INTRODUCTION TO JUDGES 2 This chapter gives an account of an angel of the Lord appearing and rebuking the children of Israel for their present misconduct, Judges 2:1; of their good behaviour under Joshua, and the elders that outlived him, Judges 2:6; and of their idolatries they fell into afterward... [ Continue Reading ]
AND AN ANGEL OF THE LORD CAME UP FROM GILGAL TO BOCHIM,.... The Targum calls him a prophet y; and the Jewish commentators in general interpret it of Phinehas z; and that a man is meant is given into by others, because he is said to come from a certain place in Canaan, and not from heaven, and spoke... [ Continue Reading ]
AND YE SHALL MAKE NO LEAGUE WITH THE INHABITANTS OF THIS LAND,.... This the Lord charged them not to do, when he covenanted with them, and assured them of bringing them into the land; and yet they had done it, as some instances in the preceding chapter show, which were the occasion of the angel's co... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEREFORE I ALSO SAID,.... Supposing, or on condition of their being guilty of the above things, which was foreseen they would: I WILL NOT DRIVE THEM OUT FROM BEFORE YOU; the seven nations of the Canaanites entirely, and which accounts for the various instances related in the preceding chapter; whe... [ Continue Reading ]
AND IT CAME TO PASS, WHEN THE ANGEL OF THE LORD SPAKE THESE WORDS UNTO ALL THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL,.... This being either one of the three solemn feasts, when all the males appeared at the tabernacle of the Lord; or else here was now a solemn convention of all the tribes to inquire of the Lord the re... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THEY CALLED THE NAME OF THAT PLACE BOCHIM,.... Which signifies "weepers", from the general lamentation of the people, which before had another name; very probably it was Shiloh itself since all Israel was gathered together, the tabernacle being now at Shiloh, and also because sacrifices were off... [ Continue Reading ]
AND WHEN JOSHUA HAD LET THE PEOPLE GO,.... This is not to be connected with what goes before, as if that was done in Joshua's lifetime; for during that, as is after testified, the people of Israel served the Lord; whereas the angel, in the speech to them before related, charges them with disobeying... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE PEOPLE SERVED THE LORD ALL THE DAYS OF JOSHUA, AND ALL THE DAYS OF THE ELDERS THAT OUTLIVED JOSHUA, WHO HAD SEEN ALL THE GREAT WORKS OF THE LORD THAT HE DID FOR ISRAEL. In Egypt, at the Red sea, in the wilderness, at the river Jordan, and in the land of Canaan; Joshua 24:31. The Jews a say,... [ Continue Reading ]
AND JOSHUA THE SON OF NUN, THE SERVANT OF THE LORD, DIED, [BEING] AN HUNDRED AND TEN YEARS OLD. Joshua 24:29.... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THEY BURIED HIM IN THE BORDER OF HIS INHERITANCE IN TIMNATHHERES,.... In Joshua 24:30; it is called Timnathserah, the letters of "serah" being here inverted, make "heres", which sometimes is used for the sun, Job 9:7; and therefore some observe, that the whole name signifies the figure of the su... [ Continue Reading ]
AND ALSO ALL THAT GENERATION WERE GATHERED UNTO THEIR FATHERS,.... Were dead and buried, that is, the greatest part of those that were contemporaries with the elders that outlived Joshua; for they might not be all dead, at least not all that came out of Egypt, and still less all that came into the l... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL DID EVIL IN THE SIGHT OF THE LORD,.... Openly and publicly, boldly and impudently, in the very face of God, and amidst all the good things they received from him, which were aggravating circumstances of their sins; what the evil was they did is next observed: AND SERVED B... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THEY FORSOOK THE LORD GOD OF THEIR FATHERS,.... The covenant God of their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and of their more immediate ancestors; his worship they forsook, neglected his tabernacle, and the service of it: WHICH BROUGHT THEM OUT OF THE LAND OF EGYPT; out of wretched misery and... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THEY FORSOOK THE LORD,.... The worship of the Lord, as the Targum; this is repeated to observe the heinous sin they were guilty of, and how displeasing it was to God: AND SERVED BAAL AND ASHTAROTH; two images, as the Arabic version adds; Baal, from whence Baalim, may signify the he deities of t... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE ANGER OF THE LORD WAS HOT AGAINST ISRAEL,.... For the idolatries they were guilty of; it burned within him, it broke forth, and was poured out like fire on them, and consumed them; see Nahum 1:6; AND HE DELIVERED THEM INTO THE HANDS OF SPOILERS THAT SPOILED THEM; that rifled their houses, a... [ Continue Reading ]
WHITHERSOEVER THEY WENT OUT, THE HAND OF THE LORD WAS AGAINST THEM FOR EVIL,.... They prospered not in any business they undertook, or put their hands unto; or in any expedition they went upon, or when they went out to war, as Kimchi, Ben Melech, and Abarbinel explain the phrase: the battle went aga... [ Continue Reading ]
NEVERTHELESS, THE LORD RAISED UP JUDGES,.... Who are particularly mentioned by name, and their exploits recorded, in some following Chapter s, and from whom the book in general has its name: these were men that God raised up in an extraordinary manner, and spirited and qualified for the work he had... [ Continue Reading ]
AND YET THEY WOULD NOT HEARKEN UNTO THEIR JUDGES,.... Afterwards, or not always; but when they admonished them of their sins, and advised them to walk in the good ways of God, and serve him only; they turned a deaf ear to them, and went on in their own ways, which is a sad aggravation of their iniqu... [ Continue Reading ]
AND WHEN THE LORD RAISED THEM UP JUDGES, THEN THE LORD WAS WITH THE JUDGE,.... Every one of them that he raised up; as he stirred up their spirits for such service, to judge his people, and qualified them for it, he assisted and strengthened them, and abode by them, and succeeded them in whatsoever... [ Continue Reading ]
AND IT CAME TO PASS, WHEN THE JUDGE WAS DEAD,.... Any one of them, the first and so all succeeding ones: [THAT] THEY RETURNED; to their evil ways and idolatrous practices, from which they reformed, and for which they showed outward repentance during the life of the judge; but he dying, they returne... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE ANGER OF THE LORD WAS HOT AGAINST ISRAEL,.... As at first, so whenever they fell into idolatry; see Judges 2:14; AND HE SAID, BECAUSE THIS PEOPLE HAVE TRANSGRESSED MY COVENANT WHICH I COMMANDED THEIR FATHERS; made at Sinai, in which they were enjoined to have no other gods before him: AND... [ Continue Reading ]
I ALSO HENCEFORTH WILL NOT DRIVE OUT AND FROM BEFORE THEM,.... At least not as yet, not very soon nor hastily, as in Judges 2:23; OF THE NATIONS WHICH JOSHUA LEFT WHEN HE DIED; that is, unsubdued; which was owing either to the infirmities of old age coming upon him, which made him incapable of enga... [ Continue Reading ]
THAT THROUGH THEM I MAY PROVE ISRAEL,.... Afflict them by them, and so prove or try them, their faith and patience, which are tried by afflictions; and such were the Canaanites to them, as afflictions and temptations are to the spiritual Israel of God; or rather, whether they would keep in the ways... [ Continue Reading ]
THEREFORE THE LORD LEFT THESE NATIONS, WITHOUT DRIVING THEM OUT HASTILY,.... Left them unsubdued, or suffered them to continue among the Israelites, and did not drive them out as he could have done; which was permitted, either that it might be seen and known whether Israel would give into the idolat... [ Continue Reading ]