Judges 3:19

_BUT HE HIMSELF TURNED AGAIN FROM THE QUARRIES THAT WERE BY GILGAL, AND SAID, I HAVE A SECRET ERRAND UNTO THEE, O KING: WHO SAID, KEEP SILENCE. AND ALL THAT STOOD BY HIM WENT OUT FROM HIM._ Quarries. There are no remains of quarries in that neighborhood. The Hebrew word is х_ HAPªCIYLIYM _ (H6456)], the pillars, the piles of stone, the carved images (Deuteronomy 7:25; Jeremiah 8:19; Jeremiah 51:52); statues of Moabite idols, the sight of which kindled the patriotic zeal of Ehud to avenge this public insult to Israel on its author. They had probably been set up as landmarks, determining the boundaries of the Hebrew territory from the Moabite acqu

12-30 When Israel sins again, God raises up a new oppressor. The Israelites did ill, and the Moabites did worse; yet because God punishes the sins of his own people in this world, Israel is weakened, and Moab strengthened against them. If lesser troubles do not do the work, God will send greater. When Israel prays again, God raises up Ehud. As a judge, or minister of Divine justice, Ehud put to death Eglon, the king of Moab, and thus executed the judgments of God upon him as an enemy to God and Israel. But the law of being subject to principalities and powers in all things lawful, is the rule of our conduct. No such commissions are now given; to pretend to them is to blaspheme God. Notice Ehud's address to Eglon. What message from God but a message of vengeance can a proud rebel expect? Such a message is contained in the word of God; his ministers are boldly to declare it, without feari...

Verse Judges 3:19. _HE-TURNED - FROM THE QUARRIES_] פסילים _pesilim_. Some of the versions understand this word as meaning _idols_ or _graven_ _images_, or some spot where the Moabites had a place of idolatrous worship. As _pasal_ signifies to _cut, hew_, or _engrave_, it may be applied to the images thus cut, or to the _place_, or _quarry_ whence they were digged: but it is most likely that _idols_ are meant. Some think that _trenches_ are meant, and that _pesilim_ here may mean the _boundaries_ of the two countries: and when Ehud had got thus far, he sent away the people that were with him, under pretense of having a secret message to Eglon, and so got rid of his attendants, in presence of whom he could not have executed his scheme, nor have secured his escape afterwards. But I do not see the evidence of this mode of interp...

Gilgal was in the immediate neighborhood of Jericho Judges 2:1, where doubtless Eglon held his court at this time Judges 3:13. QUARRIES - Some take the original of this word in its common meaning of carved images or idols (see the margin)....

EXPOSITION JUDGES 3:13 THE CHILDREN OF AMMON. The technical name of the Ammonite people (see Genesis 19:38; Deuteronomy 2:19, Deuteronomy 2:37; Judges 10:6, Judges 10:11, Judges 10:17, etc.). Sometimes, however, they are called _Ammon_, or _Ammonites _(see...

BUT HE HIMSELF TURNED AGAIN FROM THE QUARRIES THAT [WERE] BY GILGAL,...., For so far he accompanied the men that came with him. These quarries were places where they dug stones and hewed them, according to the Targum, and most Jewish writers; but some render the word "engravings", and understand them of inscriptions engraved on pillars here, which remained from the times of Seth the son of Adam; of which see more on Judges 3:26; but according to the Vulgate Latin, and other versions, graven images or idols are meant, which the king of Moab set up here in contempt of the Israelites, it being a place where the ark remained some time, and circumcision had been performed, Joshua 5:3; or in order to draw them into idolatry, those idols perhaps being made of the twelve stones they had set up there,...

2. SECOND DECLENSION UNDER MOAB--EHUD AND SHAMGAR CHAPTER 3:12-31 _ 1. The second declension: serving Eglon, king of Moab (Judges 3:12)_ 2. Ehud raised up (Judges 3:15) 3. Eglon, king of Moab, slain by Ehud (Judges 3:16) 4. The deliverance by Shamgar (Judges 3:31) When they continued to do evil Jehovah used Eglon, king of Moab to punish their disobedience and evil-doings. With him there is Ammon and Amalek, a trinity of evil. The city of Palms is Jericho (Deuteronomy 34:3) a type of the world, as we saw from Joshua

EHUD, THE BENJAMITE. D's setting of the story of Ehud is apparent in Judges 3:12_ a_ and Judges 3:30. The story itself is a genuine folk-tale, handed down from century to century before being committed to writing. One can readily imagine with what zest it was told in the tribe of Benjamin, where the left-handed Ehud was a popular hero. On the moral question raised by his conduct, the facts at our disposal do not enable us to pronounce with confidence. To our minds Ehud is not very attractive either as a man or as a patriot Judges 3:12. The Edomites were in possession of the country to the E. of the Dead Sea, with the Arnon (pp. 32f.) as their northern border ...

QUARRIES. graven images. So Septuagint, Vulgate, and Targum, here and Judges 3:26. Hebrew. _pesilim._ Deuteronomy 7:5; Deuteronomy 7:25. Deu 12:3. 2 Kings 17:41.Psalms 78:53, &c. THAT WERE BY GILGAL. Hebrew the same [as] at Gilgah. ERRAND. Hebrew word. See note on "message", Judges 3:20....

_Ehud delivers Israel from Moab_ The story of Ehud is furnished by the editor with an introduction (Judges 3:12 a) and conclusion (Judges 3:30) in his usual manner. The narrative thus enclosed is one of the oldest in the Book; it has the freshness and vigour which belong to the best style of Hebrew story-telling. Traces of editorial interference may perhaps be detected here and there, Judges 3:19_; Judges 3:22; Judges 3:27_are taken by some to be doublets; but the narrative as a whole (J