Judges 3:7

_AND THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL DID EVIL IN THE SIGHT OF THE LORD, AND FORGAT THE LORD THEIR GOD, AND SERVED BAALIM AND THE GROVES._ The groves, х_ HAA-'ASHEEROWT_ (H842)] - pillars, images of Ashtoreth; not as our translators render it, after the Septuagint: alsee, groves....

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 3:7. _SERVED BAALIM AND THE GROVES_] No _groves_ were ever worshipped, but the _deities_ who were supposed to be resident in them; and in many cases temples and altars were built in _groves_, and the superstition of _consecrating groves_ and _woods_ to the honour of the deities was a practice very usual with the ancients. _Pliny_ assures us that _trees_, in old times, served for the temples of the gods. _Tacitus_ reports this custom of the old Germans; _Quintus Curtius_, of the _Indians_; and _Caesar_, and our old writers, mention the same of the _Druids_ in Britain. The _Romans_ were admirers of this way of worship and therefore had their _luci_ or groves in most parts of the city, dedicated to some deity. But it is very probable that the word אשרות _asheroth_ which we translate _groves_, is a corrup...

AND THE GROVES - literally, Asheroth, images of Asherah (the goddess companion of Baal): see Deuteronomy 16:21 note....

EXPOSITION This section introduces us into the actual narrative of the Book of Judges, the prefatory matter being now concluded. The whole book proceeds on the same model as this section does. The apostasy of Israel; their servitude under the oppressor sent to chastise them; their cry of distress and penitence; their deliverance by the judge raised up to save them; the rest which follows their deliverance. There is infinite variety in the details of the successive narratives, but they are all formed on the same plan. JUDGES 3:7 THE GROVES. The _Asheroth_,_ _here and elsewhere (Judges 6:25, Judges 6:26;...

AND THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL DID EVIL IN THE SIGHT OF THE LORD,.... Both by marrying with Heathens, and worshipping their gods: AND FORGOT THE LORD THEIR GOD; as if they had never heard of him, or known him, their Maker and Preserver, who had done so many great and good things for them: AND SERVED BAALIM, AND THE GROVES; of Baalim, see Judges 2:11; the groves mean either idols worshipped in groves, as Jupiter was worshipped in a grove of oaks, hence the oak of Dodona; and Apollo in a grove of laurels in Daphne: there were usually groves where idol temples were built; and so in Phoenicia, or Canaan, Dido the Sidonian queen built a temple for Juno in the midst of the city, where was a grove of an agreeable shade d: so Barthius e observes, that most of the ancient gods of the Heathens used to be worshipped in groves. And groves and trees themselves were worship

GROVES Groves, like high places, have been associated with idolatrous worship from time immemorial. The Hebrew, asherah, translated, grove means also the idol enshrined there. (Deuteronomy 16:21). This idol seems often to have been a sacred tree, the figure of which is constantly found on Assyrian monuments. In apostate Israel, however, such groves were associated with every form of idolatry, for example (2 Kings 17:16); (2 Kings 17:17), (_ See Scofield) - (1 Kings 3:2) _ and Ashtaroth ( See Scofield) - ...

II. THE DECLENSIONS, PUNISHMENTS AND DELIVERANCES 1. The Sin of Idolatry and Othniel CHAPTER 3:5-11 _ 1. The first declension (Judges 3:5)_ 2. Sold to the king of Mesopotamia (Judges 3:8) 3. The deliverance through Othniel (Judges 3:9) The first declension, bondage and deliverance is briefly related. We see how Israel went from bad to worse. First, the wicked nations they were to exterminate dwelt amongst them. Then the children of Israel established some relationship with them and dwelt amongst these nations. First, the children of Israel permitted them to exist in their midst; then the doomed nations gained the power over Israel and the people of God became dependent on them. The third step dow

OTHNIEL THE KENITE. The brief account of the oppression of Israel by the Aramæ ans, and of their deliverance by Othniel, is the work of D, whose familiar categories apostasy, Divine anger, oppression, repentance, deliverance, peace practically make up the whole narrative. Not a single detail of the conflict is supplied. The statement that the invaders from the far north of Syria were turned back by Othniel, whose seat was at Debir, in the extreme south, is not historically probable. The basis of the narrative may be the tradition of a struggle between Othniel (_i.e._ the Kenizzites) and the Bedouin of the southeast, for Cushan means Lydian. Graetz proposes to read Edom instead of Aram. Judges 3:9. On Othniel, see Judges 1:13....

EVIL. Hebrew "the evil"; i.e. the special evil (idolatry) which had been forbidden as such. See App-44. GOD. Hebrew. _Elohim._ App-4. THE GROVES _= Asherim._ App-42. See note on Exodus 34:13....