Judg 3:31, 7:16-20, 15:15-16, 20:16, 1Cor 1:27-29 | TSK | STEP | Shamgar. an ox goad.This implement, Mr. Maundrell informs us, in Palestine and Syria is of an extraordinary size. He measured several, and "found them about eight feet long; and at the bigger end about six inches in circumference. They were armed at the lesser end with a sharp prickle for driving the oxen; and at the other end with a small paddle of iron, strong and massive, for cleansing the plough from the clay. In the hand of a powerful man such an instrument must be more dangerous and fatal than a sword." also. Israel."So part is called Israel." "It seems to concern only the country next to the Philistines."

Judges 3:31

Shamgar.

an ox goad.This implement, Mr. Maundrell informs us, in Palestine and Syria is of an extraordinary size. He measured several, and "found them about eight feet long; and at the bigger end about six inches in circumference. They were armed at the lesser end with a sharp prickle for driving the oxen; and at the other end with a small paddle of iron, strong and massive, for cleansing the plough from the clay. In the hand of a powerful man such an instrument must be more dangerous and fatal than a sword."

15:15; 1Sa 13:19-22; 17:47,50; 1Co 1:17

also.

2:16

Israel."So part is called Israel."

4:1,3-24; 10:7,17; 11:4-33; 1Sa 4:1"It seems to concern only the country next to the Philistines."

Judges 7:16-20

three companies.This small number of men, thus divided, would be able to encompass the whole camp of the Midianites. Concealing the lamps in the pitchers, they would pass unobserved to their appointed stations; then, in the dead of the night, when most of the enemy were fast asleep, all at once breaking their pitchers one against another, with as much noise as they could, and blowing the trumpets and shouting; they would occasion an exceedingly great alarm. The obedience of faith alone could have induced such an expedient, which no doubt God directed Gideon to employ.--Scott.

a trumpet. Heb. trumpets in the hand of all of them. empty.

2Co 4:7

lamps. or, fire-brands, or torches.

9:48; Mt 16:24; 1Co 11:1; Heb 13:7; 1Pe 5:3

blow ye.

the sword.The word {cherev,} "sword," necessarily implied, and rightly supplied by our venerable translators from ver. 20, is found in this place, in the Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic, and in eight MSS.; and evidently appears to be genuine.

1Sa 17:47; 2Ch 20:15-17

in the beginning.

Ex 14:24; Mt 25:6; 1Th 5:2; Re 16:15

they blew.

brake.

16; Ps 2:9; Jer 13:13,14; 19:1-11

blew.How astonishing and overwhelming must the effect be, in a dark night, of the sudden glare of 300 torches, darting their splendour in the same instant on the half-awakened eyes of the terrified Midianites; accompanied with the clangor of 300 trumpets, alternately mingled with the thundering shout of {cherav yehovah oolegidon,} "The sword of Jehovah and of Gideon!"

Nu 10:1-10; Jos 6:4,16,20; Isa 27:13; 1Co 15:52; 1Th 4:16

brake.

2Co 4:7; Heb 11:4; 2Pe 1:15

Judges 15:15-16

new jaw-bone. Heb. moist. slew.

3:31; 4:21; 7:16; Le 26:8; Jos 23:10; 1Sa 14:6,14; 17:49,50

1Co 1:27,28

a thousand.Some would render the words {aileph ish,} "a chief;" but it is {alluph,} and not {aileph,} which signifies a chief; besides which, the Hebrew idiom would, even in that case, require it to be {ish alluph,} "a man, a chief," and not {alluph ish,} "a chief, a man." Add to which, that every version renders it "a thousand men."

with the jaw-bone.There is here a fine paronomasia upon the word {chamor,} "an ass," which also signifies "a heap;" {bilchee hachamor, chamor chamorathayim,} "With the jaw-bone of an ass, a heap upon two heaps."

heaps upon heaps. Heb. an heap, two heaps.

Judges 20:16

left-handed.{Itter yad yemeeno,} "obstructed in his right hand;" so the Chaldee Targum, {gemid beedaih deyammeena,} contracted or impeded in his right hand." Le Clerc observes, that the 700 men left-handed seem therefore to have been made slingers, because they could not use the right hand, which is employed in managing heavier arms; and they could discharge the stones from the sling in a direction against which their opponents were not upon their guard, and thus do the greater execution.

3:15; 1Ch 12:2

sling stones.The sling was a very ancient warlike instrument; and, in the hands of those who were skilled in the use of it, produced astonishing effects. The inhabitants of the islands of Baleares, now Majorca and Minorca, were the most celebrated slingers of antiquity. They did not permit their children to break their fast, till they had struck down the bread they had to eat from the top of a pole, or some distant eminence. Vegetius tells us, that slingers could in general hit the mark at 600 feet distance.

1Sa 17:40,49,50; 25:29; 2Ch 26:14

1 Corinthians 1:27-29

Ps 8:2; Isa 26:5,6; 29:14,19; Zep 3:12; Mt 4:18-22; 9:9; 11:25

Mt 21:16; Lu 19:39,40; 21:15; Ac 4:11-21; 6:9,10; 7:35,54; 17:18

Ac 24:24,25; 2Co 4:7; 10:4,5,10

things which.

Ro 4:17; 2Co 12:11

to bring.

2:6; De 28:63; Job 34:19,20,24; Ps 32:10; 37:35,36; Isa 2:11,17

Isa 17:13,14; 37:36; 41:12; Da 2:34,35,44,45; Re 18:17

31; 4:7; 5:6; Ps 49:6; Isa 10:15; Jer 9:23; Ro 3:19,27; 4:2; 15:17

Eph 2:9