Judges 3:3

3 These nations consisted of the five chiefs of the P'lishtim, all the Kena'ani, the Tzidoni, and the Hivi who lived in the hills of the L'vanon between Mount Ba'al-Hermon and the entrance to Hamat.

Judges 3:3 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 3:3

[Namely], five lords of the Philistines
The places they were lords of were Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron; see ( Joshua 13:3 ) ; three of these, Gaza, Ashkelon, and Ekron, had been taken from them by Judah, since the death of Joshua, ( Judges 1:18 ) ; but they soon recovered them again, perhaps by the help of the other two. The Philistines were a people originally of Egypt, but came from thence and settled in these parts, and were here as early as in the times of Abraham, and were very troublesome neighbours to the Israelites in later times; see ( Genesis 10:14 ) ( Genesis 21:32 Genesis 21:33 ) ;

and all the Canaanites;
these were a particular tribe or nation in the land so called, which inhabited by the sea, and by the coast of Jordan, ( Numbers 13:29 ) ; otherwise this is the general name for the seven nations:

and the Sidonians;
the inhabitants of the famous city of Sidon, which had its name from the firstborn of Canaan, ( Genesis 10:15 ) ;

and the Hivites that dwelt in Mount Lebanon;
on the north of the land of Canaan:

from Mount Baalhermon;
the eastern part of Lebanon, the same with Baalgad, where Baal was worshipped:

unto the entering in of Hamath;
the boundary of the northern part of the land, which entrance led into the valley between Libanus and Antilibanus; see ( Numbers 34:8 ) ( Joshua 11:3 ) ( 13:5 ) .

Judges 3:3 In-Context

1 These are the nations which ADONAI allowed to remain, in order to put to the test all the people of Isra'el who had not known any of the wars with Kena'an.

2 This was only so that the generations of Isra'el who had previously known nothing of war might learn about it.

3 These nations consisted of the five chiefs of the P'lishtim, all the Kena'ani, the Tzidoni, and the Hivi who lived in the hills of the L'vanon between Mount Ba'al-Hermon and the entrance to Hamat.

4 They stayed there to test whether Isra'el would pay attention to the mitzvot of ADONAI, which, through Moshe, he had ordered their ancestors to obey.

5 So the people of Isra'el lived among the Kena'ani, Hitti, Emori, P'rizi, Hivi and Y'vusi;