Judges 3:1-31
1 Now these are the nations which the LORD left, to prove Israel by them, even as many of Israel as had not known all the wars of Canaan;
2 Only that the generations of the children of Israel might know, to teach them war, at the least such as before knew nothing thereof;
3 Namely, five lords of the Philistines, and all the Canaanites, and the Sidonians, and the Hivites that dwelt in mount Lebanon, from mount Baalhermon unto the entering in of Hamath.
4 And they were to prove Israel by them, to know whether they would hearken unto the commandments of the LORD, which he commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses.
5 And the children of Israel dwelt among the Canaanites, Hittites, and Amorites, and Perizzites, and Hivites, and Jebusites:
6 And they took their daughters to be their wives, and gave their daughters to their sons, and served their gods.
7 And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and forgat the LORD their God, and served Baalim and the groves.
8 Therefore the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of Chushanrishathaim king of Mesopotamia:a and the children of Israel served Chushanrishathaim eight years.
9 And when the children of Israel cried unto the LORD, the LORD raised up a delivererb to the children of Israel, who delivered them, even Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother.
10 And the Spirit of the LORD came upon him, and he judged Israel, and went out to war: and the LORD delivered Chushanrishathaim king of Mesopotamia into his hand; and his hand prevailed against Chushanrishathaim.
11 And the land had rest forty years. And Othniel the son of Kenaz died.
12 And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the LORD: and the LORD strengthened Eglon the king of Moab against Israel, because they had done evil in the sight of the LORD.
13 And he gathered unto him the children of Ammon and Amalek, and went and smote Israel, and possessed the city of palm trees.
14 So the children of Israel served Eglon the king of Moab eighteen years.
15 But when the children of Israel cried unto the LORD, the LORD raised them up a deliverer, Ehud the son of Gera, a Benjamite,c a man lefthanded: and by him the children of Israel sent a present unto Eglon the king of Moab.
16 But Ehud made him a dagger which had two edges, of a cubit length; and he did gird it under his raiment upon his right thigh.
17 And he brought the present unto Eglon king of Moab: and Eglon was a very fat man.
18 And when he had made an end to offer the present, he sent away the people that bare the present.
19 But he himself turned again from the quarriesd that were by Gilgal, and said, I have a secret errand unto thee, O king: who said, Keep silence. And all that stood by him went out from him.
20 And Ehud came unto him; and he was sitting in a summere parlour, which he had for himself alone. And Ehud said, I have a message from God unto thee. And he arose out of his seat.
21 And Ehud put forth his left hand, and took the dagger from his right thigh, and thrust it into his belly:
22 And the haft also went in after the blade; and the fat closed upon the blade, so that he could not draw the dagger out of his belly; and the dirtf came out.
23 Then Ehud went forth through the porch, and shut the doors of the parlour upon him, and locked them.
24 When he was gone out, his servants came; and when they saw that, behold, the doors of the parlour were locked, they said, Surely he coverethg his feet in his summer chamber.
25 And they tarried till they were ashamed: and, behold, he opened not the doors of the parlour; therefore they took a key, and opened them: and, behold, their lord was fallen down dead on the earth.
26 And Ehud escaped while they tarried, and passed beyond the quarries, and escaped unto Seirath.
27 And it came to pass, when he was come, that he blew a trumpet in the mountain of Ephraim, and the children of Israel went down with him from the mount, and he before them.
28 And he said unto them, Follow after me: for the LORD hath delivered your enemies the Moabites into your hand. And they went down after him, and took the fords of Jordan toward Moab, and suffered not a man to pass over.
29 And they slew of Moab at that time about ten thousand men, all lusty,h and all men of valour; and there escaped not a man.
30 So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel. And the land had rest fourscore years.
31 And after him was Shamgar the son of Anath, which slew of the Philistines six hundred men with an ox goad: and he also delivered Israel.
Now these are the nations which the LORD left, to prove Israel (Judges 3:1),
There were the Philistines, the Canaanites, the Hivites and the Hittites and the Jebusites and the Perizzites and the Amorites that God left, six nations.
And verse six,
The children of Israel took their daughters (Judges 3:6)
That is of the Canaanites, the Hitites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites.
They took their daughters to be their wives, and they gave their daughters to their sons, and they served their gods. And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and they forgot Jehovah their God, and they served Baalim and the groves (Judges 3:6-7).
Now the groves were the places of worship and usually extremely licentious type of worship.
Therefore the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, they sold them into the hand of Chushanrishathaim the king of Mesopotamia: and they served him for eight years. And when the children of Israel cried unto the LORD, the LORD raised up and delivered to the children of Israel, who delivered them, even Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother (Judges 3:8-9).
So Othniel was the fellow who married Caleb's daughter. Remember he took the city Kirjath there near Hebron and so Othniel became the first judge over Israel.
And the Spirit of the LORD came upon him, and he judged Israel, and went out to war: and the LORD delivered this Mesopotamia king into his hand; and his hand prevailed against him. And the land had rest for forty years (Judges 3:10-11).
Now forty years is probably sort of a rounded off kind of a figure. It is used over and over again. It would appear that-well, actually though, forty years you got a generation as long as the guy was alive, that generation. When he died, you get a new generation and back to the old apostasy again. It just didn't carry over into the second generation. And so, here you have the forty years appearing over and over again, which is just about that time of a generation and the failure to go on into the next generation. And so during the years of Othniel they had rest.
And the children of Israel, [verse twelve] did evil again in the sight of the LORD (Judges 3:12):
You know it's-you'd like to take them and just bump their heads together or something. It's just so upsetting.
And the LORD strengthened Eglon the king of Moab against Israel, because they had done evil in the sight of the LORD. And he gathered unto him the children of Ammon and Amalek, and they went and smote Israel, and possessed the city of the palm trees. So the children of Israel served Eglon the king of Moab for eighteen years. But when the children of Israel cried unto the LORD, the LORD raised up a deliverer, Ehud the son of Gera, a Benjamite, a man who was left-handed: and by him the children of Israel sent a present unto Eglon the king of Moab. But Ehud made himself a dagger, sharpened both sides, and made it about eighteen inches long, put it under his robe on his left side (Judges 3:12-16).
And he went into the king of Moab. Let's see now we got Ehud and Eglon. Eglon's the king so he came into Eglon with a present and then he said, "I have a secret message for you." And so Eglon the king of Moab sent out all the servants and he said, "I have a message from the Lord for you." And he drew out the dagger. Oh, Eglon was a really fat guy. He put the dagger in and the fat closed around and he couldn't pull it out. So he left it in halved and all. And when he went out of the room, he closed the door and locked it and he told the servants, "the king is taking a nap" and so he took off running.
So that they waited outside and waited outside until they got embarrassed they were waiting there so long they said, "Well, we better go in and check on the king." So they got the key, unlocked the door, when they got in they found the king was dead and had given good time to escape. And so he called together an army and they came against the Moabites and God delivered them out of the hand of Moab. They killed that time about ten thousand men of Moab who tried to escape out of Israel back into the land. And the land had rest for eighty years. So here's twice forty.
And after him was Shamgar the son of Anath (Judges 3:31),
He was the third judge. And we really don't know much about Shamgar except he must have been a tough cookie because he killed six hundred Philistines with an ox goad. Just the stick that they used when they were pawing with an ox, they'd have a goad, a stick that they'd kick and been a flanks with to keep them going. And evidently he was maybe farming and plowing and keeping with his oxen and here came a company of Philistines over the hill and so he goes after them with an ox goad. Six hundred men with an ox goad. So he was the third judge of Israel. That's about all we know of Shamgar. Like to know more about that character. "