Judges 3:31

Shamgar the son of Anath was unknown to the author of Judges 4:1, who passes at once from Ehud to Deborah. Shamgar is often reckoned as one of the minor Judges, but the account given of him is not modelled on the form of Judges 10:1-5; Judges 12:8-15; no date is attached to the period of his activity, and he is not included in the chronology of the Book. It is clear that this brief notice was inserted after the Dtc. compiler had done his work. Further, an exploit against the Philistines in the period between Ehud and Deborah comes too early; the Philistines do not appear in history as enemies of Israel till the time of Saul (in the Samson story they are not yet the aggressors); the verse would be more in place after Judges 16:31, and there in fact some mss. of the LXX actually insert it as well as here (so Aldine edn. of LXX, Syro-Hexaplar and Slav. Versions). Its present position is no doubt due to the mention of Shamgar ben Anâth in Judges 5:6, which gives the impression that he was an oppressor, not a deliverer, of Israel in the days just before Deborah: he has no connexion with the Philistine country; the area of the oppression lies in the district of the northern tribes. This is all that we know of Shamgar 1 [30]. His name is foreign; cf. Sangara, a Hittite king of Carchemish in the time of Ashurnasipal and Shalmaneser II 1 [31] (the Samgar-neboof Jeremiah 39:3 is probably a textual error); no Israelite could have been called -son of (the goddess) Anâth," who was worshipped in early times in Syria and Palestine, as appears from the old Canaanite place-names, Anathoth, Beth-anath etc. 2 [32] It is curious that one of the allies of the Hittite king Sangara just mentioned bears the name Bur-anati(king of Jasbuki 3 [33]). The exploit here recorded resembles that of Samson in Judges 15:14 f., and still more closely that of Shammah ben Agee, one of David's mighty men, at Lehi, 2 Samuel 23:11 f. (which has been influenced by Samson's story); cf. also 2 Samuel 21:15-22. It is probable that the author of this verse derived his particulars in a general way from these sources, and attached them to the Shamgar of Judges 5:6.

[30] Nestle in Journ. Th. St.xiii. p. 424 f. shews that in some early Latin chronologies Shamgar was both placed after Samson, and regarded as an oppressor though also as a judge!

[31] Keilinschriftliche Bibliotheki. p. 139.

[32] See further NSI., p. 80 f.

[33] KB.i. 159. This has been pointed out by Ball in Smith's Dict. of the Bible2, s.v. Ishbak.

an ox goad A pole from 6 to 8 feet long, with a pointed end of iron, the κέντρον of Acts 26:14; it could be used readily as a spear.