Judges 2:13

_AND THEY FORSOOK THE LORD, AND SERVED BAAL AND ASHTAROTH._ Ashtaroth - also a plural word, denoting all the female divinities, especially Astarte, the Syrian Venus, whose rites were celebrated by the most gross and revolting impurities. 'In every case where the Israelites acted thus, God revoked His promise. The covenant for the time was in abeyance. Wherever it is said that the people did evil in the sight of the Lord, by worshipping strange gods, then also it is declared how God took from them the dominion of Palestine, and sold them into the hands of their enemies' ('Israel after the Flesh,' p. 25). In fact, they were mere children in religious knowledge and moral feeling; hence, the special dispensation of Providence exercised toward Israel at this period was adapted to a people infantine or childish in character and conduct....

6-23 We have a general idea of the course of things in Israel, during the time of the Judges. The nation made themselves as mean and miserable by forsaking God, as they would have been great and happy if they had continued faithful to him. Their punishment answered to the evil they had done. They served the gods of the nations round about them, even the meanest, and God made them serve the princes of the nations round about them, even the meanest. Those who have found God true to his promises, may be sure that he will be as true to his threatenings. He might in justice have abandoned them, but he could not for pity do it. The Lord was with the judges when he raised them up, and so they became saviours. In the days of the greatest distress of the church, there shall be some whom God will find or make fit to help it. The Israelites were not thoroughly reformed; so mad were they upon their...

Verse Judges 2:13. _SERVED BAAL AND ASHTAROTH._] In a general way, probably, _Baal_ and _Ashtaroth_ mean the _sun_ and _moon_; but in many cases _Ashtaroth_ seems to have been the same among the Canaanites as _Venus_ was among the Greeks and Romans, and to have been worshipped with the same obscene rites....

EXPOSITION JUDGES 2:7 AND THE PEOPLE SERVED, etc. This verse is the epitome of the religious history of Israel from the time of the expostulation of the angel till the dying off of all those who had been elders in the time of Joshua. It probably includes some forty or fifty years from the entrance into Canaan, viz; about thirty years of Joshua's lifetime, and ten, fifteen, or twenty years after Joshua's death. The record of the people's continuance in the service of the Lord connects itself with the promise made by them in Joshua 24:21, Joshua 24:24. ALL THE GREAT WORKS, etc. Scarcely those prior to the crossing of the Jordan, though some might remember some o

AND THEY FORSOOK THE LORD,.... The worship of the Lord, as the Targum; this is repeated to observe the heinous sin they were guilty of, and how displeasing it was to God: AND SERVED BAAL AND ASHTAROTH; two images, as the Arabic version adds; Baal, from whence Baalim, may signify the he deities of the Gentiles, as Jupiter, Hercules, c. and Ashtaroth their female deities, as Juno, Venus, Diana, c. the word is plural, and used for flocks of sheep, so called because they make the owners of them rich and Kimchi and Ben Melech say these were images in the form of female sheep. Perhaps, as Baal may signify the sun, so Ashtaroth the moon, and the stars like flocks of sheep about her. Ashtaroth was the goddess of the Zidonians, 1 Kings 11:5 the same with Astarte, the wife of Cronus or Ham, said to be the Phoenician or Syrian Venus. So Lucian says r there was a temple i

ASHTAROTH Ashtaroth, plural of Ashtoreth (1 Kings 11:5) were figures of Ashtoreth the Phoenician goddess (the Astarte of the Greeks), which were worshipped as idols during times of spiritual declension in Israel. (Judges 10:6); (1 Samuel 7:3); (1 Samuel 7:4); (1 Samuel 12:10); (1 Samuel 31:10); (1 Kings 11:5); ...

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 2:11) 4. Israel's history under the judges outlined (Judges 2:16) 5. The nations left to prove Israel (Judges 2:19; Judges 3:1) The opening event of this chapter is significant. The Angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bochim. This Angel is J

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, the whole era of the Judges falls into longer or shorter times of national prosperity, in which Yahweh protects and blesses His faithful people, alternating with times of national calamity, in which He withdraws His favour and blessing from apostates. On the beneficent strength of the Judge the pillars of state rest secure for a whole generation, and his decease is like the removal of the key-stone of an arch. The writer's general principle his philosophy of history is based on sound prophetic

ASHTAROTH. The special evil of Canaanite nations. Name derived from the _Asherah_ (see App-42). The _Asherah_ was idolatry of the most revolting form of immorality under the guise of religion. All virtue surrendered. The "going. whoring" is more than. figure of speech. See Exodus 34:13.Deuteronomy 7:5; Deuteronomy 12:3; Deuteronomy 16:21. Note all the occurrences of _'Ashtaroth_: Deuteronomy 1:4.Joshua 9:10;...

This verse repeats the substance of Judges 2:12; it continues Judges 2:10 and leads on to Judges 2:20. The repetition is explained if the verse belongs to E; for the expression _forsook the Lord_in E cf. Joshua 24:20; Deuteronomy 31:16. _served Baal and the Ashtaroth_ Once settled in Canaan, the Israelites could not resist the temptation to adopt the worship of the native deities, on whom the prosperity of flocks and fields was supposed to depend. The God of Israel came from the desert; in the early days of the settlement His home was believed to be