5 And they called the name of that place Bochim: and they sacrificed there unto the LORD. 6 ¶ And when Joshua had let the people. go, the children of Israel went every man unto his inheritance to possess the land. not find, from the ensuing history, that any general or permanent reformation took place; though they now relented, they soon relapsed, and involved themselves afresh and still more deeply in the guilt of defection and idolatry. 'Many are melted under the word, that harden again before they are cast in a new mould.' Henry. 5. They sacrificed there unto the Lord. They had recourse to the blood of sprinkling for the remission of their sin. Though their weeping was very general and very bitter, so much so as to give a name to the place, yet they did not hope to pacify their offended God with tears. They knew that an atonement was necessary, and they therefore sought him in his appointed way. Would that we might learn from them! Humiliation is necessary, but not sufficient. Tears, even if they were to flow in rivers, could never wash away sin. The blood of atonement is indispensable, without which there is no remission. Nor should the fact be lost sight of here, that the sin laid to the charge of Israel was not of commission, but of omission; not some flagrant enormity, but a lukewarmness and neglect of duty. Yet they saw their need of a sacrifice to atone for that. In like manner, though we should have no guilt imputed to us but that of omission and defect, yet must we apply to the blood of sprinkling, and seek for pardon through that one sacrifice offered for us upon the cross. 6. When Joshua had let the people go. This passage, v. 6-9, has already occurred in nearly the same words in Josh. 24. 29-31. It seems to be repeated here as a suitable preliminary to the ensuing account of their degeneracy and apostasy. The angel had foretold that the Canaanites and their idols would be a snare to Israel. The writer is now about to show that this prediction was actually fulfilled, and in order to that he turns back and takes a brief retrospect of some previous incidents in their history which, by contrast, would set the enormity of their transgressions in a still more striking point of view. This is according to the common usage of the sacred writers, who, in their narrations, go more by the relation of events to each other, than by their strict chronological order. After being so happily fixed in their several inheritances and having commenced their settlement in Canaan under such favorable auspices, it greatly aggravated their sin, that they should afterwards have fallen away from God, and so grievously disappointed the promise which their fair beginnings held out. 7. All the days of the elders that outlived Joshua. Heb. that prolonged their days after Joshua.' As these elders might some of them 8 And 'Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died, being an hundred and ten years old. m 9 " And they buried him in the border of his inheritance in " Timnath-heres, in the mount of Ephraim, on the north side of the hill Gaash. 10 And also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers: 1 Josh. 24. 29. m Josh. 24. 30. n Josh. 19. 50, and 24. 30. o Exod 5. 2. 1 Sam. 2. 12. 1 Chron. 28. 9. Jer. 9. 3, and 22. 16. 4. 8. 2 Thess. 1. 8. Tit. 1. 16. Gal. have lived several years after Joshua's decease, this term should be deducted from the whole period of Israel's idolatries recorded in this book. 9. Buried him-in Timnatk-heres. This place is called, in Josh. 24. 30, 'Timnath-serah.' By transposing the letters of the last word, it becomes, as here, 'Heres,' which signifies the sun, and it is not improbable, as the Jews imagine, that it was so called by reason of some memorial, connected with his sepulchre, of the sun's miraculously standing still at his command. 10. Which knew not the Lord. Had no practical or experimental knowledge of him; no deep or lively impression of his goodness; no affectionate, grateful, or devout sense of the wondrous manifestations of his power in their behalf. 1. 8. See on Ex, 11. Served Baalim. This word, the plural of 'Baal,' signifies lords. Their false gods the Canaanites considered as supernatural rulers or governors, each having his peculiar district and office. wished to express and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the LORD, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel. 11 ¶ And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served Baalim : 12 And they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the people that were round about p Deut. 31. 16. q Deut. 6. 14. 