Judgeschapter 3
31 verses · Samuel, by tradition · 11th century BC · History
Namely, five lords of the Philistines, and all the Canaanites, and the Sidonians, and the Hivites that dwelt in mount Lebanon, from mount Baal–hermon unto the entering in of Hamath.
Introduction
Samuel, by tradition, History, Judges Overview.
Samuel, by tradition · Narrative · Judges, the Former Prophets · [The book of Judges](/book/judges) This chapter begins the book's accounts of single deliverers, and it gives three of them in quick order. The writer is unnamed, and he tells the first account in a few lines and the second in close detail. It was written for tribes who remembered foreign kings, tribute and long years of waiting. Listen for the pattern of chapter 2 being worked out in real names and places. Watch how unlikely each rescuer is, and notice what each one carries into the fight. The speed of the chapter shows the reader how often the cycle turned.
Context
- Who
- Israelites who knew Moab, Ammon and the Philistines as present-tense enemies
- What
- The first three deliverers, Othniel, Ehud and Shamgar, each raised when Israel cried out under an oppressor.
- Where
- Aram-naharaim far to the northeast, Jericho the City of Palms, the hill country of Ephraim and the fords of the Jordan.
- When
- The first generations after the conquest, about 1370 to 1230 BC on the traditional reckoning, which counts the oppressions and rests one after another.
- Why
- To show the pattern of chapter 2 working out in real names, with rescue coming from unlikely people.
Historical context
Three men carry the chapter: Othniel, Caleb's younger kinsman, which anchors the first deliverance one generation from the conquest; Ehud, a left-handed Benjamite who carries the tribute and kills the king alone; and Shamgar, a farmer with an ox goad who gets one verse. The time is the first stretch of the cycle, counted by the text in servitudes and rests rather than in years of a reign. Cushan-rishathaim rules Aram-naharaim beyond the Euphrates bend, the kind of long-range opportunist who moved when Egypt's grip on the region slackened.
Show the rest of the historical context, 3 more paragraphs
Eglon of Moab holds the City of Palms by the Jordan, and Ehud escapes into the hill country of Ephraim and seizes the fords behind him. The occasion for each rescue is a cry under oppression, and the book records the cry rather than repentance. A first hearer knew that a left-handed man strapped his blade on the right thigh, which is the side a guard would leave unsearched, and that the weapon was short, double-edged and homemade, small enough to hide under a cloak.
He knew that the upper chamber was the cool roof room of a house, reached by its own stair and shuttered, which often held the household privy arrangement, so the servants wait a long while outside. He knew that the Jordan fords were the only crossings, so holding them left an army on the west bank with nowhere to run. And he knew what an ox goad was, a wooden pole about eight feet long tipped with a metal point for driving cattle and a flat blade for scraping the plough.
It is a farmer's tool, in a countryside where the Philistines already controlled the metal trade, as 1 Samuel 13:19 to 22 records a few generations later.
Significance
Every deliverer in this chapter is an unlikely one: a junior kinsman, a left-handed man from the tribe whose name means son of the right hand, and a farmer with a cattle prod. The point for the first hearers was that rescue came from an unexpected quarter and from something other than Israel's own strength.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
The lengths of the oppressions were meant to be felt. Eighteen years under Moab is a childhood, so a whole generation grew up paying tribute across the Jordan before anyone cried out.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
How it is read
The corpus keeps twenty-two notes on this chapter, fifteen of Rashi in the Metsudah Tanach series of Lakewood, New Jersey, under CC-BY, and seven of Metzudat David in the Sefaria Community Translation under CC0. They divide the chapter between them. Rashi explains why the nations were left. The generation that faced them was a new one, "ignorant of the miracles of the Canaanite wars", and having seen nothing it rebelled (Rashi on Judges 3:1:1). At the second verse he adds a second reason from the text itself, that later generations might learn what iniquity costs, and that they needed military training (Rashi on Judges 3:2:1). The five Philistine lords he names as the nations kept back for that test (Rashi on Judges 3:3:1).
Metzudat David reads the same verses as the report of a test failed. Of the intermarriages he says the text "wants to teach that they didn't withstand the test", and that this is why they ended by serving the gods of those houses (Metzudat David on Judges 3:6:1). At the seventh verse he marks the turn in the book's method. Until this point the account spoke in general about the days of the judges, and from here it returns to tell the detail of each one (Metzudat David on Judges 3:7:1). On Othniel he notices the word the text chooses. It says savior "to teach that Otniel was established to save" (Metzudat David on Judges 3:9:1). He takes the forty years of quiet as counted from the beginning of the servitude, on the authority of Seder Olam (Metzudat David on Judges 3:11:1). Of Eglon he says the Moabites were weak, and that God strengthened them over Israel because of Israel's own acts (Metzudat David on Judges 3:12:1).
