Judges 20:33

rose up … set themselves in array The Israelites had taken up their position opposite Gibeah and then retired northwards (Judges 20:30); now, apparently, after the feigned retreat they take up a second position at a further distance from Gibeah. But this is hardly the natural meaning of the words; rose upimplies a new action (e.g. Judges 20:19) rather than the repetition of a movement which had already begun. It is in fact difficult to fit Judges 20:33 a into the context. May it then come from the A narrative, and form the sequel of Judges 20:29? This would give us an allusion to the battle, which otherwise is missing from A: after the ambush was set round Gibeah (Judges 20:29), the main army of Israel took up its position in Baal-tamar (Judges 20:33 a). But the language of the verse does not inspire confidence in its originality (lit. the men of Israel rose up from his place!); on the other hand the mention of Baal-tamar may well be ancient. Perhaps we may describe this half-verse as an early addition. See further below.

Baal-tamar Site unknown, but not far from Gibeah; Eusebius (OS238, 75) declares that the name was surviving in the locality as Beth-tamar. Baal-tamar = B. of the palm-tree, a rare instance of the god Baal being associated with a tree; cf. Jeremiah 2:27 [63]. The palm was a symbol of Ashtoreth rather than of Baal.

[63] See Baudissin, Adonis u. Esmun(1911), p. 176. Winckler interprets differently, Baal is Tamar, i.e. Ishtar-Ashtoreth, the local deity possessing the attributes of god and goddess: Gesch. Israelsii. 98 ff.

brake forth Elsewhere of the sea or a river, Job 38:8; Job 40:23; Ezekiel 32:2; from the same root comes the name of the fountain at Jerusalem, Gihon the gusher. So here, of the Hers in wait bursting forthfrom ambush; as applied in this way to warfare the word is used in Aramaic. Cf. the parallel account from A in Judges 20:37.

Maareh-geba Supposed to mean the bareor open space of G., but probably a mistake for maarâb legeba, i.e. west of Geba, LXX. cod. A and mss., Vulgate; a late usage, 2 Chronicles 32:30; 2 Chronicles 33:14. Geba is either a mistake for Gibeah (as in Judges 20:10), or more probably = Jeba-, N.E. of Gibeah.