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SHAMGAR smote 600 Philistines with an ox-goad (Jdg_3:31). There is no mention of his judging Israel, or of the duration of his influence. The exploit belongs to the latest redaction of the book; Jdg_4:1 continues the story of Jdg_3:30. Nothing is known of any Philistine dominion at so early a period, and in some Gr. MSS the verse follows Jdg_16:31. His exploit resembles that of Shammah in 2Sa_23:11 (cf. 2Sa_21:16-22), and may have been attached to him as an expansion of the reference in the song of Deborah (Jdg_5:6). There, however, he appears to be a foreign oppressor, and the connexion of the two passages is obscure, the song having to do with Canaanite oppression in the North. The name is foreign, Hittite or Assyrian. He is the ‘son of Anath.’ Anati occurs in the Tell el-Amarna tablets, and Anatu is an Assyr. [Note: Assyrian.] goddess, traces of whose worship are found in Egypt, Phœnicia, and Syria (cf. place-names Beth-anath [Jdg_1:33], Beth-anoth [Jos_15:59]). The names are important as showing Babylonian influence after the period of the Tell-el-Amarna tablets.
C. W. Emmet.