Lange Commentary - Judges 8:33 - 8:35

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Lange Commentary - Judges 8:33 - 8:35


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

Apostasy from God, and ingratitude to man

Jdg_8:33-35

33And it came to pass as soon as Gideon was dead, that the children [sons] of Israel turned again, and went a whoring after [the] Baalim, and made Baal-berith their god. 34And the children [sons] of Israel remembered not the Lord [Jehovah] their God, who had delivered them out of the hands of all their enemies on every 35side: Neither showed they kindness to the house of Jerubbaal, namely, Gideon [Jerubbaal Gideon], according to all the goodness which he had showed unto Israel.

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL

[1 Jdg_8:35.—The word namely is added by the translators, who supposed, as Bertheau does, that the writer designed once more to point out the identity of Gideon with Jerubbaal. Cf. the Com.—Tr.]

[2 Jdg_8:35.— ëְּëָìÎäַèּåֹáָä : Dr. Cassel: trotz aller Wohlthat, “notwithstanding all the good.” The “notwithstanding” lies perhaps in the thought, but not in the language.—Tr.]

EXEGETICAL AND DOCTRINAL

Jdg_8:33-34. And it came to pass as soon as Gideon was dead. The fact soon became manifest that the people had been raised only by the personal character of Gideon; he is scarcely dead, before they fall back again. The narrator says sharply åַéָּùׁåּáåּ , “they returned.” The same word which elsewhere describes the turning of the people towards God, is here used to indicate their passion for sin. Ad vomitum redierunt, as Serarius well remarks.

And went a whoring after the Baalim, and made Baal-berith their god. Nothing could put the stupid thoughtlessness of the people in a stronger light. They have become great and free through victory over Baal; and now they again run after him. Jerubbaal—the contender with Baal—has just died, and they enter into covenant with Baal (see on Jdg_9:4). That the nations in the Baal-covenant (Baal-berith) kept the peace towards them, was because Jehovah had given them victory,—and lo! they make idols their god! The error of Gideon, in supposing that by setting up his ephod he could preserve the people, now shows itself Since he is dead, in whom they conceived their salvation to be personified, they think neither of the spoils out of which the ephod was made, nor of him who procured them. Ingratitude is the parent of all unbelief. Thankfulness comes from thought. Israel thinks not on the God who has delivered it from all its enemies; how then should it think on the human hero when he has passed away. They withhold obedience from the God of their fathers; what recognition can they have for the house of their benefactor. The ephod, to be sure, was still in Ophrah; but who that despises the sanctuary of Moses and Joshua, will respect this private institute of Gideon, when his voice has ceased to be heard.

Jdg_8:35. Neither showed they kindness to the house of Jerubbaal Gideon. In the name Jerubbaal, all the hero’s meritorious service, and its great results, are enunciated. For that reason the narrator mentions it here. It serves to aggravate the sinfulness of Israel’s ingratitude, and to show that he who enters the service of Baal, will also ignore his obligations towards those who contend with Baal. The people are unwilling to be reminded that to fight against Baal brings prosperity. They seek to forget everything that admonishes to repentance. It has always been the case, that those who apostatize from God, do not do well by the “house” of God.—Notwithstanding all the benefits which he had shown unto Israel. The narrator intimates that the endeavor of Gideon to perpetuate, by means of the ephod, the religious and godly memory of his deeds, was altogether vain. For let no one imagine that where God’s own deeds fail to command remembrance and gratitude, those of men, however deserving, can maintain themselves against the sinful sophistry of unbelief.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

[Henry: Gideon being dead, the Israelites found themselves under no restraint, and went after Baalim. They went first after another ephod (Jdg_8:27), for which Gideon had himself given them too much occasion, and now they went after another god. False worships made way for false deities.—Scott: As we all need so much mercy from our God, we should learn the more patiently to bear the ingratitude of our fellow-sinners, and the unsuitable returns we meet with for our poor services, and to resolve, after the divine example, “not to be overcome of evil, but to overcome evil with good.”—Tr.]

Footnotes:

[Jdg_8:35.—The word namely is added by the translators, who supposed, as Bertheau does, that the writer designed once more to point out the identity of Gideon with Jerubbaal. Cf. the Com.—Tr.]

[Jdg_8:35.— ëְּëָìÎäַèּåֹáָä : Dr. Cassel: trotz aller Wohlthat, “notwithstanding all the good.” The “notwithstanding” lies perhaps in the thought, but not in the language.—Tr.]

[The German is, “Dank kommt vom Denken.” It is interesting to observe, whether the author meant to suggest it or not, that the remark is sound etymology as well as psychology. Grimm (Wörterb. ii. pp. 727, 927) derives both dank and denken from “the lost root dinke, danc, dünken,” expressive “of an action of the mind, a movement and up-lifting of the soul.” Thank and think belong, of course, to the same root.—Tr.]