JUDGES - CHAPTER 3
Verses 1-6
v1 These are the nations that the Lord left. He left them in order to test Israel’s people. These people had not fought any wars in Canaan. v2 He did this to teach them how to fight. They had not had any experience of battle. v3 The nations included the 5 rulers of the Philistines. They included all the people in Canaan and Sidon. They also included the Hivites. These lived in the mountains of Lebanon. They lived there from Mount Baal Hermon to Hamath’s border. v4 God left them as a test. In this way, he could see whether the Israelites would obey his commands. He had given these commands to their ancestors. v5 The Israelites lived among the Canaanites. They also lived among the Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. v6 They married their daughters. They allowed their own daughters to marry their sons. They also served their gods.
COMMENTARY
Chapter 3 has a list of the nations that remained in the land. We read that the Israelites married some people from these nations. They served their gods. The 5 towns where the Philistines lived were Gaza, Ekron, Ashkelon, Ashdod and Gath.
The Canaanites lived in the valleys and they also lived near the sea. They had lived there before anyone else. The people from Sidon lived near the port called Sidon. Later, people called them the Phoenicians. The Hivites were probably the same people as the Horites, who had been in Upper Mesopotamia. They went to live in the south-west. They lived there in the mountains of Hermon and Lebanon.
Verses 7-11
v7 The Israelites did not obey God. They forgot the Lord and they praised the Baals and the Asherahs. v8 The Lord was very angry with them. God allowed Cushan-Rishathaim, the king of Aram Naharaim to capture them. He ruled over them for 8 years. v9 Then they asked the Lord to help them. He sent Othniel, the son of Caleb’s younger brother Kenaz, to rescue them. v10 The Spirit of God came upon Othniel. He became the judge of Israel and he went to war. The Lord helped Othniel to capture Cushan-Rishathaim. Othniel conquered him. v11 The country had peace for 40 years until Othniel the son of Kenaz died.
COMMENTARY
Othniel was the only judge that was from the north. The other judges were from the south. This story shows the order of events in each judge’s life.
• The people did evil things.
• Their enemies caused pain and trouble to them.
• The people cried to the Lord to help them.
• He sent a judge to make them free. He had given his Spirit to the judge.
• Then there was peace, which continued for many years.
The judges were very skilful because they had the special power of God’s Spirit. Othniel defeated the king that was the people’s enemy. Cushan-Rishathaim is not the king’s real name. It means the ‘twice wicked Cushan.’ This is probably how the writer of the story described him. Perhaps Cushan was the king of Teman in Edom. (Edom belonged to Jacob’s brother Esau. It was south from the country that God had promised to his people.) If so, it would not surprise anyone that Othniel from Judah’s tribe defeated him. This is because Judah’s tribe was in the south. The people in Edom had big holes in the ground. They got brown metal from these.
Verses 12-30
v12 Again the Israelites did what God did not want. Because of this the Lord helped Eglon, the king of Moab, to conquer Israel. v13 People from Ammon and Amalek’s people helped him to attack. He captured the ‘City with Palm Trees’. v14 He controlled the Israelites for 18 years. v15 Again the Israelites prayed to the Lord. He sent them someone to free them. This was Ehud, a left-handed man. He was the son of Gera from Benjamin’s tribe. He took to Eglon the tax money that came from Israel’s people.
v16 Ehud made a sword with two sharp edges. It was about 18 inches long. He fastened this on his right side, under his clothing. v17 He gave the tax money to Eglon, who was very fat. v18 Then Ehud sent on ahead the men that had carried the money. v19 He turned back at the statues near Gilgal. Then he said to the king, ‘I have a message which is for you only.’ Then the king sent away all his servants. v20 Ehud walked over to him. The king was sitting in the upper room of his summer palace. Ehud said, ‘It is a message from God.’ The king stood up. v21 Ehud reached with his left hand. He took the sword from his right side. He pushed it with force into the king’s stomach. v22 The handle went in after the sharp part. The fat surrounded it. Ehud did not pull out the sword, v23 but he went out to the entrance. He locked the doors of the room.
