Judges 3:5-8 NIV

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Judges 3:1-7

We are here told what remained of the old inhabitants of Canaan. 1. There were some of them that kept together in united bodies, unbroken (Jdg. 3:3): The five lords of the Philistines, namely, Ashdod, Gaza, Askelon, Gath, and Ekron, 1 Sam. 6:7. Three of these cities had been in part reduced (Jdg. 1:18), but it seems the Philistines (probably with the help of the other two, which strengthened their confederacy with each other thenceforward) recovered the possession of them. These gave the... read more

Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Judges 3:8-11

We now come to the records of the government of the particular judges, the first of which was Othniel, in whom the story of this book is knit to that of Joshua, for even in Joshua's time Othniel began to be famous, by which it appears that it was not long after Israel's settlement in Canaan before their purity began to be corrupted and their peace (by consequence) disturbed. And those who have taken pains to enquire into the sacred chronology are generally agreed that the Danites? idolatry,... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Judges 3:5

And the children of Israel dwelt among the Canaanites ,.... As if they had been only sojourners with them, and not conquerors of them; and dwelt by sufferance, and not as proprietors and owners; such were their sloth and indolence, and such the advantage the inhabitants of the land got over them through it, and through their compliances with them; and this was the case not only of one sort of them, the Canaanites, but of the rest: the Hittites, and Amorites, and Perizzites, and Hivites,... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Judges 3:6

And they took their daughters to be their wives, and gave their daughters to their sons ,.... The Israelites intermarried with the inhabitants of the land, contrary to the express command of God, Deuteronomy 7:3 ; whereby they confounded their families, debased their blood, and were ensnared into idolatry, as follows: perhaps to these unlawful marriages, in their first settlement in the land of Canaan, reference is had in Ezekiel 16:3 , "thy father was an Amorite and thy mother an... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Judges 3:7

And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord ,.... Both by marrying with Heathens, and worshipping their gods: and forgot the Lord their God ; as if they had never heard of him, or known him, their Maker and Preserver, who had done so many great and good things for them: and served Baalim, and the groves ; of Baalim, see Judges 2:11 ; the groves mean either idols worshipped in groves, as Jupiter was worshipped in a grove of oaks, hence the oak of Dodona; and Apollo... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Judges 3:8

Therefore the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel ,.... Because of their idolatry; see Judges 2:14 , and he sold them into the hand of Chushanrishathaim, king of Mesopotamia ; or Aramnaharaim; that is, Syria, between the two rivers, which were Tigris and Euphrates; hence the Greek name of this place is as here called Mesopotamia. Josephus F12 Antiqu. l. 5. c. 3. sect. 2. calls him king of Assyria, and gives him the name of Chusarthus; and indeed Chushanrishathaim seems to be... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Judges 3:6

And they took their daughters - They formed matrimonial alliances with those proscribed nations, served their idols, and thus became one with them in politics and religion. read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Judges 3:7

Served Baalim and the groves - No groves were ever worshipped, but the deities who were supposed to be resident in them; and in many cases temples and altars were built in groves, and the superstition of consecrating groves and woods to the honor of the deities was a practice very usual with the ancients. Pliny assures us that trees, in old times, served for the temples of the gods. Tacitus reports this custom of the old Germans; Quintus Curtius, of the Indians; and Caesar, and our... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Judges 3:8

Chushan-rishathaim - Kushan, the wicked or impious; and so the word is rendered by the Chaldee Targum, the Syriac, and the Arabic, wherever it occurs in this chapter. King of Mesopotamia - King of נהרים ארם Aram naharayim , "Syria of the two rivers;" translated Mesopotamia by the Septuagint and Vulgate. It was the district situated between the Tigris and Euphrates, called by the Arabian geographers Maverannaher, "the country beyond the river," it is now called Diarbek. See the... read more

Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Judges 3:6

See Judges 2:2 note. read more

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Judges 3:1-7

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Judges 3:8-11

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Judges 3:5

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Judges 3:6

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Judges 3:7

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Judges 3:8

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Judges 3:6

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Judges 3:7

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Judges 3:8

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Judges 3:6

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