Judges2chapter 2

Judges 2:6

“When Joshua had let the people go - The author of this book is giving here a history of the people, from the division of the land by Joshua to the time in which the angel speaks. Joshua divided the land to them by lot; recommended obedience to God, which they solemnly promised: and they continued faithful during his life, and during the lives of those who had been his contemporaries, but who had survived him.”

Judges 2:7

“It mentions "the days of the elders who knew all the works of the Lord." Who is the person who "knows all the works of the Lord," except the one who does them himself?”

Judges 2:7

“And the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the Lord that he did for Israel. In Egypt, at the Red sea, in the wilderness, at the river Jordan, and in the land of Canaan; See Gill on Jos 24:31. The Jews (a) say, the elders died on the fifth of Shebet, which answers to part of January and part of February, on which account a fast was kept on that day. (a) Schulchan Aruch, par. 1. c. 580. sect.”

Judges 2:7

“If Joshua was about 80 at the entrance into Canaan, 30 years would bring us to the close of his life. The “elders” would be all that were old enough to take part in the wars of Canaan Jdg 3:1-2; and therefore, reckoning from the age of 20 to 70, a period of about 50 years may be assigned from the entrance into Canaan to the death of the elders, or 20 years after the death of Joshua. The great works of the Lord - The overthrow of the Canaanite nations.”

Judges 2:8

“Joshua's death is also recounted for us. But it is nothing unusual that he who was the "son of Nun" died, for everything that is owed to nature gets paid. Yet, because we have established that what is read here about the son of Nun must be seen as referring to our Lord Jesus Christ, we need to ask how is it befitting to say that "Jesus died." It is my opinion, though speaking according to the authority of Scripture, that Jesus lives in certain persons and is dead in other persons.”

Judges 2:8

“The servant of the Lord - This is a title especially given to Moses Deu 34:5; Jos 1:1. In later books, the phrase “the servant of God” is used 1Ch 6:49; Neh 10:29; Dan 9:11; Rev 15:3. It is applied to Joshua only here and in Jos 24:29. It is spoken of David (Ps. 18, title), and generally of the prophets; and, like the analogous phrase, “man of God,” is transferred by Paul to the ministers of Christ under the New Testament 2Ti 2:24; Jas 1:1.”

Judges 2:9

“Yet so much sense they had of their obligations to him that they did him honour at his death, and buried him in Timnath-heres; so it is called here, not, as in Joshua, Timnath-serah. Heres signifies the sun, a representation of which, some think, was set upon his sepulchre, and gave name to it, in remembrance of the sun's standing still at his word.”

Judges 2:10

“And so he comes to give us a general idea of the series of things in Israel during the time of the judges, the same repeated in the same order. The people of Israel forsook the God of Israel, and gave that worship and honour to the dunghill deities of the Canaanites which was due to him alone.”

Judges 2:11

“And the children of Israel - Here begins the narrative of what really did happen “after the death of Joshua,” but of which Judg. 1 conveys no hint. Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua Jdg 2:7. But when Joshua was dead ... “the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served Baalim, and forsook the God of their fathers.” And then follows from Jdg 2:14 to the end of the chapter, a summary of the whole contents of the book.”

Judges 2:11

“An attentive consideration of them, therefore, is of the greatest importance to a right understanding of the strange and varying phases of Israelitish history, from the death of Joshua till the establishment of the monarchy. served Baalim--The plural is used to include all the gods of the country.”

Judges 2:12

“As long as a people serves God, they are not "delivered into the hands of plunderers." But when they "abandon the Lord" and begin to serve their own passions, then it is said of them that "God gave them over to shameful passions" and, again, "He gave them over to a reprobate mind, that they would do unsuitable things." Why? Because, he says, "they were filled with every iniquity, wickedness, fornication, greed" and all other evils.”

Judges 2:13

“Served Baal and Ashtaroth - In a general way, probably, Baal and Ashtaroth mean the sun and moon; but in many cases Ashtaroth seems to have been the same among the Canaanites as Venus was among the Greeks and Romans, and to have been worshipped with the same obscene rites.”

Judges 2:13

“Baal and Ashtaroth - That is, the sun and moon, whom many Heathens worshipped, tho' under divers names; and so they ran into that error which God had so expressly warned them against, Deut. iv, 19. Baalim signifies lords, and Ashtaroth, blessed ones, he-gods and she-gods.”

Judges 2:14

“The hands of spoilers - Probably marauding parties of the Canaanites, making frequent incursions in their lands, carrying away cattle, spoiling their crops, etc.”

Judges 2:16

“Judges - Supreme magistrates, whose office it was, under God, and by his particular direction, to govern the commonwealth of Israel by God's laws, and to protect and save them from their enemies, to preserve and purge religion, and to maintain the liberties of the people against all oppressors.”

Judges 2:17

“Went a whoring after other gods - Idolatry, or the worship of strange gods, is frequently termed adultery, fornication, and whoredom, in the sacred writings. As many of their idolatrous practices were accompanied with impure rites, the term was not only metaphorically but literally proper.”

Judges 2:18

“The Lord was with the judge - God himself was king, and the judge was his representative. It repented the Lord - He changed his purpose towards them: he purposed to destroy them because of their sin; they repented and turned to him, and he changed this purpose. The purpose was to destroy them if they did not repent; when they did repent, his not destroying them was quite consistent with his purpose.”

Judges 2:19

“When the judge was dead - It appears that in general the office of the judge was for life. Their stubborn way - Their hard or difficult way. Most sinners go through great tribulation, in order to get to eternal perdition; they would have had less pain in their way to heaven.”

Judges 2:19

“Returned - To their former, and usual course. Their fathers - In Egypt, or in the wilderness. Their own doings - That is, from their evil practices, which he calls their own, because they were agreeable to their own natures, which in all mankind are deeply and universally corrupted, and because they were familiar and customary to them.”

Judges 2:21

“Divine grace ever stirs up the will of human beings, not so as to protect and defend it in all things in such a way as to cause it not to fight by its own efforts against its spiritual adversaries, the victor over whom may set it down to God's grace, and the vanquished to his own weakness, and thus learn that his hope is always not in his own courage but in the divine assistance and that he must ever fly to his Protector.”

Judges 2:22

“That through them I may prove Israel - There appeared to be no other way to induce this people to acknowledge the true God, but by permitting them to fall into straits from which they could not be delivered but by his especial providence.”

Judges 2:23

“Without driving them out hastily - Had God expelled all the ancient inhabitants at once, we plainly see, from the subsequent conduct of the people, that they would soon have abandoned his worship, and in their prosperity forgotten their deliverer. He drove out at first as many as were necessary in order to afford the people, as they were then, a sufficiency of room to settle in; as the tribes increased in population, they were to extend themselves to the uttermost of their assigned borders, and expel all the remaining inhabitants.”

Judges 2:23

“Our Lord Jesus, though he spoiled principalities and powers, yet did not complete his victory at first. We see not yet all things put under him; there are remains of Satan's interest in the church, as there were of the Canaanites in the land; but our Joshua lives for ever, and will in the great day perfect his conquest.”