Judges 10
PATAll the children of Israel that were on the other side Jordan, in the land of the Amorites. Which belonged to the Amorites, till Moses dispossessed them, (Numb, xxi.) and gave the land to the two tribes of Reuben and Gad, and half the tribe of Manassch. Which is in Gilead.] Tho principal part of which was Gilcad; out of which Jair sprang, being of the tribe of Manassch; who, like a good man, used all his endeavours to purge the Israelites from idolatry; as Tola, I suppose, had done before: but they being, after the death of Gideon, fallen from God, and continuing in their idolatry all the reign of Abimelech, our forenamed primate supposes these judges were not able to reform them; but they rather grew worse, as is related ver. 6. And therefore God permitted tho Ammonites and Philistines to begin to afflict them, as was said before in the fifth year of Jair; but not so as to make them subject to their power: for Jair held the government eighteen ycaTs after they began their inroads, but then their vexations and oppressions grew intolerable, and they not only afflicted his own country Gilead, but endeavoured to make their brethren, on the other side Jordan, to feel the weight of their power, as it follows in the next verse. This is said very plausibly, but cannot be admitted without some violence to the natural sense of the beginning of the verso; and also to the course of this history, which doth not mention their departure from God, and these oppressions of their enemies, on both sides, till after the death of Jair. And his soul tons grieved for the misery of Israel.] Nor do we read before of such an expression of the Divine compassion towards them. Every one knows the Divine nature is not capable of grief, properly so called; but the meaning is, he quite altered his former intentions, and in much mercy resolved upon their repentance* to deliver them. So Maimonides observes, that the word nephesh, which we translate soul, signifies his will, Jer. xv. 1. Though 3Ioses and Samuel stood before me, my soul could not be towards this people; that is, it could not be his will to save them. And so here, his soul was grieved; that is, saithhe, his will ceased from afflicting Israel any longer; for it was said before, that God’s providence had deserted them, and he refused to relieve them till they called upon him and seriously repented; and then their miseries being very great by the sore oppressions of their enemies, he took pity on them, and willed their cruel afflictions should not continue. (See More Nevochim, par. i. cap. 41.)
Judges 10:1
JjlND after Abimelech. Who was not a judge, much less appointed by God, but an usurper, who took upon him to alter the Divine government, and made himself a* king. There rose up.] It is not said Jiat God stirred him up, as he did the foregoing judges; but it is so understood, because God would not have saved Israel by one that took upon him this high office without his order: and, therefore, as Peter Martyr well observes, in the conclusion of the foregoing chapter, that as, after many good judges God had given them, he suffered the cruel tyrant Abimelech to interpose himself, that their virtues might shine more illustriously by his wickedness; so, after he was gone, God was pleased to raise up to them good judges again, who learnt moderation by the punishment of his vain ambition: and, in all likelihood, tho dreadful end of Abimelech and. his partakers, who made him king, affrighted the Israelites, from presuming to make another, of their own heads. * To defend Israel.] Or; to save, as it is in the margin: for this was the great offico-of a judge, to deliver the people from the oppression of their enemies: we do not find in-; deed from what enemies they were delivered by this judge;. but they may be said to save and deliver, who preserve meri’i.’ liberties from being invaded, as well as they that vindicate and restore them when they are lost: and therefore wo well translate it, To defend Israel. He may be thought also to have delivered them from those confusions and disorders they were in, by the disagreement between Abimelech and those that made him king: for both sides had, many partakers, which made great divisions, and dan-: gcrous combinations among the people; but were all hap-: pily ended by the prudent management of this governor. Serrarius also adds, that he might be said to save or deli-, ver them, because he restored the purity of their religion, by abolishing the w r orship of idols: for we read, that after " the death of Gideon, " they went a whoring after Baalim,: and made Baal-berith their god," (viii. 33.) which they continued in the reign of Abimelech; but were now brought back to the worship of the true God, and remained in it, in the days of this and the following judges; otherwise there would not have been occasion to say, (ver. 6.) that after the death of Jair, “the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord:” but how far this is true,. will appear upon ver. 8. * Tola the son ofPuah, the son of Dodo.] So the Chaldce: paraphrast understands the Word Dodo, to be the proper, name of his grandfather, as Puah was of his father: butthere are those that by Dodo understand his uncle, viz. Abimelech forementioned: which seems to me unreasonable; for he was of another tribe, and his relation to such a man no good qualification, one would think, for this great trust. A man of Issachar.] A mean tribe; which did not hinder his advancement by God to the highest dignity: and, by this expression, a man of Issachar, he seems to have been of no great family, in that tribe. And he dwelt in Shamir in Mount Ephraim.] After he was made a judge he settled in this place for the conveni-. ence of the people; it being in the midst of the land.
