Difference between revisions of "Shamgar"

<p> Son of Anath, judge of [[Israel]] after Ehud, and immediately before [[Barak]] (&nbsp;Judges 5:6; &nbsp;Judges 5:8; &nbsp;Judges 3:31). Probably a Naphtalite, as [[Beth]] [[Anath]] was of Naphtali. This tribe took a foremost part in the war with [[Jabin]] (&nbsp;Judges 4:6; &nbsp;Judges 4:10; &nbsp;Judges 5:18). The tributary [[Canaanites]] (&nbsp;Judges 1:33) combined with the [[Philistines]] against Israel, rendering the highways unsafe and forcing [[Israelite]] travelers into byways to escape notice. The villages were forsaken, and as in later times the oppressors disarmed Israel of all swords and spears (&nbsp;Judges 4:3; &nbsp;1 Samuel 13:19; &nbsp;1 Samuel 13:22). With an ox goad, his only weapon ''(Compare '' &nbsp;Judges 15:15-16'', An Undesigned Coincidence Marking Genuineness; '' &nbsp;1 Samuel 17:47''; '' &nbsp;1 Samuel 17:50''; [[Spiritually]] '' &nbsp;2 Corinthians 10:4''; '' &nbsp;1 Corinthians 1:27'')'' he slew 600 Philistines, thereby giving Israel deliverance from oppressors for a time. So he prepared the way for [[Deborah]] and Barak's more decisive blow. The inadequacy of the instrument renders Jehovah's might the more evident. </p>

<p> (Heb. Shamnar', שִׁמְגִּר '','' possibly [[Sword]] [comp. ''Samgar'' ]; Sept. Σαμεγάρ, [[Josephus]] Σανάγαρος )'','' son of Anath, and third judge of Israel. B.C. 1429. It is possible, from his patronymic, that Shamgar may have been of the tribe of Naphtali, since [[Bethanath]] is in that tribe (&nbsp;Judges 1:33). Ewald conjectures that he was of Dan — an opinion in which Bertheau ([[On]] &nbsp;Judges 3:31) does not coincide. Since the tribe of [[Naphtali]] bore a chief part in the war against Jabin and [[Sisera]] (&nbsp;Judges 4:6; &nbsp;Judges 4:10; &nbsp;Judges 5:18), we seem to have a point of contact between Shamgar and Barak. It is not known whether the only exploit recorded of him was that by which his authority was acquired. It is said that he "slew of the Philistines six hundred men with an ox goad" (&nbsp;Judges 3:31). It is supposed that he was laboring in the field, without any other weapon than the long staff armed with a strong point used in urging and guiding the cattle yoked in the plough, (See [[Goad]]), when he perceived a party of the Philistines, whom, with the aid of the husbandmen and neighbors, he repulsed with much slaughter. </p> <p> The date and duration of his government are not stated in Scripture (Josephus [''Ant.'' 5, 4, 3] says it lasted less than one year), but may be probably assigned to the end of that long period of repose which followed the deliverance under Ehud. He is not expressly called a judge, nor does he appear to have effected more than a very partial and transient relaxation of the Philistine oppression under which Israel groaned; and the next period of Israel's declension is dated, not from Shamgar's, but from Ehud's ascendency (&nbsp;Judges 4:1); as if the agency of Shamgar were too occasional to form an epoch in the history. The heroic deed recorded of him was probably a solitary effort, prompted by a kind of inspiration at the moment, and failing of any permanent result from not being followed up either on his own part or that of his countrymen. In Shamgar's time, as the Song of Deborah informs us (5:6), the condition of the people was so deplorably insecure that the highways were forsaken, and travelers went through by ways, and, for the same reason, the villages were abandoned for the walled towns. Their arms were apparently taken from them, by the same policy as was adopted later by the same people (3:31; 5, 8; comp. with &nbsp;1 Samuel 13:19-22). From the position of "the Philistines" in &nbsp;1 Samuel 12:9, between "Moab" and "Hazor," the allusion seems to be to the time of Shamgar. (See [[Judges]]). </p>