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(^185) "Baalim and the Astartes" (Ashtaroth or Asheroth). So literally.
(^186) See Cassel's Comm. p. 33. Jewish tradition and most commentators translate the
name: "twofold sin," in supposed allusion to a twofold wrong against Israel. But this is,
to say the least, a very strained explanation.
(^187) The same word as that used of Israel in Exodus 2:23.
(^188) The expression here and in 11:29 is, "was upon" him; in 6:34, it is "clothed him;" in
14:6, 19; 15:14, "came upon" or "lighted upon." The attentive reader will note the
important difference of meaning in each of these terms. In the first ease there is
permanence - at least to carry out a special purpose; in the second, the idea is of
surrounding, protecting, or enduing; and, in the third, of suddenness, implying a power,
wholly from without, descending unexpectedly at the right moment, and then
withdrawn. All have, however, this in common, that the influence comes straight from
the Spirit of God.
(^189) This, or else "my lion is God," is the rendering of the name.
(^190) The text does not make it clear whether Othniel died at the end of these forty years;
only that he died after the land had obtained rest.
(^191) We infer that Eglon was not the king of all Moab, because in that case he would not
have exchanged its capital Rabbath Moab for Jericho, and also from the fact that, after
the death of Eglon and the destruction of his garrison, the war does not seem to have
been carried on by either party.
(^192) Not paralyzed - the term occurs in Psalm 69:15. Cassel has some very curious
remarks on this subject. Benjamin means "son of the right hand;" yet it seems a
peculiarity of Benjamin to have had left-handed warriors (see Judges 20:16). Similarly
we read of certain African races, that they mostly fought with the left hand (Stobaeus,
Ecl. phys. i. 52). The Roman hero, who, like Ehud delivered his country of its foreign
oppressor, was Scavola - left-handed. The left was in ancient times the place of honor,
because it was the weaker and less protected side (Xenoph. Cyrop. viii. 4). Similarly,
the sea (in Hebrew, yam) was always regarded as the right side of a country - that of
liberty, as it were.
(^193) The term used here is the same as ordinarily employed for the offering of gifts and
sacrifices to the Deity.
(^)