21 matching verse commentaries
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
Judah Attacks the Canaanites; The Punishment of Adoni-bezek. (b. c. 1425.) 1 Now after the death of Joshua it came to pass, that the children of Israel asked the Lord , saying, Who shall go up for us against the Canaanites first, to fight against them? 2 And the Lord said, Judah shall go up: behold, I have delivered the land into his hand. 3 And...
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
In this chapter we have, I. A particular message which God sent to Israel by an angel, and the impression it made upon them, ver. 1-5. II. A general idea of the state of Israel during the government of the judges, in which observe, 1. Their adherence to God while Joshua and the elders lived, ver. 6-10. 2. Their revolt afterwards to idolatry, ver....
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
In this chapter, I. A general account of Israel's enemies is premised, and of the mischief they did them, ver. 1-7. II. A particular account of the brave exploits done by the first three of the judges. 1. Othniel, whom God raised up to fight Israel's battles, and plead their cause against the king of Mesopotamia, ver. 8-11. 2. Ehud, who was...
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
The method of the history of Deborah and Barak (the heroes in this chapter) is the same with that before. Here is, I. Israel revolted from God, ver. 1. II. Israel oppressed by Jabin, ver. 2, 3. III. Israel judged by Deborah, ver. 4, 5. IV. Israel rescued out of the hands of Jabin. 1. Their deliverance is concerted between Deborah and Barak, ver....
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
This chapter contains the triumphal song which was composed and sung upon occasion of that glorious victory which Israel obtained over the forces of Jabin king of Canaan and the happy consequences of that victory. Probably it was usual then to publish poems upon such occasions, as now; but this only is preserved of all the poems of that age of the...
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
Nothing that occurred in the quiet and peaceable times of Israel is recorded; the forty years' rest after the conquest of Jabin is passed over in silence; and here begins the story of another distress and another deliverance, by Gideon, the fourth of the judges. Here is, I. The calamitous condition of Israel, by the inroads of the Midianites, ver....
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
This chapter presents us with Gideon in the field, commanding the army of Israel, and routing the army of the Midianites, for which great exploit we found in the former chapter how he was prepared by his converse with God and his conquest of Baal. We are here told, I. What direction God gave to Gideon for the modelling of his army, by which it was...
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
This chapter gives us a further account of Gideon's victory over the Midianites, with the residue of the story of his life and government. I. Gideon prudently pacifies the offended Ephraimites, ver. 1-3. II. He bravely pursues the flying Midianites, ver. 4, 10-12. III. He justly chastises the insolence of the men of Succoth and Penuel, who basely...
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
The apostasy of Israel after the death of Gideon is punished, not as the former apostasies by a foreign invasion, or the oppressions of any neighbouring power, but by intestine broils among themselves, which in this chapter we have the story of; and it is hard to say whether their sin or their misery appears most in it. It is an account of the...
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
In this chapter we have, I. The peaceable times Israel enjoyed under the government of two judges, Tola and Jair, ver. 1-5. II. The troublesome times that ensued. 1. Israel's sin that brought them into trouble, ver. 6. 2. The trouble itself they were in, ver. 7-9. III. Their repentance and humiliation for sin, their prayers and reformation, and...
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
This chapter gives as the history of Jephthah, another of Israel's judges, and numbered among the worthies of the Old Testament, that by faith did great things (Heb. xi. 32), though he had not such an extraordinary call as the rest there mentioned had. Here we have, I. The disadvantages of his origin, ver. 1-3. II. The Gileadites' choice of him to...
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
In this chapter we have, I. Jephthah's rencounter with the Ephraimites, and the blood shed on that unhappy occasion (ver. 1-6), and the conclusion of Jephthah's life and government, ver. 7. II. A short account of three other of the judges of Israel: Ibzan (ver. 8-10), Elon (ver. 11, 12), Abdon, ver. 13-15. Displeasure of the Ephraimites;...
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
At this chapter begins the story of Samson, the last of the judges of Israel whose story is recorded in this book, and next before Eli. The passages related concerning him are, from first to last, very surprising and uncommon. The figure he makes in this history is really great, and yet vastly different from that of his predecessors. We never find...
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
The idea which this chapter gives us of Samson is not what one might have expected concerning one who, by the special designation of heaven, was a Nazarite to God and a deliverer of Israel; and yet really he was both. Here is, I. Samson's courtship of a daughter of the Philistines, and his marriage to her, ver. 1-5, 7, 8. II. His conquest of a...
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
Samson, when he courted an alliance with the Philistines, did but seek an occasion against them, ch. xiv. 4. Now here we have a further account of the occasions he took to weaken them, and to avenge, not his own, but Israel's quarrels, upon them. Everything here is surprising; if any thing be thought incredible, because impossible, it must be...
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
Samson's name (we have observed before) signifies a little sun (sol parvus); we have seen this sun rising very bright, and his morning ray strong and clear; and, nothing appearing to the contrary, we take it for granted that the middle of the day was proportionably illustrious, while he judged Israel twenty years; but the melancholy story of this...
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
All agree that what is related in this and the rest of the chapters to the end of this book was not done, as the narrative occurs, after Samson, but long before, even soon after the death of Joshua, in the days of Phinehas the son of Eleazar, ch. xx. 28. But it is cast here into the latter part of the book that it might not interrupt the history...
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
How idolatry crept into the family of Micah we read in the preceding chapter, how it was translated thence into the tribe of Dan we have an account in this chapter, and how it gained a settlement in a city of note; for how great a matter does a little fire kindle! The tribe of Dan had their lot assigned them last of all the tribes, and, it...
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
The three remaining chapters of this book contain a most tragical story of the wickedness of the men of Gibeah, patronised by the tribe of Benjamin, for which that tribe was severely chastised and almost entirely cut off by the rest of the tribes. This seems to have been done not long after the death of Joshua, for it was when there was no king,...
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
Into the book of the wars of the Lord the story of this chapter must be brought, but it looks as sad and uncomfortable as any article in all that history; for there is nothing in it that looks in the least bright or pleasant but the pious zeal of Israel against the wickedness of the men of Gibeah, which made it on their side a just and holy war;...