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JUDGES 3

PARAGRAPH DIVISIONS OF MODERN TRANSLATIONS

READING CYCLE THREE (see "Bible Interpretation Seminar")

FOLLOWING THE ORIGINAL AUTHOR'S INTENT AT THE PARAGRAPH LEVEL

This is a study guide commentary, which means that you are responsible for your own interpretation of the Bible. Each of us must walk in the light we have. You, the Bible, and the Holy Spirit are priority in interpretation. You must not relinquish this to a commentator.

Read the chapter in one sitting. Identify the subjects. Compare your subject divisions with the five translations above. Paragraphing is not inspired, but it is the key to following the original author's intent, which is the heart of interpretation. Every paragraph has one and only one subject.

1. First paragraph
2. Second paragraph
3. Etc.

WORD AND PHRASE STUDY

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: 3:1-8
  ¹Now these are the nations which the Lord left, to test Israel by them (that is, all who had not experienced any of the wars of Canaan; ²only in order that the generations of the sons of Israel might] be taught war, those who had not experienced it formerly). ³These nations are: the five lords of the Philistines and all the Canaanites and the Sidonians and the Hivites who lived in Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baal-hermon as far as Lebo-hamath. ⁴They were for testing Israel, to find out if they would obey the commandments of the Lord which He had commanded their fathers through Moses. ⁵The sons of Israel lived among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; ⁶and they took their daughters for themselves as wives, and gave their own daughters to their sons, and served their gods. ⁷The sons of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and forgot the Lord their God and served the Baals and the Asheroth. ⁸Then the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, so that He sold them into the hands of Cushan-rishathaim king of Mesopotamia; and the sons of Israel served Cushan-rishathaim eight years.

3:1 "Now these are the nations which the Lord left" One would assume by reading Joshua 23 that all the Canaanites had been defeated. However, when one compares Judges 1-3, one would realize that although Joshua broke the back of the main Canaanite resistance (i.e., the walled cities), every tribe had to fully possess its own allotted territory.

▣ "to test Israel by them" It is obvious that God tests His people to make their faith toward Him stronger (cf. Genesis 12; 22; Exod. 16:4; 20:20; Deut. 8:2,16; 13:3; 2 Chr. 32:31) God's tests are always for the purpose of strengthening our faith, never to destroy it. Testing will come (cf. Matt. 5:10-12; John 15:18-21; 16:1-3; 17:14; Acts 14:22; Rom. 5:3-4; 8:17; 2 Cor. 4:16-18; 6:3-10; 11:23-30; Phil. 1:29; 1 Thess. 3:3; 2 Tim. 3:12; James 1:2-4; 1 Pet. 4:12-16). All of the covenants are unconditional on God's part, but conditional on man's part.

1. SPECIAL TOPIC: GOD TESTS HIS PEOPLE
   
   
2. SPECIAL TOPIC: COVENANT

3:2 "that the generations of the sons of Israel might be taught" At first this would seem rather shocking that God's will would be that they would be taught about war. But reading Joshua 23, God fighting on behalf of His people was a way of building His people's faith. We also learn in Rom. 5:3, 4 that we grow through the things that we experience. It is said that Jesus was perfected by the things that he suffered (cf. Heb. 5:8). It is obvious that in Jdgs. 3:1, 2, sufferings are meant to strengthen the Israelites' faith in their Covenant God.

3:3 "These nations are. . ." The following is a list of the Canaanites who were left in the land, to some extent, undefeated.

1. SPECIAL TOPIC: PRE-ISRAELITE INHABITANTS OF PALESTINE

▣ "the five lords of the Philistines" We learn from Jos. 13:3, these five lords were the kings of cities. Philistines were a part of the Sea Peoples (probably from Crete, cf. Amos 9:7) and, therefore, their manner of government was like the Greek city states. The five major cities of the Philistines are: Gaza, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Ekron, and Gath. The Philistines invaded Egypt around 1250 B.C., but were repulsed and settled in the southwest corner of Palestine. Because of their superior knowledge of iron (cf. 1 Sam. 13:19-21) and their aggressive mercenary background, they dominated the local populations. They will be one of the major entities from the Judges period through the reign of David.

