1 1 And it came to pass after the death of Joshua, that the children of Israel asked of the LORD, saying, Who shall go up for us first against the Canaanites, to fight against them? And the LORD said, Judah shall go up : behold, I have delivered the land into his hand. And Judah said unto Simeon his brother, Come up with me into my lot, that we may fight against the Canaanites ; and I likewise will go with thee into thy lot. So Simeon went with him. And Judah went up ; and the LORD delivered the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hand : and they smote of them in Bezek ten thousand men. And they found Adoni-bezek in Bezek : and they fought against him, and they smote the Canaanites and the Perizzites. But Adoni-bezek fled ; and they pursued after him, and caught him, and cut off his thumbs and his great toes. And Adoni-bezek said, Threescore and ten kings, having their thumbs and their great toes cut off, gathered their meat under my table : as I have done, so God hath requited me. And they brought him to Jerusalem, and he died there.

Verses 8-36. Partial Conquests by the Tribes on the west of Jordan of their several allotted territories. Of each tribe it is added, “he drave not out the Canaanites.”

2 1 And the angel of the LORD came up from Gilgal to Bochim. And he said, I made you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you unto the land which I sware unto your fathers ; and I said, I will never break my covenant with you : and ye shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land ; ye shall break down their altars : but ye have not hearkened unto my voice : why have ye done this? Wherefore I also said, I will not drive them out from before you ; but they shall be as thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare unto you. And it came to pass, when the angel of the LORD spake these words unto all the children of Israel, that the people lifted up their voice, and wept. And they called the name of that place Bochim [Weepers] : and they sacrificed there unto the LORD.

11. And the children of Israel did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, and served the Baalim : and they forsook the LORD, the God of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the peoples that were round about them, and bowed themselves down unto them : and they provoked the LORD to anger. And they forsook the LORD, and served Baal and the Ashtaroth. And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them, and he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about, so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies. Whithersoever they went out, the hand of the LORD was against them for evil, as the LORD had spoken, and as the LORD had sworn unto them : and they were sore distressed. And the LORD raised up judges, which saved them out of the hand of those that spoiled them. And yet they hearkened not unto their judges, for they went a whoring after other gods, and bowed themselves down unto them : they turned aside quickly out of the way wherein their fathers walked, obeying the commandments of the LORD ; but they did not so. And when the LORD raised them up judges, then the LORD was with the judge, and saved them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge : for it repented the LORD because of their groaning by reason of them that oppressed them and vexed them. But it came to pass, when the judge was dead, that they turned back, and dealt more corruptly than their fathers, in following other gods to serve them, and to bow down unto them ; they ceased not from their doings, nor from their stubborn way. And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel ; and he said, Because this nation have transgressed my covenant which I commanded their fathers, and have not hearkened unto my voice ; I also will not henceforth drive out any from before them of the nations which Joshua left when he died : that by them I may prove Israel, whether they will keep the way of the LORD to walk therein, as their fathers

23 did keep it, or not. So the LORD left those nations, without driving them out hastily; neither delivered he them into the hand of Joshua.

3 1 Now these are the nations which the LORD left, to prove Israel by them, even as many 2 as had not known all the wars of Canaan; only that the generations of the children of Israel 3 might know, to teach them war, at the least such as beforetime knew nothing thereof; namely, the five lords of the Philistines, and all the Canaanites, and the Zidonians, and the Hivites 4 that dwelt in mount Lebanon, from mount Baal-hermon unto the entering in of Hamath. And they were for to prove Israel by them, to know whether they would hearken unto the com- mandments of the LORD, which he commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses.

