Outline of Chapter 3:

         vv.     1–6           The nations which remained to test Israel

         vv.     7–11         Othniel delivers Israel from Cushan-rishathaim, king of Mesopotamia

         vv.    12–14         Israel falls into discipline under Eglon, king of Moab

         vv.    15–26         Ehud assassinates Eglon

         vv.    27–30         Ehud leads Israel against Moab

         v.       31           Shamgar, another deliverer

Index of Charts, Maps and Short Doctrines:

         Introduction         Matthew Henry Outlines Judges 3

         v.       1              Judges 3:1–4 Taken as a Whole

         v.       1              Testing as Found in Scripture

         v.       2              Explanation of the 3^rd Person Masculine Plural Suffix of Judges 3:2

         v.       3              Judges 3:3 Compared to Joshua 13:5

         v.       3              Easton and the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia on Mount Baal-Hermon

         v.       3              Mount Hermon

         v.       3              The Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon Mountains

         v.       3              My Translation of Judges 3:1–3

         v.       4              Testing as Taught by R. B. Thieme Jr.

         v.       5              Introduction to the Hittites from the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

         v.       5              More Information about the Hittites from M. G. Easton

         v.       5              The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia on the Amorites

         v.       5              Opinions as to Who the Perizzites Are

         v.       5              The Varying Opinions of the Hivites

         v.       5              Smith’s Bible Dictionary on the Jebusites

         v.       5               The Probable Locations of These Peoples

         v.       6              How Should Christians Deal with Heathen Today?

         v.       7              Israel Forgot Jehovah Their God

         v.       7              The Abbreviated Doctrine of Baalim

         v.       7              Gill Explains the Groves

         v.      10              John MacDuff’s “The True Spiritual Atlas”

         v.      11              Matthew Henry’s 5 Points on Othniel and the Deliverance of Israel

         v.      11              The Cycles of Israel’s Discipline and Deliverance

         v.      12              A map of Moab in Relationship to Israel

         v.      13              A Brief Summary of the Amalekites

         v.      16              The Odd Weapons Used in the Book of Judges

         v.      19              Options to Consider in Judges 3:19

         v.      19              Where is Eglon’s Palace?

         v.      20              The Various Rooms of Eglon’s Palace

         v.      20              Various Opinions Concerning this Room of Cooling

         v.      22              What Does the Bible say about Assassination?

         v.      21              Ehud Kills Eglon—Artwork

         v.      23              A Partial List of Ancient Technological Accomplishments

         v.      30              A Summary of Ehud’s Acts

         v.      31              A Complete Translation of Judges 3

I ntroduction: Judges 3 will move away from summary and into narrative. In fact, we will study three judges in this chapter alone: Othniel, Ehud and Shamgar, the latter judge being given very little air time. I should also point out that these various judges were not kings who ruled over all Israel, but they had territories or tribes over which they likely ruled or judged, although the book of Judges rarely gives us enough information to place them in a particular period of time or any particular territory. In fact, even the exact nature of their political rulership is left unknown.

This chapter begins with a list of the various nations and peoples who still live within Israel and tells of the intermarriage which took place. The proper understanding of this is not the fact that various Israel men marry foreign women (or, vice versa), but that they are influenced enough to walk away from Jehovah God Who placed them in the Land of Promise to begin with. They turn away from God and toward the gods of the heathen. At the first instance of this, God allows the king of Mesopotamia to place Israel into servitude. The one who delivers them was the nephew of Caleb, Othniel, also the son of Kenaz, who was the brother of Caleb. This is one of the most successful deliverances, although we are told very little about it. Israel was subjected to the king of Mesopotamia for eight years and Othniel ben Kenaz delivers Israel into a time of peace for forty years.

Israel again falls under the religious influence of those around them, and God places them under the control of Eglon the king of Moab. This time they are delivered by a man named Ehud, about whom we know very little apart from this narrative. It appears that he did rule over Israel for a time, something which is stated outright in the Greek Septuagint, but only implied by the connectives of v. 31 in the Hebrew.

Unlike the judges who bookend him, what Ehud does is given in great detail. Israel is paying tribute to Moab, and God raises up Ehud, who accompanies the tribute on one occasion. After Ehud gives the tribute to Eglon, king of Moab, he tells him that he has a message from God. They go to Egon’s private residence within his castle and Ehud assassinates Eglon there. Ehud escapes, and then comes back against Moab with Israeli soldiers, and soundly defeats Moab.

After Ehud, Shamgar ben Anath rules (or, judges), who also was a military man.

Also, for the first time in this book, we can make a reasonable guess as to who one of the authors is. We will note that the deliverance described by Ehud is given in some detail and that the vocabulary and sentence structure becomes slightly more difficult during that narrative. We can therefore reasonably conclude that this report was by Ehud himself (certain events which took place were known only to Ehud and to the king that he will kill in this chapter). In my opinion, Samuel, hundreds of years later, gathers these documents from the period of the judges and edits them together, making very few changes (except as moved by God the Holy Spirit).

Finally, as we exegete this chapter, we will come to observe, with J. Vernon McGee, that all of the judges had some defect, some odd characteristic, or handicap which God used. The Judges reveal that God can use any man who is willing to be used. McGee later writes: All of the judges are “little men.” There is not a big one in the lot. These men were used of God because they were—and I have to say it—odd characters. Their very oddness caused God to use them.

Like many chapters of the Bible, this was a poor chapter division. These first several verses really belong with Judges 2. In Judges 2, God rebukes Israel; and then, from v. 6 on, we are told why. In fact, we are given a history lesson, beginning with the death of Joshua in Judges 2:6. The problem, according to the latter half of Judges 2, is that God sends judges to Israel, yet Israel continually goes astray, chasing after the gods of the heathen. The final few verses of Judges 2 read: And so the anger of Y^ehowah burned against Israel; therefore, He said, “Because this nation has transgressed My covenant which I commanded their fathers; and [because] they did not listen to [and obey] My voice; I will not continue to expel anyone from them—from the nations which Joshua left when he died—to test Israel by them, whether they keep the way of Y^ehowah, to walk in them, as their fathers kept [them], or not.” And Y^ehowah caused to rest those nations that he did not dispossess quickly nor give into the hand of Joshua (Judges 2:20–23). This takes us directly to the first few verse of Judges 3: And these [are] the nations which Y^ehowah left [in the land of Canaan] to test by them Israel (all of whom had not experienced [lit., known] the [previous] wars of Canaan in order that [these] generations of the sons of Israel would learn [war], [God would] teach them war; specifically to those who have not known [war]): the five warlords of the Philistines, the Canaanite, the Sidonian, and the Hivite, who is living in Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baal-hermon to as far as the entrance of Hamath. They were to test Israel to determine if they would listen to [and obey] the commandments of Y^ehowah, which He commanded their fathers by Moses. Therefore, the sons of Israel continued living among the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite. Consequently, they [the Israelites] took their daughters to themselves for wives and their own daughters they gave to their sons; therefore, they served their gods. (Judges 3:1–6). As you can see by simply reading these verses, that Judges 3:1–6 should have closed out Judges 2. By the way, just in case you did not know, the chapter and verse divisions were added hundreds and thousands of years after these books were written, and there is nothing inspired about either.

The Nations Which Remained to Test Israel