Judges 10:6

Did evil again. — Literally, added to do evil: “joining new sins to their old ones,” as the Vulg. paraphrases it (Judges 2:11; Judges 3:7, &c).

Served Baalim, and Ashtaroth. — Judges 2:19. Seven kinds of idols are mentioned, in obvious symmetry with the seven retributive oppressions in Judges 10:11.

The gods of Syria. — Heb. Aram. (See Genesis 35:2; Genesis 35:4.) Manasseh seems to have had an Aramean concubine (1 Chronicles 7:14), who was mother of Machir. Of Syrian idolatry we hear nothing definite till the days of Ahaz (2 Kings 16:10; 2 Kings 16:12): —

“Thammuz came next behind,
Whose annual wound in Lebanon allured
The Syrian damsels to lament his fate
In amorous ditties all a summer’s day.” — Par. Lost, 1

The gods of Zidon. — 1 Kings 11:5. As Milton borrowed his details from the learned Syntagma de Diis Syris of Selden, we cannot find better illustration of these allusions than in his stately verse: —

“Ashtoreth, whom the Phoenicians cali

Astarte, queen of heaven, with crescent horns,
To whose bright image nightly by the hour
Sidonian virgins paid their vows and songs, “ — Id.

The gods of Moab. — 1 Kings 11:7.

“ Chemosh, the obscene dread of Moab’s sons.
From Areer to Nebo, and the wild
Of southmost Abarim...
Peor his other name.” — Id.

The gods of the children of Ammon — Leviticus 18:21; 1 Kings 11:7.

“First Moloch, horrid king.... Him the Ammonite
Worshipped in Rabba and his watery plain,
In Argob and in Basan, to the stream
Of utmost Arnon.” — Id.

The gods of the Philistines. — 1 Samuel 5:2; 1 Samuel 16:23.

“One

“Who mourned in earnest when the captive ark
Maimed his brute image; head and hands lopt off
In his own temple on the grunsel edge,
Where he fell flat and shamed his worshippers.
Dagon his name — sea-monster — upwards man
And downwards fish.” — Id.