Judges 2:14

Jdg 2:14 And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them, and he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about, so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies.

Ver. 14. And he delivered them.] The next effect of wrath is revenge, both improperly attributed to God. "Fury is not in me." {Isa 27:4}

He sold them into the hands.] {a} He renounced his right in them, as it were, casting off all further care of them, and then they must needs do full ill.

{a} In Georg., lib. i.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Sold them, i.e. delivered them up, as the seller doth, his commodities unto the buyer. This the same phrase is used Jdg 3:8; 4:9, compared with Jdg 2:14; Psa 44:12.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Jdg 2:14-15. Sold them — That is, delivered them up, as the seller doth his commodities, unto the buyer. Whithersoever they went out — That is, whatsoever expedition or business they undertook, which is equally signified by going out and coming in; the hand of the Lord was against them for evil — Disappointing their expectations, opposing and thwarting their designs, and blasting all their prospects. They were greatly distressed — Thus is sin uniformly followed by suffering.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them--Adversities in close and rapid succession befell them. But all these calamities were designed only as chastisements--a course of correctional discipline by which God brought His people to see and repent of their errors; for as they returned to faith and allegiance, He "raised up judges" (Jdg 2:16).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 14. The hands of spoilers] Probably marauding parties of the Canaanites, making frequent incursions in their lands, carrying away cattle, spoiling their crops, &c.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(14) The anger of the Lord was hot.—(Psa_78:59.) The language of the sad summary which follows should be compared with that of very similar passages which we find in various parts of the Bible (Psa_106:34-45; Deuteronomy 32; 2 Kings 17; 2Ki_24:2-4; 2Ch_36:11-21; Jer_11:2-10).

He sold them.—We find the same expression in Jdg_3:8; Jdg_4:2; Jdg_10:7; Deu_32:33; Psa_44:12; Isa_1:1; comp. 2Ki_17:20.

So that they could not any longer stand.—Comp. Lev_26:17, “Ye shall be slain before your enemies”; Deu_28:15-68.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

14. delivered them into the hands of spoilers] So 2Ki_17:20. The Dtc. compiler summarizes in general terms the various nations who were allowed to chastise Israel; there were spoilers (Jdg_2:16) such as the Midianites, oppressors (Jdg_2:18) such as the Philistines. Spoilers, Hebr. shôsim, is the same word as the Egyptian name, borrowed from Semitic, for the robber Bedouin of the desert, shasu; Müller, Asien u. Europa, p. 131.

sold them] One of the compiler’s phrases, Jdg_3:8, Jdg_4:2; Judges cf. Jdg_2:9, Jdg_10:7; cf. Deu_28:68; Deu_32:30, 1Sa_12:9, Eze_30:12. Perhaps it was suggested by Jdg_4:9, though its use in that older narrative is not quite the same as here.

their enemies round about] Cf. Jdg_8:34; Deu_12:10; Deu_25:19; 1Sa_12:11. The enemies are those on the frontiers of Israel; contrast Jdg_2:21 (from E), where the enemies are the nations in the midst of Israel.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel,.... For the idolatries they were guilty of; it burned within him, it broke forth, and was poured out like fire on them, and consumed them; see Nah 1:6,

and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them; that rifled their houses, and plundered them of their goods and substance:

and he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about; the is, delivered them into their hands, who carried them captive, where they were as men sold for slaves; see Psa 44:12; and this was in just retaliation, that as they had said themselves to work wickedness, the Lord sold them into the hands of their enemies for their wickedness; and, as they had followed the gods of the people round about them, so he delivered them up, into the hands of their enemies round about them, as the Mesopotamians, Moabites, Midianites, Philistines, and Ammonites:

so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies; but turned their backs on them, and fled whenever engaged in war with them.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Consult the marginal references. The phrase, “he sold them into the hands etc.,” is first found in Deu 32:30.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Who took. Hebrew, "that spoiled them, and he sold" or abandoned them, &c. (Calmet)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

14. The anger of the Lord was hot — Anger and love are feelings of the Divine as well as of the human mind, but not irregular and misdirected, as they so often appear in men. They are not evil in themselves, and can only become so by becoming uncontrolled or directed towards wrong objects. Infinite Wisdom never errs in either of these ways, and God’s essential antagonism against sin and sinners is one of the perfections of his holy nature. And such righteous indignation the Scriptures properly call anger. Our God is a consuming fire to all the workers of iniquity, and his holy wrath burns with greater or less intensity according to the sinfulness of the sinner. See note on Rom_1:18.

Spoilers — Predatory hordes, ruthless robbers, and hostile armies, who plundered their possessions and made merchandise of their persons.

