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Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
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Matthew Henry |
J U D G E S
CHAP. X.
In this chapter we have,
I. The peaceable times Israel enjoyed under the government of two
judges, Tola and Jair,
II. The troublesome times that ensued.
1. Israel’s sin that brought them into trouble,
2. The trouble itself they were in,
III. Their repentance and humiliation for sin, their prayers and
reformation, and the mercy they found with God thereupon,
IV. Preparation made for their deliverance out of the hand of their
oppressors,
| Government of Tola and Jair. | B. C. 1183. |
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1 And after Abimelech there arose to defend Israel Tola the son
of Puah, the son of Dodo, a man of Issachar; and he dwelt in
Shamir in mount Ephraim.
2 And he judged Israel twenty and three years, and died, and
was buried in Shamir.
3 And after him arose Jair, a Gileadite, and judged Israel
twenty and two years.
4 And he had thirty sons that rode on thirty ass colts, and
they had thirty cities, which are called Havoth-jair unto this
day, which are in the land of Gilead.
5 And Jair died, and was buried in Camon.
Quiet and peaceable reigns, though the best to live in, are the worst
to write of, as yielding least variety of matter for the historian to
entertain his reader with; such were the reigns of these two judges,
Tola and Jair, who make but a small figure and take up but a very
little room in this history. But no doubt they were both raised up
of God to serve their country in the quality of judges, not
pretending, as Abimelech had done, to the grandeur of kings, nor, like
him, taking the honour they had to themselves, but being called of God
to it.
1. Concerning Tola it is said that he arose after Abimelech to defend
Israel,
v. 1.
After Abimelech had debauched Israel by his wickedness, disquieted and
disturbed them by his restless ambition, and, by the mischiefs he
brought on them, exposed them to enemies from abroad, God animated this
good man to appear for the reforming of abuses, the putting down of
idolatry, the appeasing of tumults, and the healing of the wounds given
to the state by Abimelech’s usurpation. Thus he saved them from
themselves, and guarded them against their enemies. He was of the tribe
of Issachar, a tribe disposed to serve, for he bowed his shoulder to
bear
yet one of that tribe is here raised up to rule; for those that humble
themselves shall be exalted. He bore the name of him that was ancestor
to the first family of that tribe; of the sons of Issachar Tola was the
first,
It signifies a worm, yet, being the name of his ancestor, he was
not ashamed of it. Though he was of Issachar, yet, when he was raised
up to the government, he came and dwelt in Mount Ephraim, which was
more in the heart of the country, that the people might the more
conveniently resort to him for judgment. He judged Israel twenty-three
years
(v. 2),
kept things in good order, but did not any thing very memorable.
2. Jair was a Gileadite, so was his next successor Jephthah, both of
that half tribe of the tribe of Manasseh which lay on the other side
Jordan; though they seemed separated from their brethren, yet God took
care, while the honour of the government was shifted from tribe to
tribe and before it settled in Judah, that those who lay remote should
sometimes share in it, putting more abundant honour on that part
which lacked. Jair bore the name of a very famous man of the same
tribe who in Moses’s time was very active in reducing this country,
Num. xxxii. 41; Josh. xiii. 30.
That which is chiefly remarkable concerning this Jair is the increase
and honour of his family: He had thirty sons,
v. 4.
And,
(1.) They had good preferments, for they rode on thirty ass
colts; that is, they were judges itinerant, who, as deputies to
their father, rode from place to place in their several circuits to
administer justice. We find afterwards that Samuel made his sons
judges, though he could not make them good ones,
(2.) They had good possessions, every one a city, out of those that
were called, from their ancestor of the same name with their father,
Havoth-jair–the villages of Jair; yet they are called
cities, either because those young gentlemen to whom they were
assigned enlarged and fortified them, and so improved them into cities,
or because they were as well pleased with their lot in those country
towns as if they had been cities compact together and fenced with gates
and bars. Villages are cities to a contented mind.
| Israel Oppressed by the Ammonites. | B. C. 1161. |
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6 And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the
LORD, and served Baalim, and Ashtaroth, and the gods of Syria,
and the gods of Zidon, and the gods of Moab, and the gods of the
children of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines, and forsook
the LORD, and served not him.
7 And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and he sold
them into the hands of the Philistines, and into the hands of the
children of Ammon.
