The angel of the Lord (not an angel). - The phrase is used nearly 60 times to designate the Angel of God’s presence. See Genesis 12:7 note. In all cases where “the angel of the Lord” delivers a message, he does it as if God Himself were speaking, without the intervening words “Thus saith the Lord,” which are used in the case of prophets. (Compare Judges 6:8; Joshua 24:2.)

When the host of Israel came up from Gilgal in the plain of Jericho, near the Jordan Joshua 4:19 to Shiloh and Shechem, in the hill country of Ephraim, the Angel who had been with them at Gilgal Exodus 23:20; Exodus 33:1; Joshua 5:10 accompanied them. The mention of Gilgal thus fixes the transaction to the period soon after the removal of the camp from Gilgal, and the events recorded in Judges 1:1 (of which those related in Judges 1:1 took place before, and those in Judges 1:30, just after that removal). It also shows that it was the conduct of the Israelites, recorded in Judges 1 as in Joshua 16:1; Joshua 17, which provoked this rebuke.

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