Judges 10:2
And he judged Israel twenty and three years, and died, and was buried in Shamir. There are no memorable acts of his recorded; for the principal intention of the holy writer of this book," was to shew what great calamities befel the Israelites when they forsook God s worship, and. how graciously he delivered them, in a marvellous manner, § W&M Wf CHAP, X.] UPON JUDGES, when they returned to it: as I suppose they did, in the beginning of this man’s government, and continued steadfast therein; so that theywere not infested by their enemies.
Judges 10:3
And offer him arose Jair, a Gileadite, and judged Israel twenty and two years. This is the first judge that was raised up from among those that lived beyond Jordan.
Judges 10:4
And he had thirty sons that rode on thirty asses 9 colts. For the noblest persons rode on these beasts, (see ver. -10.). and’that not only in Judea, but in Arabia, and in other countries, even among the “Romans, as Bochartus hath at large observed in his Hierozoicon, p. 1. lib. ii. cap. 13. And jt is highly probable, that this is here mentioned, because these persons were ordered by their father to ride circuit up and down the country, to minister justice according to the law; as Samuel did when he judged Israel, 1 Sam. vii. 16. For the courts of judicature appointed by the law (Deut. xvi. 18.) were not yet settled; nor, in all likelihood, settled in every city, till the days of Jehoshaphat, as Mr. Thorndike observes in his Rites of the Church, chap. 4. p. 226. And they had thirty cities.] Of which they were the governors, as the Vulgar understands it. Which are called Havoth-Jair unto this day.’] This Jair, as our most learned primate of Ireland observes in his Annals, (ad A. M. 3504.) was of the posterity of that Jair who called the cities which he took in Argob by his own name Plavoth-Jair, the towns or villages of Jair, (Numb. xxxii. 41. Deut. iii. 14.) - After whose example, these thirty sons of this younger Jair, (who, to distinguish him from the elder, seems to be called Bedan, 1 Sam. xii. 11. 1 Chron. vii. 17.) called these cities which they possessed by the very same name. Which are in the land of G Head.] In the same country, where the other cities anciently called by this name lay: from which, it is likely, they were distinguished by some such addition as this, the new Havoth-Jair.
Judges 10:5
And Jair died, and was buried in Camon. Which, it was probable, was the place where he dwelt while he judged Israel.
Judges 10:6
And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord. Or, as the forenamed primate thinks it must be interpreted, had done evil again, &c. as was said viii. 33. and now is repeated, to shew the cause, why God delivered them up into the hands of their enemies: for he supposes this was before the death of Jair, as I shall note on ver. 8. And served Baalim and Ashtaroth.] As they had frequently done in former times, ii. 13. iii. 7, &c. And the gods of Syria.] They added to their former idolatries the worship of new gods; particularly those ot\ Syria, which were, as Mr. Selden observes (in his Prolegomena to his book de Diis Syris), beside Bel, or Baal, and Astarte, Dagon, Moloch, and Thammuz. And the gods ofZidon.] Their supreme gods were Baal and Ashtoreth, as the same great man observes, (in his ii. Syntagma de Diis Syris, cap. 2.) But it is likely they had more, such as Asaroth, Asarim, and Asarah; being the very same with Ashtoreth. And the gods ofMoab.] The principal of which was Chemosh, (1 Kings xi. 7.) And the gods of the children of Amnion.] The chief of vol. u. which was Milcom, (1 Kings xi. 5.) where Ashtoreth is mentioned as the goddess of the Zidonians. And the’gods of the Philistines.] They had more, it seems, beside Dagon; whose names are not mentioned in Scripture. And forsook the Lord, and served not him. y Their hearts were possessed with the love of so many gods^ that they quite forgot the Lord, and. did not worship hhn at all;’ though they were wont formerly only to worship other gods together with him. This was such a strange apostacy, that one cannot but inquire into the reason of it, and (besides what I. have noted upon ii. 12.) one reason may possibly have been, that the solemn reading’of the law to all the people, once in seven years, was neglected: for we do not read that it was publicly done from the time of Joshua to the reign of Jehoshaphat, which was above five hundred years: it doth not follow,indeed, that it was not ddne, be- ( cause it is not recorded; but if • we. consider how prone’ they were to return to idolatry, after the death of everyjudge, and how soon after the death of-David (even in the reign of his son Solomon) it began to appear among them/ it may incline one -to think there -was not sufficient care taken about this matter. " *; » -
Judges 10:7
And the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel; and he sold them into the hands of the Philistines, and into the hands of the children of Amnion. Two of those nations,’ whose gods they chose to serve.
