EXPOSITION JUDGES 8:1 THE MEN OF EPHRAIM. It is possible that the transfer of the birthright from Manasseh to Ephraim (Genesis 48:13-1) may have produced some estrangement between the tribes. It is also possible that Ephraim, in view of their great tribal power, and the distinction conferred upon t... [ Continue Reading ]
EXPOSITION JUDGES 8:4 CAME TO JORDAN. The narrative goes back to Judges 7:24, to follow up the personal history of Gideon, from which the writer had been diverted to relate the result of Gideon's message to the Ephraimites, which is told in Judges 7:24 and Judges 7:25, and Judges 8:1 (see Judges 7... [ Continue Reading ]
EXPOSITION JUDGES 8:13 BEFORE THE SUN WAS UP. There is a wonderful diversity in the renderings of this verse. Some of the old versions and Jewish Rabbis interpret it _before sunset. _Many of the best Jewish commentators, however, understand the phrase as the A.V. does—"Before the going up of the su... [ Continue Reading ]
EXPOSITION JUDGES 8:22, JUDGES 8:23 RULE THOU, etc. The gratitude of Israel to their great deliverer, added to a sense that it would be for their own security, and to a desire, already perhaps beginning to he felt, to be like the nations around them (1 Samuel 8:5), naturally led to the offer, "Rule... [ Continue Reading ]