The Mosaic theocracy presents the peculiar phenomenon of being originally unprovided with a definite office for executing the power of the state. Jehovah Himself acts, as circumstances demand, in the immediate exercise of power, in order to execute His kingly will and to maintain the covenant law; but for the rest, only the assurance is expressed (Nu. 27 : 16 f.) that Jehovah will not leave His congregation as a flock without a shepherd, but will always, again and again, appoint a leader over them and endow him with His Spirit, as He raised up Joshua in Moses’ stead, and afterward the Judges. And the whole history of the people in the time of the Judges is to be understood only on the presupposition that there was no established executive power in the state. O.—The Book of Judges furnishes a striking picture of the disorders and dangers which prevailed in a republic without magistracy, when “the highways were unoccupied, and the travellers walked through by-ways,” when few prophets arose to control the people, and “every one did that which was right in his own eyes.” It exhibits the contest of true religion with superstition, and represents the miseries and evil consequences of impiety; affording a complete verification of the warnings and predictions of Moses, that the children of Israel should be prosperous or unfortunate according as they obeyed or violated the Divine commands. The whole period is distinguished by a display of extraordinary events, and by miraculous proofs of Divine interposition. The history of God’s government must necessarily be characterized by the demonstrations of his immediate agency; and the selected instrument of his will may well be expected to exhibit a succession of unprecedented exploits. Bush.

The Book of Judges is mainly a history of the troubled portion of the period; and as in a storm-record we are expected to imagine for ourselves long intervals of sunny weather, so in this history we must make room for long intervals of peace and of freedom from oppression. The record, indeed, gives us to understand that the years of general prosperity far outnumbered those of adversity. N. C. B.—By a superficial reader, the whole period under the Judges may be easily mistaken for an uninterrupted series of idolatries and crimes, from his not observing that the lapses which incurred punishment and the divine deliverances which attended repentance are related so fully as to occupy almost the whole narrative; while long periods, when under the government of the Judges the people followed God and the land enjoyed peace, are passed over in a single verse, as productive of no events which required a particular detail. Graves.

The book is a mere register of diseases, from which, however, we have no right to conclude that there were no healthy men, much less that there were no healthy seasons; when the book itself for the most part mentions only a few tribes in which the epidemic prevailed, and notices long periods during which it had universally ceased. Jahn.—To suppose that there was nothing during all the centuries covered by this book but an unbroken series of apostasies and judgments, would be as correct as to infer from a modern criminal calendar that there were none but law-breakers in the country. The writer selects of purpose those events in the history which taught the lesson that he wished to inculcate. W. H. G.

The servitudes occupy only 111 years; the time of peaceful independence, 319 years, if we take the whole period as 430 years. The recurring phrase, “the land had rest 40—80—40—40 years,” is another illustration of the general tranquillity which characterized the period of the Judges, notwithstanding the sad interruptions which occurred. Hence, in the coming millennial restoration of Israel, Jehovah promises (Is. 1 : 26, compare 32 : 1), “I will restore thy judges as at the first,” namely, as in Israel’s happiest days of the theocracy. A. R. F.—Under their government the nation enjoyed periods of repose, happiness, and plenty, of which the history of other ancient nations affords but few examples. E. C. W.

We see here two grand outstanding facts, one explaining the outer, the other the inner history of Israel. As for the latter, we learn that ever since the sin of Peor idolatry had its hold upon the people. As for the outer history of Israel, we learn that the completion of their possession of Canaan was made dependent on their faithfulness to Jehovah. Side by side with these two facts there is yet a third, and that the most important: the unchanging faithfulness of the Lord, His unfailing pity and lovingkindness, according to which, when Israel was brought low and again turned to Him, He “raised them up judges, . . . and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge” (ch. 2 : 18). The exhibition of these three facts forms the subject-matter of Israel’s history under the Judges, as clearly indicated here. Accordingly, we must not expect in the Book of Judges a complete or successive history of Israel, but rather the exhibition and development of those three grand facts. A. E.

The Hebrews in the Days of the Judges.