And he sold them — This term sell is used in a broad sense for renouncing ownership, and delivering over into the hands of an enemy. The punishment involved in being sold was a payment to the divine justice. They failed to render due service to their only true Lord, and he, their rightful owner, sold them into a miserable slavery. Thus he vindicated the righteousness of his government, and for lack of service enforced a penalty.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Vers. 14, 15. The anger of the Lord, etc. These verses contain an awful view of the wrath of God excited by wilful sin, and are a practical illustration of Exo_20:5: I am a jealous God." Compare Psa_79:5, which shows how closely allied the notions of anger and jealousy are in Hebrew. He sold them. A forcible expression, implying the handing over of the people into the hands of their enemies, as if God had no more any property in them or concern about them; as if he said, "Ye are not my people, and I am not your God;" as if he said to the heathen, "Take them, and do as you will with them; they are yours, not mine" (see Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28). As the Lord had sworn, etc. , showing that God fulfilled his threatenings as well as his promises.

Vers. 14-23. The goodness and severity of God.

To know God as he is relatively to man not as the absolute, which is impossible to be known, but such as he is relatively to man is the highest of all knowledge which man can attain, and the most important for him to possess. Accordingly, one main purpose of revelation is to give us such knowledge. And this is given in two ways. One is by descriptions of God"s character, as, e.g. , that in Exo_34:6, 7: "The Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children," etc. The other is by the authentic record of God"s acts, specially in the gift of his only begotten Son to be the Saviour of the world, and in the Saviour"s work as related in the Gospels, and also generally in his providential dealings with his people Israel, as set forth in the Old Testament. Of the latter method the Book of Judges, of which this section is an epitome, is a striking and instructive specimen. In it we have represented to us in vivid colours two characteristic features of the mind of God.

I GOD"S HATRED OF SIN. With the usual anthropomorphism of Holy Scripture, we are told that when the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, they "provoked the Lord to anger." "The anger of the Lord was hot "against them," it is twice repeated, and "his hand was against them for evil." Here, then, we see God"s hatred of sin. And if God is infinitely good and holy, and if he knows the full misery that sin has brought into his creation, with what other sentiment can he regard sin but with that of hatred and indignation? Sin excites a holy anger in his mind, and his hand must be stretched out to punish and to check. If we reflect calmly, we must see that both of these are inevitable. God must look upon sin with displeasure, and he must ACT upon that displeasure. Evil must excite displeasure in one that is perfectly good; and in the moral Governor of the universe such displeasure cannot be quiescent and impotent, it must be active and effective. Reason teaches us so, and revelation sanctions, enlarges, and enforces the lesson.

II GOD"S EXCEEDING AND TENDER MERCY. TO use the same anthropomorphism as before, we see God ever relenting, ever yearning over the miseries of his people, ever repenting of the evil that he had brought upon them, when he heard their groanings, ever forgetting their provocations and offences, and stepping forward to deliver them. It is impossible to have mercy, forgiveness, benevolence, and love, depicted in more vivid colours. Anything more remote from the idea of a vindictive, hard, unforgiving nature it is impossible to conceive. And when we go on to inquire what are the conditions in man which, so to speak, draw out these not opposite, but different sides of the Divine character, we find that it is against persistent sin that the wrath of God burns, and upon which his heavy hand falls to smite; and that it is to the contrite and penitent who forsake their sins that his quick and willing mercy is extended. And then a little further reflection seems to show that just as in nature different forces are found ultimately to resolve themselves into one common force, so these two attributes of God, hatred of sin, and mercy, may really be expressed by one term goodness, or love. Goodness or love relatively to persistent sin is righteous punishment; relatively to penitent sorrow it is mercy and forgiveness. And the reason of this is plain. Sin involves the misery of all who are subject to it, and of all God"s creation, if it is suffered to continue and grow in it. It must therefore be the part of a good and loving God to extirpate sin, and that doubtless is the purpose of punishment, which is only another way of saying that punishment is remedial: remedial, if possible, to the being punished, that is, if it brings him to repentance; but anyhow remedial to creation, which in the continued punishment of the impenitent sees the evil of sin, and avoids it. The further doctrine of the ATONEMENT does not arise here, but it may just be observed how entirely it agrees with what we see here of God"s character, since in it, as made by the death of the only begotten Son upon the cross, the two attributes of hatred of sin, and ineffable mercy, stand out with marvellous force and brightness. We conclude then that while mercy is goodness acting towards those who are not beyond the reach of goodness, severity is goodness acting with a view as far as possible to the happiness of the whole creation. And we see in the atonement a provision of infinite wisdom, by which the risk of injury to the many by mercy to the few is removed and done away with, and by which the severity and the mercy infinitely enhance and magnify each other. Sin when it is finished bringeth forth death. Other important lessons of the DEADLY FRUIT OF SIN, and of the INVETERATE PERVERSENESS OF MAN, recurring to sin again and again, in spite of bitter experience, like a moth flying into the candle, and of the BARRIERS which man"s stubborn disobedience sets up against the coming in of all the good things which God"s love had prepared for him, flow spontaneously from the narrative in this section. So also does the lesson of the use of trouble as THE TRIAL OF FAITH (1Pe_1:7) and the test of obedience. In fact it opens a large and comprehensive chapter on the providential government of the Church and of the world.