'Baal,' or lord, they usually added some distinctive epithet, as Baalzephon, Baal-peor, Baal-zebub, &c. The pl. is here used to intimate that these imaginary deities were various, and that the worship of the Israelites, like that of the Canaanites, was not confined to any one of them. Lords many and gods many had dominion over them. From this verse onwards to the end of the chapter, the writer's drift seems to be to give in brief terms a summary or compend of the whole book. It is a general and condensed statement of the leading features of the history of Israel, during the period of the Judges, which in the ensuing chapters is expanded into the various details of oppression and deliverance which are so briefly touched upon in these verses. This is according to the common usage of the sacred writers, and we have no doubt that the more minute is the reader's inspection of the structure of the book, the more plausible will this view of the subject appear. 12, And they forsook the Lord God. Bnt when they | Rather, 'for they forsook,' &c., a a particular mere enlargement in its more mi r Exod 20. 5. ch. 3. 7, and 10. 6. Ps. 106. 36. t ch. 3. 8. Ps. 106. 40, 41, 42. u 2 Kings 17. 20. nute particulars of the general fact stated in the preceding verse. Chald. 'they forsook the worship of the Lord God,' as they that forsake the worship of God, do in effect forsake God himself. 13. Served Baal and Ashtaroth. Ashtaroth, like Baalim above, is of the plural number, and is probably here used as a general name for all the female deities of these nations, as Baal or Baalim is of the male. -The sing. Ashtereth (Astarte) is the name of the Syrian Venus, who was worshipped with the most revolting and abominable rites. It is supposed that the moon was worshipped under this name, as was the sun under that of Baal. 14. Into the hands of spoilers. Robbers, marauders, plundering parties of the Canaanites, who committed depredations upon their cattle, flocks, crops, &c. The word may also be understood in a still fuller sense as equivalent to oppressors, those who captured not their property only, but themselves, reducing them to servitude, or at least compelling them to pay tribute.-¶Sold them. To sell, is to alienate the possession of any thing for a valuable consideration. The term is used in the Scriptures, however, without the annexed idea y them, and he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about, so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies. 15 Whithersoever they went out, the hand of the LORD was against them for evil, as the LORD had said, and 'as the LORD x ch. 3. 8, and 4. 2. Ps. 44. 12. Isai. 50. 1. y Lev. 26. 37. Josh. 7. 12, 13. z Lev. 26 Deut. 28. of an equivalent. God is said to 'sell' his disobedient people, when he delivers them up into the hands of their enemies to be dealt with as they may see fit, when he puts them out of his own hand, as it were, withholds his protection, and has nothing more to do with them as the objects of his peculiar protection. It is a term, therefore, emphatically expressive of the divine displeasure, the most fearful judgment in its consequences that can befal a nation or an individual. Comp. ch. 3. 8, and 48; Deut. 32. 30; Ps. 44. 13; Is. 50. 1. 15. Whithersoever they went out. Whatsoever they undertook. Heb. 'in everything to which they went forth.' Not only in their military expeditions against their enemies, but in whatever undertaking they engaged at home, they were still baffled and disappointed, and every thing went against them. The doing of any kind of business is frequently expressed in Hebrew by the phrase, 'going out,' or 'coming in.' Thus, Deut. 28. 6, 'Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out;' i. e. in all thine undertakings and employments, in the whole course and current of thine affairs. Comp. Ps. 121. 8. As the Lord had a had sworn unto them: and they was with the judge, and delivwere greatly distressed. ered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge: (for it repented the LORD because of their groanings by reason of them that oppressed them and vexed them.) 16 Nevertheless the LORD raised up judges, which delivered them out of the hand of those that spoiled them. b e 17 And yet they would not hearken unto their judges, but 19 And it came to pass, when they went a whoring after the judge was dead, that they other gods, and bowed them- returned, and corrupted themselves unto them: they turned selves more than their fathers, quickly out of the way which in following other gods to serve their fathers walked in, obeying them, and to bow down unto the commandments of the LORD; them; they ceased not from but they did not so. their own doings, nor from their stubborn way. 18 And when the LORD raised them up judges, then the LORD C a ch. 3. 