▣ "and all the Canaanites" "Canaanites" is sometimes a collective term for all the tribes of Canaan, as is the term "Amorites." Some of these tribes are listed in Jdgs. 3:5. The number of tribes varies; sometimes there are five, seven, or ten nations mentioned.

▣ "the Sidonians" The fact that the inhabitants of Sidon are mentioned, rather than the inhabitants of Tyre, shows that this is an ancient account. Soon after this, Tyre, not Sidon, became the major city of Phoenicia. The Phoenicians were sea-faring people from the Aegean Islands and were a part of the wave of Sea Peoples who relocated around the Mediterranean Sea, as were the Philistines.

▣ "the Hivites" Sometimes the Hivites (BDB 295, cf. Jos. 11:3) are called Horites (cf. Gen. 36:2, 20, 29). They seem to be from the kingdom of Mitanni. This group is also known as the Hurrians in the Bible (capital being Nuzi).

3:4 "They were for the testing of Israel, to find out if they would obey the commandments of the Lord" The reason the nations were left is explained in Jdgs. 2:19-23.

3:5 "Canaanites" This term (BDB 489 I) originally meant "lowlanders," or at least this is the geographical area in which they settled, usually along the Mediterranean coast.

▣ "Hivites" In the Bible there seem to be three distinct groups of Hittites (BDB 366). One in the Tigris-Euphrates River Valley, one found in Palestine, and the large Hittite Empire in central Turkey. It is possible that the group found in Palestine was a member of the larger Hittite Empire located in central Turkey.

▣ "the Amorites" This word means "highlander" (BDB 57) but again, may simply refer to the geographical area where they originally lived in the foothills of Judea.

▣ "Perizzites" This is a word (BDB 827) that means "tent-dwellers," which indicates that they did not live in walled cities, possibly were nomadic.

▣ "Jebusites" This seems to refer to the native inhabitants of Jebus, which later became Jerusalem under the reign of David and was known as the city of Salem (cf. Genesis 14).

1. SPECIAL TOPIC: MORIAH, SALEM, JEBUS, ZION, JERUSALEM

3:6 "and they took their daughters for themselves as wives" Basically this is the religious apostasy spoken of earlier in the writings of Moses (cf. Exod. 34:15-16; Deut. 7:3-4; Jos. 23:12). The main problem of intermarriage had nothing to do with race. Canaanites were basically the same racial stock as the Israelites, so this was religious apostasy.

3:7 "The sons of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and forgot the Lord their God and served the Baals and the Ashtoreth" This was the major problem of the Canaanites—the attractiveness of their religion to the fallen nature of man. It basically was a fertility cult with Ba'al being the male fertility god and Ashtoreth being the fertility goddess. Ba'al was worshiped by an uplifted stone, while Ashtoreth was symbolized by either a live tree or a carved wooden stake. Imitation magic was used in the worship of these fertility gods by the sex act.

1. SPECIAL TOPIC: FERTILITY WORSHIP OF THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST

▣ "in the sight" Literally, "in the eyes of the Lord" (cf. Jdgs. 3:12; 4:1; 6:1; 10:6; 13:1). This is anthropomorphic language describing YHWH as a human.

1. SPECIAL TOPIC: THE PROBLEMS AND LIMITATIONS OF HUMAN LANGUAGE

▣ "and forgot the Lord their God" The VERB (BDB 1013, KB 1489, Qal IMPERFECT with waw) does not imply they forgot all information about Him, but that they ignored Him and His covenant. The phrase "the Lord their God" is covenant terminology. Israel's idolatry was all the more serious because they uniquely had YHWH's actions, leaders, and revelation (i.e., Rom. 9:4)!

▣ "the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, so that He sold them into the hands of. . ." Usually it says that God "redeemed" His people, meaning He bought them back. The opposite of redeemed is that He sold them into the control of foreign nations (cf. Jdgs. 2:14; 4:2, 9; 10:7; 1 Sam. 12:9).

