CHAPTER 1
1. Now what took place after the death of Y’hoshua was that the descendants of Israel consulted YHWH, saying, “Who should go up against the Kanaanite first, to fight against him?”
Consulted: probably via the high priest, whose garment and efod contained several means of providing answers via something similar to lots. (Numbers 27:21) Why did they ask? Because they knew from Y’hoshua himself that the job was not yet finished. (Y’hoshua 13:1ff) They may have also begun to feel the cramping that YHWH had said would take place if they allowed the Kanaanites to continue living among them. (Num. 33:55)
2. And YHWH said, “Yehudah must go up; indeed, I have given the Land into his hand.”
This has been repeated in recent history, as Yehudah was the first tribe to go up and take back the Land. (Compare Z’kharyah 12:7, which prophesies this, and implies that the rest of the tribes will follow.) Yehudah was the tribe that had been led by Kalev, and thus trained by him, so YHWH considered them better-prepared than other tribes. Genesis 49 also says that Yehudah would be a ruler over the other tribes, and a king is expected to take the lead in going out into battle. (2 Shmu’el 11:1 et al)
3. So Yehudah said to his brother Shim’on, “Come up with me into my allotment so we can make war on the Kanaanites; then I will go up with you into your allotment.” So Shim’on went up.
Shim’on was known for being a fighter at heart. (Gen. 34) This is one reason Yehudah called for him. His skill was needed, and he might even have been one who enjoyed this responsibility! (Gen. 49:5-10) Another was that the Shim’onites’ inheritance was within the borders of Yehudah, Shim’on’s younger brother, so it was not an unfair thing to ask, and they would reciprocate. But Shim’on had an attachment he had to get past in this case, because one of his children had a Kanaanite mother. (Gen. 46:10)
4. When Yehudah went up, YHWH gave the Kanaanite and Prizzite over into their hand, and they struck down ten thousand men in Bezeq.
5. When they came upon Adoni-Bezeq [“my master is a flash of lightning”] at Bezeq, they made war on him and struck down the Kanaanite and the Prizzite.
While lower-ranking soldiers fought outside the city to try to fend off the attackers, a Gentile king would often stay with higher-ranking officials in a better-guarded fortress inside the city to direct the battle from a safer position.
6. But Adoni-Bezeq fled away, so they chased him down and caught him, and chopped off his thumbs and his big toes.
Literally, the large digits of his hands and feet. He would lose his ability to grasp a sword or other weapon, and would have no balance when he walked or ran. But these were two of the three places the priests were anointed at the inauguration to service. (Ex. 29:20; Lev. 8:23; 14:14ff) This symbolized having his anointing removed. But there was another reason:
7. And Adoni-Bezeq said, “Seventy kings [with] their thumbs and big toes chopped off used to gather up [scraps of food] under my table. Just as I did, Elohim has paid me back in kind!” And they brought him [to] Yerushalaim, and there he died.
He had probably gloated over his treating them like dogs, so it is likely that the Israelites knew this ahead of time and chose a punishment that fit his crime. He recognized that justice had been done, and may even have recognized Israel’s Elohim as other kings did. Most human battles were seen by all parties at that time as being contests between the two nations’ elohim. But 70 kings would symbolically represent his being ruler over all the nations of the earth. (Seventy nations are listed in Genesis 10 from which all others today stem.) He is therefore a foreshadowing of the counterfeit Messiah having his authority removed, thus paving the way for Israel to regain Yerushalayim:
8. Then the sons of Yehudah made war at Yerushalaim and captured it, and attacked it with the mouth of the sword, and set the city on fire.
9. And afterward the sons of Yehudah went down and engaged in battle with the Kanaanite dwelling in the mountain-range, the Negev, and the Sh’felah.
Down to the mountain-range? This may be the first place in Scripture that we see the concept of Yerushalayim as "above all hills". (Mikha 4:1) Negev: the southern desert. Sh’felah: foothills; literally, that which tends lower.
10. Then Yehudah went against the Kanaanite dwelling in Hevron. (Now the name of Hevron was previously Kiryath-Arba.) And they struck down Sheshai, Akhiman, and Thalmai.
These were the three sons of Anaq, a giant who had once ruled here. (Num. 13:22) The scribe writing this may have derived his information from Y’hoshua chapters 11 and 15.
11. And from there he went against the inhabitants of D’vir. (Now the name of D’vir was previously Kiryath-Sefer,
The “sanctuary” (but related to the term for “word”) was once called “city of a scroll” (that which is inscribed). Such plays on words would make the history easier to remember.
12. and Kalev had said, “Whoever attacks Kiryath-Sefer and captures it, I will him Akhsah my daughter as a wife!”
He wanted his son-in-law to be a man like himself, so his grandchildren would not be weaklings.
13. And Awthni’el, son of Q’naz, Kalev’s brother, who was younger than he, captured it, so he gave him Akhsah his daughter as a wife.
14. Incidentally, as she came, she persuaded him to request the field from her father. When she started to dismount from her donkey, Kalev said to her, “What [else will it be] for you?”
As her father who knew her demeanor, it was clear to him that she wanted something more. The key is in knowing that D’vir was a Levitical city (Y’hoshua 21:15), so the agricultural and pasture land surrounding it would have by law belonged to the Levites, and she would not have had the use of it. This is why she needed a different piece of land if she were to, like the “capable woman” of Proverbs 31, have a field of her own.
15. So she said to him, “Grant me a blessing, since you have given me the land of the Negev; provide me with [rolling] springs of water as well.” So Kalev gave her the upper springs as well as the lower springs.
This area is very arid, and the streams only flow in the rainy season, so of what value would an unwatered field be? It is thought that these springs are in a ravine 7.5 miles south of Hevron, where the Arab residents still speak of “upper and lower wells”.
16. Now sons of the Qeynite, Moshe’s in-law, had gone up from the city of date-palms with the sons of Yehudah [to the] uninhabited land of Yehudah which is to the south of Arad, and they went and lived with the People.
Qeynite: means "the smith". They were wandering artisans and “tinkers”—the “gypsies” of the ancient world. Being no longer a priest of Midyan, he may have changed vocations. In any case, Israel had been at war with Midyan, so they would not have wanted to call themselves by that name. Some Qeynites (probably Hovav as in Numbers 10) had evidently stayed on with Israel after Yithro came to advise Moshe, then had gone back home. City of date-palms: Y'rikho (Deut. 34:3).
17. Then Yehudah went along with Shim’on his brother, and they struck down the Kanaanite that dwelt in Tz’fath, and they devoted it to destruction; then the name of the city was called Khormah.
Khormah: LXX, Anathema. Both words mean “devoted to destruction”. It could be that, rather than just destroy the people and animals as they did at other cities, they demolished this whole city and just left it leveled.
18. Then Yehudah captured ‘Azzah and its territory, Ashqelon and its territory, and Eqron and its territory
19. (though YHWH was with Yehudah when he was taking possession of the mountainous [region]), since he [was] not [able] to dispossess the inhabitants of the lowland, because they had iron chariots.
YHWH was with Yehudah: Thus how can He be with Yehudah when they give some of the Land back to their enemies? The fact that YHWH is with someone does not mean that their lives will be easy. A Gentile king recognized that YHWH was with Avraham after he had had the wisdom to do the hard thing and send Hagar and Yishma’el away. (Gen. 21:22) It was said of Yosef that YHWH was with him while He was imprisoned. (Gen. 39:2) He was with Shmu’el, the prophet and judge who was scorned by people who wanted a king. (1 Shm. 3:19) He was with Hizqiyahu, but this did not prevent a powerful enemy from coming against him. (2 Kings 18:7ff) In only the latter case did YHWH’s being with Yehudah mean He did the work for them, possibly because in that case by natural means there was no way for Yehudah to win. Every other time He was with them through, not instead of, their efforts. Most things that are of value must still be fought for, whether against external or internal foes. But ‘Azzah, Ashqelon, and Eqron are in the lowland. Is this not a contradiction with v. 18? Actually the Septuagint (LXX) says in v. 18 that Yehudah did not conquer these three cities and their territory, suggesting that an earlier version of the Hebrew text may have said the same. Considering the pattern of the rest of the chapter, which emphasizes what Israel was not able to conquer, might a scribe from Yehudah (the tribe that was sole custodian of the Hebrew language and writings for thousands of years) have at some point wanted to make his tribe look better than the others? Iron chariots: The Iron Age was just beginning in this region, and only the Philistines (described here) and Hittites had iron weaponry at this stage. They had well-guarded ore deposits and kept the method of working the iron a secret, preserving their advantage over the peoples around them. Until David’s time, when Yehudah did gain this technology, it may simply have seemed suicidal to confront such heavy weaponry with only spears, close-combat swords, bows, and arrows. Such guerrilla warfare gave even those at late as the Maccabees the advantage in the mountains, where chariots were difficult to use.
20. And they gave Hevron to Kalev, as Moshe had said, and he dispossessed from there the three sons of Anaq.
Verses 15-20 are a recapitulation of Y’hoshua 15:13ff. As Moshe had said: in Deuteronomy (D’varim) 1:36. YHWH honored Kalev’s faith and courage, since he did not fear these giants, but trusted YHWH to make him able—even at 85 years old—to rid the Land of any obstacles that YHWH wanted removed. (Y’hoshua 14:6ff)
21. But the sons of Binyamin did not dispossess the Y’vusites who were dwelling in Yerushalaim, and the Yevusite lives with the sons of Binyamin in Yerushalaim to this day.
Verse 8 said Yehudah had conquered this city. Are we talking about two adjacent cities (Yevus and Shalem, the name in Melkhitzedeq’s time) that merged into one (Yevus-Shalem) at some point, but were still two entities to conquer at this point? We know of no archaeological evidence for this, but it would be difficult to come by with all that has been built over it since. Or could it mean that Yehudah captured the city but left it the Binyamites with the privilege of conquering the inhabitants? Or was t his chapter composed by two different scribes, one with a better memory than the other? To this day: This book was thus written prior to the reign of David, who did dispossess Yerushalaim, and even made it his capital. But by that time only the Y’vusites (not the Binyamites) lived there, showing what the result of allowing YHWH’s enemies to remain will be for any of us. They will not respect our kindness, but will only take it as an open door to overrun us—an important message for Yehudah in the Land today. If we take control of an area and yet do not remove from our lives the elements that support its vulnerability, we will only have to take it back again.
22. Now the House of Yosef—they themselves, too—went up to Beyth-El, and YHWH was with them.
House of Yosef: probably the tribe of Efrayim in particular, since this was in his land, but possibly including the other Yosefite tribe of M’nasheh as well. A “house” in this sense is not a building but a family, including servants and anyone else under its authority, including students like Avraham had attached to his household. YHWH was apparently with them because they knew how to listen for His instruction—not just the words, but the nuances as well. YHWH had told Yaaqov that He would be with him when he had to leave the Land of his ancestors (Gen. 46:1-4), but Yaaqov laid the groundwork for the present verse by telling Yosef that YHWH would be with him and he would again be established in that Land. (Gen. 48:21)
23. And the House of Yoseyf [sent spies and] did reconnaissance at Beyth-El. (Now the name of the city had formerly been Luz.)
This was where Yaaqov had had his dream of the messengers ascending and descending a staircase. (Gen. 28:19) The spies may have expected to see something like this. Was the town itself (being in the mountains) built on terraces connected by staircases? Even in the American southwest there were towns where the homes could only be entered via ladders. This could explain why it seemed inaccessible to ordinary techniques of warfare. Could Yaaqov, in his grogginess and stress after running for his life, have seen this multi-tiered city and gained some insights from it that these men could now use in their strategizing? Avraham had also camped here twice. (Gen. 12:8; 13:3) So the place held a special importance Luz is thought to mean "an almond tree".
24. Now the observers saw a man coming out from the city, and they said to him, “Please show us the way into to the city, and we will deal mercifully with you.”
Apparently he came from a part of the wall that was not near the main city gates, so they knew there must be another secret entrance. In walled cities it was common to have an escape tunnel by which inhabitants could get beyond the range of a besieging army, or at least get to a water source safely. Such a water system is how David’s men captured Yerushalayim. With the gates shut and barred, they might have had to wait days before they saw anyone outside the city, but when he did, they took advantage of the city’s fears and their having the upper hand, and offered him a deal wherewith he could be more than just the first to die. He would be a hero to his household by preserving their lives. Please: They must have “spoken softly and carried a big stick!” With a dagger to his throat, they offered him a deal he could not refuse. They had a precedent with Y’hoshua’s treatment of Rahav, but with Deut./D’varim 7:2 and 20:16 commanding them to kill everything alive, how could they promise to leave a Kanaanite alive? First of all, he was no longer in the city, and after he betrayed his own city he was certainly no longer considered a part of it. YHWH also promised to bless any who blessed Israel, and He indeed did this.
25. So he showed them the entrance to the city, and they attacked the city for the mouth of the sword, and they sent the man and his whole family away,
The underlying reason Moshe had said to destroy everyone in Kanaan was so that the Kanaanites would not influence Israel with their ways. (D’varim 20:18) Thus, to both fulfill this purpose and also to keep their word and maintain their honor by keeping their word to one who had helped them, they let him live but deported him from the Land.
26. and the man went to the land of the Hittites and built a city, and called its name Luz, and that is its name to this day.
He replaced his former hometown; he must have had a large household (not just a wife and three children, but an extended family and many servants) to be able to not only build a city, but possibly to build it in another people’s territory, though since there were Hittites both in Kanaan and in what is now Turkey, he may have just moved to where the majority of his own people already lived. It has been common throughout history to name a new colony after the place one left behind (like Plymouth or New Amsterdam), and this would also give more of a sense of stability to his displaced children.
27. Now Menashe had not taken possession of Beyth-She’an and its daughters, or Thaanakh and its daughters, or the inhabitants of Dor and its daughters, or the inhabitants of Yivleam and its daughters, or the inhabitants of M’giddo and its daughters, but the Kanaanite was determined to remain in that land.
Daughters: that is, outlying villages (somewhat like suburbs, but unwalled dependencies) whose inhabitants would run to that city for protection in case of attack. Beyth-She’an means “place of ease or security”. It had ready access to both springs and the Yarden River, had plenty of farmland around it, was on two trade routes, and was very defensible, being both on high ground and having very high walls atop a steep glacis which made it even harder to attack. M’giddo is also at a crossroads by the only easy pass from the coastal plain into the Yizre’el Valley, which is the only unobstructed route from the Yarden River to the Mediterranean, so it could charge whatever tolls it wanted to merchants travelling both routes, not to mention the excellent farmland it has year-round. Who would want to move out of places like these? So they put many defenses in place to ensure that they would not be taken. This did not mean that M’nashe did not attempt, but their resolve may not have been as strong as the Kanaanite’s resolve to stay. To what lengths are we willing to go to accomplish what YHWH wants? Since much of Menashe has been identified with the United States by those who study the dispersion patterns in depth, those of us who are exiled here should pay special attention to the meanings of these names, for they warn us where the strongholds of non-Israel remain for us: “Place of ease or security.” As Khaggai shows, building up luxuries for ourselves robs Israel. Thaanakh means “closed up tightly”. As we refuse to allow our private selves to be known by community, Israel gains less ground. Dor means “perpetually turning around”, a picture of being distracted by one pressure after another rather than steadily working toward our goal. Yivleam means “it swallows them up” or “streams of people”, for concern for keeping the people coming back indeed obscures the high standard of obedience. M’giddo means “place of crowds” or “his renown as chief”, and indeed concern to be the biggest and best will keep our focus off our true calling. Kanaanite can also mean “merchant”.
28. (Now it did turn out that when Israel’s grip became strong, they did appoint the Kanaanite to forced labor, but they did not completely dispossess them.)
