Judges 10:18

10-18 God is able to multiply men's punishments according to the numbers of their sins and idols. But there is hope when sinners cry to the Lord for help, and lament their ungodliness as well as their more open transgressions. It is necessary, in true repentance, that there be a full conviction that those things cannot help us which we have set in competition with God. They acknowledged what they deserved, yet prayed to God not to deal with them according to their deserts. We must submit to God's justice, with a hope in his mercy. True repentance is not only for sin, but from sin. As the disobedience and misery of a child are a grief to a tender father, so the provocations of God's people are a grief to him. From him mercy never can be sought in vain. Let then the trembling sinner, and the almost despairing backslider, cease from debating about God's secret purposes, or from expecting t...

Verse Judges 10:18. _WHAT MAN_ IS HE _THAT WILL BEGIN TO FIGHT_] It appears that, although the spirit of _patriotism_ had excited the people at large to come forward against their enemies, yet they had no general, none to lead them forth to battle. God, however, who had accepted their sincere repentance, raised them up an able captain in the person of Jephthah; and in him the suffrages of the people were concentrated, as we shall see in the following chapter. In those ancient times much depended on the onset; a war was generally terminated in one battle, the first impression was therefore of great consequence, and it required a person _skillful,_ _valorous_, and _strong_, to head the attack. Jephthah was a person in whom all these qualifications appear to have met. When God purposes to deliver, he, in the course of his providence,

AND THE PEOPLE AND PRINCES ... - The inhabitants of Gilead appear as a separate and independent community, electing their own chief, without any reference to the West-Jordanic tribes....

EXPOSITION JUDGES 10:6 DID EVIL AGAIN. We may conclude that Tola and Jair had used their influence to maintain the worship of Jehovah; but at their death idolatry broke out with more virulence than ever. Not only were the many altars of Baal and Ashtoreth honoured, as in former times, but new forms of idol-worship, according to the rites of all the neighbouring nations, were introduced among them. The gods of Syria, _i.e._ Aram, who are not usually named, but whose worship is spoken of (2 Chronicles 28:23), and whose altar attracted the attention of Ahaz (2 Kings 16:10), and one of whom was Rimmon ...

AND THE PEOPLE AND PRINCES OF GILEAD SAID ONE TO ANOTHER,.... Being thus assembled and encamped: WHAT MAN IS HE THAT WILL BEGIN TO FIGHT WITH THE CHILDREN OF AMMON? for though the forces were assembled together for battle, yet it seems they had no general to command them, and lead them on to it: HE SHALL BE HEAD OVER ALL THE INHABITANTS OF GILEAD, this they ordered to be proclaimed, to encourage some person to take the command of them, and go before them to battle, promising him that he should be judge or governor over all the tribes on that side Jordan....

5. FIFTH DECLENSION: UNDER THE PHILISTINES AND AMMON. JEPHTHAH, IBZAN, ELON, AND ABDON CHAPTER 10:6-18 _ 1. The great declension (Judges 10:6)_ 2. Their cry and the Lord's answer (Judges 10:10) 3. Confession and self-judgment (Judges 10:15) This is the greatest declension yet. They did evil again, served Baalim, Ashtaroth, the gods of Syria, Zidon, Moab, Ammon and the Philistines. They were then sold by the Lord into the hands of the Philistines and into the hands of the children of Ammon. Ammon has rightly been taken to typify rationalism in every form and the wicked doctrines, the denials of the faith, which follow in its train. Christian Science, Russellism, higher criticism, Seven

INTRODUCTION TO THE STORY OF JEPHTHAH. In this section we see the hand of D, and hear the recurrent notes of sin, suffering, repentance, and deliverance. Judges 10:7. The reference to the Philistines seems to be out of place, unless the section is meant to serve as an introduction to Samson's as well as Jephthah's exploits. Judges 10:8. Text faulty: eighteen years should probably stand at the end of Judges 10:7, and Judges 10:8 should perhaps read and they vexed and oppressed the children of Israel that were beyond Jordan, the rest being a gloss....

_the people, the princes of Gilead, said_ The apposition is unusually harsh; perhaps _the princes of Gilead_was inserted on the strength of Judges 11:5-11, where _the elders of G_. are the persons concerned with looking out for a leader....

Jephthah of Gilead Judges 10:6 to Judges 12:7 _Israel Humiliated Judges 10:6-18_ 6 And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord, and served Baalim, and Ashtaroth, and the gods of Syria, and the gods of Zidon, and the gods of Moab, and the gods of the children of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines, and forsook the Lord, and served not him. 7 And the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel, and he sold them into the hands of the Philistines, and into the hands of the children of Ammon. 8 And that year they vexed and oppressed the children of Israel: eighteen years, all the children of Israel that were on the other side Jordan in the land of the Amorites, which is in Gilead. 9 Moreov

THE AMMONITE OPPRESSION 1-5. The Minor Judges, Tola and Jair....