Commentaries Dictionaries Concordances

Summarized Bible Commentary

Judges 3:1-31

Contents: Apostasies of Israel. Deliverances through Othniel, Ehud and Shamgar.

Characters: God, Othniel, Chushan-rishathian, Eglou, Ehud, Shamgar.

Conclusion: Man's memory is treacherous in that it easily forgets God and he must be repeatedly tested that God might be kept in sight. It often takes affliction to make him cry to God with importunity, when before he would scarcely think of Jehovah. A deliverer is always ready to answer the prayer of a contrite heart.

Key Word: Proved (tested), Judges 3:1; Judges 3:4.

Strong Verses: Judges 3:9; Judges 3:15.

Striking Facts: Judges 3:1; Judges 3:2. War is sometimes God's will. When a country is exceedingly rich and fruitful, abounding with dainties of all sorts, if the people are not sometimes brought to know hardship, they are in danger of sinking into the utmost degree of luxury and effeminacy.

Continues after advertising

See also Judges 3:1-31 in other biblical comments:

  • Adam Clarke Bible Commentary

    CHAPTER III _An account of the nations that we left to prove Israel_, 1-4. _How the people provoked the Lord_, 5-7. _They are delivered into the power of the king of Mesopotamia,_ _by whom they ar...

  • Albert Barnes' Bible Commentary

    EVEN AS MANY OF ISRAEL ... - These words show that the writer has especially in view the generation which came to man’s estate immediately after the close of the wars with the Canaanites Joshua 23:1....

  • Annotated Bible by A.C. Gaebelein

    2. THE ANGEL AT BOCHIM AND THE HISTORY OF THE ENTIRE BOOK Chapter S 2:1-3:4 _ 1. The angel at Bochim (Judges 2:1)_ 2. Israel's obedience remembered (Judges 2:6) 3. Israel's strange gods (Judges 2:...

  • Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

    JUDGES 2:6 TO JUDGES 3:6. THE DEUTERONOMIST'S INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF JUDGES PROPER (Judges 3:5 to Judges 16:31). In the view of this interpreter of sacred history,

  • Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes

    THE LORD. Hebrew. _Jehovah._ App-4....

  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

    Judges 3:1-3 explain why _Jehovah left_ THESE _nations_(Judges 2:23); _it was merely to teach succeeding generations of Israelites the practice of war_(Judges 3:2 in the main). The idea is obviously a...

  • Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

    _AN ACCOUNT OF THE NATIONS WHICH WERE LEFT TO PROVE ISRAEL; BY COMMUNION WITH WHOM THEY COMMIT IDOLATRY, AND ARE PUNISHED. OTHNIEL, EHUD, AND SHAMGAR, ARE RAISED UP TO DELIVER THEM._ _Before Christ...

  • College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

    _Nations Left to Test Israel Judges 3:1-6_ Now these are the nations which the Lord left, to prove Israel by them, even as many of Israel as had not known all the wars of Canaan; 2 Only that the gener...

  • Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

    _NOW THESE ARE THE NATIONS WHICH THE LORD LEFT, TO PROVE ISRAEL BY THEM, EVEN AS MANY OF ISRAEL AS HAD NOT KNOWN ALL THE WARS OF CANAAN;_ These are the nations which the Lord left, to prove Israel. T...

  • Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible

    INTRODUCTORY (JUDGES 1:1 TO JUDGES 3:4) Division 1, Judges 1:1 to Judges 2:5. This section of the book contains a brief recapitulation of the early conquest of Pa

  • Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible

    THE STORY OF THE JUDGES. OTHNIEL. EHUD. SHAMGAR 1-6. Israel's actual relations with the Canaanites....

  • Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible

    WARS OF CANAAN] i.e. those waged by Joshua, after whose death (Judges 2:21) the career of victory was made to cease by Jehovah....

  • EasyEnglish Bible Commentaries

    LIFE WITHOUT LAW JUDGES _PHILIP SMITH_ CHAPTER 3 V1 These are the nations that the *Lord left. He left them in order to test *Israel’s people. These people had not fought any wars in *Canaan. V2...

  • Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

    TO PROVE ISRAEL. — The verb here used is the same as in Judges 2:22 and Judges 3:4, but, as R. Tanchum observes, it is used in a slightly different sense, meaning “to train them.” Symmachus renders it...

  • ETCBC data on Hebrew bible

    וְ אֵ֤לֶּה הַ גֹּויִם֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר הִנִּ֣יחַ יְהו

  • Expositor's Bible Commentary (Nicoll)

    THE ARM OF ARAM AND OF OTHNIEL Judges 3:1 WE come now to a statement of no small importance, which may be the cause of some perplexity. It is emphatically affirmed that God fulfilled His design for I...

  • Frederick Brotherton Meyer's Commentary

    DELIVERED FROM MESOPOTAMIAN OPPRESSION Judges 3:1 Our sins and failures will sometimes be so overruled as to promote the growth of our souls in the true knowledge of ourselves and of God. It would be...

  • G. Campbell Morgan's Exposition on the Whole Bible

    God left certain nations, a company of stem, implacable enemies, in order to prove Israel. The overruling of God is set forth remarkably in this declaration. The people who had refused to cast out the...

  • Gary Hampton Commentaries

    RUTH 3:1-31 Through Moses, God had made a great promise to Israel to fight for them and drive out the nations from the land of Canaan (Exodus 23:27-33). Thomas suggests Israel would never have had to...

