Judges 8:33

_AND IT CAME TO PASS, AS SOON AS GIDEON WAS DEAD, THAT THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL TURNED AGAIN, AND WENT A_ _ AND IT CAME TO PASS, AS SOON AS GIDEON WAS DEAD, THAT THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL TURNED AGAIN, AND WENT A WHORING AFTER BAALIM, AND MADE BAALBERITH THEIR GOD._ The children of Israel ... made Baal-berith their god - i:e., Baal, or lord of the covenant. It was a marked feature in the political organization of ancient Canaan that several contiguous cities were leagued for their mutual interests in a bond of confederacy, their center of union being a temple of Baal-called from that circumstance Baal-berith, lord of the league, as Jupiter Federalis among the Greeks and Romans. This, and not a reference to a particular phrase, was the origin of the name. Monsieur Jurieu says ('Hist. des Dogmes,' p. 619) that under this name was worshipped Des Syra (Lucian), the Cybele of the Greeks and Roma...

29-35 As soon as Gideon was dead, who kept the people to the worship of the God of Israel, they found themselves under no restraint; then they went after Baalim, and showed no kindness to the family of Gideon. No wonder if those who forget their God, forget their friends. Yet conscious of our own ingratitude to the Lord, and observing that of mankind in general, we should learn to be patient under any unkind returns we meet with for our poor services, and resolve, after the Divine example, not to be overcome of evil, but to overcome evil with good....

Verse Judges 8:33. _A WHORING AFTER BAALIM_] This term has probably a different meaning here from what it has Judges 8:7; for it is very likely that in most parts of the pagan worship there were many _impure_ rites, so that _going a whoring after Baalim_ may be taken in a _literal_ sense. _BAAL-BERITH_] Literally, _the lord of the covenant_; the same as _Jupiter faederis_, or _Mercury_, among the Romans; the deity whose business it was to preside over _compacts, leagues, treaties,_ _covenants_, c. Some of the _versions_ understand it as if the Israelites had made a _covenant_ or agreement _to have Baal for their_ _god_ so the VULGATE: _Percusseruntque cum Baal faedus, ut esset eis_ _in deum_....

TURNED AGAIN - Doubtless Gideon himself had no doubt prepared the way for this apostacy by his unauthorized ephod. The Law of Moses, with its strict unity of priesthood and altar, was the divinely-appointed and only effectual preservative from idolatry. BAAL-BERETH - The god of covenants or sworn treaties, corresponding to the Zeus Orkius of the Greeks. The center of this fresh apostacy was at Shechem....

EXPOSITION JUDGES 8:22, JUDGES 8:23 RULE THOU, etc. The gratitude of Israel to their great deliverer, added to a sense that it would be for their own security, and to a desire, already perhaps beginning to he felt, to be like the nations around them (1 Samuel 8:5), naturally led to the offer, "Rule thou over us." But the time predicted by Moses (Deuteronomy 17:14, Deuteronomy 17:15) was not yet come. And so Gideon returned an answer replete with moderation an

AND IT CAME TO PASS, AS SOON AS GIDEON WAS DEAD, THAT THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL TURNED AGAIN,.... from God, and the pure worship of him, to idolatry: AND WENT A WHORING AFTER BAALIM; the gods of the Phoenicians and Canaanites, the several Baals of other nations, the lords many which they served; these they committed spiritual whoredom with; that is, idolatry: particularly AND MADE BAALBERITH their god; which was the idol of the Shechemites, as appears from a temple being built at Shechem for it, Judges 9:4 and had its name either from Berytus, a city of Phoenicia, of which Mela n and Pliny o make mention, and where this Baal might be first worshipped; it was fifty miles from Sidon, and was in later times a seat of learning p; of this city was Sanchoniatho, a Phoenician historian, who is said to receive many things he writes about the Jews from Jerombalus, suppos

CHAPTER 8 INTERNAL STRIFE, GIDEON'S FAILURE AND END _ 1. The strife (Judges 8:1)_ 2. The complete deliverance (Judges 8:10) 3. Gideon's failure and end (Judges 8:22) 4. Israel's failure after Gideon (Judges 8:33) Internal strife follows. The two princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb, were slain (Judges 7:25). Oreb means “raven” and Zeeb means “wolf.” Oreb, the raven, is slain on the rock and Zeeb, the wolf, at the winepress. The raven, the bird which represents darkness and evil, is the type of corruption; the wolf is the destroyer o

GIDEON REFUSES A KINGDOM, AND ERECTS AN EPHOD. Long before the Israelites had any human kings. Yahweh was regarded as their Divine King, and Gideon, like Samuel (1 Samuel 8:7; 1 Samuel 10:19; 1 Samuel 12:12; 1 Samuel 12:17; 1 Samuel 12:19), expresses the view that the Divine kingship leaves _no_ room for a human sovereignty. This view became prevalent in the eighth century B.C., when a succession of wicked kings was ruining the northern kingdom (Hosea 8:4;...

_made Baal-berith their god_ Baal-bĕrîth (Judges 9:4; Judges 9:46) was the Covenant-Baal, the god of the league between himself and his worshippers, or the god who presided over the league between the original Canaanite inhabitants of Shechem and the Israelite new-comers; see Genesis 34 The Dtc. editor generalizes the worship of a half-Canaanite city into a defection of all Israel; similarly in Judges 8:35 he blames Israelites for the ingratitude of the men of Shechem....

WENT A WHORING AFTER BAALIM— As the same expression is made use of in Joshua 8:27 with regard to Gideon's _ephod,_ we may reasonably conclude, that, in the former case, they were guilty of idolatry, by worshipping the true God in an improper manner, and contrary to his immediate commands; as, in the latter, they were guilty of idolatry by worshipping false gods: an observation which confirms the opinion that we have advanced in the note on the former part of the 27th verse, concerning the ephod....