Judges 8:35

8:29-35 As soon as Gideon was dead, who kept the people to the worship of the God of Israel, they found themselves under no restraint; then they went after Baalim, and showed no kindness to the family of Gideon. No wonder if those who forget their God, forget their friends. Yet conscious of our own ingratitude to the Lord, and observing that of mankind in general, we should learn to be patient under any unkind returns we meet with for our poor services, and resolve, after the Divine example, not to be overcome of evil, but to overcome evil with good.

Neither showed they kindness to the house of Jerubbaal, namely Gideon,.... But, on the contrary, great unkindness and cruelty, slaying his seventy sons, as related in the following chapter: according to all the goodness which he had showed unto Israel; in exposing his life to danger for their sake, in delivering them out of the hands of their oppressors, in administering justice to them, in protecting them in their civil and religious liberties, and leaving them in the quiet and peaceable possession of them.

Jdg 8:35 . Neither showed they kindness to the house of Gideon — No wonder they were so ungrateful to the family of this illustrious man, when they were so forgetful of the God of all their mercies; according to the goodness he had showed unto Israel — In hazarding his life for their service, and accomplishing a glorious deliverance in their favour; and in leaving them in the full enjoyment of their liberty, by refusing the despotic power with which they offered to invest him, and in governing them for the space of so many years with so much prudence, that he left them in a happy state of tranquillity, having the worship of the true God established among them when he died.

Turned again - Doubtless Gideon himself had no doubt prepared the way for this apostacy by his unauthorized ephod. The Law of Moses, with its strict unity of priesthood and altar, was the divinely-appointed and only effectual preservative from idolatry. Baal-bereth - The god of covenants or sworn treaties, corresponding to the Zeus Orkius of the Greeks. The center of this fresh apostacy was at Shechem.

Jud 8:28. Midian Subdued. 28. Thus was Midian subdued before the children of Israel—This invasion of the Arab hordes into Canaan was as alarming and desolating as the irruption of the Huns into Europe. It was the severest scourge ever inflicted upon Israel; and both it and the deliverance under Gideon lived for centuries in the minds of the people (Ps 83:11).

(35) Jerubbaal, namely, Gideon. —It is doubtful whether we should not join the two names (Jerubbaal-Gideon), as in the Vulgate. Both names may be here allusive. He had been the “hewer” of their enemies and a “pleader against Baal,” yet they were ungrateful to him, and apostatised to Baal-worship. According to all the goodness which he had shewed unto Israel.—See Judges 9:17-18.

In this relapse into the worship of Baal they not only forgot Jehovah, their Deliverer from all their foes, but also the benefits which they owed to Gideon, and showed no kindness to his house in return for all the good which he had shown to Israel. The expression Jerubbaal-Gideon is chosen by the historian here, not for the purely outward purpose of laying express emphasis upon the identity of Gideon and Jerubbaal (Bertheau), but to point to what Gideon, the Baal-fighter, had justly deserved from the people of Israel.

[Reformed Biblical] . Judges 8:30 No text from Poole on this verse. ## Judges 8:31 In Shechem; she dwelt there, and he oft came thither, either to execute judgment, or upon other occasions. ## Abimelech, i.e. my father the king ; so he called him, probably to gratify his concubine, who desired it either out of pride or design. ## Judges 8:32 In a good old age; his long life being crowned with the continuance of his honour, tranquility, and happiness. ## Judges 8:33 The children of Israel turned again; whereby we see the wicked temper of this people, who did no longer cleave to God than they were in a manner constrained to it by the presence and authority of their judges. ## Baalim: this was the general name, including all their idols, whereof one here follows. ## Baal-berith, i.e. The lord of the covenant, so called, either from the covenant wherewith the worshippers of this god bound themselves to maintain his worship, or to defend one another therein; or rather, because he was reputed the god and judge of all covenants, and promises, and contracts, to whom it belonged to maintain them, and to punish the violaters of them; and such a god both the Grecians and the Romans had. Judges 8:34 No text from Poole on this verse. Judges 8:35 No text from Poole on this verse. ## Judges 9:1 JUDGES CHAPTER 9 ## Abimelech, Gideon’s son, by conspiracy with the Shechemites, and the murder of his brethren, Jotham the youngest escaping, is made king, Jud_9:1-6.

(14) An oak. —Properly, the oak , or terebinth; supposed to be known in that comparatively treeless country, like the oak at Shechem ( Genesis 35:4 ; Genesis 35:8 ; Joshua 24:26 ; Judges 9:6 ), the oak at Ophrah ( Judges 6:11 ), and the palm-tree of Deborah ( Judges 4:5 ). This expression is an evident mark of the antiquity of the document from which the history is taken. It has been suggested that the narrative implies a needless loitering of the prophet of Judah on the way. Taken by itself, it would not necessarily convey this; but in relation to the temper indicated in the whole story, the thing may be not improbable.