  • Geneva Study Bible Commentary

    Now these [are] the nations which the LORD left, to prove Israel by them, [even] as many [of Israel] as had not known all the (a) wars of Canaan; (a) Which were achieved by the hand of God, and not b...

  • George Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

    Instruct. The original is translated try, ver. 4, and chap. ii. 22. --- And all. Hebrew, "as many of Israel as had not," &c. (Haydock) --- Those who had served under Josue, were so strongly impressed...

  • Hawker's Poor man's commentary

    CONTENTS The subject which opened in the preceding Chapter, of the backsliding of Israel; from the Lord, is prosecuted in this. Here are inserted the names of Israel ' s enemies, which acted as instru...

  • Hawker's Poor man's commentary

    This is an interesting chapter, and the first verse acts as a key to let us into the meaning of it. The Lord, we are told, left those nations to prove Israel. Hence we learn, that the trials of God's...

  • Introductory Lectures - Commentary by William Kelly

    The book of Joshua has shown the power of Jehovah in the conquests of His people, and this too distinguished from the measure of their practical taking possession of what was conquered. For as these a...

  • John Darby's Synopsis

    THE FOLLOWING COMMENTARY COVERS CHAPTER S 3, 4, AND 5. God, knowing what the people were, and what was their condition, had left within the borders of their land that which put obedience to the proof-...

  • John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

    NOW THESE [ARE] THE NATIONS WHICH THE LORD LEFT TO PROVE ISRAEL BY THEM,.... Which are later mentioned, Judges 3:3; [EVEN] AS MANY [OF ISRAEL] AS HAD NOT KNOWN ALL THE WARS OF CANAAN; those that Josh...

  • John Trapp Complete Commentary

    Now these [are] the nations which the LORD left, to prove Israel by them, [even] as many [of Israel] as had not known all the wars of Canaan; Ver. 1. _Which the Lord left, to prove._] God proveth us...

  • Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

    _Now these are the nations_, &c. The sacred historian having declared, in general, that God did not judge it proper to drive out all the Canaanites, because he intended to try the fidelity and zeal of...

  • KJV Original Language Details

    1 The nations which were left to prooue Israel. 6 By communion with them they commit idolatrie. 8 Othniel deliuereth them from Chushan-Rishathaim. 12 Ehud from Eglon. 31 Shamgar from the Philistin...

  • Kretzmann's Popular Commentary of the Bible

    Now these are the nations which the Lord left to prove Israel by them, to test their faithfulness to Him, EVEN AS MANY OF ISRAEL AS HAD NOT KNOWN ALL THE WARS OF CANAAN, the younger generation which e...

  • Kretzmann's Popular Commentary of the Bible

    THE NATIONS WHICH REMAINED...

  • Leslie M. Grant's Commentary on the Bible

    THE NATIONS LEFT TO TEST ISRAEL (vv. 1-6) The younger Israelites had not learned war, and were faced now with learning it by means of the nations left in the land, for God is not going to exempt an...

  • Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible

    1-7 As the Israelites were a type of the church on earth, they were not to be idle and slothful. The Lord was pleased to try them by the remains of the devoted nations they spared. Temptations and tr...

  • Matthew Poole's Concise Commentary On The Bible

    JUDGES CHAPTER 3 The nations left to prove Israel mentioned, JUDGES 3:1. The Israelites marrying their daughters, and serving their gods, they are delivered up to the king of Mesopotamia; are rescued...

  • Patchworkid's Personal Study Bible Notes

    Judges 3:1 nations H1471 LORD H3068 left H3240 (H8689) test H5254 (H8763) Israel H3478 known H3045 ...

  • Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible

    CHAPTER 3. DELIVERERS. This chapter gives an account of the nations who remained in Canaan to prove Israel's faithfulness, and who became a snare to them. It describes the servitude of Israel under a...

  • Sutcliffe's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

    Judges 3:7. _The children of Israel served Baalim and the groves._ So is the French. אשׁרות _asheroth;_ rendered by the Chaldaic and the Latin versions, _lucis,_ light. The sense seems to be a revolt...

  • The Biblical Illustrator

    _The nations which the Lord left, to prove Israel by them._ THE TRIAL AND CHASTISEMENT OF AN UNFAITHFUL PEOPLE I. It was God’s own thought to put them to the proof. 1. Far otherwise were the though...

  • The ESV Global Study Bible's Study Notes

    JUDGES—NOTE ON JUDGES 3:1 TO TEST ISRAEL. To see if Israel would truly follow the Lord (Judges 2:22; Judges

  • The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary

    _GOD’S MEANS OF TESTING CHARACTER AND CHASTISING FOR SIN.— Judges 3:1_ CRITICAL NOTES.— Judges 3:1. Which the Lord left.] Allowed to remain, _i.e., spared from doom_; not—_did not mark out for destru...

  • The Pulpit Commentaries

    EXPOSITION JUDGES 3:1 NOW THESE ARE THE NATIONS, etc. We are now told in detail what was stated in general in Judges 2:22, Judges 2:23, after the common method of Hebrew narrative. To

  • Through The Bible C2000 Serie by Chuck Smith

    Now these are the nations which the LORD left, to prove Israel (Judges 3:1), There were the Philistines, the Canaanites, the Hivites and the Hittites and the Jebusites and the Perizzites and the Amor...

  • Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

    1 Peter 1:7; 1 Peter 4:12; 2 Chronicles 32:31; Deuteronomy 7:22;...

  • Wesley's Explanatory Notes

    Had not known — That is, such as had no experience of those wars, nor of God's extraordinary power and providence manifested in them....

Continues after advertising