Judges 10:11

10:10-18 God is able to multiply men's punishments according to the numbers of their sins and idols. But there is hope when sinners cry to the Lord for help, and lament their ungodliness as well as their more open transgressions. It is necessary, in true repentance, that there be a full conviction that those things cannot help us which we have set in competition with God. They acknowledged what they deserved, yet prayed to God not to deal with them according to their deserts. We must submit to God's justice, with a hope in his mercy. True repentance is not only for sin, but from sin. As the disobedience and misery of a child are a grief to a tender father, so the provocations of God's people are a grief to him. From him mercy never can be sought in vain. Let then the trembling sinner, and the almost despairing backslider, cease from debating about God's secret purposes, or from expecting to find hope from former experiences. Let them cast themselves on the mercy of God our Saviour, humble themselves under his hand, seek deliverance from the powers of darkness, separate themselves from sin, and from occasions of it, use the means of grace diligently, and wait the Lord's time, and so they shall certainly rejoice in his mercy.

And the Lord said unto the children of Israel,.... By a prophet he sent unto them, as Kimchi and Abarbinel, see Judges 6:8 , whom Ben Gersom takes to be Phinehas, but he could not be living at this time; or by an angel, a created one, sent on this occasion; or the uncreated one, the Son and Word of God, who might appear in an human form, and to whom all that is here said is applicable: did not I deliver you from the Egyptians; by bringing them out of subjection and bondage to them, and by delivering them out of their hands at the Red sea: and from the Amorites; the kings of Sihon and Og, whose countries were taken from them, and put into their hands, when they attempted to stop them in their march to the land of Canaan: from the children of Ammon; when they joined with the Moabites against them, Judges 3:13. and from the Philistines? in the times of Shamgar, Judges 3:31.

Jdg 10:11 . The Lord said unto Israel — Either by some prophet whom he raised up, and sent for this purpose, or by the high-priest consulting God for them by Urim and Thummim. For we find that the Israelites, notwithstanding their idolatries, when they were sorely afflicted, bethought themselves of repairing to the tabernacle, and asking counsel of the Lord. Did not I deliver you from the Amorites? — Both Sihon and Og, and their people, and other kings of the Amorites. From the children of Ammon — Who were confederate with the Moabites, Jdg 3:13-14 .

Verse 11. - Did not I deliver you , etc. These references to former deliverances are of great historical value, and not the least so as they allude to events of which the existing records give no account, or a very imperfect one. They show the existence of a real history in the background of that which has been preserved in the Bible (see Judges 8:13 , note). From the Egyptians , as related at large in the Book of Exodus; from the Amorites , as related in Numbers 21:21-35 ; from the children of Ammon , who were confederate with the Moabites under Ehud, as we learn from Judges 3:13 ; from the Philistines, as is briefly recorded in Judges 3:31 . Judges 10:11

(See the marginal references). The Israelites were delivered from the "Egyptians" at the Exodus; from the "Amorites" in the victories over Sihon, and Og, and the five kings of the Amorites Joshua 10:5 ; from the "children of Ammon" by Ehud; and from the "Philistines," by the hand of Shamgar (compare 1 Samuel 12:9 ).

The Lord said; either by himself, the Son of God appearing in a visible shape, which then was usual; or by some prophet whom he raised and sent to this purpose; or by the high priest, who was consulted in the case. The Amorites; both Sihon and Og, and their people, Num 21 , and other kings of the Amorites within Jordan, Joshua 10:5 . The children of Ammon were confederate with the Moabites, Judges 3:13,14 . The Philistines. See Judges 3:31 .

11 . not … from the Egyptians ] The missing verb is supplied by the RV., cf. Exodus 14:30 ; did not I bring you up would be better—the verb usually found with from Egypt , Jdg 2:1 , Jdg 6:8 ; then the rest of the verse must be an editorial expansion. But if the restoration of the RV. be kept, the whole verse can be regarded as a conventional summary; no distinct oppression by the Amorites is recorded.

When the Israelites cried in their distress to the Lord, "We have sinned against Thee, namely, that we have forsaken our God and served the Baals," the Lord first of all reminded them of the manifestations of His grace ( Judges 10:11 , Judges 10:12 ), and then pointed out to them their faithless apostasy and the worthlessness of their idols ( Judges 10:13 , Judges 10:14 ). וכי, "and indeed that," describes the sin more minutely, and there is no necessity to remove it from the text-an act which is neither warranted by its absence from several MSS nor by its omission from the Sept., the Syriac, and the Vulgate. Baalim is a general term used to denote all the false gods, as in Judges 2:11 . This answer on the part of God to the prayer of the Israelites for help is not to be regarded as having been given through an extraordinary manifestation (theophany), or through the medium of a prophet, for that would certainly have been recorded; but it was evidently given in front of the tabernacle, where the people had called upon the Lord, and either came through the high priest, or else through an inward voice in which God spoke to the hearts of the people, i.e., through the voice of their own consciences, by which God recalled to their memories and impressed upon their hearts first of all His own gracious acts, and then their faithless apostasy. There is an anakolouthon in the words of God.

The construction which is commenced with ממּצרים is dropped at וגו וצידונים in Judges 10:12 ; and the verb הושׁעתּי, which answers to the beginning of the clause, is brought up afterwards in the form of an apodosis with אתכם ואושׁיעה. "Did I not deliver you (1) from the Egyptians (cf. Exodus 1-14 ); (2) from the Amorites (cf. Numbers 21:3 ); (3) from the Ammonites (who oppressed Israel along with the Moabites in the time of Ehud, Judges 3:12 .); (4) from the Philistines (through Shamgar: see 1 Samuel 12:9 , where the Philistines are mentioned between Sisera and Moab); (5) from the Sidonians (among whom probably the northern Canaanites under Jabin are included, as Sidon, according to Judges 18:7 , Judges 18:28 , appears to have exercised a kind of principality or protectorate over the northern tribes of Canaan); (6) from the Amalekites (who attacked the Israelites even at Horeb, Exodus 17:8 ., and afterwards invaded the land of Israel both with the Moabites, Judges 3:13 , and also with the Midianites, Judges 6:3 ); and (7) from the Midianites?" (see Judges 6-7 ). The last is the reading of the lxx in Cod. Al. and Vat., viz., Μαδιάμ; whereas Ald. and Compl. read Χαναάν, also the Vulgate. In the Masoretic text, on the other hand, we have Maon.