8 And that year they vexed and oppressed the children of
Israel: eighteen years, all the children of Israel that were on
the other side Jordan in the land of the Amorites, which is in
Gilead.
9 Moreover the children of Ammon passed over Jordan to fight
also against Judah, and against Benjamin, and against the house
of Ephraim; so that Israel was sore distressed.
While those two judges, Tola and Jair, presided in the affairs of
Israel, things went well, but afterwards,
I. Israel returned to their idolatry, that sin which did most easily
beset them
(v. 6):
They did evil again in the sight of the Lord, from whom they
were unaccountably bent to backslide, as a foolish people and
unwise.
1. They worshipped many gods; not only their old demons Baalim and
Ashtaroth, which the Canaanites had worshipped, but, as if they would
proclaim their folly to all their neighbours, they served the gods of
Syria, Zidon, Moab, Ammon, and the Philistines. It looks as if the
chief trade of Israel had been to import deities from all countries. It
is hard to say whether it was more impious or impolitic to do this. By
introducing these foreign deities, they rendered themselves mean and
despicable, for no nation that had any sense of honour changed their
gods. Much of the wealth of Israel, we may suppose, was carried out, in
offerings to the temples of the deities in the several countries whence
they came, on which, as their mother-churches, their temples in Israel
were expected to own their dependence; the priests and devotees of
those sorry deities would follow their gods, no doubt, in crowds into
the land of Israel, and, if they could not live in their own country,
would take root there, and so strangers would devour their
strength. If they did it in compliment to the neighbouring nations,
and to ingratiate themselves with them, justly were they disappointed;
for those nations which by their wicked arts they sought to make their
friends by the righteous judgments of God became their enemies and
oppressors. In quo quis peccat, in eo punitur–Wherein a person
offends, therein he shall be punished.
2. They did not so much as admit the God of Israel to be one of those
many deities they worshipped, but quite cast him off: They forsook
the Lord, and served not him at all. Those that think to serve both
God and Mammon will soon come entirely to forsake God, and to serve
Mammon only. If God have not all the heart, he will soon have none of
it.
II. God renewed his judgments upon them, bringing them under the power
of oppressing enemies. Had they fallen into the hands of the
Lord immediately, they might have found that his mercies were
great; but God let them fall into the hands of man, whose
tender mercies are cruel. He sold them into the hands of the
Philistines that lay south-west of Canaan, and of the Ammonites
that lay north-east, both at the same time; so that between those two
millstones they were miserably crushed, as the original word is
(v. 8)
for oppressed. God had appointed that, if any of the cities of
Israel should revolt to idolatry, the rest should make war upon them
and cut them off,
&c. They had been jealous enough in this matter, almost to an extreme,
in the case of the altar set up by the two tribes and a half
(Josh. xxii.);
but now they had grown so very bad that when one city was infected with
idolatry the next took the infection and instead of punishing it,
imitated and out-did it; and therefore, since those that should have
been revengers to execute wrath on those that did this
evil were themselves guilty, or bore the sword in vain,
God brought the neighbouring nations upon them, to chastise them for
their apostasy. The oppression of Israel by the Ammonites, the
posterity of Lot, was,
1. Very long. It continued eighteen years. Some make those years to be
part of the judgeship of Jair, who could not prevail to reform and
deliver Israel as he would. Others make them to commence at the death
of Jair, which seems the more probable because that part of Israel
which was most infested by the Ammonites was Gilead, Jair’s own
country, which we cannot suppose to have suffered so much while he was
living, but that part at least would be reformed and protected.
2. Very grievous. They vexed them and oppressed them. It was a great
vexation to be oppressed by such a despicable people as the children of
Ammon were. They began with those tribes that lay next them on the
other side Jordan, here called the land of the Amorites
(v. 8)
because the Israelites had so wretchedly degenerated, and had made
themselves so like the heathen, that they had become, in a manner,
perfect Amorites
(Ezek. xvi. 3),
or because by their sin they forfeited their title to this land, so
that it might justly be looked upon as the land of the Amorites
again, from whom they took it. But by degrees they pushed forward, came
over Jordan, and invaded Judah, and Benjamin, and Ephraim
(v. 9),
three of the most famous tribes of Israel, yet thus insulted when they
had forsaken God, and unable to make head against the invader. Now the
threatening was fulfilled that they should be slain before their
enemies, and should have no power to stand before them,
Lev. xxvi. 17, 37.