There was a precedent in Y’hoshua’s making the Giv’onites woodcutters and drawers of water. (Y’hoshua 9:21-27) But that was a mistake on his part, as he was deceived, and was forced into a compromise because he failed to ask YHWH what to do in that case. Now it seems the nation was using that as a pretext to do the same, though they had no such dilemma. They were now in a position of strength, apparently unlike the situation in verse 27. But by that time they were already out of the war mode. These people had lived near them long enough that they had come to understand their ways, softening their hearts toward them. Some of them looked just like the wives they had taken across the Yarden; who would not be tempted to have compassion? Who wanted to be the “bad guy” and kill them after all these years of tolerance? We do not know whether the half-sheqel payment meant to bring closure to any guilt they felt about killing in battle was even being collected any longer, now that the centralized government was dissolved and militias were tribally-based. If the whole tribe chose to spare them, who would hold them accountable? And at least they had done something. They conquered these people; they were not in power anymore, so they could sleep at night. But they only did half a job. It might seem advantageous to allow what is conveniently present to be our free labor, but we were supposed to completely dispossess these inhabitants, as a doctor takes out a cancerous tumor lest it spread. Israel’s responsibility is to do more than just take an area; we must ensure that the leaven of foreign influence is eradicated. When we let our emotions rule, we cannot expect things to flow as well as they would if we had done what we were supposed to do. The simplest course of action would have been to kill them as commanded, but they thought they would be able to manage them. Sometimes when we are strong, we do not as readily recognize the threats. A few Muslims taking flying lessons in Florida did not raise anyone’s suspicions; the U.S. was a huge nation. But they used the gap in our defenses to destroy the World Trade Center. When merchants (a homonym for Kanaanites in Hebrew) are allowed to spread their influence, the love of money cannot help but grow into many forms of evil.
29. Nor did Efrayim dispossess the Kanaanite living in Gezer, and the Kanaanite lived right in their midst in Gezer.
They were now in a position of strength, but were acting like the M’nashites had done when they apparently truly could not dispossess the inhabitants. (v. 27) They were willing to settle for less than they could have had rather than striving for the best. What are we substituting for complete obedience when it is in our power to accomplish it? What if we know what is right to do, but are not in a position of authority? We must be careful not to denounce their lack of action too quickly; it could be that they were chosen for their wisdom or because they know more than we do about some area. David showed us how when Goliath was taunting his fellow Israelites and mocking YHWH. He went to the proper authority and offered to get the job done himself if no one else was willing to rise to the challenge out of shame that their junior was braver than they. He did not take lightly the fact that there was an anointed leader in Israel. He continued to recognize that YHWH had a reason for putting someone else in the top position, at least for now, and did not act on his own.
30. Z’vulun did not dispossess the inhabitants of Qitron or the inhabitants of Nahalal, but the Kanaanite lived among them and became forced labor.
Qitron means “great burning of incense”. Nahalal means “a watering-station or a place of pasture where one could rest, especially after much exertion”. How refreshing would be the smell of skillfully-compunded incense or cool water brought to weary travelers on a trade route? Who would want to kill people who were so hospitable? So they did not. What would we do? Such quandaries make us weigh out what kind of people who are going to choose to be. Nahalal was one of the cities designated for the Merarite Levites. (Y’hoshua 19:15) What kind of gift was this for Z’vulun to give Levi—a place that had not been cleared of its former inhabitants and their influence?
31. Nor did Asher dispossess the inhabitants of Akko [his hemming in], the inhabitants of Tzidon [great hunting (of fish)] or Akhlav [I will be fertile] or Akhziv [I will deceive] or Khelbah [choicest portion] or Afik [self-restraint] or Rehov [wide-open space].
Why did they not call on other tribes to help them dispossess these peoples? It does not say they could not dispossess them, but that they did not, i.e., they chose not to. Most of these were coastal towns, and the inhabitants of this region ended up being some the greatest seafarers in history, circumnavigating at least Africa and possibly the whole globe. (In alliance with Israel’s united kingdom later they appear to have had regular commerce with North America to the point of using up the copper in mines near Lake Superior. Paleo-Hebrew/Phoenician inscriptions have been found in such places as the Mississippi River valley and New Mexico.) At this point they were at least great fishermen, and after having spent a generation in the desert, how would the Asherites have known much about fishing unless there were local inhabitants to teach them how? This may be one reason they spared these people.
32. And the Asherites lived right in the midst of the Kanaanite inhabitants of the Land, because they did not dispossess them.
Here we see a progressive worsening: This time (compared to verse 29) it sounds more like they are at the mercy of their hosts rather than being hosts to the Kanaanites who did not have the upper hand. This may have something to do with their being on the border of Israel; unlike the rest of the Kanaanites, these were not surrounded by Israel and would therefore not feel as obligated to avoid offending Israel, and indeed the seeds of paganism that were allowed to remain in this region produced Yizevel (Jezebel), a scourge to Israel hundreds of years later. “Kanaanites” means “knee-benders”, but Asher was instead surrendering, bending the knee to them. They therefore became a minority in their own territory. Did they use the excuse that YHWH had said He would not remove the inhabitants all at once lest the wild beasts multiply? (Deut. 7:22) That was YHWH’s prerogrative, but the Land as a whole had been conquered already; He did not tell them to deliberately delay the conquest. Besides, the wild beasts would not multiply in the cities, but the countryside, which they had already taken.
33. Nafthali did not dispossess the inhabitants of Beyth-Shemesh [house of the sun] or the inhabitants of Beyth-Anath [house of answers or response], and they lived right among the Kanaanite inhabitants of the Land, though the inhabitants of Beyth-Shemesh and Beyth-anath did become forced labor for them.
This is not the Beth-Shemesh that has been rebuilt today, which is in Yehudah’s territory. There were numerous towns with this name, because sun-worship was very prevalent in Kanaan, and was in fact the most common form of paganism in the whole ancient world. This is understandable because YHWH said, upon creating the sun, that it was meant to rule—so we could judge when it was day vs. night, when it was summer vs. winter. But though a powerful ruler, its Hebrew name (shemesh) reminds us that it is still also a servant (shamash). This sets limits on how much attention we are to give it. Others missed this cue, and sun-worship came to be associated with fruitfulness and fertility (not the purpose YHWH said it was created), and the chief characteristic of its worship was to sacrifice one’s virginity to one of its priests. Is this why Israel was so intrigued with their cult as to let it remain? Did they somehow want to honor the “deity” that had been over that land previously? In Egypt this sun-god was known as Osiris; Baal-worship was the Kanaanite version. Anath was the name of Baal’s feminine counterpart (thus “the responder”), who mourned the sun’s disappearance and went to the underworld to retrieve him, hence an emphasis on resurrection, which carried over into Christianity, which, because of the supposed conversion of sun-worshipper Constantine, shifted the Sabbath to the Day of the “Unconquered Sun”. Y’shua and other “saints” are depicted with sun-disks (halos) around their heads. Circular windows, symbolic of the sun, are found in many churches. Beyth-Anath as a place of answers also parallels the tolerance we have shown toward those who appeared to be able to give answers—mediums and horoscope-writers, resulting in a still-greater reduction in holiness.
34. And the Emorite squeezed the descendants of Dan into the mountainous area, because they would not allow them to come down into the valley.
The mountains are a very small percentage of Dan’s original territory, and are much more treacherous and harder to farm; only terrace farming works there. Like the Philistines, the Emorites wanted the seacoast as well. The Emorites (Emru) were one of the larger and therefore more fearsome Kanaanite peoples (Deut. 7:1), and their name means “wordy ones” or “speakers”. They may have talked their way out of being destroyed! But of all the groups in the Land, these should have been the first to be removed, because it was the fact that their “cup” of iniquity had not yet been filled up that kept Israel from being able to occupy the Land earlier. (Gen. 15:16) If YHWH said it was time to kill them, be sure He was out of patience and deserved to be rid of them!
35. And the Emorite was determined to settle in Mount Kheres [sun], in Ayalon [great stag], and in Shaalvim [fox-holes], but the hand of the House of Yosef was heavy, so they became forced labor.
The smaller tribes had not accomplished what Yehudah and Yosef had, and unlike Kalev, probably began seeing themselves as incapable of anything great, and therefore were more willing to settle for merely living among other peoples. “Big brother” Yosef intimidated them enough; when tribes banded together, there were better results. It would be to Yosef’s advantage to keep the land continguous with Yehudah’s, and, while Menashe had a seacoast, Efrayim did not, and Menashe’s is not suitable for harbors; artificial ones had to be built along that stretch of beach, while Dan’s territory could accommodate better harbors like that at Yafo, and this could also be accessed more readily by Efrayim. The weaker gave the better fighters a reason to fight their battles. So they helped Dan out. But if they were now strong enough to enslave them, why were they not obedient to finish the job? And it was now the turn of the small tribes, who had benefitted from the “big guys” who had done most of the fighting, to do their part of the work, but by and large they failed.
36. And the territory of the Emorites was from the Ascent of Scorpions, from the cliff and upward.
The Ascent of Scorpions is far from Dan—southwest of the Dead Sea on the edge of the Negev! The repercussions of not enforcing YHWH’s borders had far-reaching effects! Territory: or, border. The very fact that the Emorites still had territory within Israel is a bad enough commentary on our condition. Only Israel’s tribes were to have borders there. All this failure to dispossess the nations that were allowed to stand only set Israel up for the oppressions they received, on and off, from their neighboring enemies for the next 300-odd years.
CHAPTER 2
1. Then a messenger of YHWH came up from Gilgal to the Bokhim and said, “I brought you up out of the land of Egypt and into the land [about] which I swore to your ancestors and said, ‘I will not violate My covenant with you forever.
Messenger: the term allows for one who is not human (an “angel”), but why assume that? The Aramaic takes him as a “prophet by the commission from before YHWH”. In verse 6, it is Y’hoshua dismissing the people, and Gilgal was his headquarters camp during the campaign to take the Land, so it is most likely that this messenger was Y’hoshua himself. Militarily, he had led every battle since leaving Egypt, and he had a covenant with them too. (Y’hoshua 24:25) The Bokhim: [place of] weeping. The reason for this name is explained below. They were already drifting to where Y’hoshua had to come out to them, rather than continuing to draw near to YHWH’s dwelling place. They were away from where their leader was, and were doing their own thing.
2. “‘And you must not cut a covenant for the inhabitants of this Land. You must pull down their altars.’ But you have not obeyed My voice. What is this [that] you have done?
For: or belonging to—i.e., it ends up being their covenant, not yours. It is not a covenant of equals, so it does not say “with the inhabitants”; it benefits them, ultimately, not us. Why didn’t they do it? The altars would not have been unguarded. But was there any benefit to leaving them in place? In Israel, one never actually slaughtered the animal on the altar itself; it was more like a barbecue grill most of the time, with a few offerings being burnt up completely thereon after having been slain off the altar. The rabbis say that, with the altar gone, our table fills the same purpose. So who we sit with at the table and what its contents are dedicated to takes on added significance. If we try to find common ground with those YHWH has condemned, we are eating meat offered to idols and are rebuilding their altars. Israel seems to have an inherent need to be liked by those we have nothing in common with, even to the point of giving them land, and so we become trodden down. The altars of the nations seemed a little “spicier”—more entertainment and even prostitution were associated with them. By leaving their “tables” standing, we could partake of something they had that we didn’t. And they simply had misplaced mercy. When YHWH tells us to feel no compassion on them, even their children, it is a sin to have a “bleeding heart”. We cannot just indiscriminately pass on the mercy just because we appreciate His having mercy on us, for He knows best when to apply it. In this case it was specifically prohibited. (Deut. 7:2) He knows which vessels of His He wants broken, and it is up to Him how it all “comes out in the wash”. Being obedient even when it is distasteful makes everything better. “What is this that you have done?” The seriousness of the situation is highlighted in the phrasing, and even more so when we see that this is what YHWH asked Chavvah after she disobeyed for the first time, bringing a curse (Gen. 3:13) and what He asked Qayin (Cain) after he murdered his brother. (Gen. 4:10) It was what Avimelekh asked Avraham when when he had put a nation in danger of becoming very guilty because of a half-truth. (Gen. 20:9) By failing to do away with these threats, these Israelites were also leaving their brothers open to attack, and loving one’s brother takes precedence over a vague mercy toward all mankind.
3. “So I also said, ‘I will not drive them out from your presence, and they will come to be constrictions for you, and their elohim will become a snare to you.”
Y'hoshua was no longer going to fight our battles for us anymore, lest we fail to appreciate our gains and squander them. Constrictions: literally, sides, i.e., parameters that limit, hemming one in so he has no breathing space; we could not spread out any further, as seen in 1:34. A parallel passage is Numbers 33:55-56, where YHWH says He will end up doing to us what He intended to do to them. A snare: That is His biggest concern. He is certain we will not be able to resist their influence if we let them stay, and we will end up being vomited out of the Land. The more immediate danger for us today is the false accuser (Deut. 19:18-20) who is a snare to his fellow Israelites. YHWH says to do to him as he intended to do to his brother. But why would he do this except for selfish interests, such as a bribe? We must look within ourselves for this kind of “inhabitants” we have to deal with most often. If we don’t eradicate them, we will become snares to one another, and YHWH will have to treat us like Kanaanites.
4. And what took place as the messenger of YHWH spoke these words to all the descendants of Israel [was] that the people lifted up their voice and wept.
5. Thus they called the name of that place Bokhim [weeping], and they slaughtered [an offering] to YHWH there.
They wept over their guilt and shame and the loss of YHWH’s help. But while a slaughter might do something about their guilt, it would not do anything about the problem—there were still Kanaanites in the Land! So the weeping is only a first step. In fact, the first two times in Scripture that we read about weeping, it is being done by Egyptians. (Gen. 21:16-17; 41:55) These people had just come out of Egypt; did they learn this practice from the Egyptians? Were they trying to solve the problem the Egyptian way? If we receive an eviction notice, we can still pay up and nothing will go wrong. They should not cry out to YHWH about something they should already be doing. Y’hoshua left this account out of his record. It seemed satisfactorily straightened out, so he may have thought it not necessary to write down, assuming they had truly heeded what he said. But after he was out of their immediate vicinity, the real state of their hearts became more evident, so he had to go back and straighten them out.
6. When Y’hoshua had sent the people away, each of the descendants of Israel went to his inherited property to occupy the Land,
Having just been berated for not doing their job, they were sent away to go get it done. They were Avraham’s seed, so that already gave them the right to the Land. (Gen. 12:7) Even Avraham, after receiving this promise, did not just leave it to his descendants, but kept moving, putting the sole of his foot on more of it so his children could claim more of it. (Y’hoshua 1:3) They were promised that they would eat and be satisfied there. (Deut. 6:10-11) But this became the problem; they became satisfied too soon. Once they stopped driving out the former inhabitants, they were no longer occupying it, and though YHWH never revoked the promise, again in our own day the job is not finished. The solution is to keep our feet moving; keep walking it out. Deal with whatever is in front of us today. On a Sabbath, the task is to rest. Other days, we labor, because it costs a lot to go to that Land! Sometimes we have to think back to what was in front of us on a previous occasion to fully understand what our responsibility today is. But we cannot stay still and receive this Land. It will not come to us through magic, though miracles do occur every day, because YHWH often uses out-of-the-ordinary means to fulfill His side. Our side is to experience each aspect of the Torah and make it our inclination through practice. Y’hoshua expected that they would do what he or Moshe said was necessary to get what YHWH said we could have. If we put it off until tomorrow, then tomorrow we will have to do both today’s and tomorrow’s work! Each went to his: Is this what started the problems? What would have been different if they had even stayed grouped by tribe? They were different people when he was not around, like school children when the teacher leaves the classroom. After our Y’hoshua left, his servants also started to show their true colors. (Compare Luke 12:45.) More mature people would have the Word of YHWH hidden in their hearts, warning them from within not to sin. (Psalm 119:11) At this point Israel was not getting there, possibly because they were constantly being bailed out, and thus never able to grow from their experiences. But now it is over 2,700 years since we lived in the Land; that is enough time to learn our lessons! If we do not, there is no guarantee that we will not have to have our sentence multiplied by seven times again—and that would be nearly 20,000 years!
7. and the people had served YHWH all the days of Y’hoshua and all the days of the elders who outlived Y’hoshua, who had seen all the great acts of YHWH that He had done for Israel.
There is a similar pattern with Yoshiyahu, who certainly needed elders to help him rule, because he came to the throne at only 8 years old. (2 Chron. 34:33) Y’hoshafat also had elders to help him teach the people, and he did it properly by sending along priests and Levites with the Torah itself (2 Chron. 17:3-9) In a passage parallel to this one (Y’hoshua 24:31), it says the elders had “known” all the great acts of YHWH rather than merely seeing them. We can see without fully grasping, and we can even understand some things clearly without physically seeing them. Still, the leaders were eyewitnesses, and things changed after Israel no longer had such people to rebuke, correct, and advise them. Today, elders are put away in isolation at nursing homes, though their brains are not always as feeble as their bodies. Often, only they have enough experience to have the wisdom we need for crucial decisions. And, having seen the consequences of taking the wrong road, only they can recall enough history to avoid repeating it. Today YHWH is doing great works again, breathing life back into what was lost to us. We must establish the witness in our children, exposing them to some hardship so that they too can be witnesses to theirs of how YHWH delivers. This is why YHWH gave us the Passover celebration.
