Judges 6:10

6:7-10 They cried to God for a deliverer, and he sent them a prophet to teach them. When God furnishes a land with faithful ministers, it is a token that he has mercy in store for it. He charges them with rebellion against the Lord; he intends to bring them to repentance. Repentance is real when the sinfulness of sin, as disobedience to God, is chiefly lamented.

And I said unto you, I am the Lord your God, The covenant God of them and their fathers, and they ought not to have owned and acknowledged any other besides him: fear not the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell; meaning not a fear of being hurt by them, but such a fear and reverence of them as to worship them, which was only to be given to the Lord. The Amorites are here put for all the Canaanites, they being a principal people among them: but ye have not obeyed my voice; to cleave to him, fear and worship him; they had been guilty of idolatry, and this is the sin the prophet was sent to reprove them for, and bring them to a sense of.

A similar use of the name Amorite, instead of the more usual name Canaanite, occurs in Joshua 24:15 , Joshua 24:18 . Perhaps a special reason may be found for the use of Amorite, if the prophet was addressing those who dwelt in the mountains, where the Amorites chiefly dwelt. The idolatries of the Amorites seem, too, to have been preeminently abominable (see 2 Kings 21:11 ; 1 Kings 21:26 ). It should be observed that the prophet's language, as it traces the misery of Israel to their sins, so also intimates the necessity of repentance and of breaking off their sins - especially the sin of idolatry - as preliminary to any deliverance. In exact accordance with this view, Gideon commences his work by throwing down the altar of Baal, and building up the altar of Yahweh Judges 6:24-25 .

(10) The gods of the Amorites. —See Joshua 24:15 ; 1Kings 21:26 . As the Amorites seem to have been the highlanders of Palestine, and the most powerful of all the Canaanitish tribes, their name is sometimes used for that of all the Canaanites ( Joshua 24:15 ). Thus Heber says:— “As when five monarchs led to Gibeon’s fight In rude array the harnessed Amorite.” No deliverance can be promised till repentance has begun. When the warnings of the prophet are heeded the mission of the deliverer begins.

But before helping them, the Lord sent a prophet to reprove the people for not hearkening to the voice of their God, in order that they might reflect, and might recognise in the oppression which crushed them the chastisement of God for their apostasy, and so be brought to sincere repentance and conversion by their remembrance of the former miraculous displays of the grace of God. The Lord God, said the prophet to the people, brought you out of Egypt, the house of bondage, and delivered you out of the hand of Egypt ( Exodus 18:9 ), and out of the hand of all your oppressors (see Judges 2:18 ; Judges 4:3 ; Judges 10:12 ), whom He drove before you (the reference is to the Amorites and Canaanites who were conquered by Moses and Joshua); but ye have not followed His commandment, that ye should not worship the gods of the Amorites. The Amorites stand here for the Canaanites, as in Genesis 15:16 and Joshua 24:15 .

The first proof of this was furnished by the deliverance of the children of Israel out of Egypt, and their safe guidance into Canaan ("this place" is the land of Canaan). The second was to be found in the deliverance of the people out of the power of their foes, to whom the Lord had been obliged to give them up on account of their apostasy from Him, through the judges whom He had raised up for them, as often as they turned to Him with penitence and cried to Him for help. Of the hostile oppressions which overtook the Israelites during this period of the judges, the following are singled out in 1 Samuel 12:9 : (1) that by Sisera, the commander-in-chief of Hazor, i.e., that of the Canaanitish king Jabin of Hazor ( Judges 4:2 .); (2) that of the Philistines, by which we are to understand not so much the hostilities of that nation described in Judges 3:31 , as the forty years' oppression mentioned in Judges 10:2 and Judges 13:1 ; and (3) the Moabitish oppression under Eglon ( Judges 3:12 .). The first half of Judges 13:10 agrees almost word for word with Judges 10:10 , except that, according to Judges 10:6 , the Ashtaroth are added to the Baalim (see at 1 Samuel 7:4 and Judges 2:13 ). Of the judges whom God sent to the people as deliverers, the following are named, viz., Jerubbaal (see at Judges 6:32 ), i.e., Gideon ( Judges 6 ), and Bedan, and Jephthah (see Judges 11 ), and Samuel. There is no judge named Bedan mentioned either in the book of Judges or anywhere else.

The first proof of this was furnished by the deliverance of the children of Israel out of Egypt, and their safe guidance into Canaan ("this place" is the land of Canaan). The second was to be found in the deliverance of the people out of the power of their foes, to whom the Lord had been obliged to give them up on account of their apostasy from Him, through the judges whom He had raised up for them, as often as they turned to Him with penitence and cried to Him for help. Of the hostile oppressions which overtook the Israelites during this period of the judges, the following are singled out in 1 Samuel 12:9 : (1) that by Sisera, the commander-in-chief of Hazor, i.e., that of the Canaanitish king Jabin of Hazor ( Judges 4:2 .); (2) that of the Philistines, by which we are to understand not so much the hostilities of that nation described in Judges 3:31 , as the forty years' oppression mentioned in Judges 10:2 and Judges 13:1 ; and (3) the Moabitish oppression under Eglon ( Judges 3:12 .). The first half of Judges 13:10 agrees almost word for word with Judges 10:10 , except that, according to Judges 10:6 , the Ashtaroth are added to the Baalim (see at 1 Samuel 7:4 and Judges 2:13 ). Of the judges whom God sent to the people as deliverers, the following are named, viz., Jerubbaal (see at Judges 6:32 ), i.e., Gideon ( Judges 6 ), and Bedan, and Jephthah (see Judges 11 ), and Samuel. There is no judge named Bedan mentioned either in the book of Judges or anywhere else.