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Judges 11:25

in Judges 11

Are you now so much better than Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever contend with Israel or fight against them?

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

And now art thou anything better than Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab? did he ever strive against Israel, or did he ever fight against them?

KJV

And now art thou any thing better than Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab? did he ever strive against Israel, or did he ever fight against them,

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This verse in Judges 11

Commentary

3 notes on this verse
And now art thou anything better than Balak the son of Zippor king of Moab?.... This argument seems to strengthen the conjecture, that this king was king of Moab at this time, and so Balak was one of his predecessors.

This site's exposition

better than Balak son of Zippor

on Judges 11:25-26

Balak hired Balaam and never brought an army against Israel, in Numbers 22 to 24. The "three hundred years" of verse 26 is read as a round number, or against the 480 years of 1 Kings 6:1. Jephthah's point, a claim left unpressed for centuries, holds on any reading.

The record, by era

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

The bravest officers have always been averse to war; so Jephthah, whose courage was indisputable, resolved not only to make it clearly appear that hostilities were forced upon him, but to try measures for avoiding, if possible, an appeal to arms: and in pursuing such a course he was acting as became a leader in Israel (De 20:10-18).

The words behind it

17 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וְעַתָּ֗הand now

    veatahH6258 →433 times

  • הֲט֥וֹב¿ really <good>

    hatovH2895 →45 times

  • טוֹב֙good

    tovH2895 →45 times

  • אַתָּ֔ה[are] you

    ʾatahH859 →1094 times

  • מִבָּלָ֥קmore than Balak

    mibalakH1111 →

  • בֶּן־[the] son of

    ben-H1121 →4930 times

  • צִפּ֖וֹרZippor

    tziporH6834 →

  • מֶ֣לֶךְ[the] king of

    melekhH4428 →2525 times

  • מוֹאָ֑בMoab

    moavH4124 →181 times

  • הֲר֥וֹב¿ really <to quarrel>

    harovH7378 →67 times

  • רָב֙did he quarrel

    ravH7378 →67 times

  • עִם־with

    ʾim-H5973 →1050 times

  • יִשְׂרָאֵ֔לIsrael

    yisraelH3478 →2507 times

  • אִם־or?

    ʾim-H518 →1069 times

  • נִלְחֹ֥םever <to wage war>

    nilchomH3898 →177 times

  • נִלְחַ֖םdid he wage war

    nilchamH3898 →177 times

  • בָּֽם׃against <the> them

    bam

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Related verses

5 in all, six open

The number beside each verse is how many compiled reference works tie it to this one. The strongest six stand open.

Joshua 24:9Then Balak son of Zippor, the king of Moab, set out to fight against Israel. He sent for Balaam son of Beor to curse you,7 worksMicah 6:5My people, remember what Balak king of Moab counseled and what Balaam son of Beor answered. Remember your journey from Shittim to Gilgal, so that you may acknowledge the righteousness of the LORD.’”5 worksNumbers 22:2Now Balak son of Zippor saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites,5 worksDeuteronomy 23:3–4No Ammonite or Moabite or any of their descendants may enter the assembly of the LORD, even to the tenth generation.3 worksNumbers 22:4So the Moabites said to the elders of Midian, “This horde will devour everything around us, as an ox licks up the grass of the field.” Since Balak son of Zippor was king of Moab at that time,2 works

The walk

5 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Micah 6:5

    My people, remember what Balak king of Moab counseled and what Balaam son of Beor answered. Remember your journey from Shittim to Gilgal, so that you may acknowledge the righteousness of the LORD.’”

    it leads to

    • Joshua 5:9–10

      Then the LORD said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.” So that place has been called Gilgal to this day.

    • Numbers 25:1

      While Israel was staying in Shittim, the men began to indulge in sexual immorality with the daughters of Moab,

    • Judges 5:11

      the voices of the singers at the watering places. There they shall recount the righteous acts of the LORD, the righteous deeds of His villagers in Israel. Then the people of the LORD went…

    • 2 Peter 2:15

      They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Beor, who loved the wages of wickedness.

    • Joshua 4:19

      On the tenth day of the first month the people went up from the Jordan and camped at Gilgal on the eastern border of Jericho.

Where this verse is studied

About Judges

Jephthah's Daughter Comes to Meet Her Father — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain
Jephthah's Daughter Comes to Meet Her Father — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain
Judges: the study guide →Read Judges 11 →

This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth.

Read on in Judges 11 →