EXPOSITION . This section introduces us into the actual . . . in the land of Shinar" (ibid. ver. 10). narrative of the Book of Judges, the prefatory .An earlier invasion of Palestine by con- matter being now concluded. The whole querors from Mesopotamia. i~ mentiom:d Ge~. xiv. 2, where Amraphel, kmg of Shmar, 1s book proceeds on the same model as this one of the five kings who invacled Sodom. section does. The apostasy of Israel ; their Bela, son of Beor, king of Edom, seems by servitude under the oppressor sent to chastise his name to have been clearly from Mesopo- them ; their cry of distress and penitence ; tamia, as Balaam the son of Beor was (Numb. xxii. 5 • xxiii. 7) • and in the time of Job we their deliverance by the judge raised up to read of bands of Chaldeans looting in the save them; the rest which follows their land of Uz (Job i. 17). Chushan, as the deliverance. There is infinite variety in the name of a people, is coupled with Midian in details of the successive narratives, but they Hab. iii. 7 ; but we have no accounts of are all formed on the same phn. the state of Mesopotamia at the time of Ch ushan-rishathaim. Ver. 7.-The groves. The ..4.sheroth, here Ver. 9.-Adeliverer. Hebrew, Srwiour, as and elsewhere (eh. vi 25, 26; Deut. xvi. ver. 15 (see N eh. ix. 27). Othniel, &c. 21 &c.) wrongly rendered groves, were large Mentioned eh. i. 13; Josh. xv. 17, and 1 wdoden images or pillare in honour of .Aeh- Chron. iv. 13, where he is placed under "the toreth e.nd so a.re prr,perly coupled wi1:h sons of Kenaz " e.nd seems to be the father Baazi/m.. This verse ie in fact identical m of Hathath ;nd Meonothe.i. According to meaning with eh. ii. 1~, of which it is.~ repe- Judith vi. 16, he had e. descendant, Chabris, tition (see note to eh. u. 13, and eh. vm. 23). living in the time of Holofernes. The He- Ver. 8. - Chuhan-rishe.tha.im, i. e., e.s brew, though grammatically it favours the usually explained, Chushan the victorious, view that Othniel wa.s the brother of Caleb, or the wicked. His name, ChUBhan, or does not absolutely exclude the renderi1;1g Cushan points 1;Q Cush, the father of Nim- that Kene.z we.s his brother, and so Othmel rod (Ge~- x. 6~). e.nd thP, seat of his king- his nephew. Compare ,Ter. xxxii. 7, whero dom in Aram-naharaim, or Mesopotamia, the words " thine uncle" apply to Shullnm, 11,:._'Tees with Nimrod's kiugclom in "Babel not to Ha.nameel, as is clear from ver. 8. CIJ, Ill. 7-11.] THE BOOK OF ,JUDGES. 31
Anrl na the chronolo~y seems to make it tribe, and Othniel was next to him in tribal impossible thnt Othmel should be Caleb's dignity, and his junior in age, but probably brother, sinco C1tleb was eighty-five years succeeded to the chieftainship on Caleb's old nt the timo of Othniel's marriage, and death. This would leave the exact relation- Othniel thorofore could not be less than fifty- ship between Caleb and Othniel uncertain. live, nn improbable age for his marriage ; Ver. 10.-And the Spirit, &c. This marks oml since, again, Othniel could not well Othniel as one of the extraordinary Slwphe- have boon less than eighty at Joshua's death, tilm, or judges, Divinely commissioned to which, allowing only ten years for the elders, save Israel (see eh. vi. 34 ; xi. 29 ; xiii. 25 ; and reckoning the eight years for Chushan's xiv. 6, 19). dominion, would make him ninety-eight Ver. 11.-And Othniel, &c. The arrange- when he was raised up to deliver Israel, it ment of this verse suggests that Othniel is a lesser difficulty to take Othniel as the lived through the whole forty years of rest, nephew of Caleb, by understanding the words, but this is highly impwbable. The first Caleb's y()'IJ,nger brother, to apply to Kenaz. part of the verse on! y belongs to the pre- But perhaps the least objectionable escape ceding section, which it closes quite natur- from the difficulty is to take the phrase in its ally. The result of Othniel's victories was most natural grammatical sense, but to un- a rest of forty years (cf. ver. 30; v. 31; derstand the word brother in its wider and viii. 28, &c.). The latter half of the verse- very common sense of kinsman or fellow-' And Othniel the son of Kenaz died-begins tribesman. They were both sons of Kenaz, a new section, and is introductory to the firgt or Kenizzites. Caleb was the head of the I apostasy, which followed after his death.