Judges 3:2

_ONLY THAT THE GENERATIONS OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL MIGHT KNOW, TO TEACH THEM WAR, AT THE LEAST SUCH AS BEFORE KNEW NOTHING THEREOF;_ NO JFB COMMENTARY ON THESE VERSES....

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 trials detect the wickedness of the hearts of sinners; and strengthen he graces of believers in their daily conflict with Satan, sin, and this evil world. They must live in this world, but they are not of it, and are forbidden to conform to it. This marks the difference between the followers of Christ and mere professors. The friendship of the world is more fatal than its enmity; the latter can only kill the body, but the former murders many precious souls....

Verse Judges 3:2. _THAT - ISRAEL MIGHT KNOW, TO TEACH THEM WAR_] This was another reason why the Canaanites were left in the land, that the Israelites might not forget military discipline, but habituate themselves to the use of arms, that they might always be able to defend themselves against their foes. Had they been faithful to God, they would have had no need of learning the art of war; but now _arms_ became a sort of necessary substitute for that spiritual strength which had departed from them. Thus Gods in his judgments leaves one iniquitous nation to harass and torment another. Were all to turn to God, men need learn war no more....

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 PROVE ISRAEL. This word _to prove _is_ _used here in a somewhat different sense from that which it bears in Judges 2:4 and in Judges 2:22. In those passages it is used of their moral probation, of proving or testing their faith and obedience; but here it is rather in the sense of "to exercise" or "to accustom them

ONLY THAT THE GENERATIONS OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL MIGHT KNOW AND TEACH THEM WAR,.... That is, the following nations were left in the land, that the young generations of Israel might by their wars and conflicts with them learn the art of war, and be inured to martial discipline; which, if none had been left to engage with, they had been ignorant of: besides, their fathers in Joshua's time, as Jarchi and Kimchi observe, had no need to learn the art of war, for God fought for them; they did not get possession of the land by their own arm, and by their sword, but by the power of God in a miraculous way; but now this was not to be expected, and the Canaanites were left among them to expel, that they might be trained up in the knowledge of warlike affairs, and so be also capable of teaching their children the military art; which they should make use of in obeying the command of God, by drivi...

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

CHILDREN. sons....

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 an ancient one, and belongs to the same historical stand-point as ch. 1. This nucleus has been adapted (Judges 3:1) and commented on (Judges 3:2 in part, Judges 3:3) by later hands, which it is difficult to specify more exactly. The editorial process has left the text of...

ONLY THAT THE GENERATIONS OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL— The sacred writer having declared in the former verse the reason why certain of the Canaanites were left, namely, _to prove the Israelites;_ and also who of the Israelites were thus to be proved, namely, that generation which was born after the taking of Palestine; proceeds in the present verse to give another reason why the Canaanites were spared. The verse would be better rendered thus, after Houbigant: _and by this means it came to pass that that generation of the children of Israel might learn war, because they had before known nothing thereof._ Had no enemies remained, the children of Israel would have given themselves up wholly to the arts of peace, and would have totally forgotten the art of war: but thus they were taught to neglect nothing necessary for their defence; happy had they not neglected what was of the greatest conseq...