The Pulpit Commentary — Judges — Section 107

EXPOSITION. Ver. 6.-Did evil again. We may con- Amorites, i. e. the territory of Sihon king clude that Tola and Jair had used their of the Amorites, and Og the king of Bashan influence to maintain the worship of Jehovah; (Numb. xx.xii. 33). In Gilead-in its widest but at their death idolatry broke out with acceptation, including, as in Deut. xx.i:iv. 1; more virulence than eYer. Not only were Josh. :xxii. 9, 13, 15; Judges x.,:. 1, the the many altars of Baal and Ashtoreth hon- whole country held by the A.morites on the oured, as in former times, but new forms of east of Jordan, and given to Reuben, Gad, idol-worship, according to the rites of all the and the half-tribe of Manasseh. But in its neighbouring nations, were introduced among narrower and stricter sense Gilead was them. The gods of Syria, i. e. Aram, who bounded on the north by Bashan proper, and are uot usually named, but whose worship is on the south by the Mishor, or plain of spoken of (2 Chron. xxviii. 23), and whose Medeba, which lay between the valley of altar attracted the attention of Ahaz (2 Heshbon and the river Amon, thus exclud- Kings xvi. 10), and one of whom was ing that part of the territory of Reuben from Rimmon (2 Kings v. 18); the gods of the Gilead (see Josh. xiii. 9-11). Originally, Zidonians, Baal and Ashtoreth, probably as we learn from eh. xi. 13-22, the terri- with rites somewhat differing from those of tory boundetl by the Amon on the south, Canaan; Chemosh, the god of the Moabites; by the Jabbok on the north, by the wilder- Milcom or Moloch, the god of the children of ness on the east, and by the Jordan on the Ammon; and Dagon, the god of the Philis- west, had belonged to l\Ioab, but the tines-all were worshipped, while the service Amorites had taken it from them before the of J ehove.h was thrust aside (see 1 Kings xi. conquest of Sihon by the Israelites. 6-7). Yer. 9.-The children of Ammon, &c. Ver. 7.-The anger of the Lord, &c. See It would seem that nt this time the 1.-ing of eh. ii. 13, 14. Into the hands of the Philis- the children of Ammon was also king of the Jines. Probably the same Philistine domina- Moabites, since he laiu claim (eh. xi. 13, 24) tion ns is described more fully in the history to the land which had once belonged to l\foab. of the judgeship of Samson (chs. xiii.-xvi.). If we may trust the king of the Ammonites' But now the writer confines his attention statement, the object of the war was to re- first to the oppression of the Ammonites. cover that land, and he carried the war across Ver. 8.-That year. It does not ,ippear the Jordan into the territory of .Juuah and clearly what particular year is meant. Ephraim in ortler to compel the Israelites to Jarchi explains it as the yenr in which Jair giYe it up. died. It may mean the very year in which Yer. 11.-Did not I deliver you, &c. the idoliitries spoken of in ver. 6 were set These references to former delivernnces are up, so as to mark how closely God's chastise- of great historical value, r,ml not the least so ment followed the apostasy from him. They, us they allude to events of which the exist- i. e. the children of Ammon. Eighteen ing records give no accouut, or n very imper- rears. The same length as that of the 11l oab. fect one. They show the existence of a real 1Le S'!rvitude (eh. iii. 18). Tbe laucl of the history in the background of tho.t which ha.a JPDOl!;S, l  114 THE BOOK OF JUDGES, [en. x. 6-18.