HOMILIES BY A.F. MUIR. Vers. 14-18. Mercy is the midst of judgment.

As the sin of Israel continues and multiplies, the anger of the Lord waxes hot. As the misery of his people deepens, his compassions fail not. There is no contradiction in this. The mercy of God is not a weakness, it is the minister and honourer of his law. The judges, who represented the mercy of God, by whom they were raised up in faithless times, were also witnesses of his righteousness, and living embodiments of his kingdom amongst men.

I THE MERCY OF GOD DOES NOT CONSIST IN ALTERING THE LAWS OF HIS KINGDOM, BUT IN LEADING MEN TO CONFORM MORE PERFECTLY TO THEM. The covenant is still felt as a living power even when it is ignored. The evils foretold come to pass, and in ever-increasing force. But God pursues a plan of restoration. This plan is never one of destruction or reversal. Not one jot or tittle of the law has to pass in order that the gospel may have effect. God seeks to change the hearts of his erring children, and by the punitive operation of the laws of his kingdom to make them loyal subjects. The law that curses will also, when obeyed, be found to bless. The judges were a continuous witness to righteousness and protest against sin, and by the prestige of their mighty acts and the constant influence of their lives they led men back again to God and goodness. They were the embodiments of his mercy.

II THE VICTORIES OF SIN ARE NEVER CONSIDERED BY HIM AS IRREVERSIBLE. It was said in praise of English soldiers that they did rot know when they were beaten. How much truer is this of God and his people! The most appalling apostasy has not daunted our Heavenly Father, or driven him utterly away from his world. "Where sin abounded, there did grace much more abound." Some of the best of men and most comforting of doctrines were born in ages of spiritual darkness. He has never left himself without a witness. The course of revelation is never stopped. The succession of prophets, apostles, and martyrs is never interrupted. The servants of God in Old Testament times might be driven away or destroyed, but they, being dead, yet speak, and in the fulness of time he sends his Son; he, too, may be crucified, but nevertheless the Father will send the Comforter in his name. And so in the individual life this law will be found to operate. The darkest conscience has not been without its light.

III ON THE WHOLE THE SPIRITUAL GAINS OVER THE CARNAL IN THE PROGRESS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD AMONGST MEN. One judge passes away and another rises. The apostasies which they have to correct may become darker and more terrible; but greater deeds are forthcoming. The testimony is more and more emphatic. The principles of God"s kingdom are illustrated and honoured, and Israel gradually emancipated from its ignorance and inexperience. M.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Sold them - That is, delivered them up, as the seller doth his commodities unto the buyer.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

On account of this idolatrous worship, the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, so that He gave them up into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them, and sold them into the hands of their enemies. שׁסים from שׁסה, alternated with שׁסס in ישׁסּוּ, to plunder. This word is not met with in the Pentateuch, whereas מכר, to sell, occurs in Deu 32:30, in the sense of giving helplessly up to the foe. "They could no longer stand before their enemies," as they had done under Joshua, and in fact as long as Israel continued faithful to the Lord; so that now, instead of the promise contained in Lev 26:7-8, being fulfilled, the threat contained in Lev 26:17 was carried into execution. "Whithersoever they went out," i.e., in every expedition, every attack that they made upon their enemies, "the hand of Jehovah was against them for evil, as He had said" (Lev 26:17, Lev 26:36; Deu 28:25), and "had sworn unto them." There is no express oath mentioned either in Lev 26 or Deut 28; it is implied therefore in the nature of the case, or in virtute verborum, as Seb. Schmidt affirms, inasmuch as the threats themselves were words of the true and holy God. מאד להם ויּצר, "and it became to them very narrow," i.e., they came into great straits.

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

The anger of Yahweh burned against Israel

The anger of Yahweh is described as burning like a fire. AT: "Yahweh became very angry with the people of Israel" (See: Metaphor)

he gave them to the raiders who stole their possessions from them

"he let raiders steal their possessions"

He sold them as slaves who were held by the strength of their enemies around them, so they could no longer defend themselves against their enemies

Yahweh allowing the enemies to take the Israelites as slaves is spoken of as if he sold them into slavery. The phrase "who were held by" can be stated in active form. AT: "He allowed their enemies to conquer them and take them as slaves, and they could no longer resist their powerful enemies" (See: Metaphor and Active or Passive)

Yahweh's hand was against them to defeat them

Here "hand" represents Yahweh's power. AT: "Yahweh helped their enemies defeat them" (See: Metonymy)

they were in terrible distress

"they were suffering terribly"

translationWords

anger

Yahweh

Israel

possess

servant

adversary

hand

oath

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.