The Pulpit Commentary — Judges — Section 85

EXPOSITION. Vers. 22, 23.-Rule thou, kc. The gratitnde It is distinctly marked as a nose-ring in Gen. of Israel to their great deliverer, added to a :xxiv. 22, 30, 47, because in the last verse sense that it would be for their own security, Abra.ham's servant sa.ys that he "put the R.nd to a desire, already perhaps beginning to ring (han-nezem) upon her nose " (face, A. Y. ). be felt, to be like the nations around them Again, in Ezek. xvi. 12 the Hebrew is, "I (I Sam. viii 5), naturally led to the offer, placed a ring iipon thy nose" (1 put a. jewel •' Rule thou over ns." But the time predicted upon thy forehead, A. Y.). So afso Job xlii. by Moses (Dent. :xvii 14, 15) was not yet 11, "OM ring of gold," implies that it was come. And eo Gideon returned an answer a. nose-ring, a.nd not an ear-ring. In other replete with moderation and piety : " I will passages, however, as Gen. x:xxv. 4 ; Exod. not rule over you, neither shall my son rule :x:xxii. 2, it is expressly said that these rings over you : the Lord shall rule over you " were worn in the ears; while in others, again, (cf. I Sam. viii. 7; L 19; xii. 12). there is nothing to mark whether they were Ver. 24.-I would desiTe a request of yon. worn in the ears or in the nose, as Prov. Again human weakness breaks out in this xxv. 12 ; Hosea ii. 13, except that in the great man, and we seem to see the effect of latter passage the singular number in the great prosperity in stirring up seIBsh desires Hebrew is more favourable to the nose-ring in his heart. It was perhaps not without than to the ear-rings, as the A. Y. translates significance that mention was made in ver. it. It is thought by many, with some pro- 21 of his taking the ornaments that were bability, that the nose-ring did not pierce the on the camels' necks in connection with the gristle of the nose, but hung down upon the slaughter of the kings. Anyhow we have nose from a fillet round the forehead. In now a second instance of a love of spoil. It every case they were of gold. seems to have been a. national custom with Yer. 25.-A garment. Rather, the cloak. the Ishmaelites, among whom the Midianites Probably Gideon's military cloak (see Isa. ix. are reckoned (see Gen. :uxvii. 25-28), to 5), which lay in his tent ready for use as e. wear golden rings; hence when they came cloak by day or a coverlet by night (Deut. to strip the slain there was a vast booty of xxii. 17). gold rings. These Gideon asked for a.a his Yer. 26.-A thousand and seven hundred share, and the people readily agreed to the shekels-equal to about fifty pounds weight, request. Ear-rings. The word is singular and probably to above £3000 worth of our in Hebrew, which agrees with its more proper money, reckoning a shekel of gold at £1 16s. signification of nose-ring, an ornament often 6d. If the rings, like that given to Rebekah worn by both men and women in the East. (Gen. xxiv. 22), weighed each half a. shekel, Gesenius mentions having seen at Leipsic they would be the spoil of 3400 Jead bodies. aorne Indian dancing women with noae-ringa. If they each weighed leRs it would of coul'IMI Olt. VIII. 22-36.] 1.'lm BOOK OF JUDGES. 91