8. When Y’hoshua the son of Nun, the servant of YHWH, died, [being] 110 years old,
Like Pin’has (Num. 25), he is remembered for doing what he was supposed to do. But Pin’has’ death is not recorded; what he did while alive was more important. And the servant of Avraham (Gen. 24), who did so much to ensure Avraham’s continuance, remains unnamed; that he was a servant is what Moshe saw as important. And it leaves the door open to put our own name or the name of any other servant there. We can do the same. It does not specify which servant, removing our excuse of thinking a more important servant is needed to get the job done.
9. they buried him within the boundary of his inherited property in Timnath-kheres, in the mountains of Efrayim north of Mount Gaash.
Y’hoshua had requested this place for his own inheritance (Y’hoshua 19:50), and because of his tenacity in hanging onto the promise and fulfilling the task YHWH gave him, he received it. Esau regarded his birthright as worth little. (Gen. 27) What are we doing to preserve our heritage? It includes not just the Land but all of Torah. (Deut. 33:4)
10. And that whole generation, too, was gathered to its fathers, and another generation arose after them who were not acquainted with YHWH or even the acts that He had done for Israel.
Were not acquainted with: or, did not acknowledge. This sounds much like the Pharaoh who had not heard of Yosef. How could they not know YHWH so soon after He had acted so decisively? It took only one generation for this very fresh memory to fade away completely! It was not Y’hoshua’s fault; he had enough influence even after his “retirement” that the people followed YHWH as long as he and his fellow elders survived. (Y’hoshua 24:31) He was a strong leader, but no one stepped up to succeed him as he had succeeded Moshe, and the order that had been maintained until now fell apart. It was the younger generation’s responsibility. This failure was predicted in Deut. 31:16—a warning they should have taken to heart, in order to avoid it. They must have stopped observing YHWH’s festivals, because the heart of Passover is to recount His deeds to our children. The first time the “acts” of YHWH are mentioned, it is when He instituted the Sabbath (Gen. 2:2) If they had even been keeping the Sabbath, they would have to remember YHWH. But now they were spread out; each focusing on settling down to his own inherited property. There was no more national agenda, and the central sanctuary is rarely mentioned; Israel may not have even been coming together for the three pilgrimage festivals, and as they became relatively comfortable in the Land, it was easy to feel less need for YHWH. There were no more major threats, so they had nothing left to fight for, and thus were not even looking for His help. The corporate army was much more successful. But Y’hoshua had been commanded to give them their inheritance, so he did not have the option of leaving them all camped together around the Tabernacle, where it was easier to remember YHWH, better though this might have been. Y’hoshua knew this was a demanding people that would not settle for that. So it was up to each to take personal responsibility to finish the job, and that is where the plan failed. They became slack. If they were able to enslave the remaining Kanaanites, they were capable of killing them too, but it was more convenient to let them do the work in the vineyards and orchards they inherited. But this compromise left their influence intact, and pagan worship was much more titillating for short-sighted people who thought only of immediate gratification and not the big picture. If we had continued to recount YHWH’s heroic deeds in removing us from the pit of slavery and related the supernatural birth of our nation with the wonder and celebration it deserves, we could have prevented this.
11. Then the descendants of Israel did wrong in the eyes of YHWH and served the Baalim,
Wrong: apparently not in their own eyes, because their parents, who were not whole-hearted in their devotion to YHWH, but obeyed because of Y’hoshua’s strong hand, had not established this generation in the Torah as its primary basis for judgment, and did not motivate them to aspire to the continuation of the covenant. Baalim: literally, “owners” or “husbands”—the supreme male deities worshipped by the nations around Israel, primarily in the region around Tzur and Tzidon, but other Kanaanites as well. Originally dereived from sun-worship, it later took various forms (such as a storm deity) based on the needs of each region based on the particular particular conditions there. Worst was when Israel mixed the worship of YHWH with that of Baal.
12. and abandoned YHWH, the Elohim of their fathers, the one who brought them out from the land of Egypt and walked after other elohim—the elohim of the peoples who surrounded them, and they bowed down to them and angered YHWH.
They were disloyal and ungrateful to the One who had brought them to this bountiful Land, and, like a woman who forgets the man who brought her to a party, went off and danced with other, more handsome men. In Scripture, we see YHWH as patient with many of His people’s sins, but certain ones provoke Him to such wrath that He is willing to destroy us all: creating new gods and putting His name on them (Deut. 9:15-20), not just ignoring YHWH but openly and shamelessly “thrusting Him behind our backs” (1 Kings 14:8-10), creating sanctuaries that He had not approved (Psalm 78:58-59), offering incense (associated with prayer) on foreign altars built of cheap substitutes for the valuable ones He prescribed (Yeshayahu 65:3-7), taking away others’ access to YHWH and replacing it with something more convenient and less exclusive, and re-purposing objects He has set apart as His own. (2 Chron. 28:24-25). But idolatry is not the primary problem, but rather, what lies behind it is: the fact that, having turned away from His commandments, they were now out of context and susceptible to anything that might seem attractive. Had they taken to heart the priests’ instruction in how to make distinctions (Lev. 10:10-11; 11:47, etc.), they would not have ended up in a place where the broth of swine was being served. (Yesh. 65) Torah holds the solutions to problems that come up between neighbors, but when we invite problems that His boundaries would have prevented, there is no structure by which they can be fixed, and innocent parties end up having to clean up after us. We can avoid situations that anger Him if we stay about His business of helping and sharpening one another.
13. Indeed, they abandoned YHWH and served Baal and the Ashtaroth.
Ashtaroth: Kanaanite fertility goddesses, which were often considered to be consorts of the Baals, idols with which the people sometimes actually became intimate as well, and symbolic “groves” which depicted lewd acts between the two. So this type of worship was more exciting on the surface. But to have any other mighty ones in YHWH’s presence (especially in the Land He had given us) is an automatic forsaking of YHWH.(Ex. 20:1-3) That is why worship of Y’shua as YHWH is not acceptable from a Torah standpoint. While it may be tipping one’s hat to YHWH, it is actually making oneself His enemy, whether intentionally or not. The covenant they abandoned was based on YHWH taking us out of bondage (Deut. 4:3-4), but here they were putting themselves back under bondage. Today we do not worship idols like this, but a career might be something we would serve that could make us forget YHWH’s command to remember the 7th day, thus effectively forsaking Him. That generation broke His covenant, but He is now offering us the same covenant our ancestors defaulted on. The terms are the same, but it is not that covenant, because each generation has to take it up again and enter into it. We need to take special care of this “house” so our children will be motivated to continue living in it.
14. Then the anger of YHWH was kindled in Israel, and He handed them over to plunderers, and they were pillaging them, and He sold them into the hand of their enemies on every side, and they could no longer stand before their enemies.
Sold them: Unless He had done so, there was no reason they should have been beaten after all He did to strengthen them. (Deut. 32:30) But He said that ifwe did not keep our side of the covenant,we would not be able to stand before our enemies. (Lev. 26:36) The Egyptians had not us stand, but made us subservient. (Deut. 7:8) But YHWH came to our rescue and let us come out with confidence. But there is a balance: Maybe so many enemies had been defeated that they became overconfident, and became careless and no longer watchful. They also put themselves in the wrong context: that of Baal-worship. The laws YHWH gave do not work in that context any more than a Ford repair manual will help you fix a Honda. And now their fellow Baal worshippers were the ones attacking them, so the enemies were at the advantage, because Baal worship was their context. In Scripture, “stand” is used more of a court of judgment than anything else. They were not judging themselves properly, so their enemies were counted as more worthy to be served. How can we be confident when we know we are doing something wrong?
15. Wherever they went, the hand of YHWH came against them for harm, just as YHWH had said, and as YHWH had sworn to them, and it forced them into [cramped] straits.
They had begun to feel the cramping that YHWH had said would take place if they allowed the Kanaanites to continue living among them. (Num. 33:55) They had no Moshe or Y’hoshua to intercede for them this time. YHWH had raised His hand in oath, but it went both ways, and this time they were on the wrong side of the promises, so the evil consequences are the part they experience. Yehudah rarely shows up in this book, because they had finished the job of clearing their land of pagans, as YHWH had said, so there was no reason for Him to be angry with them.
16. Then YHWH raised up judges, and they delivered them from the hand of their plunderers.
Judges: Not courtroom-type decision-makers, but military warlords who won decisive battles and also served as political leaders and teachers to the people in many cases. The root word means to discriminate, decide a controversy, govern, vindicate, avenge, deliver, or punish--essentially kings without that title. Since all the former witnesses were gone, YHWH gave them a fresh demonstration of His power.
17. But they did not even listen to their judges, because they were whoring after other elohim and bowing down to [worship] them. They turned aside quickly from the way in which their parents had walked to obey the commandments of YHWH; they did not do the same [thing].
They were glad to have someone strong to deliver them, but once they started asserting authority, the people chafed under this.
18. And since YHWH had raised up judges for them, and YHWH came to be with the judge, the judge then delivered them out of their enemies’ hand all the days of the judge, because YHWH had compassion due to their groanings from the presence of those who oppressed them and who crowded them out.
Crowded them out: see the specific example in 1:34. As when they groaned in Egypt (Ex. 6:5), YHWH felt sorry for them, but also sighed over them, like an exasperated parent helping a child out of trouble he has gotten himself into, saying, “When will they ever learn?” He put them out in the yard as punishment, but came running as soon as He heard them cry, “Help!” But He brings rulers to bring order with rules: “Do it this way!” If they get in order, He is with them. He does not just bail them out; He holds them to a standard. There is compassion, but it comes at a price. There are boundaries. They cannot go back to Baal worship, or they must fear being back in the same kind of trouble again. As He spared the people for Moshe’s sake, He was not with them unless they were with the ruler.
19. But it turned out that upon the judge’s death, they would turn back and act more corruptly than their parents in going after other elohim to serve them and to bow themselves down to them; they would not let their own practices or their stubborn habit drop.
As soon as the teacher “walks out of the room”, when no one is hammering the rules down their throats, we find out what people are really like. They thought they were free to do whatever they wanted. But the result is just the opposite of wisdom. This verse points to the need for authority to enforce order, for it all falls apart when there is no leader. Our latent idolatry comes right back to the surface, and we empower things that have no substance. Corruptly: rotting and decaying, we are already on the road to death when we act this way. It got worse with each recurrence. By now they should have recognized the need to change this repeating pattern of stupidity. What can be done to break the cycle? It is a given that we should make decisions based on the Torah, which they were not doing. Their second mistake was failure to use common sense, considering the likely consequences of this course of action, if we get past the immediate excitement of the prospect. But most people never learn. Can we change human nature just by becoming stricter? Our hope is to present the Torah in as clear and basic a way as possible, so even the simple can walk in it. With just a little bit of reasoning ability, even just the ten commandments can show us how to weigh most decisions. The problem is that rulers who want to do the best for the people tend to be killed or at least ousted. We can kill off the rulers in our heads, too, even if only temporarily, by not considering the boundaries to be for our benefit and protection. And if we see the ruler as dead, we will be dead to the rules. When we stray habitually, Torah must resort to the only solution left. If the testimony is proven true, the penalty for idol worship is death (Deut. 17:2-6), to stop the spread of the corruption.
20. So YHWH’s anger grew hot against Israel, and He said, “On account of the fact that this nation has crossed [the line by going beyond the bounds of] My covenant which I laid as a charge upon their ancestors, and has not obeyed My voice,
Though He does not owe anything to these people, He cares about them, so He tells us, “What you’re about to experience is because I am angry—and here is why.” If we remain silent about it, no one can fix the problem, and only makes us bitter. He does not just punish while He nostrils are smoking; He cools down enough to explain Himself, but not too far—He still strikes while the iron is hot. They may actually admit that they need the reminder not to do this again. But if we do the same, it will force us to weigh out whether we have a reason for anger, or if we are just being petty. If over and over they refuse to listen, He will find a way to make it hurt, because while he does not expect people who do not have a covenant with Him to meet this standard, He does expect it of Israel.
21. “not one more time will I expel from their presence [even] one of the nations that Y’hoshua left when he died either,
Y’hoshua himself predicted this when he warned against intermarriage with these nations that remained. (Y’ho. 23:12) If they had killed them off as they were supposed to, their only contact with idolatry might have been in passing, as when traveling merchants came through, and they would simply be able to say, “That is not something we do.” If it is our neighbors who are doing it, we tend to accept it more readily. Today, we can start guarding against a recurrence of this sin by killing off ideas in our own minds that we are attached to but should not be.
22. “in order that through them I can put Israel to the test [as to] whether they are guarding the way of YHWH, to walk in it as their fathers did, or not.”
YHWH “tried to teach from the syllabus”, but Israel just did not get it, so He lowered the standard, putting them in the slower classes so He could at least give them something and not totally do them in. But of course this meant they had to continue to live with many problems they could have avoided. If they still keep up this pattern, He might close the school altogether—at least until they are really ready to learn. In Mal’akhi 1-2 He says He wants no less than the best from His people—unless we are just so banklrupt that all we can bring wih us is words (Hoshea 14:2), so that we can have a place to start on the road to recovery. But do not pretend you are bringing Him soething valuabnle when you are not. Give Him exactly what He asks for; if you are “out of stock”, admit it; do not sell Him a cheap substitute.
23. So YHWH let those nations remain without driving them out quickly, rather than giving them over into Y’hoshua’s hand.
This was a “punishment” that included within it an open door to reverse it if they would change their ways. It is not His fault if we do not bring into subjection all that He has made possible for us, and reject the leader YHWH sent to deliver us. No matter how much YHWH promises to do, if we do not keep our side of the bargain, even a leader He favors can lose his confidence. “Y’hoshua” here is speaking of the whole nation He led, because those who followed him were tarnishing his reputation by their failure to act as he did. Often when two cultures come into contact on the level of trade before the level of warfare, it is a small matter for the one to conquer the other, because the assimilation has already taken place. Archaeologists have found evidence that while Israelites continued to worship YHWH, they also added aspects of Ba’al-worship, to the point of having drawings of “YHWH and His Asherah” (feminine consort), a common Babylonian custom.
CHAPTER 3
1. Now these are the nations that YHWH allowed to remain by which to test Israel—all who were not familiar with any of the wars of Kanaan--
Even college students today cannot remember when anyone other than Muslim countries were America’s enemy. The Cold War? What’s that? The battle to stop the polar ice caps from melting? That’s how these people would have felt if you mentioned the “wars of Kanaan”? “What do you mean, WARS? The Kanaanites are our friends and neighbors!” Who would want to broach the subject of “My grandfather killed yours”? So the parents did not educate their children about their history, and they forgot so soon. But weren’t they the ones to blame for there still being thorns in their sides? Is this saying it was really YHWH’s idea to leave them there--as if He wanted it that way? Was it a conspiracy and He was working with the other side? It’s more that He used their failure to His advantage—and theirs. Those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it, but most are not motivated to study history unless there is a test. He left just enough threat to shake them from their complacence:
2. only in order that the generations of the descendants of Israel [might] know, to teach them war—only those who had not experienced them beforehand:
Before there was a king in Israel, there was no professional army; the tribes were just called up to fight, and brought with them whatever implements they could contribute as weapons. They won more through surprise, psychology, propaganda, and guerilla warfare than through the tactics other armies around them used. But this generation had not fought for the Land; they never had to sacrifice or struggle for it because it was given to them. Now they are no longer tight-knit, and no one is holding them accountable, and all the exotic things they had not been exposed to when they had a leader to keep them disciplined now, and if their parents no loner perceived the nations around them as a threat, why should they teach their children war? Who wants to go into battle if they don’t have to? Because there is no better way to teach an immature, self-centered person who does whatever is right in his own eyes to think about his neighbor and the nation as a whole. A common enemy is also the most effective way to draw a people together in unity. They should have known just from Torah that they had to remain warriors until the job was done, then remain vigilant to guard what they had achieved, and this is ultimately what their parents failed to teach them. So YHWH kept some enemies in reserve so they would not lose this skill forever:
3. Five tyrants of the Filistines, and every Kanaanite or Tzidonian or Chiwite inhabiting the mountains of Levanon, from Mount Baal-Hermon as far as the entrance of Khamath.
