1 Samuel 12:11

11. Bedan We have no record of any judge in Israel of this name, and interpreters have accordingly resorted to various conjectures as to the person meant. Some think the word בדן should be rendered in Dan, that is, a native of Dan, meaning Samson, who was of that tribe. Judges 13:2. Others think Jair, the Gileadite, is meant, because a descendant of Manasseh bears this name in 1 Chronicles 7:17. There may, indeed, have been a judge of this name, of whom we have no mention in the book of Judges, for we are not to regard that book as a complete history; but the name Bedan is more probably a corruption of Abdon, (Judges 12:13,) or of Barak. Judges 4:6. The reading Barak is favoured by its resemblance to Bedan in orthography, ( בדן ברק ,) and by the fact that it is so taken in the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions. Compare also Hebrews 11:32.

Samuel Some have thought proper, by the aid of the Syriac and Arabic versions, to emend the Hebrew text here and read Samson, on the ground that Samuel would not mention himself as one of the deliverers of Israel. But Samuel did more than any other judge to break the Philistine oppression, (1 Samuel 7:13,) and he mentions himself to show the people how inexcusable they were in “refusing to obey the voice of Samuel, and saying, Nay, but we will have a king over us.” 1 Samuel 8:19.