Their ways and their doings procure this to themselves; they
have sadly degenerated, and so they come to be sorely distressed.
| The Repentance and Reformation of Israel. | B. C. 1161. |
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10 And the children of Israel cried unto the LORD, saying, We
have sinned against thee, both because we have forsaken our God,
and also served Baalim.
11 And the LORD said unto the children of Israel, Did not I
deliver you from the Egyptians, and from the Amorites, from the
children of Ammon, and from the Philistines?
12 The Zidonians also, and the Amalekites, and the Maonites,
did oppress you; and ye cried to me, and I delivered you out of
their hand.
13 Yet ye have forsaken me, and served other gods: wherefore I
will deliver you no more.
14 Go and cry unto the gods which ye have chosen; let them
deliver you in the time of your tribulation.
15 And the children of Israel said unto the LORD, We have
sinned: do thou unto us whatsoever seemeth good unto thee;
deliver us only, we pray thee, this day.
16 And they put away the strange gods from among them, and
served the LORD: and his soul was grieved for the misery of
Israel.
17 Then the children of Ammon were gathered together, and
encamped in Gilead. And the children of Israel assembled
themselves together, and encamped in Mizpeh.
18 And the people and princes of Gilead said one to another,
What man is he that will begin to fight against the children of
Ammon? he shall be head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.
Here is,
I. A humble confession which Israel make to God in their distress,
Now they own themselves guilty, like a malefactor upon the rack, and
promise reformation, like a child under the rod. They not only complain
of the distress, but acknowledge it is their own sin that has brought
them into the distress; therefore God is righteous, and they have no
reason to repine. They confess their omissions, for in them their sin
began–“We have forsaken our God,” and their commissions–“We have
served Baalim, and herein have done foolishly, treacherously, and very
wickedly.”
II. A humbling message which God thereupon sends to Israel, whether by
an angel (as
or by a prophet (as
is not certain. It was kind that God took notice of their cry, and did
not turn a deaf ear to it and send them no answer at all; it was kind
likewise that when they began to repent he sent them such a message as
was proper to increase their repentance, that they might be qualified
and prepared for deliverance. Now in this message,
1. He upbraids them with their great ingratitude, reminds them of the
great things he had done for them, delivering them from such and such
enemies, the Egyptians first, out of whose land they were rescued, the
Amorites whom they conquered and into whose land they entered, and
since their settlement there, when the Ammonites had joined with the
Moabites to oppress them
(ch. iii. 13),
when the Philistines were vexatious in the days of Shamgar, and
afterwards other enemies had given them trouble, upon their petition
God had wrought many a great salvation for them,
Of their being oppressed by the Zidonians and the Maonites we read not
elsewhere. God had in justice corrected them, and in mercy delivered
them, and therefore might reasonably expect that either through fear or
through love they would adhere to him and his service. Well therefore
might the word cut them to the heart
(v. 13),
“Yet you have forsaken me that have brought you out of your
troubles and served other gods that brought you into your
troubles.” Thus did they forsake their own mercies for their
own delusions.
2. He shows them how justly he might now abandon them to ruin, by
abandoning them to the gods that they had served. To awaken them
to a thorough repentance and reformation, he lets them see,
(1.) Their folly in serving Baalim. They had been at a vast expense to
obtain the favour of such gods as could not help them when they had
most need of their help: “Go, and cry unto the gods which you have
chosen
(v. 14),
try what they can do for you now. You have worshipped them as
gods–try if they have now either a divine power or a divine goodness
to be employed for you. You paid your homage to them as your kings and
lords–try if they will now protect you. You brought your sacrifices of
praise to their altars as your benefactors, imagining that they gave
you your corn, and wine, and oil, but a friend indeed will be a friend
in need; what stead will their favour stand you in now?” Note, It is
necessary, in true repentance, that there be a full conviction of the
utter insufficiency of all those things to help us and do us any
kindness which we have idolized and set upon the throne in our hearts
in competition with God. We must be convinced that the pleasures of
sense on which we have doted cannot be our satisfaction, nor the wealth
of the world which we have coveted be our portion, that we cannot be
happy or easy any where but in God.
(2.) Their misery and danger in forsaking God. “See what a pass you
have brought yourselves to; now you can expect no other than that I
should say, I will deliver you no more, and what will become of
you then?”