Five tyrants: kings of the cities of ‘Azzah, Ashqelon, Ashdod, Gath, and Eqron. Mount Baal-Hermon: “Owner of the Place Most Off-Limts”, the highest mountain in the region, which is snow-capped much of the year—not only an awesome spectacle that engendered worship in some people, but a perpetual source of water from the meltage. Many of the Filistine idols and cult stands that accompanied them were made of clay—an abuse of the ground in the Land of Israel! We often think of idols as made of gold, silver, or at least wood or stone, because the prophets railed most against them, because those who could afford to make these were the ones in authority, whose bad influence spread this error to the people who could only afford these homemade, portable “personal-size” altars.
4. And they were there to test Israel by, to know whether they would obey YHWH’s orders, which He had given to their ancestors by the hand of Moshe.
Does YHWH test them just to see them suffer? The reason for any test is to see what you have learned, and where there are still gaps in your knowledge, so you can be ready for the bigger tests which may be matters of life and death.YHWH used the Sabbath to test whether Israel would obey Him or not (Ex. 16), and every commandment is really such a test of whom He can trust. We are more likely to hurt other people if we do not know where we are lacking, but we also do change, so we have to keep reassessing where we stand.
5. While the descendants of Israel lived right among the Kanaanite[s], the Hittite[s], the Emorite[s], the Prizzite[s], the Chiwite[s], and the Y’vusite[s],
Previously the Kanaanites had been the ones living in their midst; they were apparently no longer forced laborers, but had regained the upper hand so quickly. The Hebrew word for Kanaanite is the same as the word for “merchant”, and the Israelites were “buying” into their ways. Prizzite means “unwalled”, which correlates with Israel’s being unprotected from their influence, because it had given up the boundaries found in the Torah. As we will see, they ended up being infected with the idolatry of these nations. They did not seek a “doctor” until the results became too catastrophic to ignore. But Israel is located at the crossroads of most of the trade routes in the near east. The intent was to be an influence on the surrounding nations without being influenced by them, other than to adopt new technologies they introduced. How could they develop the “immunity” required to be in the presence of so many “germs” and not be affected—and how can we accomplish it in our context? The strong leadership of the “judges” was the only thing that restored order; sadly, people did not seem to have the internal motivation to maintain the resistance on their own. They were not just teachers, but people with leverage to enforce their rulings—an inflexible “rod of iron”. Other keys are to teach our children the right balance of all aspects of life so that the overemphasis on some does not cause the depletion of other important parts of life that must of necessity return with a vengeance later, to expose them to just enough of each threat and teach them why the Torah’s perfect balance precludes the need for other deities (thus inoculating them so later onslaughts will not overwhelm them), and to be the kind of people our children will want to be like (so they will not seek elsewhere for satisfaction).
6. they took their daughters for themselves as wives, and they gave their daughters to their sons, and they started serving their elohim.
This exchange of deities seems to be an inevitable result, as even King Shlomo found out the hard way. Alexander studied each culture he conquered and learned how to manipulate it to his ends. It is very hard to go to battle with someone who shares the same grandchildren with you. It is politically savvy, for this way they would always be brothers, but this was not a time for peace (Qoh./Eccles. ), so they were out of season. They had not learned from the incident at Baal-Peor (Num. 25), where their forefathers started down the slippery slope by merely accepting their invitation to dinner, because they did not remember it. Shim’on and Levi seemed to intuitively recognize that if we intermarry with pagans, we will no longer truly be Israel. (Gen. 34) We must be careful whom we make contracts with, and how. Ezra required that those returning after exile put away all foreign wives. (Ezra 10:10-44) It was the only way to undo a wrong choice, since none of these wives had become Israelites.) Sometimes one has to be the "bad guy" toward outsiders to protect those inside. Some of the most important trade routes in the world ran through Israel. Imagine how clear a message about YHWH's holiness the nations would receive if traders reported how they were allowed to sell their wares, but armed guards ensured that they did not sell any idols.
7. Thus the descendants of Israel did what was wrong in the eyes of YHWH—they both forgot YHWH their Elohim and served the Baalim and Asheroth.
Baalim were male deities and Asheroth feminine. Archaeology has shown that some carried the concept over into the worship of “YHWH and His Asherah”. Since a calf was the image by which their ancestors had chosen to represent YHWH (Ex. 32), the bull-shaped Baal would be only one easy step further, since they were not learning from Torah to make the right distinctions. YHWH does have a feminine, nurturing side (El Shaddai), but He is not to be split into two beings. The image thus depicted was actually the same as the Egyptian god Bes. The modern equivalent is when Jews, Christians, and Muslims all use the term “God” to describe YHWH, Jesus, and Allah. Yes, all are knocking on the door of the concept of a single creator, but without knowing His Name, so they each carry their own baggage into the term; they are not really talking about the same thing.
8. So YHWH’s nostrils were kindled against Israel, and He sold them into the hand of Kushan Rish’athayim, king of Aram of the Pair of Rivers, and the descendants of Israel served Kushan Rish’athayim eight years.
Sometimes we have no choice but to compromise, like Yaaqov when he was in Lavan’s pagan household but was limited by his father’s command to get a wife from that household. But these people had plenty of potential spouses among their own people, yet looked to the outside instead. (v. 6) YHWH no longer considers them his people, but sells them. Rish’athayim means “twice wicked” or “doubly evil”. Aram of the Pair of Rivers: Mesopotamia.
9. When the descendants of Israel cried out to YHWH [for help], YHWH raised up a liberator for the descendants of Israel—Awthni’el the son of Q’naz, Kalev’s brother (the one younger than he), and he saved them.
When they cried out: He would not intrude in their choices until they wanted Him. Those who were intermarrying were following their own hearts; it must have been those who saw this evil being done and lamented it who called for His intervention. (Compare Y’hezq’el/Ezek. 9:4) Awthni’el: the brave conqueror seen in 1:12-15 above. His name means “forceful lion of Elohim”. He came from the family of another very brave man, but was already one who had proven valiant himself. The one faithful in little was chosen for a bigger task, because YHWH trusted him.
10. When a spirit of YHWH came upon him, he avenged Israel; when he went out to war, YHWH handed over to him Kushan Rish’athayim, king of Aram, and his hand prevailed over Kushan Rish’athayim,
A spirit: Prior to this, such an endowment is only seen with Moshe, Y’hoshua, and the priests—people anointed for a special calling, as the kings later were as well. The Aramaic targum identifies it as a spirit of prophecy. A prophet is one who quotes YHWH’s words and brings them to bear on a situation. The same is not said of the judges who come later in the book; can we assume the same was true of them as well? A tree is known by its fruit.
11. and the Land was quiet forty years. Then Awthni’el, the son of Q’naz died,
Quiet: undisturbed, at peace, at rest. For this to be true, he had to enforce the Torah. This had to mean there was a great shaking up in Israel, including the breakup of families as under Ezra. It would have been “obey or die”. If the rest of the Torah was being lived out, it would be a mere technicality to put the Kanaanites to the sword. He put up with no deviation, and that is what kept Israel free. Undoubtedly some breathed a sigh of relief when he died, for now they had neither oppressive enemies nor such a hard-liner for a ruler. But we cannot remain free as long as we show “understanding” toward people’s excuses, and it all came vack as they opened the door again:
12. and the descendants of Israel started to do what was wrong in the eyes of YHWH again, so YHWH strengthened [the grip of] Eglon, king of Mo’av, against Israel because they had done what was wrong in the eyes of YHWH.
Do what was wrong: The Aramaic targum specifies that this means they strayed after and bowed down to the idols of the nations. This sin does innately have the seeds of the cycle of oppression seen above right within it. Eglon means “a great calf” or “calf-like”, and this is the precise meaning of Italia in Latin, so the parallel is easy to see: If we do not enforce the Torah, we wind up under the rule of Roma and its pagan church, which also brings all kinds of people together (the meaning of “catholic”). Just as long as they call whatever they worship “god”, no distinction is necessary between YHWH and Allah or Jupiter or Krishna, so we will have no problems mingling!
13. And he assembled to himself the descendants of Ammon and Amaleq, and went and attacked Israel, and they took possession of the city of date-palms.
The two nations descending from Lot joined in with Amaleq’s method of taking advantage of Israel’s weakness. Assembled: or added. City of date-palms: Y’rikho.(Deut. 34:3) It was again inhabited, so soon after Y’hoshua destroyed it, but its wall had not been rebuilt, which is why it was such an easy target.
14. So the descendants of Israel served Eglon, king of Mo’av, eighteen years.
15. When the descendants of Israel cried out to YHWH [for help], YHWH raised up a liberator for them—Ehud the son of Gera’, a descendant of the Y’minite, a man whose right hand was restricted, and the descendants of Israel sent a tribute to Eglon, king of Mo’av, by his hand.
Descendant of the Y’minite: possibly an alternate way to say Benyamite. If so, he was one of the 700 select left-handers who could sling a stone at a hair and not miss. (20:16) Restricted: Aramaic, withered; but this may simply be an idiom for being left-handed. How ironic that Y’minite means “right-handed”! And again,note the wording: it is by “his hand” that the tribute is sent. Pay attention to his hands! Their method was to bind the right hand (tie it behind their backs?) to force themselves to become ambidextrous, since it was an advantage in a region where cities were so designed that only left-handed archers could fire upon the city from a chariot because of the angle of the approach to the city gate. He was already a trained assassin; again, not the timid but the skilled were the chosen.
16. Now Ehud made a dagger for himself, and it had two edges, its length a gomed. And he tied it onto his right thigh under his [long] cloth garment.
Gomed: a measure between that of a span (tip of thumb to tip of the little finger of a spread hand) and that of a cubit (fingertips to elbow); approximately half a cubit, or 9 to 10.5 inches in length. Aramaic, a cubit in length. On his right thigh: Normally one would lift his outer garment on the left side to show that he was carrying no concealed weapon, as it was assumed one would grasp it with the right hand; in this case he could do so without revealing his weapon.
17. And he brought near the tribute to Eglon, king of Mo’av. Now Eglon was a very fat man.
Fat: from the same root as “created” or “formed” in Gen. 1:1. YHWH had strengthened him (v. 12), but also formed him with a weak spot. The clue is in the word for “tribute”: it is minkhah, the same word used for one of the meat offerings in the Temple, on which Eli’s sons had made themselves fat (1 Shmu’el 2:29). He had a “weakness” for meat, so Ehud exploited to get Israel out from under his grip.
18. Then after he had finished presenting the tribute, what he did was send away the people who were carrying the tribute,
As in the Temple, those who bring the offering are different from those who present it to YHWH (or, bring it near—the same word used here for “present”). In his ruse, it is as if Ehud is acting as the “priest” in the worship of Eglon--this “great calf”. After all, Israel did have a penchant for worshipping calves!
19. then he himself turned back from the carved images which are near Gilgal and said, “I have a secret to tell you, O king.” So he said, “Hush!” And all those who were standing over him went out from him.
As with the bronze serpent, anything with spiritual symbolism tends to be idolized. The stones from the Yarden that Y'hoshua had set up as a memorial to YHWH's bringing Israel across had been turned into idols. Ehud had appeared to bring an offering to what Eglon worshipped; it seemed Israel, whose administrative center he had taken over, was now coming around to his way of thinking, so the king trusted him. He flattered Eglon further by hinting that he had something for his ears only. Now he had a captive audience, and the people helped even more by being as quiet as the could possibly be; they left the room altogether, leaving him alone with the king--just as he wanted.
20. And Ehud came toward him while he was sitting alone in a roof chamber which he had [in which to] cool off. And Ehud said, “I have a word to you [from] Elohim.” So he rose up from upon his throne.
Such roof-chambers had large windows to catch the breeze and awnings to shade the walls from getting hot. This one also had a privy; it was not unusual for kings to conduct state business while on that type of "throne". Ehud did not specify which "Elohim". Turning back from apparently conferring with the idols (v. 19), his "secret" appeared to be classified knowledge they had just given him as "priest". Ehud capitalized on his superstition and vanity:
21. Then Ehud stretched out his left hand and took his sword from on his right thigh, and thrust it into his abdomen.
This assassin presented himself with such wisdom that no one thought it necessary to guard the king against him. His "secret" was only that he was not handicapped and he had a concealed weapon, and his message was that he had served YHWH's purposes and he was no longer useful. As with his training to use his left hand, Ehud used his darker side to serve what was right. He restrained his inclination to mercy to defeat Israel's oppressor.
22. And the hilt also went in after the blade, and the fat closed over the blade [at the point of entry], because he did not draw the dagger [back] out of his abdomen, and [his] feces came out.
An abdominal rupture is one of the slowest and most painful ways to die, and there is no surviving it, because too many toxins spill into the rest of the body. Eglon had been doing YHWH's dirty work for Him for 18 years, The word "emergency exit" in modern Hebrew is the same as this word for "feces", which appears nowhere else in Scripture. It could also be saying Ehud went out by a back way, as seems necessary in light of the next verse:
23. Now Ehud had gone out to the vestibule and shut the doors of the roof-chamber behind him, and bolted them.
Ehud had apparently taken the time to “case” the premises and knew how to make a smooth getaway. He had no weapon anymore, no blood on his hands, and probably did not run, but walked out so as to arouse no suspicion, his business seemingly done--the servants’ cue that it might be time to check to see what the king needed next.
24. When he had left, his servants came in and looked, and lo and behold, the doors of the roof-chamber were locked. So they said, “He must be covering his feet in the cooling chamber.”
Covering his feet: a euphemism for squatting to defecate. Ehud would count on them making this assumption.
25. When they had waited anxiously until they were embarrassed, yet still he was not opening the doors of the roof-chamber, they took the key and opened [them], and there lay their master on the ground, dead.
Embarrassed: or, disconcerted. They waited long enough to start squirming, because it was getting ridiculous; they were nervous, since no one takes that long! It may have been half an hour, giving Ehud plenty of time to get away.
26. And Ehud was [able to] slip away while they delayed, and he got past the carved images and escaped to the Seirah.
Seirah: “place of the shaggy goat”, not Mt. Seir in Edom, but probably an easily-recognizable landmark. He went past the things men had altered to a wild place, not yet so defined, paralleling the potential that lay in the still-messy situation Israel was no in, and the door that is open to us as we leave behind men’s religion for YHWH’s raw Torah.
27. Then when he arrived, what he [did was] blow the shofar in the mountainous region of Efrayim, and the sons of Israel went down with him, and he himself was ahead of them.
When he dismissed the men who brought the tribute, he may have sent them to roust up the rebels hiding in the mountains and told them to wait for this signal, then assemble. This region was close to Gilgal, so they could strike immediately while the Moavites were in turmoil from the loss of their leader.
28. And he told them, “Follow hard after me, because YHWH has given your enemies—Mo’av—into your hand. So they went down after him and captured the fords of the Yarden to Mo’av, and did not let a man cross over.
This is the Israelite way of going to war this day: not a leader sending men out, but a leader saying, “Follow me!” They cut off the only local way of escape back to their home, which is where the occupying forces would be expected to head when they heard their king was dead.
29. And they struck Mo’av down at that time—about 10,000 men, every one robust and every one a soldier—and not a man escaped.
A soldier: or, capable, brave. Despite their wrong cause, the Scripture text gives them honor here because they were willing to fight.
30. Thus Mo’av was subdued that day under the hand of Israel, and the Land was quiet eighty years.
Subdued: brought low, humbled, brought into subjection—the root word from which Kanaan stems!
31. And after him came Shamgar the son of ‘Anath, and he beat down the Filistines—600 men—with a cattle prod; thus he, too, delivered Israel.
