Judges 3:12-14

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Judges 3:12-30

Ehud is the next of the judges whose achievements are related in this history, and here is an account of his actions. I. When Israel sins again God raises up a new oppressor, Jdg. 3:12-14. It was an aggravation of their wickedness that they did evil again after they had smarted so long for their former iniquities, promised so fair when Othniel judged them, and received so much mercy from God in their deliverance. What, and after all this, again to break his commandments! Was the disease... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Judges 3:12

And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord ,.... Fell into idolatry again, which was a great evil in the sight of God, and what they were prone to fall into: and the Lord strengthened Eglon the king of Moab against Israel ; put it into his heart to invade them, and encouraged him to it, and gave him success; what kings reigned over Moab between Balak and this king we know not: it is a commonly received notion of the Jews, that Ruth was the daughter of Eglon; see ... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Judges 3:13

And he gathered unto him the children of Ammon and Amalek ,.... Either the Lord gathered them to Eglon, inclined them to enter into a confederacy with him, to assist in the war against Israel; or the king of Moab got them to join with him in it, they being his neighbours, and enemies to Israel, and especially Amalek: and went and smote Israel ; first the two tribes and a half, which lay on that side Jordan Moab did, whom it is reasonable to suppose he would attack first; and having... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Judges 3:14

So the children of Israel served Eglon king of Moab eighteen years. Ten years longer than they served the king of Mesopotamia, Judges 3:8 , as a severer correction of them for their relapse into idolatry. read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Judges 3:12

The children of Israel did evil - They forgat the Lord and became idolaters, and God made those very people, whom they had imitated in their idolatrous worship, the means of their chastisement. The Lord strengthened Eglon the king of Moab - The success he had against the Israelites was by the especial appointment and energy of God. He not only abandoned the Israelites, but strengthened the Moabites against them. Eglon is supposed to have been the immediate... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Judges 3:13

The city of palm trees - This the Targum renders the city of Jericho; but Jericho had been destroyed by Joshua, and certainly was not rebuilt till the reign of Ahab, long after this, 1 Kings 16:34 . However, as Jericho is expressly called the city of palm trees, Deuteronomy 34:3 , the city in question must have been in the vicinity or plain of Jericho, and the king of Moab had seized it as a frontier town contiguous to his own estates. Calmet supposes that the city of palm trees... read more

Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Judges 3:12

The “strengthening” Eglon was the special work of God, and because Israel “had done evil,” etc. Samuel’s comment on the event is to the same effect 1 Samuel 12:9. read more

Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Judges 3:13

The children of Ammon (Bent-Ammon), almost always so spoken of from their ancestor Ben-ammi Genesis 19:38, seem to be under the leadership of the king of Moab, as do also the Amlekites: this is perhaps the strengthening spoken of in Judges 3:12. In Judges 6:0 the combination is Midianites, Amalekites, and children of the East, or Arab tribes. In the narrative of Jephthah’s judgeship, the Ammonites alone are mentioned; but with a reference to the Moabites, and as if they were one people Judges... read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Judges 3:12

Judges 3:12. And the children of Israel did evil again This was the case of the Israelites during all the time of their judges: the same person who freed them from servitude, purified them also from idolatry; but he was no sooner dead than their religion was at an end, though their peace and happiness were sure to expire with it. Thus every epocha of their history, during the administration of the judges, is only an alternate succession of sinning and contrition, of servitude and... read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Judges 3:13-14

Judges 3:13-14. City of palm-trees That is, Jericho. Not the city which was demolished, but the territory belonging to it. Here he fixed his camp, for the fertility of that soil, and because of its nearness to the passage over Jordan, which was most commodious both for the conjunction of his own forces, which lay on both sides of Jordan, to prevent the conjunction of the Israelites in Canaan with their brethren beyond Jordan, and to secure his retreat into his own country. Eighteen years ... read more

Group of Brands