Lange Commentary - Judges 1:9 - 1:10

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Lange Commentary - Judges 1:9 - 1:10


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

The sons of Judah smite the Anakim and take Hebron

Jdg_1:9-10

9And afterward [Hereupon] the children [sons] of Judah went down [proceeded] to fight against the Canaanites that dwelt in the mountain [mountains], and in the south, and in the valley [lit. depression, low country]. 10And Judah went against the Canaanites that dwelt in Hebron: (now the name of Hebron before [formerly] was Kirjath-arba [The Four Cities]:) and they slew [smote] Sheshai, and Ahiman, and Talmai.

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL

[1 Jdg_1:10. This is the nearest we can come in English to Dr. Cassel’s Vierstadt, Tetrapolis. Against the common Interpretation, “City of Arba,”—Arba being taken as the name of a person,—cf. Mr. Grove in Smith’s Bib. Dict., s. v Kirjath-arba.—Tr.]

EXEGETICAL AND DOCTRINAL

Jdg_1:9 f.. Hereupon the sons of Judah proceeded. They advanced, proceeded, éøְãåּ . While òָìָä , ‘ ‘ascendere,” was used to express the first attack (Jdg_1:4), the continuation of the conflict is indicated by éָøַã , “descendere,” although they advance mountain-ward. Verse 9 sets forth the full extent of the task undertaken by the tribes. Before advancing into the territory allotted them, they have been obliged to resist the attack of Adoni-bezek at its border. They divide their work proper into the conquest of the mountains, the occupancy of the southern tract from the Dead Sea to Beer-sheba, and the seizure of the western lowlands. Details of these undertakings are given us only so far as they concern Caleb and his house. Hence, the conquest of Hebron is first of all related. About this ancient city, where Abraham tarried, and the patriarchs repose in the family-vault, the recollections of the tribe of Judah concentrate themselves. It was of old the dwelling-place of valiant people. The robust vine-dressers of the valley, ages before, supported Abraham in his victorious expedition against the eastern hosts. But on the mountains there dwelt a wild and warlike race, the sons of Anak, before whom the faint-hearted spies of Moses formerly trembled. Only Caleb and Joshua were full of confidence in God. On this account, Caleb received the special assurance of Moses that he should possess the land which he had seen; and therefore at the division of the country by Joshua, he brings forward his claim to it (Jos_14:12). Joshua allows it. It is no lightly-gained inheritance that Caleb asks: “Therefore give me (he says) this mountain, whereof the Lord spake in that day; for thou hast heard that there are Anakim there, and cities great and fenced; perhaps the Lord will be with me that I drive them out” (Jos_14:12). Now, although the conquest of the city, and the expulsion of the Anakim, are already recorded in Jos_15:14, that is only an anticipatory historical notice in connection with the description of boundaries. The events actually occur now, in connection with the first efforts to gain permanent possession of the territory. Caleb, it is true, is old; but younger heroes surround him. They defeated the Anakim.