A cattle prod is not very long, so to kill someone with it would require much skill. But it was a tool every farmer would have, and since the Filistines confiscated the weapons of those they subjugated, it may have been all he had to work with. It was blunt enough not to harm an ox, but pointed enough to pierce human flesh. Today we are so separated from the blood and gore much more commonly known to people who had to butcher their animals themselves. People were seen as heroes if they could do what others could not stomach, and YHWH honors him for it. Do not dishonor His name by attaching it to cowards. If we ever needed heroes, it is now. Do not let distinctions that have no real meaning disarm you. Yes, choose your battles wisely; be sure it is really for YHWH and Israel’s sake and for an issue that really matters. But do not let fear rob you of taking the first step; base your leap of faith confidently on what YHWH has said and done, for then you have a solid foundation—the high ground from which to operate. Delivered: for “all Israel to be saved” is not a religious idea; it means we are dwelling safely in our Land with all enemies underfoot.
CHAPTER 4
1. But the descendants of Israel again [began] to do what was evil in the sight of YHWH when Ehud was dead.
Shamgar’s rule was apparently short-lived. (3:31) Do what was evil: usually an idiom for pracxticing idolatry. (Deut. 4:25, etc.) In context, might they have idolized the hero, Ehud? The way Kanaanites buried their elite was to dig a chute, bury the body on a shelf off to the side, appease the person’s spirit with gifts, then fill the chute with garbage in worship to the diety Mot (death) and to keep his ghost from trying to return to the surface. Did they bury Ehud in this way? Just because someone is gone does not mean we can treat his memory with such disrespect.
2. So YHWH sold them into the hand of Yavin, king of Kanaan, who reigned at Hatzor. And the commander of his army was Sisra, and he [was] living at Kharosheth of the Nations.
When YHWH sells His people, He does not profit by it (Psalm 44:11); it is all for the sake of our learning to obey. Shmu'el singled out this particular "sale" along with that to the Filistines and Moav, but Sisra is the only leader mentioned, and it immediately follows the reference to being freed from Egypt. (1 Shmu'el 12:6-11) So this particular bout of oppression must have been especially significant. Hatzor was the capital of the Kanaanite kingdoms, but was now in Nafthali's territory. Y'hoshua had burned it down, but it had now been refortified as the Kanaanites recovered their strength. Yavin was one king Y'hoshua conquered (Y'hoshua 11:1); there may have been a series of several kings with the same name or title, as it means "the one who discerns". He may have even been a priest-king, an oracle made leader because he could "read the signs". With the former one killed, it is not unlikely that the next king to rise to the throne would take the same name as a symbol of the revival of the city. A clay tablet bearing the name “Yavin” from this time period has been unearthed at Hatzor. Kharosheth means "Wood-carving".
3. Then the descendants of Israel cried out to YHWH [for help], because he had 900 iron chariots, and he squeezed the descendants of Israel with a strong grip for twenty years.
Then: not until they were threatened to the point of knowing they could not stand against this. The chariots would be armored with iron to protect the riders; the wheels and axles would be lighter-weight. The Kanaanites did, however, strengthen the wheels by adding four more axles than those the Egyptian inventors of the chariot had. When fully loaded with a driver, archer, and shield-bearer, each chariot would weight about 450 pounds. Strong grip: what the Israelites had failed to have in regard to these Kanaanites, who therefore, like Germany after being soundly defeated in World War I, resurged with a vengeance and became even more powerful than before.
4. Now D’vorah—a woman, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth—she was judging Israel at that time.
D’vorah’s name means “a bee”. Like a queen bee, she led the congregation of Israel effectively. Prophetess: Before her, only Miryam has ever been called a prophetess (Ex. 15:20), and like D’vorah in 5:1 below, she also led all of Israel in a song of victory. Wife of Lapidoth: Though she was a woman in leadership, she was still under the covering of his authority, unlike Jezebel who tried to dominate her husband.
5. When she was sitting under the Date Palm of D’vorah, between Ramah and Beyth-El in the mountainous region of Efrayim, the descendants of Israel would go up to her for legal decisions.
Date Palm of D’vorah: Since they are more commonly found in the lower-lying, more tropical climates in Israel, a palm here in the mountains would stand out as a significant landmark. In ancient times, dates were used as a remedy for infections and tumors. In many cultures palms were associated with immortality because of their ability to rejuvenate; in fact, recently a date palm has been grown from a 2,000-year-old seed found in Israel. In Hebraic thought, the palm symbolizes being upright, so it would tell the people, “Here is a teacher you can trust.”
6. And she sent and summoned Baraq, the son of Avinoam [my father is pleasant] from Qedesh of Nafthali, and said to him, “Hasn’t YHWH, the Elohim of Israel, given the order? Go, and continue on to Mount Tavor, and take with you 10,000 men from the sons of Nafthali and from the sons of Z’vulun
Baraq’s name means “lightning”, possibly a nickname given because of some military victory. Apparently he already had an army organized, but did not feel that he was yet in the perfect position to move. Yet Sisra was on the move; this war had to be fought decisively and soon. He was from Qedesh, which was a priestly city of refuge. (Y’hoshua 21:32; see Numbers 35:6ff) This means he was either a priest (who might not have thought he had to fight) or an involuntary manslayer, who risked being killed by an avenger of blood if he left the city, which may be why he was so hesitant. But we must still do what YHWH says! Mount Tavor (see photo) is an isolated, high, round-topped hill in the middle of the Yezreel Valley, very close to Natzereth and about ten miles southwest of the Kinnereth (Sea of Galilee). It is where the borders of the tribal lands of Z’vulun, Nafthali, and Issakhar converge. Qedesh is about 25 miles (40 km.) north of Mt. Tavor, on the western edge of the Great Rift Valley about 6 miles north of Hatzor. His town must have felt the “squeezing” very strongly, being so close to the Kanaanite capital. D’vorah was a full 80 miles south of Qedesh.
7. And I will draw Sisra, commander of the army of Yavin, out to you toward the River Qishon, along with his chariots and his crowd, and I will hand him over to you.
The Qishon (meaning “winding”) flows along the northern side of Mt. Karmel in the western Yezre’el Valley. Chariots were the tanks of that day—things that struck fear in those who saw them coming, as if we saw a gang of terrorists approaching us and we had no escape. But Psalm 20:7 contrasts the trust in YHWH’s name with trust in horses or chariots. How will a name help us against chariots? Y’hoshafat sent a “praise band” out in front of his army, and they caused the enemy to panic and kill each other. (2 Chron. 20) But YHWH’s name means “the One who is” and He introduced Himself as “I will be whatever I need to be”. (Ex. 3:14) In modern terms, it tells us,“Don’t panic”. Adrenaline and our sympathetic response system kicks in and provides us with much unexpected energy and focus if we look at the situation analytically rather than going to pieces, we can find the chinks in the enemy’s armor and respond accordingly.
8. And Baraq said to her, “If you will go with me, then I have [already] gone, but if you will not go with me, I will not go.”
He was authorized to lead, but did not feel confident about doing so without the additional information he thought she could bring, since she seemed to have an inside track on what was going to occur.
9. So she said, “I will indeed go with you, only the journey on which you are going will not be to your glory, because YHWH will sell Sisra into the hand of a woman!” So D’vorah got up and went with Baraq to Qedesh.
Baraq was a great warrior, but would not go into a frightening situation without her holding his hand. He had already been told to go, and he had to be told again, so he no longer got credit, though he still had to do the job. He knows she has special favor with YHWH, and asking her to go is like taking the Ark of the Covenant into battle. In those days it was one of the utmost disgraces for a soldier to be killed by a woman. (See 9:53ff.) Even in her mind, it was less appropriate for a woman to get the credit. She must have had an excellent track record for her prophesying, because her prediction did give him confidence about the outcome.
10. So Baraq had Z’vulun and Nafthali called up to Qedesh, and 10,000 men went up at his feet, and D’vorah did go up with him.
Called up: The term could also imply that he had given a panicked cry for help. “10,000” is often (though not always) used as an idiom for a very hard-to-count number. (See Lev. 26:8; Deut. 32:30; Psalm 91:7; Mat. 18:24; 1 Cor. 4:15; 14:19) But sometimes it is clearly a finite number (1 Chron. 29:7; 2 Chron. 27:5; Ezra 2:64, 69). It is only about 10% of the armies that these two tribes could muster in Moshe’s day. (Num. 1:31, 43) According to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, their enemy’s capital, Hatzor, had 20,000 inhabitants at this time. They were not all warriors, of course, so they may have even outnumbered the city’s own army. But Qedesh is not on their way to Mt. Tavor; why would they go so far out of the way? Partly because this is where Baraq was from. Qedesh is on the escarpment overlooking Hatzor, and such a massing of soldiers could not have gone unnoticed by Yavin’s spies. Hatzor may have been able to draw from many other Kanaanite cities over which it held sway, and this sword-rattling may have been YHWH’s way to draw them out (v. 7) to what appeared to be an easy victory. “At his feet” is an idiom for being under Baraq’s command.
11. Now Khever the Qeynite had separated from the Qeynites of the descendants of Khovav, Moshe’s in-law, and had pitched his tent all the way [up] at the Oak at Tsaanayim, which is near Qedesh.
This family had become affiliated with Israel (Ex. 18:5; Num. 10:29), then moved to the area of Arad (1:16), which is far from Qedesh.
12. And it was reported to Sisra, because Baraq the son of Avinoam had gone up to Mount Tavor.
Was Khever the informer or spy (v. 17)? The fact that he separated from his family might not have seemed so suspicious since he still had a tent, suggesting that he was still nomadic, and would be expected to move frequently with his flocks.
13. So Sisra called together all his chariots—900 chariots of iron—and all the people who were with him from Kharosheth of the Nations to the River Qishon.
Yavin’s chariots would not have been able to follow Baraq to Mount Tavor, giving Baraq the advantage of the high ground. This meant Yavin would have to wait for him to make the first move, giving Baraq the tactical advantage as well. The linchpin from the wheel of a war chariot of a high-ranking personage has been found at El-Ahwat, between Katzir-Harish and Nahal Iron, just across the pass in the Menasheh Hills from Megiddo and the Qishon River. Archaeologists Oren Cohen and Adam Zertal of the University of Haifa have proposed that this was the site of Kharosheth (meaning “smithy”—probably where the iron components of these chariots were forged).
14. And D’vorah said to Baraq, “Rise up, because this is the day YHWH has handed Sisra over to you! Hasn’t YHWH gone out ahead of you?” So Baraq [started] down from Mount Tavor with 10,000 men following him.
Rise up: not just stop sleeping and get to work, but ascend to a higher level and excel as a courageous leader as well. This is the day: This chapter and the next will bear out the fact that YHWH had some weather and other atmospheric conditions lined up to give them a special advantage that day which they would not have on an average day. They had to act at once, or again be at the usual disadvantage. Mt. Tavor is at the re-confluence of two trade routes from Egypt to Damascus that branch into two at Rafia, south of Gaza. This mountain was continuously fortified by nearly every power that controlled the region, since it was so strategic in keeping the supply lines open. The mountain is too steep to ride chariots up; even the modern road has numerous switchbacks. It is hard to attack, but the occupying army would still have to descend to defend the roads and even to get water, as there is no aquifer on the mountain. They would have to leave the safety and comfort to protect others or take the fight to the enemy.
15. And YHWH confused Sisra [with loud noises], the whole chariot [corps], and all the camp by the mouth of the sword before Baraq. So Sisra got down from [being] upon his chariot, and fled on his feet.
Confused: or routed, vexed, noisily crushed. 5:20 tells us that the stars in their courses fought against Sisra. Donald Wesley Patten thinks this took place in 1296 B.C.E., 108 years after the day the sun “stood still” for Y’hoshua (1404 B.C.E. by some estimates). 108 years was the length of two 54-year cycles between flybys of the planet Me’adim (Mars) when its orbit used to cross over the earth’s and wreak havoc by the strong gravitational effect each would have on the other at such times, including tides of magma beneath the earth’s crust large enough to form new mountains. Read chapter 5’s descriptions of the mountains melting, the river flooding, and the earth quaking in light of this. There would also have been immense electrical discharges caused by the collision of the two planets’ electromagnetic fields. But if Y’hoshua was about 80 years old when he began conquering the land, he had almost 30 years of his life left after that, and 166 years are accounted for in the book of Judges thus far, plus the years the elders who survived Y’hoshua were still alive. If only one of them outlived Y’hoshua by just 20 years, this would be four cycles (216 years) after the “long day” instead, in 1188 B.C.E., or nearly 200 years before the golden era of David and Shlomo. If it was at this time, it would have taken place right at Passover again. Ginzberg’s Legends of the Jews does corroborate this. At least one chronology places D’vorah at circa 1150 B.C.E., which brings it very close. Interestingly enough, Ba’al is the Phoenician name for Mars, and its two moons were considered its steeds, so YHWH used what the Kanaanites worshipped against them. This could explain why Baraq had to hurry because “this was the day”. (v. 14) People knew the patterns, and Sisra probably knew of the risks, but felt he had to respond to the provocation of the Israelites taking the stronghold or lose face, since if he did not maintain the upper hand, he would no longer be feared. Even if this was just an ordinary thunderstorm, Baraq here could be taken as lightning in the generic sense as well. The Kanaanites’ concentration of armor, iron chariots, shields, and weapons would make them a magnet for the lightning.
16. But Baraq chased after the chariotry and the encamped body as far as Kharosheth of the Nations, and Sisra’s whole camp fell to the mouth of the sword; not as much as one was left,
The chariots would have gotten stuck in the flooded river and muddy roads. Thus YHWH drew them to the battle and gave Israel the advantage in battle. Admit it or not, armies chiefly exist to protect the wealth of the wealthy. The highest officers in Kanaanite armies were from the upper classes, though usually they spent most of their time in fortresses, and only entered combat when specifically called on. Generals who lost battles were usually executed, which may be why Sisra left his army and took refuge with someone of another nationality:
17. while Sisra escaped on foot to the tent of Yael, the wife of Khever the Qeynite, because there was peace between Yavin, king of Hatzor, and the household of Khever the Qeynite.
Yael means an ibex, a wild goat that lives on the desert cliffs of Israel and from whose horns many of the smaller shofars are made. It does not say the peace was a tenuous one, but it may be that Khever still remained loyal to Yavin, while his wife had more of a sense of who was in the right and, like Rahav, changed her loyalty. This may be why her tent does not seem to be where her husband’s was. Or, moving out may have inclined him to change loyalties easily, and since they lived right between Sisra’s capital and Baraq’s, they both might have shifted their alliance again now that Baraq appeared to be the stronger. They might even have been “double agents”.
18. So Yael went out to meet Sisra, and she said to him, “Turn in, my master! Turn in to me; don’t be afraid!” So he turned aside to her in the tent, and she covered him with a rug.
19. And he said to her, “Please give me a little water to drink, because I have become thirsty!” But she opened a bottle of milk [made from an animal skin] and gave him a drink, then covered him up.
Covered up: both to hide him and to let him fall asleep more easily, as the milk would also do, especially if it was warmed, as was likely since goats’ milk sours very quickly otherwise.
20. And he told her, “Stand [at] the opening of the tent, and in case anyone should come and inquire of you, and say, ‘Is there anyone here?’, then you say, ‘There is not.’”
Anyone: literally, a man. Which man he was afraid of is identified in verse 22.
21. Now Yael the wife of Khever took a stake of the tent and put a hammer in her hand, and went to him softly and drove the stake into his temple, then sunk it into the ground. (Now he had been [overcome by a] deep sleep, being exhausted.) And he died.
Hammer: literally, a piercer, since it provided the power to pierce with the stake. It appears that her husband was a blacksmith, and this would have been one of the tools of his trade. With very rocky ground, the tent stakes were often very long at this time. Softly: or secretly, privately. Exhausted: or covered up—making him even sleepier. She may not have acted alone, since v. 9 says Sisra would be sold into the hand of a woman. His own attendants may have been paid to merely abandon him when he ran away, as it was common at that time for generals who lost battles to be executed, and they therefore expected him to die soon anyway, so why not profit from it?
22. And indeed, Baraq was chasing Sisra down, and Yael came out to meet him, and she told him, “Come, and I will let you see the man whom you are looking for!” So he came in to [where] she [was], and there lay Sisra, dead with the stake in his temple!