The Israelites were a nation of farmers, and each farmer was the proprietor of his own farm. The lands were adapted chiefly for grain, fruit, and pasture. Wheat, millet, barley, and beans were the principal kinds of grain; flax and cotton were also cultivated, and small garden herbs. The orchards were exceedingly productive. The olive, fig, pomegranate, vine, almond, and apple were all common; and a great part of the time of the Hebrews, in days of peace, must have been spent in cultivating these fruit-trees. As beasts of burden, they had the ox, the camel, and the ass; while sheep and goats constituted the staple of their flocks. Their grain harvest began about the beginning of our April and lasted for about two months. Summer followed in June and July, and was the season for gathering the garden fruits. The next two months were still warmer, so that the sheep-shearing would have to be overtaken before they set in. During all this time little or no rain falls in Palestine. October and November are the seed-time. “The former rain” falls now. December and January are the winter months, when frost and snow are not uncommon; February and March are also cold. “The latter rains” fall at this season.

The ordinary employments of the Hebrew farmer were ample and varied, but not very toil-some; and often they were pleasantly interrupted. Thrice a year the males went up to Shiloh, to the three great festivals—Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles. Each seventh day was a holy Sabbath to the Lord, devoted to rest and worship. At each new moon there was also a holy day. The education of the children was chiefly in the hands of their parents, assisted by the Levites, who were scattered over the country, and paid from the tithes of the whole produce. On the whole, the Hebrews, in times of peace, led during this period a quiet, unambitious, country life. Occasionally, as in the song of Deborah, we meet with proofs that music and song and literary culture were not neglected. But on the whole, neither learning, mechanical arts, manufactures, commerce, nor the fine arts, were vigorously cultivated, or made much progress during this period. Each man was content to sit under his vine, and under his fig-tree: and the children of a family were usually quite pleased to divide the possessions, and follow the occupations of their fathers.

Points of Contemporary History.

In Egypt, the most magnificent temples, tombs, palaces, obelisks, statues, sphinxes, and other works of art, were executed during this period. In point of material glory, Egypt sat as a queen, with no one as yet to dispute her wonderful pre-eminence. Very little is known of Assyria and Babylon during this period. Babylon was now incorporated with the Assyrian empire, the great ruling power of Asia. The seat of empire was transferred to Nineveh, which was now rising toward the magnitude and magnificence of its palmy days. The Phoenicians appear to have advanced steadily in their commercial career. Tyre, founded by a colony from Sidon, which it soon eclipsed in glory, was built during this period. Of all the countries that begin during this period to loom in the horizon of history, the most interesting by far is Greece. There is no doubt that while the Judges were ruling Israel, there appeared in Greece a very remarkable people,—the Hellenes, from whom the country was called Hellas. For about two hundreds years Greece was filled with their exploits and adventures. They furnished the great mine from which the Greek poets drew their materials. W. G. B.

Rise of the Judges; Their Call and Functions.

The course of events during the four centuries preceding the time when Samuel filled the post of Judge, may be generally described as follows:—After Joshua, who had no immediate successor, and the other elders, who “had known all the works of the Lord that He had done for Israel” (Josh. 24 : 31), had passed from the scene, the nation was left to itself, that its life might now be freely developed under theocratic institutions. So long as the remembrance of the Divine manifestations survived, the people remained faithful to these institutions. Even the internal war against the tribe of Benjamin (ch. 19-21), which, occurring during the high priesthood of Phinehas, must have been waged shortly after the death of Joshua, is an indication that the theocratic zeal of the nation had as yet suffered no diminution. This is, however, the last occasion for many years on which we meet with the united action of the whole people. For Joshua having committed the completion of the work of conquest to the individual tribes, it ceased to be the common concern of the nation. Some of the still remaining Canaanites were not subdued; against others the sentence of extermination was not strictly carried out. Those who were rendered merely tributary, and suffered to dwell among the Israelites, not only seduced the people to the service of Canaanitish gods, but also gradually regained the mastery in isolated parts of the land. Irruptions of great nomadic hordes of Midianites and Amalekites from the east ensued, while the nation was repeatedly exposed to danger from the hostile attacks of the neighboring Moabites and Ammonites. In the West, the power of the Philistine Pentapolis, situate on the low-lying plains near the Mediterranean, became increasingly formidable after the middle period of the Judges. The oppressions which the Israelites suffered at the hand of these different nations usually extended only to certain tribes; but this very circumstance was the reason why even these afflictions were not capable of drawing the tribes out of their isolation, and uniting them in a common enterprise.