The fullest note in the chapter is Rashi at the tenth verse, and it is the one a Christian reader should sit with. He reports an exposition of Rabbi Tanchuma on the doubled verb God used to Moses in Egypt. God saw twice, and the second sight was of the golden calf that was coming. Othniel drew the conclusion from it, "whether innocent or guilty, He is obliged to save them" (Rashi on Judges 3:10:1). On that reading the judging of Israel in this verse happened in prayer rather than in a courtroom, and the deliverance follows from an argument about mercy. The source Rashi names is Shemot Rabbah, and the corpus carries that same locator under this chapter at Shemot Rabbah 3:2.
The rest of Rashi's notes on Ehud are close work on the words. The left-handed man of the fifteenth verse he reads with Targum Jonathan as a man whose right arm was shrunken by disease, and he gives the old French for it (Rashi on Judges 3:15:1). The measure of the sword is an abridged cubit, the length of a forearm, with the German and old French words beside it (Rashi on Judges 3:16:1). Eglon is described in one word, fat (Rashi on Judges 3:17:1). Ehud turned back to escort the delegation as far as Gilgal and then returned alone (Rashi on Judges 3:18:1 and 3:19:1). The city of palms he again identifies as Jericho (Rashi on Judges 3:13:1). The upper room is the summer penthouse, "which was airy and cool" (Rashi on Judges 3:20:1). The hilt is the iron the blade is set into, which balances the sword in its scabbard (Rashi on Judges 3:22:1). The word for the porch Rashi renders from Targum Jonathan as a hallway (Rashi on Judges 3:23:1). Metzudat David adds that Eglon was still struggling to rise when the blow came (Metzudat David on Judges 3:21:1). At the twenty-fourth verse he sets the order of events, that Ehud left and then the servants came (Rashi on Judges 3:24:1). The servants' long wait Rashi reads as a delay that became a considerable time (Rashi on Judges 3:25:1). One kept note in this chapter is a stub in the corpus, carrying its opening words alone (Metzudat David on Judges 3:4:1). Malbim on Judges 3:5:1 and Radak on Judges 3:8:1 stand on this chapter with no English text and are cited here unquoted.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries forty rabbinic locators on this chapter, thirty-five Midrash and five Talmud, and the text of none, so each is cited and linked here rather than quoted. The nations left to test Israel draw Aggadat Bereshit 32:1, Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Chayei Sarah 16, Midrash Lekach Tov, Deuteronomy 13:3:2 and Midrash Lekach Tov, Exodus 23:30:2. The teaching of war to the generations that had not known it draws Avodah Zarah 25a:14 and 25a:15, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Avodah Zarah 2:2 and Ein Yaakov, Avodah Zarah 2:4.
The eight years under Cushan-rishathaim are taken up at Jerusalem Talmud Nazir 9:1:3, Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Devarim 3:1, Midrash Tanchuma, Devarim 3:1 and Midrash Tehillim 60:1. The whole of the Othniel cycle draws Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Vayera 29:2. The coming of the Spirit on him draws Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Vayakhel 6:2, Midrash Tanchuma, Shemot 20:1, Midrash Tanchuma, Vayakhel 5:2 and Shemot Rabbah 3:2. The last of those is the place Rashi names in his own note above.
The strengthening of Eglon is taken up at Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Behar 7:1, Midrash Tanchuma, Behar 3:1 and Shir HaShirim Rabbah 4:1:3. The taking of the city of palms draws Bereshit Rabbah 41:3 and 74:15 and Eikhah Rabbah 1:38. Ehud's sword draws Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Vayechi 32, Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Vayechi 14:1 and 14:2, and Midrash Tanchuma, Vayechi 14:6. Eglon's bulk draws Midrash Lekach Tov, Genesis 41:2:4 and Midrash Sekhel Tov, Bereshit 41:2:2.
The turn at the carved stones and the secret word draw Bereshit Rabbah 99:3, Ruth Rabbah 2:9 and Ruth Rabbah (Lerner) 2:9:3. The cool chamber draws Bamidbar Rabbah 16:27, Ein Yaakov, Sanhedrin 7:12 and Midrash Lekach Tov on Ruth 1:4:4. The servants' delay is taken up at Yevamot 103a:16 and Ehud's escape at Jerusalem Talmud Yoma 3:2:1. Shamgar and his oxgoad close the chapter at Bamidbar Rabbah 14:4, Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Achrei Mot 18:1 and Midrash Tanchuma, Achrei Mot 12:1. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Judges 3:1:1 to 3:25:1, fifteen notes, the Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J, CC-BY; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on Judges 3:4:1 to 3:21:1, seven notes, the Sefaria Community Translation, CC0; Radak, Radak on Judges 3:8:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Malbim, Malbim on Judges 3:5:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/judges/3.json, the 40 rabbinic locators of this chapter, 35 Midrash and 5 Talmud.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Nations left in the land to prove Israel
Judges 3:1-4
Verse 2 adds a third purpose to the sentence and test of chapter 2, "to teach warfare to the subsequent generations of Israel". Exodus 23:29 gives another, that the land not become desolate, and all of these purposes stand together. Verse 4 names what the test measures, "whether they would keep the commandments of the LORD", so the generation of 2:10 is examined on its fathers' commands.