This he tells them, not only as what he might do, but as what he
would do if they rested in a confession of what they had done
amiss, and did not put away their idols and amend for the future.
III. A humble submission which Israel hereupon made to God’s justice,
with a humble application to his mercy,
The children of Israel met together, probably in a solemn
assembly at the door of the tabernacle, received the impressions of the
message God had sent them, were not driven by it to despair, though it
was very threatening, but resolve to lie at God’s feet, and, if they
perish, they will perish there. They not only repeat their confession,
We have sinned, but,
1. They surrender themselves to God’s justice: Do thou unto us
whatsoever seemeth good unto thee. Hereby they own that they
deserved the severest tokens of God’s displeasure and were sure he
could do them no wrong, whatever he laid upon them; they humbled
themselves under his mighty and heavy hand, and accepted of the
punishment of their iniquity, which Moses had made the condition of
God’s return in mercy to them,
Note, True penitents dare and will refer themselves to God to correct
them as he thinks fit, knowing that their sin is highly malignant in
its deserts, and that God is not rigorous or extreme in his demands.
2. They supplicate for God’s mercy: Deliver us only, we pray thee,
this day, from this enemy. They acknowledge what they deserved,
yet pray to God not to deal with them according to their deserts. Note,
We must submit to God’s justice with a hope in his mercy.
IV. A blessed reformation set on foot hereupon. They brought forth
fruits meet for repentance
(v. 16):
They put away the gods of strangers (as the word is), strange
gods, and worshipped by those nations that were strangers to the
commonwealth of Israel and to the covenants of promise, and they
served the Lord. Need drove them to him. They knew it was to no
purpose to go to the gods whom they had served, and therefore returned
to the God whom they had slighted. This is true repentance not only for
sin, but from sin.
V. God’s gracious return in mercy to them, which is expressed here very
tenderly
(v. 16):
His soul was grieved for the misery of Israel. Not that there is
any grief in God (he has infinite joy and happiness in himself, which
cannot be broken in upon by either the sins or the miseries of his
creatures), nor that there is any change in God: he is in one mind,
and who can turn him? But his goodness is his glory. By it he
proclaims his name, and magnifies it above all names; and, as he is
pleased to put himself into the relation of a father to his people that
are in covenant with him, so he is pleased to represent his goodness to
them by the compassions of a father towards his children; for, as he is
the Father of lights, so he is the Father of mercies. As the
disobedience and misery of a child are a grief to a tender father, and
make him feel very sensibly from his natural affection, so the
provocations of God’s people are a grief to him
(Ps. xcv. 10),
he is broken with their whorish heart
(Ezek. vi. 9);
their troubles also are a grief to him; so he is pleased to speak when
he is pleased to appear for the deliverance of his people, changing his
way and method of proceeding, as tender parents when they begin to
relent towards their children with whom they have been displeased. Such
are the tender mercies of our God, and so far is he from having any
pleasure in the death of sinners.
VI. Things are now working towards their deliverance from the
Ammonites’ oppression,
God had said, “I will deliver you no more;” but now they are not what
they were, they are other men, they are new men, and now he will
deliver them. That threatening was denounced to convince and humble
them, and, now that it had taken its desired effect, it is revoked in
order to their deliverance.
1. The Ammonites are hardened to their own ruin. They gathered together
in one body, that they might be destroyed at one blow,
2. The Israelites are animated to their own rescue. They assembled
likewise,
During their eighteen years’ oppression, as in their former servitudes,
they were run down by their enemies, because they would not
incorporate; each family, city, or tribe, would stand by itself, and
act independently, and so they all became an easy prey to the
oppressors, for want of a due sense of a common interest to cement
them: but, whenever they got together, they did well; so they did here.
When God’s Israel become as one man to advance a common good and oppose
a common enemy what difficulty can stand before them? The people and
princes of Gilead, having met, consult first about a general that
should command in chief against the Ammonites. Hitherto most of the
deliverers of Israel had an extraordinary call to the office, as Ehud,
Barak, Gideon; but the next is to be called in a more common way, by a
convention of the states, who enquired out a fit man to command their
army, found out one admirably well qualified for the purpose, and God
owned their choice by putting his Spirit upon him
(ch. xi. 29);
so that this instance is of use for direction and encouragement in
after-ages, when extraordinary calls are no longer to be expected. Let
such be impartially chosen to public trust and power as God has
qualified, and then God will graciously own those who are thus
chosen.
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