In times of oppression like these (when the children of Israel cried unto the Lord), individual men—the Judges—arose, who, aroused by the Spirit of Jehovah, turned back the hearts of the people to their God, revived in them the remembrance of God’s dealings with them in past times, and then broke the hostile yoke under which they were suffering. The aim of the narrative is not to extol these men as the heroes of the nation, but to show that the help afforded was the result of an outpouring of the Divine Spirit. These ministers of the theocracy were called Shophetim (judges). This name must not be restricted to the exercise of the judicial office, though its performance is asserted in the cases of Deborah, Eli, and Samuel. The word has a wider meaning, and represents these men as advocates of those Divine claims which it was their part to maintain and restore. The office of judge was neither permanent nor hereditary, but purely personal. Called to a prominent poposition by the necessities of the times, they acted with energy in the affairs of the individual tribes at the head of which they were placed, but exercised no abiding influence upon the nation, which, on the contrary, relapsed into its former course when its burdens were lightened or when the judge was dead. O.

The political as distinct from the spiritual character of the deliverance which they wrought, explains how God oftentimes gave help through men whose acts and spirituality are sometimes certainly not in accordance with the standard of the New Testament. And yet, for all that, they were, as the Epistle to the Hebrews notes, heroes of faith (Heb. 11 : 32). This, first, because the public conduct and bearing of a man must manifestly be judged, not according to a standard yet far beyond view, but by a comparison with the men of his own time, and the standpoint of moral knowledge then attained. In truth, “the Judges” were representative Israelites,—representatives of their time and of the condition of their countrymen. Hence the reader will notice, together with the growing corruption of Israel, a decline in the characters of the judges from Othniel to Samson. And yet as it was needful that such deliverers should be raised up if Israel was not to perish, in part or in whole, so, on the other hand, could Divine help not be withheld, even although these “Judges” were only representative men of their own period. But in yet another and higher sense may “the Judges” be designated as heroes of faith. For however they differed, or in whatever respect they fell short of the absolute standard, all they did was undertaken and carried on in faith,—faith in Jehovah as the God of Israel, in his help in the past and in his direct presence with them, as well as in the future of Israel as the people of God. It was this faith which distinguished them from their contemporaries who had spiritually intermingled with the nations and the gods around them. A. E.—Their faith was limited, and acted but imperfectly on their moral nature; but it was true faith in the judgment of the Epistle to the Hebrews. Their work was rough and bloody, and they were rough tools, as such work needed; but it was God’s work, and he had made them for his instruments, in the judgment of the Book of Judges. If we try to understand the reasons for such judgments, we may learn some useful lessons. A. M.

Among the causes of the great religious declension of Israel during the period of the Judges we may name, the example and social influence of the cultured, wealthy, and powerful Canaanites left in the land, or residing close upon its confines. Something may, perhaps, be due to the inexperience of the people in regard to the prodigious evils of idolatry. Another cause was, “fulness of bread;” the growth and development of self-indulgence—perhaps we may say, comparative luxury. This was foreseen and declared by Moses in his prophetic song (De. 32 : 13-18); in the words, “Jeshurun waxed fat and kicked. Then he forsook God who made him.” Furthermore, it is quite apparent that both politically and religiously the mutual relation of the tribes to each other was far too loose for the best results. While the tribal feeling was strong, the national feeling was feeble, and greatly needed concentration. All through the period of the Judges, it was only under some powerful impulses that the whole national force could be brought to bear against any foreign enemy. H. C.