Judges 3:1
“Even as many of Israel ... - These words show that the writer has especially in view the generation which came to man’s estate immediately after the close of the wars with the Canaanites Jos 23:1. Compare Jdg 2:10.”
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Judges 3:1
“Israel was a figure of the church militant, that must fight its way to a triumphant state. The soldiers of Christ must endure hardness, 2 Tim. ii. Corruption is therefore left remaining in the hearts even of good Christians, that they may learn war, may keep on the whole armour of God, and stand continually upon their guard.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Adam Clarke holds that war training became needful only because Israel had been unfaithful. Arms took the place of the spiritual strength they had lost. He adds that God in judgment leaves one sinful nation to harass another.
Judges 3:2
“That - Israel might know, to teach them war - This was another reason why the Canaanites were left in the land, that the Israelites might not forget military discipline, but habituate themselves to the use of arms, that they might always be able to defend themselves against their foes. Had they been faithful to God, they would have had no need of learning the art of war; but now arms became a sort of necessary substitute for that spiritual strength which had departed from them. Thus Gods in his judgments leaves one iniquitous nation to harass and torment another.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
John Gill lists the five: Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron. Judah had taken three of them in 1:18, and Gill holds that the Philistines soon recovered them, with help, he suggests, from the other two. Albert Barnes says the Hebrew title for these rulers is used only of the princes of the five Philistine cities.
Judges 3:3
“Lords - Seranim, a title used exclusively of the princes of the five Philistine cities. The title is probably of Phoenician origin. Joshua appears to have smitten and subdued the Hivites as far north as Baal-Gad, in the valley of Lebanon under Mount Hermon Jos 11:17; Jos 12:7, but no further Jos 13:5. There was an unsubdued Hivite population to the north of Baal-hermon (probably Baal-Gad under Hermon, since it is not synonymous with Hermon; see 1Ch 5:23), to the entering in of Hamath: i. e. in the fertile valley of Coele-Syria.”
1 more voice on this verse
Judges 3:3
“Namely, five lords of the Philistines,.... The places they were lords of were Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron; see Jos 13:3; three of these, Gaza, Ashkelon, and Ekron, had been taken from them by Judah, since the death of Joshua, Jdg 1:18; but they soon recovered them again, perhaps by the help of the other two.”
John Gill takes the commandments here as the whole law given through Moses, moral, civil, and ceremonial. He singles out the commands to destroy the Canaanites with their altars and idols, from Deuteronomy 7:1. Verses 5 and 6 report how Israel answered the test.
Judges 3:4
“And they were to prove Israel by them,.... They were left in the land, as to inure them to war, and try their courage, so to prove their faithfulness to God: to know whether they would hearken to the commandments, of the Lord, which he commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses; even all the commandments of the Lord delivered to them by Moses, moral, civil, and ceremonial, and particularly those that concerned the destruction of the Canaanites, their altars, and their idols, Deu 7:1.”
Judges 3:5-6
Six nations are named here where Deuteronomy 7:1 named seven, and the Girgashites are the one missing. Verse 6 answers Deuteronomy 7:3 clause by clause: "Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons". The reason given at Deuteronomy 7:4 is that "they will turn your sons away from following Me", and verse 6 reports that outcome in four words, "and served their gods".
Adam Clarke says the marriages made Israel one with these nations in politics and in religion. The verse moves in one line from marriage to worship. Verse 7 names the result, as Israel forgot the LORD and served the Baals and the Asherahs.
Judges 3:6
“And they took their daughters - They formed matrimonial alliances with those proscribed nations, served their idols, and thus became one with them in politics and religion.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Othniel, the first judge, and forty years of rest
Judges 3:7-8
Verse 7 is the second of the book's seven reports of evil done "in the sight of the LORD". Where 2:13 named Baal and the Ashtoreths, it names "the Baals and the Asherahs", the wooden poles Deuteronomy 16:21 forbids beside the altar, so idolatry is described by its furniture as well as its gods. The first oppressor comes from Aram-naharaim, the country Abraham's servant went back to at Genesis 24:10.
