Lange Commentary - Judges 3:31 - 3:31

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Lange Commentary - Judges 3:31 - 3:31


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

Shamgar smites six hundred Philistines with an ox—goad

Jdg_3:31

31And after him was Shamgar the son of Anath, which [and he] slew [smote] of the Philistines six hundred men with an ox-goad; and he also [he, too,] delivered Israel.

EXEGETICAL AND DOCTRINAL

After him. After his example. Following Ehud’s example, Shamgar smote the Philistines. That the expression is not to be taken of time, as if on the death of Ehud Shamgar had succeeded him, is evident from Jdg_4:1. Moreover, if that were the meaning, a statement of the years of Shamgar would not be absent. The hypothesis of Josephus, that he governed one year, is untenable. Accordingly, the other Jewish expositors have properly assigned the exploit of Shamgar to the time of Ehud, i.e. to the period of eighty years.

Shamgar, the son of Anath. To what tribe he belonged, is not stated. If it be correct to connect òֲðָú with òֲðָúåֹú , Anathoth (cf. Kaplan, Erets Kedumim, ii. 142), it will follow that like Ehud he was of Benjamin, and defended the territory of that tribe in the west against the Philistines, as Ehud did in the east against the Moabites. His whole history, as here given, consists of a single heroic exploit, in which he repulsed an attack of the Philistines with extraordinary strength.

With an ox-goad. The Septuagint gives ἀñïôñïðýò , by which it evidently means the plough-handle, stiva, that part which the ploughman holds in his hand, and with which he guides the plough. More correct, however, is the rendering “ox-goad” (cf. Bochart, Hierozoicon, i. 385); ôְּøַùׁ úּåֹøַéָּà , as the Targum has it. It was the “prick” against which the oxen “kicked,” when struck with it. The Greeks called it âïõðëῆî . With such an instrument, King Lycurgus is said to have attacked the wandering Bacchus and his followers (Il. vi. 135). There is a tradition in Holstein that in the Swedish time a peasant armed with a pole put to flight a multitude of Swedes who had entered his house and threatened to burn it (Müllenhoff, Sagen, etc., p. 81).

He delivered Israel. He procured victory for them, and assisted them over the danger of present and local subjugation. But to “deliver” is not to “judge.” Nor is there any mention of the “Spirit of the Lord’ in connection with him.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

Shamgar the deliverer with the ox-goad. Courageous examples find worthy followers. Shamgar trode in Ehud’s footsteps. One triumphs with a sword, the other with an implement of peace. Hence we may infer, says Origen, that a judge of the church need not always carry a sword, and be full of severity and admonitions to repentance, but should also be like a husbandman, “who, gradually opening the earth with his plough, prepares it for the reception of good seed.”

Starke: When God wishes to terrify the enemy, He needs not many men, nor strong defense and preparation for the purpose.—Gerlach: Shamgar’s deed is probably to be viewed only as the effect of a sudden outbreak of holy enthusiasm, under the influence of which he seized the first best weapon, and put to flight the enemy whom some terror from God had scared.

[Henry: 1. God can make those eminently serviceable to his glory and the church’s good, whose extraction, education, and employment are very obscure. He that has the residue of the Spirit, could, when he pleased, make ploughmen judges and generals, and fishermen apostles. 2. It is no matter what the weapon is, if God direct and strengthen the arm. An ox-goad, when God pleases, shall do more than Goliath’s sword. And sometimes He chooses to work by such unlikely means, that the excellency of the power may appear to be of God.—Tr.]

Footnotes:

[Bachmann observes that this and similar interpretations of this expression, militate against the analogy of Jdg_10:1; Jdg_10:3; Jdg_12:8; Jdg_12:11; Jdg_12:13, in all which passages àַçֲøֵé refers to the duration of the official or natural life of the previously mentioned person. Appealing to Jdg_5:6, where the “days of Shamgar” are described in such a way as to exclude the supposition that they belonged to the period of “rest” obtained by Ehud, he makes them synchronous with some part of the Canaanite oppression under Jabin. While the Canaanites subjugated the northern part of the And, the Philistines attempted to extend their power in the south, which occasioned the conflicts of Shamgar with them.—Tr.]

ùַׁîְâַּø . The ancients translated it: Nomen Advence, “Name of a stranger.” Ehud was the son of a certain âֵּøָà . Perhaps Shamgar also is somehow related to that name.

[Bachmann: “We are undoubtedly to think here of a marauding band like those brought to view in 1Sa_30:1 ff. and Job_1:15, against whom Shamgar, either engaged at the moment in ploughing, or else seizing the first weapon that came to hand, proceeded with an ox-goad, with such effect as to strike down six hundred of them.”—Tr.]

This interpretation of the LXX. has nothing to do (as Bertheau thinks) with the reading îִìְáַã äַáָּ÷ָø , found by Augustine.

This legend is copiously treated by Nonnus, on the basis of Homer’s version of it. It is remarkable that although the scene is laid in “Arabia,” Nonnus nevertheless transfers the above-mentioned event and the city of Lycurgus to Carmel and the Erythræan Sea. It is doubtless true, as Köhler observes (Die Dionysiaka von Nonnus von Panopolis, Halle, 1853, pp. 76, 77), that by âïõðëῆî Nonnus appears to have understood an axe. The Roman poets also give an axe to Lycurgus.