1-7. The history of the Judges is prefaced by some account of the efforts of the several tribes to drive out the heathen nations after the death of Joshua. In these efforts Judah took the lead, by the direction of God’s oracle, and in association with Simeon. These two tribes gained a great victory over the Canaanites and Perizzites in Bezek, and took prisoner Adonibezek, one of those tyrants who have become famous for some special cruelty to their captives. He had cut off the thumbs and great toes of seventy kings, and amused himself with their attempts to pick up the food that fell from his table; and now, himself thus mutilated, he confessed that God had requited him justly. P. S.—To have imitated his cruelty, as a mere insult of the victors over the vanquished, would have been inconsistent with the law of the God of love. But to make him an example of God’s retribution of sin in kind, was only a vindication of the majesty of the law of the God of justice. Maimed of his limbs, his own sin in maiming seventy others was brought to his remembrance; and he was led to confess, “As I have done, so God hath requited me.” A. R. F.—He takes it in the sense of retribution. Hence he tacitly recognizes the justice of the punishment which had fallen upon him. It is a righteous and Divine requital. Has’ings.

18-36. The hill-towns were not what gave the Israelites their main difficulty in the occupation of the country. Wherever strength of arm and fleetness of foot availed, there those hardy warriors easily conquered. It was in the plains, where the horses and chariots of the Canaanites and Philistines had space to manoeuvre, that they failed in dislodging the aborigines.

“Judah could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, neither could Manasseh drive out the inhabitants of Bethshean nor Megiddo,” in the plain of Esdraelon, “nor could Ephraim drive out the Canaanites that dwelt in Gezer,” on the maritime plain near Ramleh, “nor could Asher drive out the inhabitants of Accho,” “and the Amorites forced the children of Dan into the mountain, for they would not suffer them to come down into the valley.” Thus in this case the ordinary conditions of conquest were reversed—the conquerors took the hills, the conquered kept the plains. To a people so exclusive as the Jews there must have been a constant satisfaction in the elevation and inaccessibility of their highland regions. This is evident in every page of their literature, which is tinged throughout with a highland coloring. The “mountains” were to “bring peace,” the “little hills, justice to the people;” when plenty came, the corn was to flourish on the “top of the mountains.” In like manner the mountains were to be joyful before Jehovah when He came to judge His people. What gave its keenest sting to the Babylonian conquest was the consideration that the “mountains of Israel,” the “ancient high places,” were become a “prey and a derision;” while, on the other hand, one of the most joyful circumstances of the restoration is, that the mountains “shall yield their fruit as before, and be settled after their old estates.” We have the testimony of the heathens that in their estimation Jehovah was the “God of the mountains,” and they showed their appreciation of the fact by fighting, when possible, in the lowlands. P. S.

God is with His Church as He was with Judah. The Church has a divine commission to conquer the world for Christ, just as the Israelites had a commission from God to possess the land of Canaan. The power of the Church is divine, but it is also human. What man can do, he must do. If our part—man’s part in the work or warfare of the Church, is properly executed, God’s part will never fail. But, as the terror of the iron chariots of the enemy paralyzed the strength of Judah, so that the human part being wanting the victory was lost; so in the Church, if any cause supervenes to weaken or render ineffective the strength which God expects us to put forth, He will not depart from His plan or interpose to save us from the results of our own weakness, or to hide us from the scorn and derision of the world. W. M. Paxlon.

27,28. The world will not yield an inch to the man who is not resolute and courageous for God; nay, it will push him back, step by step, from the ground which he had gained : for one compromise entails a second, and that a third, and so on, as Manasseh lost town after town. Attempt in faith great things for God, and then you may confidently expect great things from God. But if, forgetful of the honor of God whom you represent, you compromise religious principle, condoning the world’s enmity to God in consideration of the earthly gain to the church, as the house of Joseph and Zebulun and Naphtali contented themselves with levying tribute from the Canaanites, your graces will languish, your lusts will revive, and the prince of this world will regain his hold. A. R. F.

These tribes could not or would not drive the Canaanites out, but they would make them tributaries. So the weak in faith compromise in respect to their Christian duties. They do not yield a bold, whole-hearted obedience at any cost, but they will go half-way, and stop. They will curb the flesh, but not crucify it ; they will follow Christ’s directions up to a certain point, and then, like the young ruler, go away sorrowful. And this want of thoroughness is as fatal to the peace and comfort of a Christian’s walk with God as was the compromise of the Israelites to their enjoyment of the promised land. The sins which they spare, the affections with which they compromise, the habits which they will not utterly break off, and the unfinished victories at which they stop short are continually marring their peace, and even threatening their hold on the kingdom of God. And the result is seen in the general condition of the Church of God : one of compromise instead of mastery, of hollow truce instead of decisive victory. A. C. H.