Judges 3:7
“Served Baalim and the groves - No groves were ever worshipped, but the deities who were supposed to be resident in them; and in many cases temples and altars were built in groves, and the superstition of consecrating groves and woods to the honor of the deities was a practice very usual with the ancients. Pliny assures us that trees, in old times, served for the temples of the gods. Tacitus reports this custom of the old Germans; Quintus Curtius, of the Indians; and Caesar, and our old writers, mention the same of the Druids in Britain.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Origen of Alexandria reads the oppressor's name as meaning humiliation, so Israel is handed to a king whose name describes their sentence. He holds that God humbles those lifted up in wickedness so that they may be healed. Eight years is the first servitude of the book.
Judges 3:8
“Now Chusarsaton's name is translated as "humiliation." They were delivered, then, to the hands of one who would humiliate them. And it was because they acted wickedly on the heights of the mountains against the Most High that he sent them to their humiliation. But I don't want you to think that it is only in relation to the ancients that divine providence delivers those who were exalted in wickedness for the purpose of humiliating them and that they may be healed by such a wholesome remedy.”
Origen of Alexandria · written before 253 · HOMILIES ON JUDGES 3.1patristic
Judges 3:9-10
This is the first time in Judges that Israel "cried out to the LORD", and Othniel is known already from Joshua 15:17 and Judges 1:13. "The Spirit of the LORD" appears at verse 10 for the first time in Scripture. It comes seven times in this book, at 3:10, 6:34, 11:29, 13:25, 14:6, 14:19 and 15:14, and four of the seven are on Samson.
Judges 3:9
“Raised up - Othniel, the son of Kenaz - This noble Hebrew was of the tribe of Judah, and nephew and son-in-law to Caleb, whose praise stands without abatement in the sacred records. Othniel had already signalized his valor in taking Kirjath-sepher, which appears to have been a very hazardous exploit. By his natural valor, experience in war, and the peculiar influence of the Divine Spirit, he was well qualified to inspire his countrymen with courage, and to lead them successfully against their oppressors.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Judges 3:9
“It calls the savior "Othniel," which means "the time of God for me." Through this first Othniel, then, the people were delivered from their humiliating servility and were restored to peace rather than having their longstanding pride and various deeds removed.”
Origen of Alexandria · written before 253 · HOMILIES ON JUDGES 3.3patristic
went out to war: Matthew Henry notes the order of the verse, where Othniel first judges Israel, calling the people to account for their sins, and then goes out to war. He records that the Chaldee version reads the Spirit here as the spirit of prophecy. Henry calls that order the right one.
Judges 3:10
“The Chaldee says, The spirit of prophecy remained on him. He first judged Israel, reproved them, called them to account for their sins, and reformed them, and then went out to war. This was the right method.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2 more voices on this verse
Judges 3:10
“His hand prevailed - We are not told or what nature this war was, but it was most decisive; and the consequence was an undisturbed peace of forty years, during the whole life of Othniel.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Judges 3:10
“Came upon him - With extraordinary influence, endowing him with singular wisdom and courage, and stirring him up to this great undertaking. Judged Israel - That is, pleaded and avenged the cause of Israel against their oppressors.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
The land had rest closes the pattern, and in Judges it falls three times, at 3:11, 3:30 and 5:31, with Joshua 14:15 using the wording first. It stops after Deborah's song and never returns, so the last sixteen chapters run the cycle without the sentence that ends it. Forty years is the wilderness figure of Numbers 14:33, and the verse pairs the rest with the death of the man who won it, which is the arrangement 2:18 said would hold.
Judges 3:11
“And the land had rest forty years,.... As it should seem from the time of this deliverance; though, according to Ben Gersom and Abarbinel, the eight years' servitude are to be included in them; and Bishop Usher (r) reckons these forty years from the rest first settled in the land by Joshua; but the former sense seems best: and Othniel the son of Kenaz died: not at the end of the forty years; it is not likely he should live so long, but when he died is not certain; Eusebius (s) says he judged Israel fifty years. (r) Anual. Vet.”
1 more voice on this verse
Judges 3:11
“The land - means here, as in Jdg 1:2, not the whole land of Canaan, but the part concerned, probably the land of the tribe of Judah. Forty years, here and elsewhere, is (like fourscore years, Jdg 3:30) a round number, perhaps equivalent to a generation.”
Ehud's left hand and the two-edged dagger
Judges 3:12-14
The LORD "gave Eglon king of Moab power over Israel", so the enemy's rise comes from the hand that raises the deliverer three verses later, as 2:14 said with the word sold. Moab takes "the City of Palms", Jericho by Deuteronomy 34:3, so the first town Israel captured in the land is held by a foreign king. Eighteen years is more than twice the eight before it.
