So the children of Israel served Eglon the king of Moab eighteen years.
The Israelites served Eglon king of Moab eighteen years.
and the sons of Israel serve Eglon king of Moab eighteen years.
And the children of Israel served Eglon the king of Moab eighteen years.
Judges — The post-conquest slide into cyclical apostasy. Twelve judges delivering Israel from successive oppressors, a pattern repeating seven times, and an appendix whose violence diagnoses a nation with no king.
Voices2
It was an aggravation of their wickedness that they did evil again after they had smarted so long for their former iniquities, promised so fair when Othniel judged them, and received so much mercy from God in their deliverance. What, and after all this, again to break his commandments! Was the disease obstinate to all the methods of cure, both corrosives and lenitives?
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710puritan
They neglected the service of God, and did not pay him his tribute; thus therefore did God recover from them that wine and oil, that silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal, Hos. ii. What should have been paid to the divine grace, and was not, was distrained for, and paid to the divine justice.
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710puritan
Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread — the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.
The verses this one reaches4
And if by these things ye will not be reformed unto me, but will walk contrary unto me;
and thou shalt grope at noonday, as the blind gropeth in darkness, and thou shalt not prosper in thy ways: and thou shalt be only oppressed and robbed alway, and there shall be none to save thee.
Thou shalt have olive-trees throughout all thy borders, but thou shalt not anoint thyself with the oil; for thine olive shall cast its fruit.
Because thou servedst not Jehovah thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, by reason of the abundance of all things;
The walk3
Two steps out along the cross-reference floor, votes-ranked — destinations reached by more than one path rise (the text's own hubs). Every stop is a page, and every stop travels with its words.
Through
Deuteronomy 28:40Thou shalt have olive-trees throughout all thy borders, but thou shalt not anoint thyself with the oil; for thine olive shall cast its fruit.
leads to
Thou shalt sow, but shalt not reap; thou shalt tread the olives, but shalt not anoint thee with oil; and the vintage, but shalt not drink the wine.
And wine that maketh glad the heart of man, And oil to make his face to shine, And bread that strengtheneth man’s heart.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: Thou hast anointed my head with oil; My cup runneth over.
The whole web at once: see the Arc.