Judges 3 Footnotes

3:12-22 Why did God destroy Eglon, whom he originally commissioned to bring judgment against his own people (vv. 12-13,20-21)? As the “carved images” in his territory (v. 26) indicated, Eglon did not acknowledge God’s role in empowering him to defeat and rule Israel, but still worshiped idols. Moreover, Eglon’s rule was not benevolent but harsh, as the cry of God’s people for deliverance suggests (v. 15).

3:29-31 How accurate are biblical numbers, such as the ten thousand Moabites killed by the Israelites (v. 29), the eighty years of peace, (v. 30), or the six hundred Philistines killed by Shamgar (v. 31)? Numbers in Scripture function in various ways. Some are intended to be precise and are recorded as such (see Ezr 2). Other figures that may appear to be precise are to be understood as approximations and are often designated as such by the use of the modifier “about”; an example is the number of Israelites killed at the battle of Ai: “about thirty-six” (Jos 7:5). Some figures, intended as approximations, lack the modifier “about.” The six hundred Philistines killed by Shamgar (Jdg 3:31) may be such an approximation since it is unlikely that someone counted each person he killed. Some numbers may not be numbers at all, but have another meaning. The number “thousand” can mean a military unit (Nm 31:5; 1Sm 10:19). Other numbers, whether exact or not, are theologically significant; the number “seven” (related to the Hb word for swearing an oath, ?saba?) can be an indicator that the Lord’s covenant is what is in view in a passage (Jos 6:2-15; Rv 15:6–16:1).