This is prophetic, especially since it says “the stake” instead of just “a stake”. A king would be called a stake (or peg) on which the glory of his ancestor’s house would be hung. (Yeshayahu 22:22-24) It is a title for the one who sits on the throne of David. (Z’kharyah 10:4) Thus of course it applies to the Messiah, who will conquer every oppressor of Israel as this tent-peg did. (Joseph Good) But the word for “temple” is based on the word for “thin part” in Hebrew; since the prophecy (4:9) said he would be “sold” into the hand of a woman, did she instead just forcibly pierce his earlobe, making him a slave to her household for life? (cf. Ex. 21:6)
23. Thus Elohim brought Yavin, king of Kanaan, into subjection before sons of Israel.
Brought into subjection: a mocking play on words, because it is k’naa, the root word for Kanaan! It literally means “brought him to his knees”. (It may even be where the Germanic languages got our spelling of “knee”.) He made them live up to their name in a more beneficial way.
24. And the hand of the sons of Israel became progressively heavier upon Yavin, king of Kanaan, until they had caused Yavin, the king of Kanaan, to be cut off.
CHAPTER 5
1. Then D’vorah sang with Baraq the son of Avinoam on that day, saying,
The scribe is highlighting the parallels in this story with what occurred at the Reed Sea (Exodus 15)—chariots undermined by water and a woman leading a song of victory, for this way it would give people who did not have easy access to scrolls something to connect it to so this new story would stick in their memories. These songs were written with catchy tunes so they would be remembered, for D’vorah knew well how quick Israel was to forget YHWH’s acts. (Compare Deut. 31:19-22.)
2. “With the leaders acting as leaders in Israel, with the people freely offering themselves, bless YHWH!
Freely offering themselves: The first time this term is used in Scripture, it refers to Israel when freshly liberated from slavery and provided with much security by the Egyptians from whom they “borrowed” gold and jewels. None of these people was rich, and they had no prospects for additional income for a long time, yet they gave even more than was necessary to build what today would be a multi-million-dollar tent, because the Kingdom was in it. But many feared to volunteer for battle until leaders emerged, for in a chaotic battle, who can hope to survive? Several tribes had troops ready before Baraq was ready to lead, as we will see below. There was no centralized army at this time, so each tribe, and even some households (nobles who could afford to build a battalion of their own as others joined themselves to a strong warrior), would have their own armies, and occasionally, when the threat was especially large, they would unite against a common enemy. The term for leading here means to inscribe laws in stone. It is easy to follow a leader who is liberating us, but when he begins to enact laws, it is much harder to continue to like him. Thank YHWH that some do.
3. “Listen, O kings!
Cup your ears, O [weighty] commanders!
I belong to YHWH; I myself will sing!
I will play a stringed instrument for YHWH, the Elohim of Israel!
She evokes the memory of Moshe and Miryam singing after the crossing of the Reed Sea.
4. “O YHWH, when You went out from Seir,
When You strode out of the field of Edom,
The ground shook!
The heavens also dripped;
The clouds dropped water.
Edom: another name for Esau. (Gen. 36:8) His territory in Seir is extremely dry—“away from the dew of the heavens”. (Gen. 27:39) She continues using themes reminiscent of the Torah: as at the flood of Noakh, the earth has been washed clean again, and there can be a new beginning.
5. “Mountains melted due to the presence of YHWH,
That is, Sinai—from the presence of YHWH, Elohim of Israel.
Melted: or possibly, flowed (as with torrents of rainwater). Again, she ties this to an older event with which they area aall familiar—they are all again standing at Sinai. This is their big “Israelite experience”. She is urging them to take ownership of the fact that they are no longer oppressed, but are Israelites.
6. “In the days of Shamgar, the son of Anath,
In the days of Yael,
The highways stopped [being used],
And the travelers on the well-trodden paths went onto circuitous paths
Shamgar (3:31) killed Israel’s enemies with an ox-goad. Anath is a feminine name, and was the name of a Hittite goddess who held a staff that looked like an ox-goad. Using the same type of tool as a weapon may have earned him the nickname “son of Anath” because this reminded people of paintings and carvings of her that they had seen. Again, for 20 years (4:1) Israel’s main roads had been deserted because of fear to travel openly due to the danger from the oppressing enemies. Nowthere is a new reality on the ground; it is again safe to walk the roads!
7. “There ceased to be a rural population in Israel;
They had come to an end until I, D’vorah arose,
[As] a mother in Israel.
Ceased: in the sense of being left unfinished, a premature foregoing of something that had been in process; something discontinued but not because it had achieved its purpose. It was prevented by continuing in this case because it was too dangerous. Rural population: It was common, when a foreign army was on the prowl, for those who lived outside of walled cities to move into the cities for shelter. This could be an instance of that.
8. “They chose new elohim,
Then [there was] battle [at the] gates.
If [one] shield or a javelin was seen
Among forty thousand in Israel!
In choosing pagan elohim, they would have become involved in all sorts of sexual rites with temple prostitutes, both male and female. The men of the armies were no longer effective because they were off having fun, which is why women had to take the initiative in this battle. Israel was neutralized because the enemies made it pleasurable to partake in what they did at their temples. So women had to do the men’s job—a cause for anger and much direct shaming of the men seen in this song. Women prefer that their husbands lead, but if they do not, in a crisis, someone has to. She risked her life in voicing all these insults (possibly buffered somewhat by the fact that it was a song), but if the husbands were at all honest, they had to admit she was right. Battle at the gates: in this case, they were arguing, because they are not using weapons. Having different elohim within one nation brought confusion as to how to make judicial rulings. Forty thousand: At the numbering in the wilderness, only Binyamin had a smaller army than this, and now not even one tribe has stood up to fight, like the army who stood shivering at Golyath’s challenge before David arrived.
9. “My heart [is] for those who engrave decrees [in] Israel,
Those among the people who volunteered themselves.
Bless YHWH!
10. “You who mount and ride reddish-gray she-asses,
Who sit upon extended carpets,
As well as you who walk on the road,
Ponder!
Reddish-gray: or tawny, but from a word meaning to dazzle. This may indicate someone of wealth or importance, as prophets often rode on them, but others did too. She-asses are more docile than male donkeys, making them easier to ride, and their cadence makes for an easier ride than a horse. Extended carpets: or, rich cloths, seen by the LXX and Aramaic targum as an idiom for those who sit in judgment. Those who walk on the road would be the commoners who could not afford to ride on donkeys, so the point seems to be that those from all walks of life need to be paying attention to what she is saying.
11. “[Louder] than the noise of the splitters, between the places to draw water,
There they will recount the correct [actions] of YHWH,
The correct [actions] of His chiefs in Israel!
Then the people of YHWH will go down to the gates.
Splitters: possibly those who chop wood, often associated in Scripture with those who draw water, as the two most mundane tasks that must be done to keep society alive and functioning. The LXX has “disturbers”, seen by the Aramaic targum as toll-booths where those who came to draw water were assaulted and robbed. I.e., people were ambushed at a place they could not avoid coming to. The removal of oppressors will allow Torah-based justice to resume in the gates, where judges and decision-makers sat. But the main point here seems to be that YHWH’s great victory will be the talk of the town, because the community well is where news would spread most rapidly, as everyone had to come there to get their most basic commodity.
12. “Wake up, rouse yourself, O D’vorah!
Wake up, rouse yourself, [intensely] utter a song!
Rise up, O Baraq,
And lead away your captives, O son of Avinoam!
Wake up/rouse yourself: most often used in the context of warfare and triumph, but usually with an action associated, as in “Wake up, put on strength…” (Yeshayahu 51:9, 17; 52:1) I.e., get excited, but turn it in a productive direction.
13. “Then He caused the surviving remnant to subjugate the majestic nobles of a people;
YHWH caused me to tread upon heroes!
Remnant: the few in YHWH’s Land who were still obedient to YHWH’s voice. Majestic nobles: used in Moshe’s parallel song (Ex. 15:10) to refer to the towering waters of the Reed Sea. The term means something that expands to a much larger-than-normal size.
14. “From out of Efrayim their root came against Amaleq.
After you, O Binyamin, among your peoples!
Down from Makhir came those who enact decrees,
And from Z’vulun those who draw out the reed of the scribe.
LXX: Efrayim rooted them out in Amaleq. Who enact decrees: LXX, searching out the enemy. Reed of the scribe: one who recounts or records stories; or possibly, staff of the mustering-officer: or scribe, but verse 18 makes more sense if we read it in a non-military sense. Makhir: the part of Menashe that dwelt east of the Yarden River.
15. “And my captains in Yissakhar were with D’vorah;
As was Yissakhar, so was Baraq.
They were let loose into the valley at his feet!
Among the divisions of Re’uven, there were great resolves of heart!
Resolves: something inscribed or engraved deeply and permanently (related to the word in v. 14 for enacting decrees).
16. “Why did you stay between the two sheepfolds? To listen to the bleatings of flocks?
Among the divisions of Re’uven, there were great searchings of heart!
Sheepfolds: or saddlebags, as in Gen. 49:14, possibly a geographical feature, but she uses the double meaning in a sarcastic way here. The Aramaic targum interprets it as, “apart from the armies of war, waiting to hear the news, favorable or not.” They were present at the scene of battle, but waiting to see who would prevail before throwing in their lot with the side they knew was right. The last line here and the last line of v. 15 only differ by one letter in Hebrew, a pun that tells us that while they resolved to come, they had second thoughts. They sat there too long long thinking about whether or not to go to battle along with their brothers, which should have been a “no-brainer”.
17. “Gil’ad stayed across the Yarden.
And Dan—why did he wait [in] ships?
Asher kept to the seacoast
And sat still upon the places where it breaks.
Gil’ad: since Y’hoshua 22:9 says that two and a half tribes inhabited Gil’ad and the other one and a half are already mentioned in this account, it probably refers specifically to Gad in this case. Across the Yarden: The LXX adds, where he pitched his tents. Dan: the portion of the tribe that remained settled on the coast. Where it [the coastline] breaks: Asher has bays where ships can dock, but this is not a beachhead; they are not arriving, but the term for “sat still” implies a comfortable distance out of range of any danger from the battle. She waxes sarcastic so they will be too ashamed to do this the next time. Wait: mulling over their decision of what to do, to the point of hesitation, but apparently they are even preparing to emigrate altogether if it gets too bad. Where there is a breakthrough, they should be moving into action, not staying where they can be of no help to their brothers.
18. “Z’vulun is a people who put their own lives in jeopardy,
And Nafthali on the wild heights.
On the other hand, she gives glowing credit where it is due. Those who were scribes (v. 14) and not accustomed to battle risked their lives. They may have even been “battlefield reporters”, historians who joined in as soldiers anyway because they knew something had to be done. This would also give the other warriors added courage. Apart from Levi, which had no military responsibilities, Yehudah and Shim’on are conspicuous by their absence from the list. They had a huge territory and were apparently already being seen as a separate kingdom, for they were not held responsible for not showing up.
19. “Kings came; they battled.
Then fought the kings of Kanaan
In Taanakh, over the waters of Megiddo.
They took no unjustly-acquired silver.
Unjustly-acquired: If this is referring to the kings, it would mean they have no valid reason for going to war this time, for this is not the normal term for plunder properly “earned” as a reward for bravery in battle, but something that is not supposed to be theirs. If it refers to Z’vulun and Nafthali, they were just following Y’hoshua’s pattern of destroying the idols or things dedicated to pagan deities; this battle was not fought for the “money”. There was no Akhan who took the proscribed spoils this time. Taanakh: where the Qishon River flows from Mount Karmel.
20. “From the heavens the stars fought;
in their courses they fought with Sisra’.
The planetary bodies themselves assisted in this victory. (See note on 4:15.)
21. “The River Qishon swept them away--
that river of confrontations, the great river that traps!
You can march, my soul! Prevail!
Eliyahu also killed the 450 prophets of Baal at the Qishon. (1 Kings 18:40) The root meaning of its name means “to lure, bait, or lay a snare”, hence the fact that it trapped them. Before crossing a river in iron chariots, an army would want to be sure no flash floods would be coming, and they would have certainly looked to the west to check the “forecast”, because most storms in Israel come in from the Mediterranean. But this took them by surprise. It looked safe to cross, but this storm came out of the south (v. 4), hidden from view by Mount Karmel and Mt. Gilboa until it was right upon them, and the unpredictability rendered them very vulnerable. The very different weather pattern undoubtedly had to do with the planetary interaction described in verse 20.
22. “Then [there were] hoof-prints of a horse
From the rushing gallop of their valiant [steed]s.
LXX, When the hoofs of the horse were entangled, they earnestly hastened… A gallop makes a horse less sure-footed, and no matter how skillful they were, they were no match for the rushing waters and mud.
23. “‘Curse Meroz’, said a messenger of YHWH.
‘Curse its inhabitants bitterly,
Because they did not come to the aid of YHWH—
To YHWH’s aid among the heroes!
Meroz: a town in northern Israel, which apparently sent no help though they were from the immediate vicinity and thus especially responsible to do their part in guarding Israel.
24. “Most blessed from [among] women is Yael,
Wife of Khever the Qeynite!
Than women in the tent, she is [more] blessed!
In the tent: Aramaic, may she be blessed like one of the women who serve in the houses of study.
25. “Water he requested; milk she provided.
She brought curds near in a majestic bowl.
Curds: Aramaic, cream cheese!
26. “She sent forth her hand to the [tent] peg,
And her right hand to the laborer’s mallet,
And she struck Sisra and annihilated his head!
Tradition says that Sisra was one of the greatest heroes who ever lived, and had conquered the whole known world, and that he brought against Israel all 31 of the kingdoms Y’hoshua had conquered, which Israel had, by our failure to annihilate them, allowed to revive.
27. “Between her feet he was brought low, prostrate he lay;
Between her feet he collapsed and prostrated.
Where he knelt down to rest, there he fell, violently destroyed!
Between her feet: or legs. Jewish tradition says Yael dressed in lavish garments and pretended to seduce him. She promised him ample “reward” after he got some rest, and he was already planning to take her back to his mother as a wife. (Ginzberg, probably based on v. 30)
28. “Through the window she leaned out and looked and shrilly cried out--
The mother of Sisra, through the lattice:
‘Why does his chariot delayed in coming?’
29. “The wise among her noblewomen will answer her;
she will even bring word back to herself:
30. “‘Aren’t they finding and dividing out the spoils?
A womb—a pair of wombs—for each warrior’s head!
Plunder of cloth dyed in many colors for Sisra!
Booty of multi-colored, embroidered cloth!
A pair of dyed, embroidered cloths for the necks of the plunderer!’
Ginzberg records a tradition of a publicized vision in which Sisra was lying on the bed of a Jewish woman. Of course this was interpreted by his people as meaning she would be his plunder, when in fact it was his deathbed and it was his body that was sent back to his mother instead of his coming back with two new wives. D’vorah may have been adding another bit of sarcasm here by suggesting that he was a “Mama’s boy”.
31. “May all your enemies perish this way, O YHWH
While those who love Him [will be] like the sun coming out in its [full] strength!”
And the Land had quiet forty years.
Tradition says D’vorah ruled shortly after Ruth’s time, and that her last words were an exhortation not to depend on the dead who can do no more for the living. She was mourned for seventy days. (Ginzberg)
CHAPTER 6
1. Then the descendants of Israel did evil in the eyes of YHWH, so YHWH handed them over to Midyan seven years.
Midyan was a son of Avraham by Qeturah, and Moshe married a Midyanite woman as well. Mount Sinai is in their territory, but his name means “strife”.
2. And Midyan’s hand was growing strong upon Israel; because of Midyan’s presence, the descendants of Israel prepared for themselves the hiding places that are in the mountains, as well as the caves and the strongholds.
Hiding places: Aramaic for the Heb., possibly clefts, cut-out places, or dens, but the term is used only here. When men hide from YHWH, they ending up hiding from other men as well. They even started living like animals.
3. Now what took place is that if Israel sowed seeds, Midyan, Amaleq, and the sons of the east came up and rose up against them
Israel neglected to honor YHWH with their substance, but were preparing their crops for Ba’al, so YHWH no longer let them keep them. YHWH had given Israel fields they had not sown. (Y’hoshua 24:13; Psalm 105:44) Now, when they sowed, others reaped, because they had forsaken Him. Amaleq was the son of Elifaz, grandson of Esau, by his concubine Timnah. (Gen. 36:12) The sons of the east were probably descendants of Avraham’s other children (Gen. 25:6), or possibly people who lived wickedly like the majority of those before the Deluge of Noach—or even earlier!