Judges 10:8
And that year they vexed and oppressed the children of Israel. That is, the Ammonites vexed them in the east (as we are told in the conclusion of the verse), while the Philistines vexed them in the west: for their idolatry being strangely^ increased, so was their punishment, by the invasion of their enemies on both sides, as the foregoing verse tells us; which is a preface to the following histories of their oppression by the Philistines and the Ammonites, both at the same time; but, to avoid confusion, he first relates the story of the Ammonites, who are at last named in the foregoing verses.. ~ Eighteen years.] Their invasion began in the same year, but they did not end at the same time, for the Ammonites domineered over them only eighteen years; but the Philistines forty, (xiii: 1.) I must not here omit the construction which our primate Usher makes of these words, which run thus in the Hebrew, and he translates in this manner, They vexed and oppressed the children of Israel that year, (viz.) the eighteenth year. For the oppression, he thinks, began the fifth year of Jair, and continued till the twentysecond, which was his last. (See his Chronol. Sacra, p. 1. cap. 13.) But this is said only to solve a difficulty, which is, that if we suppose this oppression to have begun after the death of Jair, and to have lasted eighteen years (as our translation imports), it will be impossible to make the years of the government of the judges agree with what we read, 1 Kings vi. 1. that Solomon began to build the temple at Jerusalem, in the four hundred and eightieth year after they came out of Egypt: but there is a more easy way of accounting for this difficulty, by supposing that several of the judges were contemporaries, as will be apparont in this very history; (see upon xi. 25.) and if we do not take these words eighteen years to signify the continuance of the Ammoriitish oppression, -it is no where mentioned anywhere else; as tho duration of all other oppressions is. 2 A
Judges 10:9
Moreover, the children of Ammon passed over Jordan to fight against Judah, and against Benjamin, and against the house of Ephraim. Who were the tribes that lay next to Jordan. So that Israel was sore distressed.] For w T hile the Ammonites afflicted those countries in the eastern part of Canaan, the Philistines made ravages in the countries of Zcbulun, and Ashcr, and the rest of the tribes that lay on the western coast: for so the LXX. explain those words in the foregoing verse, In that year, lv t<£ icaiptf lk$tvt#, in that same year, the Philistines in the west, and the Ammonites in the east, vexed and oppressed the children of Israel.,
Judges 10:10
And the children of Israel cried unto the Lord, saying, We have sinned against thee, both because we have forsaken our God, and also served Baalim. All the rest of the gods mentioned ver. 6. are comprehended under the name of Baalim: which were so many and various, that they had quite drawn their affection from their own God; as they now sorrowfully acknowledge.
Judges 10:11
And the Lord said unto the children of Israel. By some prophet, I suppose. Bid not I deliver you from the Egyptians.] See Exod. xii. And from the Amorites.] Who would have hindered their passage to the land of Canaan, (Numb, xxi.) And from the children of Ammon.’] Who were confederate with the Moabites to oppress them, (Judg. iii. 13.) And from the Philistines?] In the days of Shamgar, (iii. irft.)'
Judges 10:12
Tlie Zidonians also. We never read of any invasion they made upon the Israelites; but only in general, that God left them, among other people, unsubdued, to prove the children of Israel, (iii. 3.) who took their Opportunities, in all likelihood, to afflict them. And the Amalekites.] Who joined both with the Moabites and the Midianitcs to oppress them, (iii. 13. vi. 3.) And theMaonites did oppress you.] Maon is the name of a nation; tho plural of which, Meunim, occurs in many places, particularly in 2 Chron. xxvi. 6, 7. where they are called in Greek Mtvcuoc a people in Arabia, both in that which we call Felix, and in that called Descrta. Which latter was not far from the Moabites and tho Ammonites; with whom interpreters are apt to confound the Meunites, as if, by a transposition of letters, they were the same with the Ammonites: which hath misled us in our translation of those words, 2 Chron. xx. 1. And with them from, the Ammonites, which makes no sense; but if we read ivith them from Meunim (as it is in Greek Ik Mtvalw), all runs clearly, and makes perfect sense: and thus we ought to translate that place, 1 Chron. iv. 41. where we take Meunim to signify dwellings, and render the words thus, Tlie habitations ivhich were found there; as if where there were tents (which are mentioned before) there were not habitations, which are the same: therefore Meunim is the name of a people (as the LXX. understood it) who dwelt in tents, being Arabians: who being neighbours (as I said) to the Moabites and Ammonites, joined with them in their invasion of the land of Israel, and helped to oppress them: But they are plainly distinguished from the Ammonites, in the first place mentioned, and 2 Chron. xxvi. 67—8. And ye cried to me, and I delivered you out of their hand.] When they were utterly unable to help themselves.
