the Third Sunday after Easter
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Izhibhalo Ezingcwele
AbaGwebi 3:13
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- CondensedBible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
Ammon: Judges 5:14, Psalms 83:6
the city: Judges 1:16, Deuteronomy 34:3, Psalms 83:7
Reciprocal: Judges 6:3 - Amalekites Judges 10:9 - passed Judges 12:15 - in the mount
Gill's Notes on the Bible
And he gathered unto him the children of Ammon and Amalek,.... Either the Lord gathered them to Eglon, inclined them to enter into a confederacy with him, to assist in the war against Israel; or the king of Moab got them to join with him in it, they being his neighbours, and enemies to Israel, and especially Amalek:
and went and smote Israel; first the two tribes and a half, which lay on that side Jordan Moab did, whom it is reasonable to suppose he would attack first; and having defeated them, he came over Jordan:
and possessed the city of the palm trees; Jericho, as the Targum, which was set with palm trees; see Deuteronomy 34:3; not the city itself, for that was destroyed by Joshua, and not rebuilt until the time of Ahab; but the country, about it, or, as Abarbinel thinks, a city that was near it; here Josephus says t he had his royal palace; it is probable he built a fort or garrison here, to secure the fords of Jordan, and his own retreat; as well as to keep up a communication with his own people, and prevent the tribes of the other side giving any assistance to their brethren, if able and disposed to do it.
t Antiqu. l. 5. c. 4. sect. 1.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
The children of Ammon (Bent-Ammon), almost always so spoken of from their ancestor Ben-ammi Genesis 19:38, seem to be under the leadership of the king of Moab, as do also the Amlekites: this is perhaps the strengthening spoken of in Judges 3:12. In Judges 6:0 the combination is Midianites, Amalekites, and children of the East, or Arab tribes. In the narrative of Jephthah’s judgeship, the Ammonites alone are mentioned; but with a reference to the Moabites, and as if they were one people Judges 11:24. The Amalekites appear as the constant and bitter foes of the Israelites (Exodus 17:8 notes and references); and the naming a mountain in Ephraim, “the mount of the Amalekites” Judges 12:15 is probably a memorial of this joint invasion of Moabites and Amalekites, and marks the scene either of their occupation, or of some signal victory over them.
The city of palm trees: i. e. Jericho Judges 1:16, having been utterly destroyed by Joshua, and not rebuilt until the time of Ahab Joshua 6:24-26; 1 Kings 16:34, can only have existed at this time as an unwalled village, - like Jerusalem after its destruction by Nebuzaradan, until Nehemiah rebuilt its waits - and like its modern representative er-Riha, a village with a fortress for the Turkish garrison. This occupation of Jericho should be compared with the invasion in Judges 10:9, where two out of the three tribes named, Benjamin and Ephraim, are the same as those here concerned, and where Judges 10:7 the Philistines are coupled with the Ammonites, just as here Judges 3:31 the Philistines are mentioned in near connection with the Moabites. See Introduction.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse Judges 3:13. The city of palm trees. — This the Targum renders the city of Jericho; but Jericho had been destroyed by Joshua, and certainly was not rebuilt till the reign of Ahab, long after this, 1 Kings 16:34. However, as Jericho is expressly called the city of palm trees, Deuteronomy 34:3, the city in question must have been in the vicinity or plain of Jericho, and the king of Moab had seized it as a frontier town contiguous to his own estates. Calmet supposes that the city of palm trees means En-gaddi.