Judg 10:7-18, 11:12-40, 1Sa 11:2, 2Sa 10:1-5, 2Ki 24:2, 2Ch 20:1 | TSK | STEP

the Maonites.The LXX. have "the Midianites," which Dr. Wall thinks the true reading. But the Maonites might be a tribe of Arabs, inhabitants of Maon. (Jos 15:55. 1Sa 23:24, 25; 25:2,) which assisted Moab.

2Ch 26:6,7; Ps 106:42,43

2:12; De 32:15; 1Ch 28:9; Jer 2:13; Jon 2:8

De 32:26-28,37,38; 1Ki 18:27,28; 2Ki 3:13; Pr 1:25-27; Isa 10:3

Jer 2:28

We have sinned.

2Sa 12:13; 24:10; Job 33:27; Pr 28:13; 1Jo 1:8-10

do thou.

Jos 9:25; 1Sa 3:18; 2Sa 10:12; 15:26; Jon 2:4; 3:9

seemeth, etc. Heb. is good in thine eyes. deliver.

2Sa 24:14; Job 34:31,32

they put.

2Ch 7:14; 15:8; 33:15; Jer 18:7,8; Eze 18:30-32; Ho 14:1-3,8

strange gods. Heb. gods of strangers. his soul.

Ge 6:6; Ps 106:44,45; Isa 63:9; Jer 31:20; Ho 11:8; Lu 15:20; 19:41

Joh 11:34; Eph 4:32; Heb 3:10; 4:15

grieved. Heb. shortened.Not that there is any grief in God; he has infinite joy and happiness in himself, which cannot be broken in upon by either the sins or the miseries of his creatures. Not that there is any change in God; for he is of one mind, and who can turn him? But his goodness is his glory; by it he proclaims his name, and magnifies it; and as he is pleased to put himself into the relation of a father to his people, so he is pleased to represent his goodness to them by the compassion of a father to his children; for as he is the Father of lights, so is he the Father of mercies.

gathered together. Heb. cried together. Mizpeh.

11:11,29; Ge 31:49

What man.

1:1; 11:5-8; Isa 3:1-8; 34:12

he shall be.

11:11; 12:7; 1Sa 17:25

Judges 11:12-40

sent messengers.In this Jephthah acted in accordance with the law of Moses; and hence the justice of his cause would appear more forcibly to the people.

Nu 20:14; 21:21; De 2:26; 20:10,11; Pr 25:8,9; Mt 18:15,16

What hast.

2Ki 14:8-12

Because Israel.

Nu 21:24-26; Pr 19:5,9

from Arnon.That is, all the land which had belonged to the Amorites and Moabites.

Jabbok.

Ge 32:22; De 2:37; 3:16

again unto.

Ps 120:7; Ro 12:18; Heb 12:14; 1Pe 3:11

Israel took.

Nu 21:13-15,27-30; De 2:9,19; 2Ch 20:10; Ac 24:12,13

But when.The whole of these messages shew, Jephthah had well studied the book of Moses. His arguments also are very clear and cogent, and his demands reasonable; for he only required that the Ammonites should cease to harass a people who had neither injured them, nor intended to do so.

walked.

Nu 14:25; De 1:40; Jos 5:6

came.

Ge 14:7; Nu 13:26; 20:1; De 1:46

sent messengers.

Nu 20:14-21; De 2:4-8,29

the king.

De 2:9

abode.

Nu 20:1,16

went.

Nu 20:22; 21:10-13; 33:37-44; De 2:1-8

compassed.

Nu 21:4-9

came by.

Nu 21:11

pitched.

Nu 21:13; 22:36

Nu 21:21-35; De 2:26-34; 3:1-17; Jos 13:8-12

Nu 21:23; De 2:32

Lord God.

Ne 9:22; Ps 135:10-12; 136:17-21

they smote.

Nu 21:24,25; De 2:33,34

so Israel.

Jos 13:15-32

And they.

De 2:36

from the wilderness.From Arabia Deserta on the east, to Jordan on the west. Jephthah shews that the Israelites did not take the land of the Moabites or Ammonites, but that of the Amorites, which they had conquered from Sihon their king; and although the Amorites had taken the lands in question from the Ammonites, yet the title by which Israel held them was good, because they took them, not from the Ammonites, but from the Amorites.

Wilt not thou possess.This is simply an {argumentum ad hominem;} in which Jephthah argues on this principles recognized by the king of Ammon. As if he had said, "You suppose that the land which you possess was given you by your god Chemosh; and therefore will not relinquish what you believe you hold by a divine right. Now we know that Jehovah, our God, has given us the land of the Israelites; and therefore we will not give it up."

Chemosh.

Nu 21:29; 1Ki 11:7; Jer 48:7,46

whomsoever.

De 9:4,5; 18:12; Jos 3:10; Ps 44:2; 78:55; Mic 4:5

Balak.

Nu 22:2-21; De 23:3,4; Jos 24:9,10; Mic 6:5

Heshbon.

Nu 21:25-30; De 2:24; 3:2,6; Jos 12:2,5; 13:10

Aroer.

De 2:36

three hundred.

3:11,30; 5:31; 8:28; 9:22; 10:2,3,8; Jos 11:18; 23:1

the Judge.

Ge 18:25; 1Sa 2:10; Job 9:15; 23:7; Ps 7:11; 50:6; 75:7; 82:8

Ps 94:2; 98:9; Ec 11:9; 12:14; Joh 5:22,23; Ro 14:10-12; 2Co 5:10

2Ti 4:8; Heb 12:23

be judge.

