Lange Commentary - Judges 10:17 - 10:18

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Lange Commentary - Judges 10:17 - 10:18


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

Repentance followed by energy, concord, and mutual confidence.

Jdg_10:17-18.

17Then [And] the children [sons] of Ammon were gathered together, and encamped in Gilead. And the children [sons] of Israel assembled themselves together, and encamped in Mizpeh [Mizpah]. 18And the people and princes [the people (namely) the chiefs] of Gilead said one to another, What man is he [Who is the man] that will [doth] begin to fight against the children [sons] of Ammon? he shall be head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.

EXEGETICAL AND DOCTRINAL

The call of Gideon to be a deliverer took place just when the national distress was at its greatest height, and Midian had entered on a new expedition of pillage and plunder. A like coincidence marked the present crisis. The sons of Ammon were just making a new incursion into Gilead, when they met with a new spirit. The signature of apostasy and sin, is discord and weakness, despondency and self-seeking, issuing in failure and disaster, whenever action be undertaken. The sign of conversion and true penitence is concord and confidence, leading, by God’s assistance, to victory.

Jdg_10:17. And the sons of Ammon were gathered together . . . . the sons of Israel also assembled themselves. The phrase “sons of Israel” does not always include all the tribes. The men of any single tribe may be so designated. The narrator uses the expression here, however, in order to intimate that though Gilead alone actually engages in the war it is nevertheless done as Israel, according to the mind and spirit of the whole nation. As soon as Israel repents, the collective national spirit, the consciousness of national unity through the calling of God, reawakes in each of the tribes. The localities at which the respective armies are said to have assembled and prepared for the conflict, will be considered under Jdg_11:29.

Jdg_10:18. And the body of the nobles of Gilead said. The hitherto cowed Israelites assembled themselves; but that was not all: they were moreover united in all they did. The narrative says expressly äָòָí ùָׂøֵé âִìְòָã , “the people of the nobles of Gilead,” i. e. all, without exception. No envious, self-seeking voice of protest or dissent was heard. In times in which distress is recognized with real repentance, private interests cease to govern. People then begin to honor truth and actual merit. No deference is then paid to personal vanity, family connections, or wealth; but, all by-views and self-seeking being set aside, he is sought after who renders service. The nobles of Gilead could not more clearly indicate their new temper, than by unitedly promising to subordinate themselves to him who begins to render the banners of Israel once more victorious, as their head.

It is to be noted that they say, “whoso beginneth to fight against the sons of Ammon.” In him who first again gains an advantage over the enemy in battle, it will be manifest that God is with him. He, accordingly, is to be, not what Gideon’s legions desired him to become, their îֹùֵׁì , ruler, nor what the sinful people of Shechem made of Abimelech, their îֶìֶêְ , king, but their øֹàùׁ , leader. Him, who conquers with God, they desire to follow unanimously, as a common head.

And this one soon appeared.

Footnotes: 

[Dr. Cassel evidently takes äָòָí as stat. const. Scarcely correct. First, because of the article (cf. Ges. Gram. 110, 2); and, secondly, because òַí never stands for the mere notion of totality. It is better to take âִìְòָã ùָׁøֵé as standing in apposition to äָòָí ; “the people (namely) the chiefs of Gilead,” i. e. the people through their chiefs, as represented by them.—Tr.]