Judges 3:31

And after him was Shamgar the son of Anath,.... That is, after the death of Ehud, when the people of Israel were in distress again from another quarter, this man was raised up of God to be a judge

And after him was Shamgar the son of Anath, which slew of the Philistines six hundred men with an ox goad: and he also delivered Israel. After him was Shamgar.

Slew six hundred men with an ox-goad; as Samson did a thousand with the jaw-bone of an ass; both being miraculous actions, and not at all incredible to him that believes a God, who could easily give strength both to the persons and to their weapons to effect this.

Judges 3:31 And after him was Shamgar the son of Anath, which slew of the Philistines six hundred men with an ox goad: and he also delivered Israel.Ver. 31. And after him was Shamgar.] Who if he were not Judex, yet surely he was Vindex, renowned for this one thing only, that he slew so many of the enemy with so mean a weapon. Samson did the like with the jaw bone of an ass. What cannot the Lord do when his will is that his people shall be helped with a little help, that through weaker means they may see God’ s greater strength

(31) Shamgar.—Mentioned here alone, and alluded to in Judges 5:6. The son of Anath.—There was a Beth-anath in Naphtali, but Shamgar could hardly have belonged to Northern Israel. We know nothing of Shamgar’s tribe or family, but, as neither his name nor that of his father is Jewish, it has been conjectured that he may have been a Kenite; a conjecture which derives some confirmation from his juxtaposition with Jael in Judges 5:6. Shamgar means “name of a stranger” (comp. Grershom, “a stranger there”). Samgar-Nebo is the name of a Babylonian general (Jeremiah 39:3). Six hundred men.—It has been most needlessly assumed that he slew them single-handed, and not, as is probable, at the head of a band of peasants armed with the same rude weapons as himself. If he slew 600 with his own hand, the whole number that perished would almost certainly have been added. There is, indeed, no impossibility (even apart from Divine assistance, which is implied though not expressly attributed to him) in the supposition that in a battle which may have lasted for more than one day a single chief may with his own hand have killed this number, for we are told that in a night battle against Moawijah, Ali raised a shout each time he had killed an enemy, and his voice was heard 300 times in one night; and a story closely resembling that of Shamgar is narrated of a Swedish peasant; but the question here is merely one of interpretation, and nothing is more common in Scripture, as in all literature, than to say that a leader personally did what was done under his leadership, e.g., “Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands” (1 Samuel 18:7). With an ox goad.—The LXX. (Codex B) and Vulgate have “with a ploughshare;” and the Alexandrian Codex of the LXX. renders it “besides the oxen.” These translations are not tenable. The phrase occurs here alone—bemalmad ha bâkâr; literally, “with a thing to teach oxen.” There can be little doubt that an ox-goad is meant. In the East they are sometimes formidable implements, eight feet long, pointed with a strong sharp iron head. The use of them—since whips were not used for cattle—is alluded to in 1 Samuel 13:21; Acts 9:5. Being disarmed, the Israelites would be unable to find any more effective weapon (Judges 5:6; Judges 5:8). Disarmament was the universal policy of ancient days (1 Samuel 13:19); and this reduced the Israelites to the use of inventive skill in very simple weapons (1 Samuel 17:40; 1 Samuel 17:43). Samson had nothing better than the jawbone of an ass (Judges 15:15). Similarly the Thracian king Lycurgus is said to have chased the Bacchanals with an ox-goad (bouplêgi, II. vi. 134), and that in this very neighbourhood (“near Carmel,” Nonnus, Dionys. 20). The Athenians, in their painting of Marathon, in the Pœcile, represented the gigantic rustic, Echetlus, who was supposed to have slain so many of the Persians, with his ploughshare (Pausan. i. 15, § 4). Comp. Hom. Iliad, vi. 134.

