29:6 (Ewald, i. 332); and from some Phœnician root. For the Philistines, see Judges 13:1. All the Canaanites.—Of the shephçlah or maritime plain. The Sidonians.—In Genesis 10:15 “Sidon” is the eldest son of Canaan. They maintained their complete independence to the last. The Hivites that dwelt in Mount Lebanon.—In Joshua 11:3 they are described as living “under Hermon, in the land at Mizpeh,” whence Mizpeh has been identified with “el-Mutalleh,” which also means “the look-out” or “watch-tower.” The name has been derived from Havvah, a circular encampment or village, because they lived (as they do to this day in northern Syria) in circular villages, with enclosures for cattle in the centre. Ewald ( i. 318) supposes that the word means “midlanders,” and Gesenius “villagers.” The Hivite is the sixth son of Canaan, in Genesis 10:17. Mount Baal-hermon unto the entering in of Hamath.—In Joshua 13:5 we have “from Baal-gad under mount Hermon unto,” &c. Baal-gad is also mentioned in Joshua 12:7; Joshua 11:17, and is usually supposed to be Paneas or Cesarea Philippi. It was probably a temple of Baal, but must be farther south than Baalbek. The hill of Paneas is therefore, in all probability, “ Mount Baal-hermon,” and Baal-hermon may be only another name for Baal-gad. Fürst supposes that both Gad and Gedi (in Engedi) are names of Astarte. The entering in of Hamath.—This is the usual phrase to describe the northern boundary of Canaan. The LXX. take it as a proper name, Labo emath.

3. This verse should be compared with Joshua 13:2-6 D. The nations here are those occupying particular districts in W. Palestine; contrast Judges 3:5, and the races mentioned in ch. 1. the five lords of the Philistines] Probably one for each of the five cities named in 1 Samuel 6:17, cf. Joshua 13:3. The word for ‘lords’ (seren, sing.) is only found in this connexion, cf. ch. 16; it is evidently a native title. and all the Canaanites] Hardly the entire population of W. Palestine, as in J (see Judges 1:34 n.), but ‘Canaanites’ in the restricted sense found in E and D, viz. the inhabitants of the sea coast and Jordan valley, cf. Numbers 13:29 E; Deuteronomy 1:7; Deuteronomy 11:30; Joshua 5:1; Joshua 13:3 f. D; Zephaniah 2:5. Similarly in the Amarna tablets Kinaḥ ?ḥ ?i (Canaan), and in some Egypt. inscr. Ka-n-’-na as a geographical term, appears to be limited to the northern ‘lowland ‘or sea coast (Ency. Bibl. art. Canaan). the Zidonians] is a general term for the Phoenicians, used in the O.T. (Deuteronomy 3:9; Joshua 13:4; Joshua 13:6; Judges 10:12; Judges 18:7 etc.), by the Assyrians, and the Greeks, and the Phoenicians themselves1[25] [25] See NSI., pp. 54, 352.the Hivites that dwelt in mount Lebanon] Elsewhere the Hivites inhabit the centre of Canaan, Genesis 34:2, Joshua 9:7 etc.; the Lebanon district belonged to the kingdom of the Hittites (Judges 1:26 n.), which extended from the far N.W. till it touched Canaan at this point. Hence for Hivites read Hittites, cf. Joshua 11:3 LXX mount Baal-hermon] i.e. the mountain to which the town of Baal-hermon (1 Chronicles 5:23) gave its name. But such a designation is contrary to usage; Joshua 13:5 D, in a passage closely resembling this, has ‘Baal-gad under Mt Hermon,’ which may be the correct reading here (Budde, Nowack); or we may simply follow LXX. cod. B ‘mount H.’ the entering in of Hamath] frequently marks the N. boundary of Canaan or of Israel, Numbers 13:21; Numbers 34:8; Joshua 13:5; 1 Kings 8:65; 2 Kings 14:25 etc. The ‘Entrance of H.’ is the great valley between Lebanon and Hermon-Antilibanus, called Coele-Syria in classical times, and now ‘The Valley’ (El-Biḳ ?a‘, cf. Joshua 11:17); Moore, however, considers it to have been the plain of Ḥ ?ömṣ ?, 30 m. S. of Hamaṭ ?h. The city itself (now Ḥ ?amâ) lay on the Orontes, about 150 m. N. of Dan, but its territory stretched 50 m. to the S., as far as Riblah (2 Kings 23:33). Hamath is mentioned in Egyptian monuments and the Amarna letters before the Israelite invasion, and in the inscrr. of the Assyrian kings (Schrader COT. 323).

Lords - Seranim, a title used exclusively of the princes of the five Philistine cities. The title is probably of Phoenician origin.

3. Five lords of the Philistines — Namely, the kings or chiefs of the five great cities, Gaza, Ashdod, Eshkalon, Gath, and Ekron. See notes on Joshua 13:2-6, with which passage this is substantially identical.