Judges 10:13
Yet ye have forsaken me, and served other gods. But all these deliverances proved ineffectual to keep them steadfast in the worship of God. Wherefore I will deliver you no more.] He threatens therefore to leave them under the power of their enemies, which now sorely distressed them, as they justly deserved; but it was with an intention to awaken them to a more serious and hearty repentance, otherwise he resolved not to deliver them., -
Judges 10:14
Go and cry unto the gods you have chosen, let them deliver you in the time of your tribulation. A bitter reflection both upon them and upon their gods, like to that in the song of Moses, (Dcut. xxxii. 37, 38.)
Judges 10:15
And the children of Israel said unto the Lord, We have sinned. In worshipping such gods as could not save them. Do thou tinto us as seemeth good unto thee.] They submit to such punishment as he thought fit to inflict, confessing they deserved no favour; which shews their hearts were for the present very sensibly of the folly wherewith they were reproached in the foregoing verse. Deliver us only, we pray thee, this day J] They acknowledged that they deserved the severest punishment, but beseech him to have so much pity on them, as not to punish them this way, by letting these cruel enemies insult over them any longer.
Judges 10:16
And they put away the strange gods from among them. Gave open proof of their repentance by renouncing all idolatry. And served the Lord.] And returned to the worship of the Lord, and of him alone, which is the most remarkable repentance and reformation that we read of hitherto in this history of the Judges; and it seems to have been so serious, that for a long time they did not relapse; for we read nothing of their idolatry in the time of those three judges that followed Jcphthah.
Judges 10:17
Then the children of Ammon were gathered together. In the Hebrew, were cried together; that is, a proclamation went out, requiring all their dispersed troops, which were ravaging the countries of Judah, Benjamin, and Ephraim, to return back to their camp, on the other side of Jordan. And encamped in Gilead.] Or, against Gilead; for both Arius Montanus and Peter Martyr think that they laid siege to Gilead, the chief city in those parts: by taking which, they hoped to be masters of all that country; and then, with greater forces, go over Jordan again, and conquer the other tribes beforementioned. And the children of Israel assembled themselves together, and encamped inMizpeh.] There, were two Mizpehs on the other side Jordan, one in the tribe of Gad, the other in the half tribe of Manasseh, as I observed upon Josh. xi. 3. the latter of which maybe probably thought to be the place where they nowassembled, Jephthah, who was afterward chosen their captain, being one of this tribe. How many of the Israelites here encamped, and whether any of those in the land of Canaan, or only those Of the two tribes and a half, cannot now be known; but upon their repentance, they seem to have recovered their ancient courage, and to have taken a resolution to drive the Ammonites out of their country, insomuch that thereupon the Ammonites seem to haveleftthc siege, and to have made a retreat into their own land, either to recruit their army, and raise more forces, or for some other reason; for thither Jephthah sent messengers to them, after he was chosen general of the Israelites; and there he fought them, when they would not yield to his convincing arguments, that they unjustly invaded the Israelites, as appears in the following chapter.
Judges 10:18
And the people and princes of Gilead. Who were most nearly concerned in this matter, their country lying nearest to the Ammonites. Said one to another.] Entered into a consultation, in a grand assembly of all tho people, and their rulers. (See ix.G.)’. What man is he that will begin to fight against tlie children of Ammon?] Will be our leader. It seems to me a probable-conjecture of Peter Martyr, that they consulted God also about this matter, who directed them, perhaps, to <jo to Jephthah. He shall be head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.] They resolved, whatsoever the mind of the rest of the tribes should be, that he should command all the Gadites and Manassites that inhabited the land of Gilead.