The Angel at Bochim.

2 : 1. The tribes were everywhere surrounded by a fringe of heathenism. In many parts, Israelites and heathens dwelt together, the varying proportions among them being indicated by such expressions as that the “Canaanites dwelt among” the Israelites, or else the reverse. Israel was settling down in this state, when their false rest was suddenly broken by the appearance among them of “the Angel of Jehovah.” No Divine manifestation had been vouchsafed them since the Captain of Jehovah’s host had stood before Joshua in the camp at Gilgal. And now, at the commencement of a new period, and that one of spiritual decay, He “came” from Gilgal to Bochim, not to announce the miraculous fall of a Jericho before the ark of Jehovah, but the continuance of the heathen power near them in judgment upon their unfaithfulness and disobedience. A. E.

The Angel of the covenant ; the same that appeared to Joshua as captain of the hosts of the Lord, who was Christ himself. Who but God and Christ could say, I made you to go up out of Egypt ? Joshua had lately admonished them to take heed of entangling themselves with the Canaanites, but they regarded not the words of a dying man ; the same warning therefore is here brought them by the diving God himself, the Son of God appearing as an angel. If they slight his servants, surely they will reverence his Son. H.—As to the circumstance of his being said to “come up” from Gilgal, which is supposed to militate against this interpretation, it rather confirms it ; for it was in Gilgal, near to Jericho, that this same Divine person had appeared to Joshua as an armed warrior. Besides, at Gilgal the people had renewed the ordinance of circumcision and the passover, in which they had consecrated themselves to God afresh, and engaged to serve him as his redeemed people. In coming therefore as from Gilgal, the Angel upbraided them with their base ingratitude and reminded them of their solemn engagements. Bush.

3. “You will not drive them out,” says God, “and therefore I will not ;” thus their sin was made their punishment. Thus they who indulge their lusts and corruptions, which they should mortify, forfeit the grace of God, and it is justly withdrawn from them. If we will not resist the devil, we cannot expect that God should tread him under our feet. Those that approach sin are justly left to themselves to fall into sin, and to perish in it. God often makes men’s sin their punishment.

4. The persons to whom this sermon was preached were all the children of Israel. A great congregation for a great preacher ! The place is called Bochim, because it gained that name upon this occasion. All Israel need the reproof and warning here given, and therefore it is spoken to them all. H.

5. They sacrificed there unto the Lord.** They had recourse to the blood of sprinkling for the remission of their sin. Though their weeping was very general and very bitter, so much so as to give a name to the place, yet they did not hope to pacify their offended God with tears. They knew that an atonement was necessary, and they therefore sought him in his appointed way. Bush.—The result was but transitory. The people wept and sacrificed unto the Lord. But no amendment ensued. Most true picture of the reception of the Word of God in after-time. It is sensational or emotional religion against which Bochim is our warning. There are two principal elements of this fruitless sorrow. The first is want of depth of soul. The second is the “after revolt of the human mind against the supernatural.” Godly sorrow issues in a repentance not to be repented of, in that thorough turning of the life to God’s service, from which there is never a turning back to the way of evil again. Bp. Woodford.

11. And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, a phrase used seven times in Judges, to describe the seven apostasies of Israel to idolatry, which is the chief “evil,” followed by the seven servitudes under Chushan Rishatham, Eglon, Jabin, Midian, Abimelech, Ammon, the Philistines. The opposite phrase is to “do right in the eyes of the Lord.” A. R. F.

