Judges 6:10

Jdg 6:10 And I said unto you, I [am] the LORD your God; fear not the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but ye have not obeyed my voice.

Ver. 10. Fear not the gods.] As true religion hath fear of piety for its foundation, so superstition hath its fear of that deity which it faneieth, and is therefore called δεισιδαιμονια.

“Primus in orbe Deos fecit Timor.”

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.

Jdg 6:10. Ye have not obeyed my voice — And therefore all these evils are come upon you. This is said to bring them to repentance. And our repentance is then genuine when the sinfulness of sin, as disobedience to God, is that which we chiefly lament.

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

(10) The gods of the Amorites.—See Jos_24:15; 1Ki_21:26. As the Amorites seem to have been the highlanders of Palestine, and the most powerful of all the Canaanitish tribes, their name is sometimes used for that of all the Canaanites (Jos_24:15). Thus Heber says:—

“As when five monarchs led to Gibeon’s fight

In rude array the harnessed Amorite.”

No deliverance can be promised till repentance has begun. When the warnings of the prophet are heeded the mission of the deliverer begins.

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

And there came an angel of the Lord,.... This was not the prophet before mentioned, as Ben Gersom thinks, but an angel of God, as expressed, and not a created one, but the Angel of Jehovah's presence, the Word and Son of God, and who is expressly called Jehovah himself, Jdg 6:14.

and sat under an oak; or stayed there a while, as Kimchi interprets it, seeing, according to his observation, angels are not said to sit, but stand:

which was in Ophrah, that pertaineth to Joash the Abiezrite; which shows that this Ophrah is different from a city of this name in the tribe of Benjamin, Jos 18:23 for the oak that was in it, under which the angel sat, belonged to Joash an Abiezrite, a descendant of Abiezer, son of the sister of Gilead, who was the son of Machir the son of Manasseh, Jos 17:2, it is called by Josephus (h) Ephra, and by Jerom (i) Ephrata:

and his son Gideon threshed wheat by the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites; lest they should take it away, and bereave his father's family of their sustenance, as they were wont to do, wherever they could find it; and all circumstances attending this affair were on this account; he threshed it himself, this he chose to do, and not trust his servants, lest it should be discovered; and he beat the wheat out with a staff, that it might be more silently done, and not with oxen, which was the usual way of treading out corn, who, bellowing (k), would discover it; and this was done not on a threshing floor, but where a winepress stood, where there could be no suspicion of such work being doing.

(h) Antiqu. l. 5. c. 6. sect. 5, 7. (i) De loc. Heb. fol. 90. K. (k) Vid. Homer. Iliad. 20. ver. 495, 496, 497.

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

A similar use of the name Amorite, instead of the more usual name Canaanite, occurs in Jos 24:15, Jos 24:18. Perhaps a special reason may be found for the use of Amorite, if the prophet was addressing those who dwelt in the mountains, where the Amorites chiefly dwelt. The idolatries of the Amorites seem, too, to have been preeminently abominable (see 2Ki 21:11; 1Ki 21:26). It should be observed that the prophet’s language, as it traces the misery of Israel to their sins, so also intimates the necessity of repentance and of breaking off their sins - especially the sin of idolatry - as preliminary to any deliverance. In exact accordance with this view, Gideon commences his work by throwing down the altar of Baal, and building up the altar of Yahweh Jdg 6:24-25.

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

Fear not. Idols can do you no hurt, if you continue faithful to me. (Haydock) --- Shew them no respect or worship. The fear of Isaac means the God (Calmet) whom Isaac worshipped, Genesis xxxi. 42. Idolatry owed its rise to a groundless fear: primos in orbe deos fecit timor. (Lucretius) The pagans offered sacrifice to Paventia, to fear and paleness, &c., that they might be secure from them. (Lactantius) (Haydock)

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).

Fear not, i.e. do not serve or worship them.

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

10. Gods of the Amorites — The word Amorites is here, as in Gen_15:16, and Jos_24:15, put for the whole of the Canaanitish tribes. Their idol gods they were not to fear. “Perhaps in this case a special reason may be found for the use of Amorite, if the prophet was addressing those who dwelt in the mountains where the Amorites chiefly dwelt.” — Hervey.

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

Not obeyed my voice - He intends to bring them to repentance. And our repentance is then genuine, when he sinfulness of sin, as disobedience to God, is that in it which we chiefly lament.

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