Judges 3:12
“The children of Israel did evil - They forgat the Lord and became idolaters, and God made those very people, whom they had imitated in their idolatrous worship, the means of their chastisement. The Lord strengthened Eglon the king of Moab - The success he had against the Israelites was by the especial appointment and energy of God. He not only abandoned the Israelites, but strengthened the Moabites against them. Eglon is supposed to have been the immediate successor of Balak.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
John Wesley explains the choice of the City of Palms by its rich soil and its nearness to the Jordan crossing. From there Eglon could join his forces on both banks, keep the tribes on either side apart, and hold his road home. Eglon won with the Ammonites and Amalekites beside him.
Judges 3:13
“Here he fixed his camp, for the fertility of that soil, and because of its nearness to the passage over Jordan, which was most commodious both for the conjunction of his own forces which lay on both sides of Jordan; to prevent the conjunction of the Israelites in Canaan with their brethren beyond Jordan; and to secure his retreat into his own country.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
John Gill reads the longer servitude as a heavier correction for a people who had fallen back into idolatry. The second fall draws the longer sentence. The eighteen years under Moab end only when Israel cries out again in verse 15.
Judges 3:14
“So the children of Israel served Eglon king of Moab eighteen years. Ten years longer than they served the king of Mesopotamia, Jdg 3:8, as a severer correction of them for their relapse into idolatry.”
Judges 3:15-16
Ehud is "a left-handed Benjamite", and the Hebrew behind left-handed describes a right hand bound or restricted. Benjamin means son of the right hand, the name Jacob gave at Genesis 35:18, so the two facts stand against each other in the original and the English hides it. The sword strapped "to his right thigh" sits where a search of a man carrying tribute would not look.
Judges 3:15
“But when the children of Israel cried unto the Lord, the Lord raised them up a deliverer - The very same words as are used at Jdg 3:9. See, too, Jdg 2:16, Jdg 2:18, and Neh 9:27. Ehud “the Benjamite” was of the family or house of Gera 2Sa 16:5, the son of Bela, Benjamin’s first-born, born before Jacob’s descent into Egypt Gen 46:21, and then included among “the sons of Benjamin.” The genealogy in 1Ch 8:6 intimates that Ehud (apparently written Abihud in Jdg 3:3) became the head of a separate house. Left-handed - See the margin.”
2 more voices on this verse
Judges 3:15
“The present is called mincha in the original, which is the word used in the law for the offerings that were presented to God to obtain his favour; these the children of Israel had not offered in their season to the God that loved them; and now, to punish them for their neglect, they are laid under a necessity of bringing their offerings to a heathen prince that hated them.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Judges 3:15
“But the original word is rendered in some versions "both-handed," a view countenanced by 1Ch 12:2. by him the children of Israel sent a present unto Eglon the king of Moab--the yearly tribute, which, according to Eastern fashion, would be borne with ostentatious ceremony and offered (Jud 3:18) by several messengers.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Adam Clarke finds the Hebrew word for cubit uncertain. Its root suggests something contracted, and the Septuagint and most versions render it as a span, which would make a short blade like a stiletto. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown add that swords were usually worn on the left side.
Judges 3:16
“A dagger which had two edges, of a cubit length - The word גמד gomed, which we translate cubit, is of very doubtful signification. As the root seems to signify contracted, it probably means an instrument made for the purpose shorter than usual, and something like the Italian stiletto. The Septuagint translate it by σπιθαμη, a span, and most of the versions understand it in the same sense. Upon his right thigh - Because he was left-handed.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Judges 3:16
“Ehud made him a dagger . . . and he did gird it . . . upon his right thigh--The sword was usually worn on the left side; so that Ehud's was the more likely to escape detection.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Judges 3:17-19
Eglon is "an obese man" before the blade goes anywhere, and at verse 22 that detail is why the sword stays in. At verse 19 the Hebrew names carved images, "the idols near Gilgal", where Israel first camped and where the angel of 2:1 came from. Ehud sends the tribute party away, turns back alone, and "a secret message" makes the king clear his own room.
Judges 3:17
“Eglon was a very fat man - The איש בריא ish bari of the text is translated by the Septuagint ανηρ αστειος σφοδρα, a very beautiful or polite man, and in the Syriac, a very rude man. It probably means what we call lusty or corpulent.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Adam Clarke describes the custom of the East, where tribute was carried with ceremony by many attendants, often slaves richly dressed, bearing what one man could carry. The crowd made the delivery a show for the court.
Judges 3:18
“Made an end to offer the present - Presents, tribute, etc., in the eastern countries were offered with very great ceremony; and to make the more parade several persons, ordinarily slaves, sumptuously dressed, and in considerable number, were employed to carry what would not be a burden even to one. This appears to have been the case in the present instance.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Albert Barnes places Gilgal near Jericho, where Eglon then held court. Ehud calls his message secret here, and in verse 20 he calls it a word from God.