11-23. This story has four chapters, repeated with dreary monotony over and over again. They are: Relapse into idolatry, retribution, respite and deliverance, and brief return to God. This miserable repetition of the same weary round of sin, punishment, respite, and renewed sin, sets in a strong light the two great wonders of man’s obstinate persistency in unfaithfulness and sin, and of God’s unwearied persistency in discipline and patient forgiveness. We can weary out all forbearance but his, which is endless. We weary him indeed, but we do not weary him out, with our iniquities. Man’s sin stretches far; but God’s patient love overlaps it. It lasts long; but God’s love is eternal. It resists miracles of chastisement and love; but he does not cease his use of the rod and the staff. We can tire out all other forbearance, but not his. And however old and obstinate our rebellion, he waits to pardon, and smites but to heal. A. M.

It is difficult for us fairly to judge the immense strain required of the Israelites for resistance to the temptations of idolatry. The conception of one sole God was too high to be easily retained. A shrine without a deity seemed bare and empty. The law stringently bridled passions which the hideous worship of the Canaanites stimulated. No wonder that, when the first generation of the conquerors had passed away, their successors lapsed into the universal polytheism, with its attendant idolatry and immorality. Instead of thinking of the Israelites as monsters of ingratitude and backsliding, we come nearer the truth, and make a better use of the history, when we see in it a mirror which shows us our own image. The strong earthward pull is ever acting on us, and, unless God hold us up, we too shall slide downward. Idol-

Idolatry and worldliness are persistent; for they are natural. Firm adherence to God is less common, because it goes against the strong forces, within and without, which bind us to earth. A. M.—The first of the Commandments is of all others the most difficult to obey. The dependence of the human mind on outward symbols, and then its tendency to identify the symbols with the conceptions they represent—these are the roots of all idolatry. The course of thought, in our own day, even among highly civilized and enlightened men, may well remind us how easy and how natural it is to lapse into systems of belief, which in their fundamental character are essentially creature-worship. So far from there being any difficulty in understanding how spiritual truth once known could ever be lost, all observation and experience prove that it is the most difficult of all things to maintain with even tolerable purity any high standard of faith. A thousand tendencies, from within and without, are perpetually at work to undermine or to transform it. And the awful correlations of human thought render it not only probable but inevitable that the first departures from the knowledge and love of truth must end in wider and wider divergence from it. The infinite subtlety and ingenuity of imagination will, when it is ignorant and corrupt, amply account for the origin and growth of even the most degraded superstitions. Argyle.

14. The terrible phrase, which recurs so often in the subsequent parts of the book, “The anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel,” is no sign of a lower conception of God than the Gospel brings. Wrath is an integral part of love, when the lover is perfect righteousness and the loved are sinful. The most terrible anger is the anger of perfect gentleness, as expressed in that solemn paradox of the apostle of love, when he speaks of “the wrath of the Lamb.” God was angry with Israel because he loved them, and desired their love, for their own good. The fact of his choice of the nation for his own and the intensity of his love were shown no less by the swift certainty with which suffering dogged sin, than by the blessings which crowned obedience. The account that follows ascribes all their miseries to God’s direct act. He “delivered” them over, or, as the next clause says still more strongly, “sold” them to plunderers, who stripped them bare. Their defeats were the result of his having thus ceased to regard them as his. But though he had “sold” them, he had not done with them; for it was not only the foeman’s hand that struck them, but God’s “hand was against them,” and its grip crushed them. His judgments were not occasional, but continuous, and went with them whithersoever they went. Everything went wrong with them; there were no gleams breaking the black thunder-cloud. And the misery was the more miserable and awful because it had all been foretold, and in it God was but doing “as he had said” and sworn. It is a dreadful picture of the all-withering effect of God’s anger,—a picture which is repeated in inmost verity in many an outwardly prosperous life to-day. A. M.

15. And they were sore distressed. Nevertheless, these grievous inflictions were with a merciful design. They were not merely deserved punishments, they were fatherly chastisements. The severity was that of love, which laid upon them more than they could endure, and brought them into straits from which they could not extricate themselves, for the very purpose of bringing them back to him. W. H. G.