1. SPECIAL TOPIC: RANSOM/REDEEM

▣ "Cushan-rishathaim king of Mesopotamia" The word "Cushan" (BDB 469) could refer to (1) Cush, who is the father of Nimrod and the founder of the old Babylonian Empire (cf. Gen. 10:8) or (2) it could relate to the nation of Edom through Ham and a similar term used for Edom.

The term "rishathaim" (BDB 958) seems to have been a Jewish corruption of an earlier name. The Jews enjoyed changing the vowels of people's names to make them mean something foolish or evil. This term, as it stands, means "double-wickedness." What mother would name her son "double-wickedness"?

The term Mesopotamia, in the early parts of the Bible, refers to Aram (BDB 74), Syria, not the later empires of the Fertile Crescent. After the fourth century B.C., the term "Mesopotamia," in Greek, meaning "between the rivers," does not refer to the Tigris and Euphrates River Valley, but at this point, only to their headwaters, Syria, Aram.

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: 3:9-11
  ⁹When the sons of Israel cried to the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer for the sons of Israel to deliver them, Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother. ¹⁰The Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he judged Israel. When he went out to war, the Lord gave Cushan-rishathaim king of Mesopotamia into his hand, so that he prevailed over Cushan-rishathaim. ¹¹Then the land had rest forty years. And Othniel the son of Kenaz died.

3:9 "the sons of Israel cried to the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer for the sons of Israel to deliver them" Although this book is called "Judges," we need to realize the term "judge" means a "Godsent and God-empowered deliverer." This terrible cycle of sin, prayer, YHWH's mercy (cf. Jdgs. 2:18), and peace is repeated again and again.

▣ "Othniel" This was a descendant of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother (or nephew, cf. Jdgs. 1:13). He would represent the tribe of Judah, as Ehud would the tribe of Benjamin. Both of these tribes are depicted as obedient to YHWH and, thereby, successful in possessing their land allotments in Judges 2.

3:10 "The Spirit of the Lord came upon him" This is a recurrent phrase (cf. Jdgs. 6:34; 11:29; 14:6, 19; 15:14; 1 Sam. 16:13). We must be careful not to make a strong distinction between the Spirit's work in the OT and the Spirit's work in the NT. It is obvious that something significant and revolutionary happened at Pentecost, but God's Spirit has always been active in the world, just as He was active in the world before Pentecost (cf. Num. 24:2; 1 Sam. 10:6,30).

1. SPECIAL TOPIC: SPIRIT IN THE BIBLE

3:11 "Then the land had rest forty years" If we make a list of all of the years of the reigns of the foreign oppressors and the years of deliverance by the judges, we come to a grand total of approximately 400 years. When we compare this to 1 Kgs. 6:1, this is far too much time. Therefore, most scholars believe that the judges overlapped each other. They are not in chronological, sequential order.

The term "forty" seems to refer to one generation. A generation grew up who did not know the Lord, as stated in Jdgs. 3:1-2.

1. SPECIAL TOPIC: SYMBOLIC NUMBERS IN SCRIPTURE

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: 3:12-14
  ¹²Now the sons of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord. So the Lord strengthened Eglon the king of Moab against Israel, because they had done evil in the sight of the Lord. ¹³And he gathered to himself the sons of Ammon and Amalek; and he went and defeated Israel, and they possessed the city of the palm trees. ¹⁴The sons of Israel served Eglon the king of Moab eighteen years.

3:12 "did evil in the sight of the Lord" This refers to covenant disobedience, especially idolatry.

▣ "So the Lord strengthened Eglon the king of Moab against Israel" God used a pagan nation for His purposes. He used Moab, as He will use Assyria (cf. Isa. 10:5ff), Babylon (cf. Jer. 27:6ff; Ezek. 30:24), and Persia (cf. Isa. 45:11ff).