Ge 16:5; 31:53; 1Sa 24:12,15; Ps 7:8,9; 2Co 11:11

2Ki 14:11; Pr 16:18

the spirit.

3:10; 6:34; 13:25; Nu 11:25; 1Sa 10:10; 16:13-15; 1Ch 12:18

Jephthah."Jephthah seems to have been judge only of north-east Israel."

over Mizpeh.

10:17

Ge 28:20; Nu 30:2-16; 1Sa 1:11; Ec 5:1,2,4,5

whatsoever, etc. Heb. that which cometh forth, which shallcome forth. shall surely.

Le 27:2,3,28,29; 1Sa 1:11,28; 2:18; 14:24,44; Ps 66:13,14

and I will. or, or I will, etc.{Wehäâleetheehoo ôlah,} rather, as Dr. Randolph and others contend, "and I will offer Him (or to Him, i.e., Jehovah) a burnt offering;" for {hoo} may with much more propriety be referred to the person to whom the sacrifice was to be made, than to the thing to be sacrificed. Unless understood in this way, or as the marginal reading, it must have been the vow of a heathen or a madman. If a dog, or other uncleaned animal had met him, he could not have made it a burnt offering; or if his neighbour's wife, sons, etc., his vow gave him no right over them.

Le 27:11,12; De 23:18; Ps 66:13; Isa 66:3

the Lord.

1:4; 2:18; 3:10

Aroer.

De 2:36

Minnith.Situated, according to Eusebius, four miles from Heshbon, towards Philadelphia or Rabbath.

Eze 27:17

the plain. or, Abel.

Mizpeh.

11; 10:17

his daughter.

5:1-31; Ex 15:20; 1Sa 18:6,7; Ps 68:25; 148:11,12; 150:4

Jer 31:4,13

beside her. or, he had not of his own either son ordaughter. Heb. of himself. neither.

Zec 12:10; Lu 7:12; 8:42; 9:38

rent his clothes.

Ge 37:29,30,34,35; 42:36-38; 2Sa 13:30,31; 18:33; Job 1:20

have opened.

Le 27:28,29; Nu 30:2-5; Ps 15:4; Ec 5:2-6

I cannot.

21:1-7; 1Sa 14:44,45; Mt 14:7-9; Ac 23:14

forasmuch.

16:28-30; 2Sa 18:19,31; 19:30; Ac 20:24; 21:13; Ro 16:4; Php 2:30

go up and down. Heb. go and go down. bewail.

1Sa 1:6; Lu 1:25

did with.That Jephthah did not sacrifice his daughter, but consecrated her to the service of God in the tabernacle, in a state of celibacy, will we imagine be evident from the following consideration:--1. Human sacrifices were ever an abomination to Jehovah, of which Jephthah could not be ignorant; and consequently he would neither have made such a vow, nor carried it into execution. 2. We are expressly told (ver. 29) that Jephthah was under the influence of the Spirit of God, which would effectually prevent him from embruing his hands in the blood of his own child. 3. He had it in his power to redeem his daughter, (Le 27:4;) and surely his only child must have been of more value than thirty shekles. 4. Besides, who was to perform the horrid rite? Not Jephthah himself, who was no priest, and in whom it would have been most unnatural and inhuman; and the priests would certainly have dissuaded him from it. 5. The sacred historian informs us, that she bewailed her virginity, that she knew no man, and that the Israelitish women went yearly to comfort or lament with her.

31; Le 27:28,29; De 12:31; Isa 66:3

to his vow.

1Sa 1:11,22,24,28; 2:18

custom. or, ordinance.

yearly. Heb. from year to year. lament. or, to talk with.

5:11

four days.

1Ki 9:25

1 Samuel 11:2

On this.

2Ki 18:31

thrust.

Jud 16:21; Ex 3:6; Pr 12:10; Jer 39:7

reproach.

17:26; Ge 34:14

2 Samuel 10:1-5

1 David's messengers, sent to comfort Hanun the son of Nahash, are villanously treated.

6 The Ammonites, strengthened by the Syrians, are overcome by Joab and Abishai.

15 Shobach, making a new supply of the Syrians at Helam, is slain by David.

AM 2967. B.C. 1037. An. Ex. Is. 454. king.

Jud 10:7-9; 11:12-28; 1Sa 11:1-3; 1Ch 19:1-3

shew kindness.

De 23:3-6; Ne 4:3-7; 13:1-3

Nahash.

1Sa 11:1

as his father.

1Sa 22:3,4

Thinkest thou that David doth. Heb. In thine eyes dothDavid. not.

Ge 42:9,16; 1Co 13:5,7

and shaved.The beard is held in high respect and greatly valued in the East: the possessor considers it as his greatest ornament; often swears by it; and, in matters of great importance, pledges it; and nothing can be more secure than such a pledge; for its owner will redeem it at the hazard of his life. The beard was never cut off but in mourning, or as a sign of slavery. It is customary to shave the Ottoman princes, as a mark of their subjection to the reigning emperor. The beard is a mark of authority and liberty among the Mohammedans. The Persians who clip the beard, and shave above the jaw, are reputed heretics. They who serve in the {seraglios} have their beards shaven, as a sign of servitude; nor do they suffer them to grow till the sultan has set them at liberty. Among the Arabians, it is more infamous for anyone to appear with his beard cut off, than among us to be publicly whipped or branded; and many would prefer death to such a punishment.

Le 19:27; 1Ch 19:3,4; Ps 109:4,5; Isa 15:2

cut off.

Isa 20:4; 47:2,3; Jer 41:5

Jericho.

Jos 6:24-26; 1Ki 16:34; 1Ch 19:5