Verse 31. And after him was Shamgar the son of Anath] Dr. Hales supposes that "Shamgar's administration in the West included Ehud's administration of eighty years in the East; and that, as this administration might have been of some continuance, so this Philistine servitude which is not noticed elsewhere, might have been of some duration; as may be incidentally collected from Deborah's thanksgiving, Jude 5:6." Slew - six hundred men with an ox-goad] מלמד הבקר malmad habbakar, the instructer of the oxen. This instrument is differently understood by the versions: the Vulgate has vomere, with the coulter or ploughshare, a dreadful weapon in the hand of a man endued with so much strength; the Septuagint has αροτροποδιτωνβοων, with the ploughshare of the oxen; the Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic, understand it of the goad, as does our translation. 1. THAT the ox-goad, still used in Palestine, is a sufficiently destructive weapon if used by a strong and skilful hand, is evident enough from the description which Mr. Maundrell gives of this implement, having seen many of them both in Palestine and Syria: "It was observable," says he, "that in ploughing they used goads of an extraordinary size; upon measuring of several I found them about eight feet long, and at the bigger end about six inches in circumference. They were armed at the lesser end with a sharp prickle for driving the oxen, and at the other end with a small spade or paddle of iron, strong and massy, for cleansing the plough from the clay that encumbers it in working." See his Journey from Aleppo, c., 7th edit., pp. 110, 111. In the hands of a strong, skilful man, such an instrument must be more dangerous and more fatal than any sword. It is worthy of remark that the ox-goad is represented by Homer to have been used prior to this time in the same way. In the address of Diomed to Glaucus, Iliad. lib. vi., ver. 129, Lycurgus is represented as discomfiting Bacchus and the Bacchanals with this weapon. The siege of Troy, according to the best chronologers, happened within the time of the Israelitish judges. Ουκανεγωγεθεοισινεπουρανιοισιμαχοιμην· ΟυδεγαρουδεΔρυαντοςυἱοςκρατεροςΛυκουργος * * * * * * * * * Σευεκατ' ηγαθεονΝυσσηΐον·αἱδ' ἁμαπασαι Θυσθλαχαμαικατεχευαν, ὑπ' ανδροφονοιοΛυκουργου Θεινομεναιβουπληγι. "I fight not with the inhabitants of heaven That war Lycurgus, son of Dryas, waged, Nor long survived. - From Nyssa's sacred heights He drove the nurses of the frantic god, Thought drowning Bacchus: to the ground they cast All cast, their leafy wands; while, ruthless, he Spared not to smite them with his murderous goad." The meaning of this fable is: Lycurgus, king of Thrace, finding his subjects addicted to drunkenness, proscribed the cultivation of the vine in his dominions, and instituted agriculture in its stead; thus θυσθλα, the thyrsi, were expelled, βουπληγι, by the ox-goad. The account, however, shows that Shamgar was not the only person who used the ox-goad as an offensive weapon. If we translate βουπληξ a cart-whip, the parallel is lost. 2.

31. Shamgar the son of Anath] was unknown to the author of Jdg 4:1, who passes at once from Ehud to Deborah. Shamgar is often reckoned as one of the minor Judges, but the account given of him is not modelled on the form of Jdg 10:1-5, Judges 12:8-15; no date is attached to the period of his activity, and he is not included in the chronology of the Book. It is clear that this brief notice was inserted after the Dtc. compiler had done his work. Further, an exploit against the Philistines in the period between Ehud and Deborah comes too early; the Philistines do not appear in history as enemies of Israel till the time of Saul (in the Samson story they are not yet the aggressors); the verse would be more in place after Judges 16:31, and there in fact some mss. of the LXX actually insert it as well as here (so Aldine edn. of LXX, Syro-Hexaplar and Slav. Versions). Its present position is no doubt due to the mention of Shamgar ben Anβth in Judges 5:6, which gives the impression that he was an oppressor, not a deliverer, of Israel in the days just before Deborah: he has no connexion with the Philistine country; the area of the oppression lies in the district of the northern tribes. This is all that we know of Shamgar1[30]. His name is foreign; cf. Sangara, a Hittite king of Carchemish in the time of Ashurnasipal and Shalmaneser II1[31] (the Samgar-nebo of Jer 39:3 is probably a textual error); no Israelite could have been called ‘son of (the goddess) Anβth,’ who was worshipped in early times in Syria and Palestine, as appears from the old Canaanite place-names, Anathoth, Beth-anath etc.2[32] It is curious that one of the allies of the Hittite king Sangara just mentioned bears the name Bur-anati (king of Jasbuki3[33]). The exploit here recorded resembles that of Samson in Judges 15:14 f., and still more closely that of Shammah ben Agee, one of David’s mighty men, at Lehi, 2 Samuel 23:11 f. (which has been influenced by Samson’s story); cf. also 2 Samuel 21:15-22. It is probable that the author of this verse derived his particulars in a general way from these sources, and attached them to the Shamgar of Jdg 5:6. [30] Nestle in Journ. Th. St. xiii. p. 424 f. shews that in some early Latin chronologies Shamgar was both placed after Samson, and regarded as an oppressor though also as a judge! [31] Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek i. p. 139. [32] See further NSI., p. 80 f. [33] KB. i. 159. This has been pointed out by Ball in Smith’s Dict. of the Bible2, s.v. Ishbak. an ox goad] A pole from 6 to 8 feet long, with a pointed end of iron, the κέντρον of Acts 26:14; it could be used readily as a spear.

From this verse and Judges 5:6 we may gather that Shamgar was contemporary with Jael, and that he only procured a temporary and partial deliverance for Israel by his exploit. He may have been of the tribe of Judah.

OF SHAMGAR, Judges 3:31.31. Shamgar — His tribe is not known, but it is probable that he belonged to a tribe bordering on the Philistines — Judah, Simeon, or Dan.