4. and camped over them, ruining the produce of the Land until you come to ‘Azzah, and they did not leave any sustenance in Israel, whether lamb or bull or donkey,
Camped over them: possibly right on top of the crops that had been planted.
5. because they came up with their livestock and their tents; they came in like locusts for multitude, and there was no numbering for them or for their camels, and they entered the Land to destroy it.
6. When Israel was laid extremely low due to the presence of Midyan, [some] descendants of Israel cried to YHWH [for help].
Laid low: or made thin, dried up, impoverished; Aramaic, sank very low. He put them in a position that would drive them back to Him because He still loved them. Only then did they get around to YHWH, like a child who is bent on going his own way, yet assumes that when he is in danger, his parent will bail him out. So He “sends them to bed hungry” so they will learn to desire His presence. But a few remembered YHWH and stood in the gap for the rest. This does not mean the rest did not want to be delivered, but we tend to hang onto pieces of other securities even while acknowledging YHWH—just in case we might do something so wrong that He would turn His back on us. (Offering Ba’al’s symbol, the bull, is also a picture of turning over our greatest securities to YHWH.) As Israel’s greatest deliverance approaches, those who are in the avant-garde, who are clearing a way for the rest to come, need to be sure to do it correctly so the path is one worthy of what YHWH wants to do.
7. And it turned out that because descendants of Israel had cried out to YHWH on account of Midyan,
8. YHWH sent a man--a prophet—to the descendants of Israel, and he told them, “This is what YHWH, Elohim of Israel, says: ‘I Myself brought you up from Egypt and delivered you out of the slave quarters,
9. “‘and I recovered you from the hand of Egypt and from the hand of all your oppressors, and I drove them away before you and gave you their Land,
10. “‘and I told you, “I am YHWH your Elohim. You must not show respect for the elohim of the Emorites, in whose Land you are dwelling.” But you have not heeded My voice.’”
Before the deliverer, one is sent to prepare the way—a common pattern YHWH used, which fit very well with the custom of sending someone ahead of a king’s entourage to make sure the road was cleared and any holes filled in so it was passable. In whose land: YHWH has reassigned ownership of the Land to the people whom Israel had dispossessed, because they had not made it any better, just as the earth was given back to haSatan when Adam disobeyed. Show respect: or fear. If we fear what is not YHWH, we will also lose whatever He has given us. Everything this prophet says is from Moshe; is that who this “messenger” is?
11. Then a messenger of YHWH came and sat under the terebinth tree that was at Offrah, which belonged to Yo’ash the Avi-Ezrite, while his son Gid’on was threshing wheat in the winepress to keep it away from the presence of Midyan.
Offrah: a town in the western section of Menashe (within the Land of Israel proper), thought to be close to Sh’khem. (But see note on v. 35.) Its name means “a fawn”. Avi-Ezrite: “the father of my helper”. Gid’on means “the one who really chops down”. He showed initiative and determination rather than surrendering to the enemy. The winepress was normally used in a different season, so the Midyanites would not expect anyone to be there at this time, and so were not patrolling this area. Keep it away: cause it to disappear, fly away, or escape.
12. When the messenger of YHWH let himself be seen by him, he told him, “YHWH is with you, you capable hero!”
Though Gid’on is clearly fearful, the messenger speaks strength into him, motivating him toward what he can become, and where he should be. One who is called a hero is more likely to become one than one who is repeatedly called a failure.
13. But Gid’on said to him, “O My Master, if there is a YHWH with us, then why has all this happened to us? And where are all His [extraordinary] wonders that our fathers recounted to us, saying, ‘Didn’t YHWH bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now YHWH has abandoned us ands yielded us up into the palm of Midyan’s [hand]!”
Our fathers recounted: as would have been done at Passover. If he is threshing wheat, the Passover season was very recently for him, and there are indications that his father, though possessing an altar to Ba’al, might still have done this for Gid’on as commanded in Ex. 12:26; 13:14. Despite his skepticism that probably arises from desperation, he still shows respect for the one he perceives as his master, since he speaks for YHWH. As with Avraham (Gen. 18:23-32) and Moshe (Num. 14:13-19), those who dare to ask are the ones who get the answers. (Yaaqov/James 4:2) YHWH has not gone anywhere; Israel has.
14. Then YHWH turned to face him and said, “Go in this firmness of yours, and you have liberated Israel from the palm of Midyan’s [hand]; haven’t I sent you?”
YHWH was not physically the one speaking, for he could not have withstood His presence. But one’s representative had full authority to speak for him, much as someone today with “power of attorney”. This firmness: the “brazenness” with which he would speak even to an angel evidenced a stubbornness and determination that would let him see the task He was about to give him through to completion. His cleverness in being able to make things appear to be what they were not (v. 11) would also be instrumental in his victory. Sent you: or, shot you (like an arrow).
15. But he said to him, “O My Master, with what can I liberate Israel? Look! My thousand is the lowest in Menashe, and I am the least significant in my father’s household.”
Thousand: the division under a “ruler of a thousand” (Ex. 18:25) which was weakest in influence or wealth. (Compare Mikha 5:2) YHWH sometimes chooses people with such apparent disadvantage to show that it is He who is doing the delivering, not we. Like David, the youngest and least respected in his family, we only have to make ourselves available to Him. This disadvantage would become even more pronounced before YHWH was ready to use Gid’on. But this kind of claim, seen also in Moshe (Ex. 6:30) and King Sha’ul (1 Shmu’el 9:21), seems to be the legal formula for humbly accepting a responsibility one is requested to carry out, saying, in effect, “I am very honored to do this.”
16. And YHWH said, “Because I will be with you, and you will strike a blow at Midyan as one man.”
As one man: because they would all be gathered in one place (v. 33)—the most convenient way to defeat them all at once. But the phrase is ambiguous; it could also mean Gid’on’s army would act as one man, and both can be true.
17. So he said, “Please, if I have found favor in your eyes, then perform a miraculous sign for me [to prove] that [it is really] You [who] are the one speaking to me!
Gid’on had grown up without seeing miracles, and he probably did not have a Torah scroll of his own. Battling such an alliance of foes was no matter of child’s play, and he needed to know this unusual calling was really YHWH’s will. Moshe (Ex. 4:1-8) and David (Psalm 86:17) similarly asked for signs. But in this age, when we have the complete Scriptures and much more history of YHWH’s dealings, dare we question Him? In fact, we, the exiled Israelites who are rediscovering our once-lost identity and returning to our covenant with YHWH, ARE the sign that we seek! We don’t have to “waste” a goat and matzah; we just need to look in the mirror to know He is working.
18. “Please don’t depart from this [spot] until my coming to you—when I have brought out my tribute and set it down in front of You.” So He said, “I will stay until you return.”
19. So Gid’on went [inside] and prepared a kid of the she-goats along with unleavened bread [baked from] an eyfah of flour. He put the meat in a basket and the broth he put in a pot, and brought it toward Him under the terebinth [tree] and presented [it].
Eyfah: a dry measure equal to three se’im (the same amount Avraham told Sarah to prepare for the angels in Gen. 18:6; Gid’on must have remembered this was an appropriate amount to offer to YHWH. That he did it himself suggests that he had no wife yet.) It is also equivalent to ten omers, each omer representing a person (Ex. 16:16), and ten of them making a full congregation (based on Gen. 18:32). The modern equivalent is about 20 liters. That it was unleavened either speaks of his haste, or the season of the year, or both. He also knew that no leaven is to be offered on YHWH’s altar, according to the Torah, but each meat offering had its corresponding grain offering(s). The root words for “kid of the goats” mean “a firm river bank”. The root word behind “broth” is “to scour or polish”. The word for “meat” is the root word for “glad news” as well, so he is offering a whole congregation that has been scoured clean as well as the glad news about a river bank—the place we see the symbol of the righteous planted in Psalm 1:3 and where we find the Tree of Life in Rev. 22:2--i.e., the Kingdom. A firm river bank also keeps the water from overflowing its boundaries, as Israel had been doing.
20. Then the messenger of Elohim said to him, “Take the meat and the matzoth and rest them on the cliff over yonder, and pour out the broth.” And he did so.
Cliff: possibly a river bank where this great tree stood; the messenger may have been acknowledging the underlying meaning of Gid’on’s gifts by responding with the same imagery as in v. 19.
21. Then the messenger of YHWH stretched forth the end of the walking stick that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened [loaves], and the fire rose up from [out of] the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened [loaves], and the messenger of YHWH went from his sight.
Walking stick: or staff, but the word means “to support”. It is not the same word used for Moshe’s rod, but this does not mean it cannot be a synonym, letting this messenger represent Moshe, for he is bringing Israel back to the Torah. Spielberg might outdo these effects today, but this is not entertainment. This is not just history; it is still alive. When you encounter the Torah, expect everything to change. We have not read it properly if we are not affected by it.
22. And Gid’on perceived that he [indeed] was the messenger of YHWH, and Gid’on said, “Alas, My Master YHWH! Because that means I have seen the Angel of YHWH face to face!”
Did he know because of his father’s name, which means “YHWH is a fire”? Seeing YHWH face to face would mean certain death for him, based on Exodus 33:20.
23. But YHWH told him, “Peace to you! Don’t be afraid; you won’t die.”
Was this “messenger of Elohim” (v. 20) different from the “messenger of YHWH” (v. 11)? If so, that could be how YHWH still spoke to him after the latter messenger had already left. Otherwise, it may just be that his judging side was now what was being emphasized. Peace: well-being, completeness; Heb., shalom.
24. So Gid’on built an altar there to YHWH and called it “YHWH is Shalom.” It is still in Offrah of the Avi-Ezrite to this day.
25. Now what took place that night [is that] YHWH said to him, “Take the plowing-bull that belongs to your father and a second bull—the seven-year [old] one—and pull down the altar of Ba’al that your father has, and cut off the goddess-image that is on it.
Seven-year-old: the term for age does not appear in the text; Aramaic, that has been fattened up for seven years. Goddess-image: or grove; Heb, asherah. Ba’al means “husband”, and this other image, suffice it to say, functioned as his “wife”. Exodus 34:13 had made tearing down any pagan altar in the Land a standing command, but Gid’on was doing this only in his area of jurisdiction. This is one example of what it means to “not show respect for the elohim of the …Land.” (v. 10) Would he be dishonoring his father with such an act? The truest way to honor our parents is to obey YHWH, and to respect the part of his practice that dishonored YHWH would actually be showing respect for the elohim of the Emorites. Our parents also have built altars that we must pull down.
26. When you have built an altar to YHWH on top of this stronghold in an orderly manner, then take the second bull and [offer] up and ascending [offering] will the pieces of wood [from] the goddess-image that you will have cut down.
Stronghold: a different term than that used in verse 2; it is actually related to the term for “she-goats” in verse 19. It seems to refer to the old altar that he tore down. But now it was taken, because the illusion of idols was the only thing that gave it any perceived power. In an orderly manner: possibly in contrast to the way pagan altars were built, but in any case, YHWH likes things done in order. He tells the priests to lay the wood in order on His altar (Lev. 1:7) and His table (Ex. 40:4) and set the lamps in His sanctuary in order (Ex. 39:27). But here, order might not mean straight lines; the altar YHWH wants is of stones unaffected by human tools. (Ex. 20:25) He is also acting in a priestly manner by offering a bull, and by offering a goat for Israel’s atonement as at Yom Kippur.
27. So Gid’on took ten men from among his servants and did just as YHWH had spoken to him. But rather than doing it by day, when he was afraid [to because] of his father’s household and the men of the city, it was at night that he did it.
Ten men: symbolic of a sufficient number for a whole congregation, based on Gen. 18:32. He saw no point in getting himself killed before he accomplished his mission; though it would become obvious soon enough who did it, he would present it to them as an already-accomplished fact before they could do anything to stop it. It was common for such a shrine to be some distance from the dwelling place, explaining why no one heard all this noise.
28. Early in the morning when the men of the city were getting up, lo and behold, the altar of Ba’al had been torn down, the goddess-image that was over it had been cut off, and the second bull had been offered on the restructured altar!
Early morning: They were probably coming to worship the sunrise in typical pagan fashion. (Y’hezq’el 8:16) A bull was Ba’al’s symbol, so by slaughtering it here, he was “burning Ba’al” himself along with his “consort”.
29. And [each] man said to his fellow, “Who has done this thing?” And they made and inquiry and searched [it out], and were saying, “Gid’on, the son of Yoash, has done this thing!”
Did one of his father’s ten servants give him away?
30. So the men of the city said to Yoash, “Bring out your son, that he may die, since he has torn down the altar of Ba’al and cut off the goddess-image that was on it!”
31. But Yoash said to all who took their stand against him, “Will you plead Ba’al’s case, as if you could bring about deliverance for him? Whoever contends for him will be dead by morning! If he is an elohim, let him plead his own case, because someone has torn down his altar!”
Plead his case: Aramaic, take revenge for. Executed by morning: If Ba’al (may his name be blotted out) was on YHWH’s hit list, anyone who sided with him would be targeted by Him as well. But he himself is threatening to personally kill anyone who dares to kill his son for the sake of a deaf and dumb statue, for if anyone is caught worshipping another elohim, he must be executed according to Torah. Yoash apparently had some latent fear of YHWH in him which revived when his own son began to overcome his fears and dare to obey. This set his father free to ridicule Ba’al as well.
32. So on that day he was called “Yerub-ba’al”, [that is] to say, “Let Ba’al plead his own case”, since he [was the one who] had torn down his altar.
An alternate way to read his name, in order not to pronounce the name of Ba’al aloud, is Yerub-besheth—“let the shameful thing plead its case”. Ba’al is used in a generic sense in Hebrew to mean “husband” or “owner”, but, like Gad, which was also a tribe of Israel, according to Ex. 23:13 it should not be pronounced when it refers to the name of another elohim, which was the case here.
33. Then all of Midyan, Amaleq, and the sons of the east assembled in unity and crossed over and camped in the Valley of Yizre’el.
The valley: Amaleq’s kind of territory, for its name means “valley-dweller”—one who prefers the low places over the heights. The “sons of strife” were in league with these predatory people who attack the weak who cannot keep up with the rest. (Deut. 25:17-18) The Valley of Yizre’el is the widest valley in Israel, the only passage that runs all the way from the Yarden River to the Mediterranean (north of Mount Karmel and south of the Galil. It is vast enough to support such a huge number, so this is a foreshadowing of a day that is yet to come when all the armies of the earth will gather in it, near Megiddo, as a staging point from which to attack Yerushalayim. (Rev. 16:16)
34. But the spirit of YHWH clothed Gid’on, and he gave a blast with the shofar, and Avi-Ezer was summoned [to come] after him.
The shofar: a ram’s horn trumpet that was the Israelite call to war. Clothed: Avi-Ezer: a larger clan than Gid’on’s immediate family and even than his “thousand” among the tribe of Menashe. (Y’hoshua 17:2) It means “my father is a help”, correlating with the word for “summoned” here, which means to call to one’s aid. This is a picture of the army that is raised from the dead to come to the assistance of those of Israel “who are alive and remain” but are having great difficulty bringing the “one new man” to the birth (Yeshayahu 26:17-19; Y’hezq’el 37:1-14) because they are outnumbered by the armies of the world that unite against Israel.
35. And he sent messengers to all of Menashe, and he too, was summoned [to come] after him. And he sent messengers into Asher, Z’vulun, and Nafthali, and they came up to meet them.
These four tribes all border on or have territory within the Valley of Yizre’el. But this begs the question: why was Yissakhar, whose territory constitutes half of that valley, not called as well? Yissakhar was among those ready to fight for D’vorah in 5:15. Since these foreign armies would have entered Israel through Yissakhar’s territory first, it may be that the need to assist was simply too obvious to them, so that no one needed to summon them. Or were they decimated by the armies entering the Land? The exact site of Gid’on’s hometown is not known. Four possibilities have been located based on the Arabic names of the tels, but none of them has turned up Hebrew inscriptions to identify the towns. Two of them are in the heart of Yissakhar’s territory, quite close to the place Gid’on camped (7:1), though it is unlikely he would live in another tribe’s territory. It may be simply because Yissakhar had been so prominent in the attack under D’vorah (5:15) that YHWH did not want those whom it would make sense to call, so that none but He would receive the credit. He does not choose those the world thinks He “needs”. Gid’on knew he could trust Z’vulun and Nafthali, because they had risked their lives, though in military prowess they were misfits. Also, Makhir, the family of Menashe with military fame, was not called, but only Gid’on’s obscure clan. This time Asher did come, but they had not proven reliable under Baraq.