16. The Lord raised up judges. God raised up judges and kings and prophets, to deliver, to instruct, and to govern his people; and he gave them such aids of valor, prudence, knowledge, and such a degree of success as were sufficient for the purposes they were necessarily to answer; but he did not make them infallible or incapable of sinning; the judges often fell into errors and crimes; Samson abused his supernatural strength; as in aftertimes David’s piety and virtue were overpowered by criminal desire acquiring an undue ascendancy; and Solomon, notwithstanding his extraordinary wisdom, was corrupted by sensuality and fell into idolatry. But this does not render it at all incredible that they were actually employed by God to effect his purposes, and were on particular occasions assisted with extraordinary aid. Graves.—In the days of the greatest degeneracy and distress of the church, there shall be some whom God will either find or make fit to redress its grievances and set things to rights. God must be acknowledged in the seasonable rising up of useful men for public service. He endues men with wisdom and courage, gives them hearts to act and venture. All that are in any way the blessings of their country must be looked upon as the gifts of God. Whom God calls, he will own and give them his presence; whom he raises up, he will be with. H.

18. It repented Jehovah because of their groaning. God has a tender pity for his suffering people, even when their suffering is the direct consequence of their own disobedience. He used alternately measures of severity and of kindness, that thus he might recall Israel to a sense of their duty and attach them to his service. W. H. G.—This strong metaphorical ascription to him of human emotion simply implies that his action, which of necessity is the expression of his will, was changed. The will of the moment before had been to punish; the will of the next moment was to deliver, because their “groaning” showed that the punishment had done its work. But the two wills were one in ultimate purpose, and the two sets of acts were equally and harmoniously parts of one design. A. M.

19-23. The continuance of these nations was to be temporary, for a definite purpose and in mercy, while God pledged himself to aid and give complete and easy success to his people in their ultimate work of expulsion. But now the relation was completely changed. Israel had “transgressed” the “covenant” of Jehovah. Hence Jehovah could no more be on their side, nor fight for them. On the contrary, he would now allow these nations to remain, that “through them” he might “prove Israel” (verse 22). The presence of the Canaanites in the midst of Israel became, in point of fact, a continuous moral and spiritual test of Israel and of their religious condition. This places the wars of Israel with the Canaanites in an entirely new and spiritual light. It shows them to have been the test and the measure of their faithful allegiance to Jehovah and his service. Nor is this other lesson far to seek: that the promises of God and our own success are not bound to any mere outward performance even of what is duty, but are connected with that inward and spiritual obedience and allegiance which are the outcome of real heart service to God. A. E.—Israel had broken the covenant; God would not keep his promise. That involves a great principle as to all God’s promises,—that they are all conditional, and voidable by men’s failure to fulfil their conditions. Observe, too, that the punishment is the retention of the occasions of the sin. Is not that, too, a law of the Divine procedure to-day? Whips to scourge us are made of our pleasant vices. Sin is the punishment of sin. If we yield to some temptation, part of the avenging retribution is that the temptation abides by us, and has power over us. The Canaanites whom we have allowed to lead us astray will stay beside us when their power to seduce us is done, and will pull off their masks and show themselves for what they are, our spoilers and foes. A. M.

3:1-4. Canaan, though conquered, was only partially subdued. Their armies had been defeated in battle, pursued, scattered, broken, and most of their strong cities captured and more or less thoroughly destroyed; yet still they remained in very considerable force in the country, holding some of their strong points of defence. Especially along the western border of Canaan, “the lords of the Philistines, the Canaanites, the Zidonians, the Hivites of Mount Lebanon” remained in great strength. It was of the Lord to leave some of their old enemies on the soil of Canaan in strength. God suffered these tribes of Philistia and Canaan to remain in sufficient strength to prove Israel, to try them and scourge them back from their apostasies. This is the reason which the Lord himself assigns. Hence this “Book of Judges” is little else than an alternation from prosperity to adversity, corresponding to the moral alternations of the people from obedience and penitence for their sin to transgression and apostasy. H. C.

MICAH, HIS HOUSE OF GOD AND HIS PRIEST. MIGRATION OF DANITES. THEIR THEFT OF MICAH’S GODS AND PRIEST. THEIR CONQUEST AND SETTLEMENT IN LAISH, AND ESTABLISHMENT OF IDOLATRY.