9, 10 15. 1 Sam. 12. 11. Acts 13. 20. b Exod. 34. 15, 16. Lev. 17. 7. said, &c. c Josh. 1.5. d See Gen. 6. 6. Deut. 32. 36. Ps. 106. 44, 45. e ch. 3. 12, and 4. 1, and 8. 33. 17. Would not hearken unto their judges. Would not obey them. Particular reference is had to Lev. 26. 15-17; Deut. 28.25; where these very judgments are ex-¶ But went, &c. By the covenant pressly denounced against them in case they should thus apostatize. entered into at mount Sinai, Ex. 19. 6, the people of Israel were virtually married unto God, so that every instance of idolatry was a breach of that solemn compact. The worship of idols was accounted and spoken of as spiritual adultery, and from the nature of the rites accompanying these idolatrous practices, the term was often more than metaphorically proper. 16. The Lord raised up judges. That is, by the secret prompting and inspiration of his spirit, working upon the hearts of particular individuals, in view of the sufferings and calamities of the people, and inciting them, like Moses in Egypt, to aim at effecting their deliverance. This inward impulse was usually, perhaps always, accompanied by an express call and command to undertake the work, and by some outward designation which | testified to the people the divine elec- 6, 7; tion; such for the most part as the display of some signal act of heroism, the performance of some marvellous or miraculous exploit, as in the cases of Shamgar, Gideon, Samson, &c. On the import of the word 'judges' in this book, see Introduction. 18. It repented the Lord. He altered the course of his providence, acted as if he repented. See on Gen 6. Deut. 32. 36. 19. They ceased not from their own doings. Heb. 'they let nothing fall from their doings.' They abated, they relaxed nothing of their evil practices.¶ Nor from their stubborn way. Heb. np darkâm hakkâshâh, their hard way. Hard, as proceeding from a hard and per 20 T'And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel; and he said, Because that this people hath transgressed my covenant which I commanded their fathers, and have not hearkened unto my voice; 21 I also will not henceforth drive out any from before them of the nations which Joshua left when he died. f ver. 14. g Josh. 23. 16. h Josh. 23. 13. verse heart; hard, in the sense of being stubbornly persisted in; and hard or grievous in its consequences. It is the term applied to the obstinate and intractable conduct of Pharaoh. 20. And the anger of the Lord was kindled, &c. From this verse to the end of the chapter, the narrative is probably to be considered merely as a repetition in substance of what is affirmed by the Angel, v. 1-3. It is a more full and detailed statement of the reasons for the foregoing appearance of the divine messenger, threatening them with the judgments of heaven for their disobedience. Nothing is more common than such transpositions in the order of the inspired record. The effect is first mentioned, and the cause afterwards. 21. Will not henceforth drive out, &c. I will not while you continue in your stubborn way. The promises of God to expel the Canaanites were upon condition of their obedi ence. 22. That through them I may prove Israel. Not for his own satisfaction, but that they themselves might be made better acquainted with the plague of their own hearts, and that the righteous judgments of God might thus approve themselves to the i ch. 3. 1, 4. k Deut. 8. 2, 16, and 13. 3. consciences of all who should either experience, or witness, or hear of them. The Most High often orders his providence on the principle of a father or master who distrusts the fidelity of his son or servant, and places them in such circumstances that they may, by their good or evil conduct, justify his suspicions, or give him proofs of their being groundless. It is implied, however, that these nations, in case the Israelites stood not the test, should be not only trials or ordeals to them, but also scourges and instruments of wrath. -T As their fathers did keep it. That is, those who lived in the days of Joshua, and the elders who overlived him. 23. Therefore the Lord left, &c. Or, Heb. 'suffered.' It is not to be understood that there was any absolute necessity for this delay in expelling the Canaanites, but as God foresaw the remissness of his people in accomplishing this work, he saw fit in his providence to overrule it to a wise and useful result. In like manner he overrules the wickedness of all the wicked in the universe, and causes it to redound to the good of the whole and his own glory, in the view of all intelligent creatures. |