36. Then Gid’on said to Elohim, “If You are there to liberate Israel by my hand, as you have promised,
37. “look here! I myself am putting the woolen fleece on the threshing-floor. If there will be dew on the fleece alone, with all the ground dry [as drought], then I will know that You will liberate Israel by my hand, as You have promised.”
Know: or, acknowledge.
38. And so it was: when he got up early and squeezed the fleece together, he wrung out dew from the fleece—a [whole] bowl full of water!
39. But Gid’on said to Elohim, “Don’t let Your anger be kindled on me, and I will speak only this [one] time. Please let me put it to the test just this once with the fleece. Please let the fleece alone be dry, and let there be dew on all the ground.”
He quotes Avraham’s manner of “arguing” with YHWH over the destruction of S’dom. He reversed the scenario completely to be sure it had not just been a coincidence or possibly some natural phenomenon unique to that place; it had to be something even his own experience had shown to be unlikely, because the stakes of his attacking such a huge army seemed suicidal if he was not sure YHWH was really with him. Yet he had received his miracle prior to this; his doubt was not about YHWH, but about himself. He knew he had to be willing to pay the price for being wrong in order to get credit for success, but he realized the extreme honor it was to have four tribes following his orders, and he may also have wanted to make sure he had not taken this honor for himself, since it was now more than just his own clan he was putting at risk. This vivid display (v. 38) was more to demonstrate to the armies he had called together that YHWH was truly behind him. This would build both their confidence in YHWH and their trust in him as their commander. Of course, the 32,000 men who reported would not all be watching at his threshing floor, but only their leaders. The other army was probably doing its chest-baring during these two days, making lots of noise and challenging them as Golyath would, buying him the time to carry out this test fully.
40. So Elohim did so; that night there was dryness on the fleece alone, while on all the ground there was dew.
YHWH was patient with him and did not let his words fall to the ground, giving him a second witness as well. But He would also make the odds even more impossible to show that there is indeed an Elohim in Israel…
CHAPTER 7
1. So Yerub-ba’al (that is, Gid’on) shouldered [the burden], as did all the people who [were] with him, and they encamped above the Spring of Trembling, while the camp of Midyan was north of him in the valley, [reaching all the way] from the Hill of Moreh.
The Spring of Trembling (Eyn Harod) is on the southern edge of the Yizre’el Valley, and still flows today from a cave on the side of Mount Gilboa, about four miles east of the city of Yizre’el and 8 miles west of Beyth She’an. Like Mount Thavor, the Hill of Moreh is an isolated hill in the middle of the Valley, easily visible from Harod. Moreh means “teacher”. The Hebrew word for spring also means “eye”, and the word for encamping specifically means “to bend down or incline”. So another way to read the phrase is, “they bent down in regard to the eye of shuddering”. In other words, they inclined themselves toward fear. North: in Hebrew orientation, this is on the left hand.
2. But YHWH told Gid’on, “The people who are with you are too many for me to hand Midyan over to, lest Israel should boast of itself over Me, saying, ‘My hand has brought me deliverance!’
YHWH says He will not share His reputation with another. (Yeshayahu 42:8; compare Deut. 8:11-17)
3. “So now, please call out in the hearing of the people, ‘Whoever is fearful and trembling, let him turn back and wend around the mountains of Gil’ad.’ So 22,000 of the people went back, and there were 10,000 left.
This was standard preparation for an Israelite battle. (Deut. 20:8-9) Trembling: indeed the same root word as Harod, and it may have been named after this incident. The enemies of YHWH should not be over-respected. Gil’ad is actually across the river from where he was. Wend around: The term includes the sense of taking cover; they could depart without being seen from the enemy camp, and this way, the enemies, who had seen 32,000 people assembling, would think they were all still there. They could get back to their homes, which were on the other side of the enemy camp. The Hebrew root words for 22 mean “a dual doubling over”, suggesting the idea of excess, because these were the men who would only prove to be extra baggage, and would need to be babysat rather than actually contributing to the morale of the other soldiers. So YHWH “circumcised” this army by doing away with the useless part. Now they saw themselves as capable and were ready to get somewhere!
4. Then YHWH said to Gid’on, “The people are still [too] many. Bring them down to the water, and I will test them for you there. Now of whomever I tell you, ‘This one will go with you’, he must go, and everyone of whom I tell you, ‘This one will not go with you’, he may not go.”
Test: or sift, refine, remove the dross from the top. In the context of a river, He is panning for gold. YHWH does not need numbers, and sometimes they just get in His way. It was obvious when Moshe was alone that he was glowing from having been in YHWH’s presence; crowds would have obscured him. So YHWH sifts yet again, refining His army like flour so they can become “one bread” (v. 13).
5. So he brought the people down to the water, and YHWH told Gid’on, “Everyone who laps from the water with his tongue as a dog laps, you must set alone, then everyone who bends down on his knees to drink.”
< The brook of Harod with the Hill of Moreh in the background
6. And the number of those who lapped with their hand to their mouth was 300 men, and all the rest of the people bent down on their knees to drink water.
He probably thought he would only lose the 300 men this time. But he did not know YHWH very well yet!
7. And YHWH told Gid’on, “With the 300 men who lapped, I will liberate you, and I will give Midyan over into your hand, so you can let all the people go, [each] man to his own place.”
Why did YHWH like this better? The difference is their approach. By bringing their hand to their mouth, they would be examining the water before they drank it, and no dead or decayed matter floating in it would escape their notice. Since water is a picture of YHWH’s word (Efesians 5:26), this is an analogy of studying carefully for ourselves before we internalize it instead of just accepting others’ word for it, to be sure none of man’s doctrines have been mixed in with it, fouling it. They would also see their faces in it, Those who bent down on their knees and put their faces right in the water would not see what was coming with the water, and also would not be as alert to a possible enemy approach either, and could be more easily pushed right into the water, or simply killed. They knelt down; they had a “religious experience”, but the Torah is not religion, but a social law for a people. It is not to be worshipped, but looked into intensely to see what we are meant to be, and how we actually look in comparison to the standard. (Yaaqov/James 1:22-27) It still applies to us, not just these people thousands of years ago. We are meant to bring it back up from our knees and have a “relationship experience” with YHWH because of it. He still uses it to sift our priorities so we no longer bow down to the wrong things.
8. So the people took [the] provisions [that were] in their hand along with their shofars, and he sent every man of Israel away, each to his tent, but he kept hold of the 300 men, and the camp of Midyan was below him in the valley.
Kept hold of: retained with a firm grip. He ended up with less than 1% of the available army, but now they were no longer fearful. There was a change in perspective: now the enemy was no longer “to the north”—in the hidden place, as the Hebrew connotes—but beneath them. He also kept the shofars belonging to all 320 of the captains among those who left, because he would need almost all of them. Also, the food that would have strengthened them to fight was given to those who would actually now do the fighting.
9. Now what took place that night was that YHWH said to him, “Get up and go down into the camp, because I have delivered it into your hand.
10. “But if you are afraid to go down, go down into the camp with your young [servant] Furah.
Afraid: But had he not just culled out all the fear? He knew from Israel’s past experience that if he were going to “spy out the Land”, he dare not bring back an evil report to his fellows. In this case, the danger would be in going alone, and YHWH recognized that and “understood his frame, remembering that he was dust”. He even encouraged him by sending along a man whose name means “he has been made fruitful”, to plant the seed thought in his mind that could grow into a conviction that his endeavor would not be fruitless. Everyone who knew Gid’on’s fearful tendencies would recognize that the credit went not to him but to YHWH. He does not choose by our logic; it was not the seminary-trained expert or the one who followed without asking questions who was called, but a man who still had doubts that he was actually hearing from YHWH. But there would now be no doubt who won the battle.
11. “After you hear what they are saying, your hand will indeed grow resolute so you can go down against the camp.” So he and his young [servant] Furah started down to the outer edges of those who were aligned [for battle] by fives in the camp.
12. Now Midyan and Amaleq and all the sons of the east were lying in the valley, as numerous as the locusts, and there was no numbering for their camels—as numerous as the sand that is on the shore of the sea!
13. When Gid’on arrived, indeed, a man was recounting a dream to his fellow, and he said, “Look here! I had a dream, and lo and behold, a round loaf of bread [made from] barley grains came tumbling into the camp of Midyan, and when it got to the tent, it hit it and it fell down, and the tent turned upside down when it fell!”
The round loaf reminds us of a stone smoothed out by the water and unmarred by human tools, like the one who lets YHWH’s Word rather than men’s doctrines shape him. The root word for “round” even means “sunken or submerged”, like a river stone. This correlates with the “stone cut without hands” in Nevukhadnetzar’s vision. (Dan. 2:34) The only other place in Scripture this term for “round” is used is in Ex. 15:10, which speaks of the Egyptian army sinking like lead in the Reed Sea—another connection that would subconsciously encourage Gid’on. Barley grains: literally, barleys—a plural form, reminding us that the single loaf is made up of many individual parts that have been taught to adhere to one another, but not to the flesh, through all the sifting. (The priests in the Temple sifted the wheat used for the supplementary offerings would sift it 13 times, and the final test would be that none of it stuck to him when he plunger his hands into it.) Again, this suggests that this took place during the barley harvest, which falls between Passover and Shavuoth, during the time we count the days in a way to remind us to be more fruitful. Thus the wheat that he was threshing had to be old wheat that had been stored, for the Torah does not permit us to eat of the new grain before the firstfruit tribute is skimmed off the top. The tent: singular, indicating the main tent in the camp, which would correlate with Israel’s tabernacle. Yithro (whose name means “his abundance”) was a priest of Midyan (which means strife or confusion). Tradition says he had tried all religions, and therefore had a mixture of practices due to the influence from so many. What could be a better picture of the state of Christianity today? A unified loaf of bread would destroy their place of study and worship. Note that only Midyan’s tent is mentioned; it will take all of Israel to destroy Amaleq, and Yehudah is mentioned nowhere in this account.
14. And his companion replied, “This is none other than the sword of Gid’on the son of Yoash, a man of Israel; the Elohim has handed Midyan and the whole camp over to him!”
None other than: literally, “This is nothing except if it is…”
15. Now when Gid’on heard the recounting of the dream and its interpretation, what he did was prostrate himself [in worship]. Then he returned to the camp of Israel and said, “Get up, because YHWH has given the army of Midyan into your hand!”
Interpretation: literally, breaking open.
16. Then he split the 300 men up [under] three heads, and he put shofars and empty jars in the hands of every one of them, with torches inside the jars.
The jars would have held their provisions (v. 8) This was common practice for perishable foods.
17. And he told them, “Watch me and do the same thing [I do]. And look here! When I arrive at the outskirts of the encampment, you must do just what I do:
18. “When I and all who are with me give a blast with the shofar, then you must blow the shofars too, all around the camp [on every side], and say, ‘For YHWH and for Gid’on!’”
19. When Gid’on and the hundred men who were with him arrived at the edge of the camp, [it was] the beginning of the middle watch [of the night], and they had just finished stationing the guards, when they gave a blast on the shofars and dashed to pieces the jars that were in their hand.
At the time of the greatest instability in the camp, when the outgoing guards were bleary-eyed from exhaustion, most of the soldiers were in their deepest sleep, and the new guards had just arrived and were still disoriented, they used the element of surprise, waking them up them with sudden loud noises. The shattering jars might even sound like horse-drawn chariots jostling toward them. While they eyes were still accustomed to the darkness, they would not be able to see past the glaring lights to tell that there were not 100 more men with each torchbearer as usual.
20. Then the three companies gave a blast on the shofars, shattered the jars, and gripped the torches tightly with their left hands, with the shofars in their right hands [ready] to sound, and they called out, “A sword for YHWH and for Gid’on!”
Yet no mention is made of them having taken swords, and with their hands full, how would they wield them? YHWH had arranged to provide the swords from a different source, like the ram in Genesis 22.
21. And each took his place and stood all around the camp, and the whole army ran to escape, shrieking [with distress].
They would have spread out at set intervals. Being entirely surrounded, where could the enemy run but toward the middle of the camp—or straight into the sword of the attackers?
22. When the 300 sounded the shofars, YHWH had set [each] man’s sword against his fellow, and in the whole camp, and the army fled as far as the place of the acacia tree in Tz’rerah on the brink of Avel-M’kholah [the meadow of dancing] above Tabbath [the celebrated place].
The enemy knew that normally in Israel, a company consisted of 100 men. Only one man in 100 would have a trumpet or a torch, so the 300 men would appear to an experienced army to be 30,000—nearly the very number Gid’on had started with, and now none of them was superfluous. Tz’rerah: possibly an alternate spelling for Tz’redah, meaning a fortress. Avel-M’kholah was the name of the town in Yissakhar where Elisha would later be born. There was another town with the same name in Menashe’s territory right along the Yarden south of Beyth-She’an, and this could be the place the text is referring to, because it is not far north of the place referred to in verse 24.
23. Then the men of Israel were summoned from Nafthali, Asher, and all of Menashe, and chased after Midyan,
These may have been the same men Y’hoshua had sent home earlier, for they come from all but one of the same tribes originally called up. (6:35) They would not yet have gotten back to their homes, but would have camped on the way home, as only one night has passed since he sent them away. Having been honest about their fears, YHWH may have been allowing them a second occasion to get involved—but not as firstfruits, but just to help with the “mop-up”. But Z’vulun is not called up this time. Once the battle was fought, all of Israel got involved. This tells us that today we do not have to be discouraged by the slackness of the 99%--the other Messianics who sit on the sidelines, the “Hebrew-Roots” students who keep one foot in the church, or those still mired in the lightheadedness of Christianity, not even knowing they are really Israel. Only after we complete the task of blazing the trail—when the watering-places are taken back—will YHWH call the rest back in to drink the waters and share the fruits of victory.
24. and Gid’on sent messengers all throughout the mountains of Efrayim to say, “Come down to meet Midyan and hold the waters for them as far as the ford, that is, of the Yarden. And every man of Efrayim was mustered, and they held the waters as far as the ford, that is, of the Yarden.
Those in Efrayim would close the final escape route to the south. The Aramaic targum says “the house of Efrayim”, which would actually then include all ten tribes of what would later become the Northern Kingdom. Hold the waters for them: i.e., bar them from crossing over. The ford: literally, place of crossing over (Beyth-barah, probably a variant for Beyth-Avarah, the place Yochanan witnessed Yahshua’s immersion, according to Yochanan 1:28). This is the way they would try to escape, being the way they had entered the Land (6:33). Hold the waters: or, take the watering-places. This is a picture of gaining control over the places where people are taught.
25. And they captured the two leaders of Midyan, Orev [“raven”] and Ze’ev [“wolf”]. And they killed Orev at the Rock of Orev, and Ze’ev they killed at the wine-vat of Ze’ev. And they chased [the rest all the way] to Midyan, and they brought the head of Orev and Ze’ev to Gid’on from across the Yarden.
Their names show them to be unclean and predatory. Note that only one head seems to be shared between these two men! A raven will feed on dead animals, as we see in the story of Noach. It feeds off the dead—a picture of Roma, which builds its churches over tombs, and in whose iconography Y'shua’s death means everything; the resurrection is somewhat of an afterthought. Efrayim must behead it; it is not Yehudah’s place to do so, for they have no stake in it. Efrayim must become “one bread” and knock over the place of learning they have set up. We can only take down the preachers of strife and confusion if we have the proper approach to Torah study. Midyan’s territory was all the way down near Mount Sinai, on the eastern shore of the Gulf of Aqaba, the “right” fork of the Reed Sea, in what is now northwestern Saudi Arabia—approximately 200 miles to the south!
INTRODUCTION: This book of Israel's history picks up where Y'hoshua left off. Some include it among the prophets rather than the "writings", since several of the judges also acted in this capacity. It covers a span of 341 years (from about 1382 B.C.E. through 1041 B.C.E. (Some chronologies place it 30 years earlier.) The theme of the book is summed up in a phrase repeated several times throughout the later chapters: "At that time there was no king in Israel, and everyone did what was right in his own eyes." The clear antidote to this anarchy, then, which we have today more than we realize, is for there to again be authority in Israel.
THE BOOK OF
Judges