3:13 "And he gathered to himself the sons of Ammon and Amalek; and he went and defeated Israel, and they possessed the city of the palm trees" Ammon is a relative of Israel from one of the daughters of Lot (cf. Gen. 19:38).

Amalek is also a relative of Israel (cf. Gen. 36:12,16). Amalek was a desert tribe from the northern parts of the Sinai peninsula. Amalek was hated by Israel because they attacked the weaker, older, and sick members of the Jewish exodus group. The term "Amalek" (BDB 766) became an idiom for evil and enemy in the Bible.

The term "city of palms" refers to Jericho (cf. Deut. 34:3), but in Jdgs. 1:16, the same term is used for a southern oasis which may be Tamar (BDB 1071 II, , which means "palm tree," cf 1 Kgs. 9:18; Ezek. 47:19; 48:28).

3:14 "The sons of Israel" Here, this collective term refers only to the tribes in southern Canaan.

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: 3:15-23
  ¹⁵But when the sons of Israel cried to the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer for them, Ehud the son of Gera, the Benjamite, a left-handed man. And the sons of Israel sent tribute by him to Eglon the king of Moab. ¹⁶Ehud made himself a sword which had two edges, a cubit in length, and he bound it on his right thigh under his cloak. ¹⁷He presented the tribute to Eglon king of Moab. Now Eglon was a very fat man. ¹⁸It came about when he had finished presenting the tribute, that he sent away the people who had carried the tribute. ¹⁹But he himself turned back from the idols which were at Gilgal, and said, "I have a secret message for you, O king." And he said, "Keep silence." And all who attended him left him. ²⁰Ehud came to him while he was sitting alone in his cool roof chamber. And Ehud said, "I have a message from God for you." And he arose from his seat. ²¹Ehud stretched out his left hand, took the sword from his right thigh and thrust it into his belly. ²²The handle also went in after the blade, and the fat closed over the blade, for he did not draw the sword out of his belly; and the refuse came out. ²³Then Ehud went out into the vestibule and shut the doors of the roof chamber behind him, and locked them.

3:15 "Ehud the son of Gera, the Benjamite, a left-handed man" Gera is mentioned in Gen. 46:21. It was well known that the Benjamites were ambidextrous (cf. Jdgs. 20:16; 1 Chr. 12:2).

3:16 "a sword which had two edges" This literally means "two mouths."

▣ "a cubit in length" The term "cubit" (BDB 167) is different here from the normal term for cubit (BDB 52, KB 61). The rabbis say it refers to a short cubit, which would be from the knuckles to the elbow, or about 14 inches long.

1. SPECIAL TOPIC: CUBIT

3:17 "he presented the tribute to Eglon king of Moab" This shows that Israel was under the domination of Moab.

3:19 "he himself turned back from the idols which were at Gilgal" The term NASB translates as "idols" (BDB 820) could mean "quarries" or "graven images" (cf. Deut. 7:5), but being located at Gilgal, it probably refers to the ancient memorial markers set up by Joshua (cf. Jos. 4:19-24). Ehud was not an idolater but a faithful follower of YHWH.

▣ "Keep silence" This is an INTERJECTION (BDB 245, cf. Neh. 8:11; Amos 6:10; Zeph. 1:7; Zech. 2:13).

3:20 "Ehud came to him while he was sitting alone in his cool roof chamber" The roof chamber was a small room built on the roof where the wind would make it the coolest part of the house in the summer. Flavius Josephus, in his book, The Antiquities of the Jews 5.4.1,2, has a detailed account of this encounter, but it is uncertain where he received this information. Here, it refers to the place to "relieve himself" (lit. "covering his feet," cf. 1 Sam. 24:3).

3:22 "and the refuse came out" This is very graphic in the Hebrew. It is a rare word (BDB 832) found only here and is usually translated "feces." The blade may have (1) come out his back or (2) the intestines were ruptured and refuse came out.

The term (BDB 690 or BDB 414) occurs only here and its root and meaning are unknown. NIDOTTE, vol. 1, pp. 680, 962, suggests "a small room beneath the toilet from which refuse was removed."