Jdg_1:10. Hebron, formerly called the Four Cities (Kirjath-arba). It is difficult to see why modern expositors take offense at the idea that in Hebron an earlier Tetrapolis is to be recognized. The remark, Jos_14:15 : “And the name of Hebron was formerly Kirjath-arba, áָòֲðָ÷éí äåּà äָàָãָí äַâָּãåֹì ,” cannot furnish the ground; for àָãָí is here a collective term, like gens, as appears indubitably from Jos_15:13, where we have the expression, “Kirjath-arba, the father of Anak ( àֲáִé äָòֲðָ÷ ) which is Hebron.” The Tetrapolis was the ancient seat of powerful tribes, whom the traditions of Israel described as giants. Similar tetrapolitan cities are elsewhere met with. The Indians had a Káturgrâma, the Four Villages (Lassen, Ind. Alterth., i. 72). In Phrygia, Cibyra and three other places formed a Tetrapolis (Strabo, lib. xiii. 1, 17). I am inclined to find in the name Cibyra the same idea as in the Arabic Cheibar and the Hebrew Chebron (Hebron), namely, that of confederation, community of interest. It is a suggestive fact that Abraham’s expedition is joined by the brothers Eshcol, Aner, and Mamre (Gen_14:13); concerning Mamre it is remarked, “the same is Hebron” (Gen_23:19). The Upper City (Acropolis), situated upon the mountains, and the lower cities lying in the fertile valley which these mountains inclose, together constituted the Tetrapolis. At the present day the city in the valley is still divided into three parts. Three sons of Anak are enumerated, manifestly three tribes, probably named after ancient heroes, which tribes coalesced with the mountain city. As late as the time of David, the phraseology is, that he dwelt in “the cities of Hebron” (2Sa_2:3). Probably the name Hebron was originally given to the mountain (the äַø which Caleb claims, Jos_14:12), as forming the common defense, and was then after the suppression of the Anakim, transferred to the whole city. The names of the three families of Anakim do not admit of any certain interpretation. àָçִéîַï might with most probability be interpreted after the analogy of Achijah (Ahijah or Ahiah), “Friend of God.” îַï , îְðִé , is the heathen deity (Isa_65:11), who also occurs in Phœnician inscriptions, in proper names like òáøîðé , “servant of Meni.” The name ùֵׁùַׁé , “Sheshai,” reminds one of the Egyptian king ùִׁéùׁ÷ , Shishak, Sechonchis, who made war on Rehoboam (1Ki_14:25). The name ùֵׁùְׁáּöַּø (“Sheshbazzar,” Ezr_1:8) may also be compared. The third name, Talmai, leaves it doubtful whether it is to be taken primarily as the name of a place or of a person. Stephanus Byzantinus speaks of an Arabic place which he calls Castle Èåëáìï ͂ õæá . It is possible, however, that analogous mythical ideas come into contact with each other, in the Greek legend concerning Salmoneus, father of Tyro, and husband of Sidero. Hesiod already (in a Fragment, ed. Göttling. p. 259) calls him an ἄäéêïò êáὶ í ̔ ðÝñèõìïò . Josephus (Ant. v. 2, 3) says that the Anakim were a race of giants, “whose bones are still shown to this very day.” What stories were current about the discovery of gigantic human remains in Asia Minor and Syria, may be learned from the Heroica of Philostratus (ed. Jacobs, p. 28). A body of gigantic length was found in the bed of the Orontes. It was thought also that the bodies of Orestes and Ajax had been seen. The faint-hearted spies had depicted the Anakim as Nephilim, men like the prehistoric Nibelungen of German story; and from this Josephus constructed his giant-tale.

Jos_15:14 remarks, “And Caleb drove thence the three sons of Anak.” A contradiction has been found therein with what we read here, “And they smote.” None really exists. The narrative is actually more exact than is generally supposed. The statement of Jos_15:14 refers to Jdg_1:20. The tribe of Judah had now indeed taken Hebron, and conquered the Anakim; but for peaceable possession the time had not yet come. Accompanied by Simeon, Judah proceeded onward to gain possession of the whole territory. At Jdg_1:19 the whole campaign is finished. Then they give Hebron to Caleb, and he drives out whatever remains of the Anakim. It was not with three per sons, but with three tribes or nations, that they had to do.

Footnotes:

[Jdg_1:10. This is the nearest we can come in English to Dr. Cassel’s Vierstadt, Tetrapolis. Against the common Interpretation, “City of Arba,”—Arba being taken as the name of a person,—cf. Mr. Grove in Smith’s Bib. Dict., s. v Kirjath-arba.—Tr.]

Hebron is said to be seven years older than Zoan (Tanis) in Egypt (Num_13:22). The number “seven” is here also to be regarded as a round number. It expresses the finished lapse of a long period.

Ritter’s remarks (xvi. 211 [Gage’s Trans]. iii. 292, seq.]), would admit of many corrections. Jerome, it is true, follows Jewish traditions (cf. Pirke, R. Eliezer, ch. xx.) when he thinks that the Civitas Quatuor was so named from the patriarchs who were buried there. It is, however, none the less evident from this, that the Jews of old interpreted Kirjath-arba as meaning “Tetrapolis.” Nor does Num_13:22 afford the slightest occasion for doubting the truth of the statement that Kirjath-arba was the former name of Hebron. Ritter seems especially to have followed Robinson (Bibl. Res. ii. 88.)

Cf. my History of the Jews, in Ersch and Gruber’s Encyklopadie, ii. 27, p. 166.

Robinson, Bibl. Res., ii. 74.

In a manner analogous perhaps to the fusion of the Ramnes, Tities, and Luceres, into the one Roma of the Ramnes.

Ritter (xvi. 228 [Gage’s Transl. iii. 301]) proves that the ancient Hebron lay higher than the present, which however can refer only to a part of the city. The great importance of the place is explained by its protected situation in the mountains, along whose slopes it extended down into the valley. That fact only adapted it to be the capital of David’s kingdom. Cf. Jos_11:21 ( îִï äָäָø ).

Cf. Heyne on Apollodorus, i. 9, p. 59. The later Jews write úַּìְîָé for Ptolemy. Cf. Ewald, Gesch. Israel’s, i. 309, 311.