Judges 3:19
“Gilgal was in the immediate neighborhood of Jericho Jdg 2:1, where doubtless Eglon held his court at this time Jdg 3:13. Quarries - Some take the original of this word in its common meaning of carved images or idols (see the margin).”
Judges 3:20-22
Ehud says "I have a word from God for you", and the king rises, the only mark of respect in the scene. The account gives hand, thigh, belly, handle and fat in short clauses, and the King James softens none of it. No command to Ehud is recorded and no word from God follows the deed, so readers divide over whether it is commended or only told.
Judges 3:20
“He was sitting in a summer parlor - Besides the platforms, says Dr. Shaw, which were upon the ancient houses of the East, and which are found there to this day, it is probable that heretofore, as well as at present, most of the great houses had a smaller one annexed, which seldom consisted of more than one or two rooms and a terrace. Others, built as they frequently are above the porch or gateway, have, if we except the ground-floor, all the conveniences belonging to the house, properly so called.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Matthew Henry holds that Ehud acted as a judge, a minister of divine justice, carrying out God's sentence on an enemy of God and Israel. He refuses to call it murder or assassination. The left hand named in verse 15 does the work.
Judges 3:21
“He saved the oppressed by destroying the oppressors, when the measure of their iniquity was full and the set time to favour Israel had come. (1.) He put to death Eglon the king of Moab; I say, put him to death, not murdered or assassinated him, but as a judge, or minister of divine justice, executed the judgments of God upon him, as an implacable enemy to God and Israel.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Adam Clarke explains the handle sinking in by the short blade and Eglon's great size. He gives two readings of the last clause, either the bowels emptied through the wound or the body emptied itself from terror. The detail explains the servants' mistake in verse 24.
Judges 3:22
“The haft also went in after the blade - As the instrument was very short, and Eglon very corpulent, this might readily take place. And the dirt came out - This is variously understood: either the contents of the bowels issued through the wound, or he had an evacuation in the natural way through the fright and anguish.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Judges 3:23-25
The servants' guess, "He must be relieving himself in the cool room", renders a Hebrew euphemism, covering the feet, used again of Saul in the cave at 1 Samuel 24:3. They "waited until they became worried", so their own courtesy toward the king buys Ehud the road. The escape runs on ordinary means, and the locked door and the embarrassment of the household do the whole of it.
John Wesley cites an interpreter who reads the servants' words as a midday sleep, with the feet covered in a cool room. Adam Clarke gives the same sleeping picture but notes that most ancient versions take it as a natural act. The Berean follows the versions.
Judges 3:24
“Covereth his feet - This phrase is used only here, and 1 Sam. xxiv, 3. A late judicious interpreter expounds it, of composing himself to take a little sleep, as was very usual to do in the day- time in those hot countries. And when they did so in cool places, such as this summer parlor unquestionably was, they used to cover their feet.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Judges 3:24
“He covereth his feet - He has lain down on his sofa in order to sleep; when this was done they dropped their slippers, lifted up their feet, and covered them with their long loose garments. But the versions, in general, seem to understand it as implying a certain natural act.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Albert Barnes says the Hebrew for key means an opener. He takes it as a wooden tool that lifted the latch inside or drew back the bar. He suggests the chief officer of Eglon's household kept a second key.
Judges 3:25
“A key - literally, “an opener.” Probably a wooden instrument with which they either lifted up the latch within, or drew back the wooden bar or bolt. The chief officer of Eglon’s household probably had a second key (compare Isa 22:15, Isa 22:20-22; Isa 37:2).”
Judges 3:26-28
The ram's horn in the hill country of Ephraim raises a levy, since Israel in this book keeps no standing force. At verse 28 Ehud claims what verse 10 claimed for Othniel, "the LORD has delivered your enemies the Moabites into your hand", before a blow is struck. Seizing "the fords of the Jordan" cuts Moab off from home, and the same crossings are held against Ephraim at 12:5.
Judges 3:26
“Passed beyond the quarries - Beyond the pesilim, which appear to have been the Moabitish borders, where they had set up those hewn stones as landmarks, or sacred boundary stones.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
John Gill suggests the horn may have been a signal agreed beforehand, if the Israelites knew Ehud's plan. Blown from the heights of Ephraim, it could be heard far off. The men come down, and Ehud leads them.
Judges 3:27
“And it came to pass, when he was come, That is, to Seirath, Jdg 3:26, in the tribe of Ephraim: that be blew a trumpet in the mountain of Ephraim; which being an high mountain, the sound of the trumpet was heard afar off; and if Ehud's design was known to the Israelites, what he intended to do, this might be the token agreed on, should he succeed, to call them together, see Jer 31:6, and the children of Israel went down with him from the mount, and he before them; being there assembled together, and which might be the…”
Adam Clarke reads the scene as a panic, with the Moabites west of the Jordan fleeing toward home when they heard Eglon was dead. The fords near Jericho were their only way across. Holding them produced the ten thousand dead of verse 29.