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: 3:24-25
  ²⁴When he had gone out, his servants came and looked, and behold, the doors of the roof chamber were locked; and they said, "He is only relieving himself in the cool room." ²⁵They waited until they became anxious; but behold, he did not open the doors of the roof chamber. Therefore they took the key and opened them, and behold, their master had fallen to the floor dead.

3:24 "He is only relieving himself in the cool room" The servants thought their master was simply using the necessary room. The phrase, "covering the feet," is a euphemism for the genitals (cf. Exod. 4:25; Deut. 28:54; Ruth 3:4, 7, 8, 14; 1 Sam. 24:3; Isa. 7:20; Ezek. 16:25; NIDOTTE, vol. 4, p. 1199).

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: 3:26-30
  ²⁶Now Ehud escaped while they were delaying, and he passed by the idols and escaped to Seirah. ²⁷It came about when he had arrived, that he blew the trumpet in the hill country of Ephraim; and the sons of Israel went down with him from the hill country, and he was in front of them. ²⁸He said to them, "Pursue them, for the Lord has given your enemies the Moabites into your hands." So they went down after him and seized the fords of the Jordan opposite Moab, and did not allow anyone to cross. ²⁹They struck down at that time about ten thousand Moabites, all robust and valiant men; and no one escaped. ³⁰So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel. And the land was undisturbed for eighty years.

3:26 "he passed by the idols" The same word for "idols" (lit. "sculptured stones") is used in Jdgs. 3:19. Therefore, Jdgs. 3:19 and 26 refer to the same geographical area. Ehud fled to Seirah (BDB 972 II), which means "the invaded" city, to hide.

3:27 "he blew the trumpet" The ram's horn was used for military and religious purposes to communicate messages to the people, here to denote a called military gathering.

1. SPECIAL TOPIC: HORNS USED BY ISRAEL

3:28 "the fords of the Jordan" These were the shallow crossing places, therefore, the Moabites could not retreat or bring in reinforcements (military strategy, cf. Jdgs. 7:24-25; 12:5-6).

3:29 In a sense, this victory of Ehud and the tribe of Ephraim was a God-given rout, similar to holy war, where no one survived. Remember, YHWH told them to kill or remove all the local inhabitants who might cause Israel to become idolatrous (cf. Deut. 7:1-5; 20:16-18).

▣ "ten thousand" This is an idiomatic hyperbole (cf. Jdgs. 1:4; 4:6, 10, 14; 7:3).

1. SPECIAL TOPIC: THOUSAND (eleph)
   
   
2. SPECIAL TOPIC: SYMBOLIC NUMBERS IN SCRIPTURE

▣ "all robust and valiant men" These terms clearly reveal the "spiritual" nature of the victory over powerful Moabite warriors.

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: 3:31
  ³¹After him came Shamgar the son of Anath, who struck down six hundred Philistines with an oxgoad; and he also saved Israel.

3:31 "Shamgar" This is a Hurrian name (BDB 1029, cf. Jdgs. 5:6), therefore, he probably was not Hebrew. He is called by scholars a "minor judge," but this refers only because of the amount of Scripture that describes his exploits.

▣ "the son of Anath" This was a Canaanite war goddess (BDB 779), but here it probably refers to Beth-Anath, a city of Galilee (cf. Jdgs. 1:33)

▣ "oxgoad" This (KB 594) was a pole, 8 to 10 feet in length, with a metal tip to direct a yoke of oxen.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

This is a study guide commentary which means that you are responsible for your own interpretation of the Bible. Each of us must walk in the light we have. You, the Bible, and the Holy Spirit are priority in interpretation. You must not relinquish this to a commentator.

These discussion questions are provided to help you think through the major issues of this section of the book. They are meant to be thought-provoking, not definitive.

1. Why did YHWH "test" Israel?
2. Why is Jdgs. 3:6 so troubling?
3. Is there a distinction between the Spirit's work in the OT and NT?
4. Why do we call Shamgar a "minor judge" and Othniel and Ehud "major judges"?

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