v24 The servants discovered that someone had locked the door. They thought that the king had gone to the toilet. v25 After they had waited for a long time, they got a key. They opened the doors. Then they discovered that their master was on the floor. He was dead. v26 While they were waiting, Ehud escaped. He went past the statues to Seirah. v27 When he arrived there, he sounded a trumpet in the hilly country. This was where Ephraim’s tribe lived. The Israelites came down the hills to follow him. v28 ‘Follow me’, he ordered. ‘The Lord has given you power over your enemies, the people from Moab.’ The army captured the places where people went over the Jordan river. They prevented anyone from going across. v29 They killed 10,000 people from Moab that were strongest and most skilful. Nobody escaped. v30 So Israel’s people controlled Moab’s people and peace lasted for 80 years.
COMMENTARY
The Israelites did not expect the attack by the army from Moab. The people who lived in Moab were descendants of Lot. They did not live in the country that God had promised to Israel’s people. They had captured the ‘City with Palm Trees’ (Jericho). The Israelites had captured this city when Joshua was alive. Moab’s people controlled the Israelites for 18 years. Then God sent Ehud to free them.
In the story, we read that Ehud was left-handed. The Hebrew word might mean that he was unable to use his right hand. Perhaps it was deformed (badly shaped). However, in chapter 20 we learn that many people in Benjamin’s tribe were left-handed. The name Benjamin actually means the ‘son of my right hand’. Ehud carried the tax money in his right hand. The people let him go where the king was. They did not think that he was dangerous. He told the king that he had a message. The message was for the king only. This ‘message’ was actually his sword, which he was carrying on his right side. Nobody thought that it would be there. ‘
The statues near Gilgal’ could be stone statues. These marked the boundary of Eglon’s land. From here, Ehud could easily escape. The king went into his summer room. This was on the roof of the house. It was cool there. Ehud killed him when he stood up. He stood up to hear God’s message. Then Ehud locked the door. The writer tells us everything about how he killed him! The king’s servants were slow to find him. They thought that he had gone to the toilet. Then they discovered what had happened. By then, Ehud had escaped.
God does things that we do not think will happen. We can see the idea of the left hand in I Corinthians 1:26-29. There the writer says that God uses those that are nothing. They will bring to nothing those that are something. Nobody should be proud in the place where God is. After Ehud’s success, people followed him and they defeated the people from Moab. He captured the places where people went over the river. This stopped other people who would have helped Moab’s people. He also stopped Moab’s army so that it did not escape.
Ehud used his left hand. Contrast this with God’s use of his own right hand. God promises that he will bless his people. And he promises that he will destroy their enemies. And he will do these things with his right hand. At his right hand, there is complete satisfaction, which will last always. His Messiah sits at his right hand. (The Messiah is a very special person that God sent. God chose the Messiah to save his people.) That is the place where power, blessing, and praise are.
We always know the results of the wrong things that Israel’s people did. We know them before they happen. We also know what the result of God’s plans will be. But we do not know how people will attack Israel’s people. We do not know what God will use to rescue them. We can ask God to do what he has promised. But we cannot tell him how to do it.
Verse 31
v31 After Ehud came Shamgar the son of Anath. He killed 600 Philistines with a sharp stick. People used such a stick to control an ox. (An ox is a large animal. People used it to plow their land.) Shamgar too made Israel’s people free.
COMMENTARY
Shamgar may not have been from Israel. Perhaps he was a mercenary (a hired soldier) who was a leader of the Canaanites’ army. He helped in the opposition to the Philistines. The sharp stick was an ox-goad. An ox-goad was 8-10 feet long, with a sharp metal top. It was like a spear. People used it to make animals move. This may have been an event that happened only once. That is, Shamgar may have killed all the 600 Philistines at one time. In this story, the writer does not follow the usual plan of the other stories.
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