Judges 3:28
“Took the fords of Jordan - It is very likely that the Moabites, who were on the western side of Jordan, hearing of the death of Eglon, were panic-struck, and endeavored to escape over Jordan at the fords near Jericho, when Ehud blew his trumpet in the mountains of Ephraim, and thus to get into the land of the Moabites, which lay on the east of Jordan; but Ehud and his men, seizing the only pass by which they could make their escape, slew ten thousand of them in their attempt to cross at those fords.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Judges 3:29-30
About ten thousand Moabites fall, all strong and valiant men, and "Not one of them escaped", which the seized crossings made possible. Eighty years is the longest rest recorded in the book, twice the forty given to Othniel. The figures fall from here, since Deborah's rest at 5:31 is forty years.
Judges 3:29
“All lusty, and all men of valor - Picked, chosen troops, which Eglon kept among the Israelites to reduce and overawe them.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Adam Clarke counts the eighty years from the deliverance under Othniel, the point from which Israel then dated events. John Wesley limits the rest mainly to the land east of the Jordan, since the Philistines were already troubling the southwest. Verse 31 names that trouble.
Judges 3:30
“The land had rest fourscore years - This is usually reckoned from the deliverance under Othniel, that being a term from which they dated every transaction, as in other cases they dated from the exodus, from the building of Solomon’s temple, etc., and as other nations did from particular events: the Romans, from the building of the city; the Mohammedans, from the Hijreh, or flight of Mohammed to Medina; the Christians, from the birth of Christ, etc., etc. But see the preface, and the different chronological schemes there mentioned.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Judges 3:30
“Fourscore years - Chiefly that part of it which lay east of Jordan: for the other side of the country, which lay southwest, was even then infested by the Philistines.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Shamgar and the ox goadv. 31
Shamgar gets one verse, with no years, no servitude, no rest and no cry of Israel before him. His oxgoad is a farm tool some eight feet long with an iron point, so the weapon reports what Israel's armouries held, as 1 Samuel 13:19 and 22 record later. Deborah's song names him at 5:6, and the Philistines enter here as the enemy of the book's last third.
Judges 3:31
“From this verse and Jdg 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. An ox goad - An instrument of wood about eight feet long, armed with an iron spike or point at one end, with which to spur the ox at plow, and with an iron scraper at the other end with which to detach the earth from the plowshare when it became encumbered with it.”
How this psalm is built
The form: A list of the nations left, followed by the first three deliverer accounts, the first stated as the pattern and the second told at full length, as Barnes classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| The four sentences that mark a cycle | The chapter sets the formulas in place for the rest of the book. Israel did evil at verse 7 and did evil again at verse 12. Israel cried out to the LORD at verse 9 and again at verse 15, which Albert Barnes marks as the very same words in both places. The LORD raised up a deliverer follows each cry, and the land had rest closes each account at verse 11 and verse 30.Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, 1832 to 1869, on Judges 3:15. | Judges 3:7, Judges 3:9, Judges 3:12, Judges 3:15, Judges 3:30 |
| The nations named in order | Verses 3 and 5 list who was left: the five lords of the Philistines, all the Canaanites, the Sidonians and the Hivites of Lebanon, then the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. Six nations stand at verse 5 where Deuteronomy 7:1 named seven, the Girgashites being absent. Albert Barnes reads the word behind lords as seranim, a title used only of the princes of the five Philistine cities and probably Phoenician in origin.Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, 1832 to 1869, on Judges 3:3. | Judges 3:3, Judges 3:5 |
| The left hand of the son of the right hand | Ehud is a Benjamite and left-handed, and the Hebrew behind that word describes a right hand that is bound or restricted. The tribe's name means son of the right hand, given by Jacob at Genesis 35:18, so the two facts stand against each other in the original. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown record that some versions render the word both-handed, a reading they say is countenanced by 1 Chronicles 12:2. The word falls twice in Scripture and both times of Benjamites, here and at Judges 20:16.Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, on Judges 3:15. | Judges 3:15, Judges 3:21 |
| The message claimed before the blade | Ehud gains the room with the words of a secret errand at verse 19 and then says he has a message from God, and the king rises out of his seat, which is the only mark of respect anyone pays in the scene. Albert Barnes reads the first message as delivered to the attendants and carried in, after which Ehud is admitted to the cool upper chamber alone.Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, 1832 to 1869, on Judges 3:20. | Judges 3:19, Judges 3:20 |
| The two deliverers set against each other | Othniel's account runs five verses and gives the pattern with nothing added: the cry, the Spirit, the judging, the war, the rest, the death. Ehud's runs nineteen and gives the hand, the thigh, the locked door, the key and the fords. The same frame carries a summary and a scene, and Shamgar at verse 31 carries neither, with no years counted, no servitude named and no rest recorded.The site's published exposition note on Judges 3:31, The store's `verse_notes` for Judges 3, catchword "Shamgar the son of Anath, which slew", citing Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1863, and Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1810 to 1826. | Judges 3:9, Judges 3:11, Judges 3:15, Judges 3:31 |
The structure of the chapter in the book's argument
15 more paragraphs on the patterns
The chapter is where the pattern of 2:11 to 19 first runs. The site's published guide for this book carries the six cycles as a table with their figures: Othniel at 3:7 to 11 against Cushan-rishathaim of Mesopotamia, eight years of oppression at 3:8 and forty of rest at 3:11, with the Spirit at 3:10 and no personal flaw recorded, which the guide calls the cycle's cleanest run. Ehud at 3:12 to 30, with Shamgar at 3:31, stands against Eglon of Moab, with eighteen years of oppression at 3:14 and eighty of rest at 3:30, and no notice of the Spirit.
The numbers move in one direction. Eighteen years of servitude is more than twice the eight before it, and the eighty years of rest here is the longest the book records and the last time the figure rises. Deborah's rest is forty years at 5:31, and after that no rest is recorded at all.
The phrase the land had rest falls three times in this book, at 3:11, 3:30 and 5:31, with Joshua 14:15 using the wording first. It stops after Deborah's song, so the last sixteen chapters run the cycle without the sentence that closes it.
Albert Barnes reads the land in verse 11 as the part concerned rather than the whole of Canaan, probably the territory of Judah, and reads forty years and eighty years as round numbers rather than exact totals. John Wesley reads the eighty years of verse 30 as holding chiefly east of the Jordan, since the south west of the country was already troubled by the Philistines.
The Spirit of the LORD, for the first time
Verse 10 is the first place in this book where the Spirit of the LORD comes upon a man. The phrase falls seven times in Judges, at 3:10, 6:34, 11:29, 13:25, 14:6, 14:19 and 15:14, four of the seven on Samson. Albert Barnes reads the phrase as marking the special office of the judges, who were saviours raised for a task. John Wesley reads it as an extraordinary influence giving wisdom and courage and stirring a man to the undertaking. Matthew Henry records the Chaldee paraphrase, that the spirit of prophecy remained on him, and reads Othniel as judging and reforming Israel before he went out to war.
The site's published theology for this book sets the pattern beside the New Testament, where the Spirit is described as given to indwell every believer and to abide, at John 14:16 to 17 and Acts 2:38 to 39, and reads the Judges pattern as an earlier and task-shaped form of the same work.
The historical value
The Philistines enter the book at verse 31 as the enemy the last third of it belongs to. The site's published dossier carries their arrival as an excavated fact: distinctive locally made Aegean-style pottery, new architecture, hearths and diet appear suddenly at Ashdod, Ashkelon and Ekron, which is Tel Miqne, from about 1175 BC, matching the records of the Sea Peoples that Ramesses III left at Medinet Habu.
Shamgar's weapon reports the state of Israel's armouries. An ox goad is a farm implement about eight feet long with an iron point at one end. First Samuel 13:19 and 13:22 set down the same shortage plainly a few generations later, when no smith was found in Israel and only Saul and Jonathan carried a sword. John Wesley reads Shamgar as a man at the plough when the Philistines came in, who took up what he had.
The dossier also records that the name Shamgar son of Anath carries the name of the Canaanite warrior goddess known from the Ugaritic tablets, which shows how far that world had reached into Israel's own naming.
Where the chapter reaches
Othniel was introduced at Joshua 15:17 and Judges 1:13, taking Kirjath-sepher and marrying Caleb's daughter, so the book's first deliverer was presented two books earlier winning a wife. Albert Barnes notes that he was already distinguished in Joshua's lifetime as a brave and successful leader.
The fords of the Jordan that Ehud seizes at verse 28 are held again at 12:5, where the word Shibboleth is the test. The trumpet in the hill country of Ephraim at verse 27 raises a levy rather than an army, since Israel in this book keeps no standing force and every deliverer has to call one.
Hebrews 11:32 takes four men out of this book by name, Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, and reads their faith without erasing the record Judges keeps of their failures. Paul's sermon at Antioch in Pisidia takes up the whole period at Acts 13:20, where God gave them judges until the time of Samuel the prophet.
Keep studying
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1810 to 1826, on Judges 3:1 and on Judges 3:2; Albert Barnes and John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament, 1748 to 1763, on Judges 3:4.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Origen of Alexandria, HOMILIES ON JUDGES 3.1.