Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Judges 8:33
And it came to pass, as soon as Gideon was dead, that the children of Israel turned again, and went a whoring after Baalim, and made Baal-berith their god.
33. made Baal-berith their god ] Baal-brth (Jdg 9:4; Jdg 9:46) was the Covenant-Baal, the god of the league between himself and his worshippers, or the god who presided over the league between the original Canaanite inhabitants of Shechem and the Israelite new-comers; see Genesis 34 The Dtc. editor generalizes the worship of a half-Canaanite city into a defection of all Israel; similarly in Jdg 8:35 he blames Israelites for the ingratitude of the men of Shechem.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Turned again – Doubtless Gideon himself had no doubt prepared the way for this apostacy by his unauthorized ephod. The Law of Moses, with its strict unity of priesthood and altar, was the divinely-appointed and only effectual preservative from idolatry.
Baal-bereth – The god of covenants or sworn treaties, corresponding to the Zeus Orkius of the Greeks. The center of this fresh apostacy was at Shechem.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 33. A whoring after Baalim] This term has probably a different meaning here from what it has Jdg 8:7; for it is very likely that in most parts of the pagan worship there were many impure rites, so that going a whoring after Baalim may be taken in a literal sense.
Baal-berith] Literally, the lord of the covenant; the same as Jupiter faederis, or Mercury, among the Romans; the deity whose business it was to preside over compacts, leagues, treaties, covenants, c. Some of the versions understand it as if the Israelites had made a covenant or agreement to have Baal for their god so the VULGATE: Percusseruntque cum Baal faedus, ut esset eis in deum.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The children of Israel turned again; whereby we see the wicked temper of this people, who did no longer cleave to God than they were in a manner constrained to it by the presence and authority of their judges.
Baalim: this was the general name, including all their idols, whereof one here follows.
Baal-berith, i.e. The lord of the covenant, so called, either from the covenant wherewith the worshippers of this god bound themselves to maintain his worship, or to defend one another therein; or rather, because he was reputed the god and judge of all covenants, and promises, and contracts, to whom it belonged to maintain them, and to punish the violaters of them; and such a god both the Grecians and the Romans had.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And it came to pass, as soon as Gideon was dead, that the children of Israel turned again,…. from God, and the pure worship of him, to idolatry:
and went a whoring after Baalim; the gods of the Phoenicians and Canaanites, the several Baals of other nations, the lords many which they served; these they committed spiritual whoredom with; that is, idolatry: particularly
and made Baalberith their god; which was the idol of the Shechemites, as appears from a temple being built at Shechem for it, Jud 9:4 and had its name either from Berytus, a city of Phoenicia, of which Mela n and Pliny o make mention, and where this Baal might be first worshipped; it was fifty miles from Sidon, and was in later times a seat of learning p; of this city was Sanchoniatho, a Phoenician historian, who is said to receive many things he writes about the Jews from Jerombalus, supposed to be Jerubbaal, or Gideon;
[See comments on Jud 6:32] and who tells q us, that Cronus or Ham gave this city to Neptune and the Cabiri, and who also relates r that Beruth is the name of a Phoenician deity. Though it may be rather this idol had its name from its supposed concern in covenants, the word “Berith” signifying a covenant; and so the Targum and Syriac version call him the lord of covenant; and the Septuagint and Vulgate Latin versions are,
“and they made a covenant with Baal, that he should be their god;”
as if he had his name from hence; though rather from his presiding over covenants, as Janus is said s to do, and from his avenging the breach of them, and rewarding those that kept them; the same with Jupiter Fidius Ultor, and Sponsor t with the Romans, and Horcius u with the Greeks.
n De Situ Orbis, l. 1. c. 12. o Nat. Hist. l. 5. c. 20. p Eunapius in Vita Proaeresii, p. 117. q Apud Euseb. Evangel. Praepar. l. 1. p. 38. r Apud Euseb. Evangel. Praepar. l. 1. p. 36. s Servius in Virgil. Aeneid. l. 12. “Latonaeque genus”, &c. Vid. Liv. Hist. l. 8. c. 5, 6. t Vid. Kipping. Antiqu. Roman. l. 1. c. 1. p. 48. u Pausan. Eliac. 1. sive. l. 5. p. 336. Sophocles in Philoctete, prope finem.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Jdg 8:33-35 form the introduction to the history of Gideon’s sons.
Jdg 8:33 After Gideon’s death the Israelites fell once more into the Baal-worship which Gideon had rooted out of his father’s city (Jdg 6:25.), and worshipped Baal-berith as their God. Baal-berith, the covenant Baal (equivalent to El-berith, the covenant god, Jdg 9:46), is not Baal as the god of covenants, but, according to Gen 14:13, Baal as a god in covenant, i.e., Baal with whom they had made a covenant, just as the Israelites had their faithful covenant God in Jehovah (see Movers, Phniz. i. p. 171). The worship of Baal-berith, as performed at Shechem according to Jdg 9:46, was an imitation of the worship of Jehovah, an adulteration of that worship, in which Baal was put in the place of Jehovah (see Hengstenberg, Dissertations on the Pentateuch, vol. ii. p. 81).
Jdg 8:34-35 In this relapse into the worship of Baal they not only forgot Jehovah, their Deliverer from all their foes, but also the benefits which they owed to Gideon, and showed no kindness to his house in return for all the good which he had shown to Israel. The expression Jerubbaal-Gideon is chosen by the historian here, not for the purely outward purpose of laying express emphasis upon the identity of Gideon and Jerubbaal ( Bertheau), but to point to what Gideon, the Baal-fighter, had justly deserved from the people of Israel.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
Israel Turns from God Jdg. 8:33-35
33 And it came to pass, as soon as Gideon was dead, that the children of Israel turned again, and went a whoring after Baalim, and made Baal-berith their god.
34 And the children of Israel remembered not the Lord their God, who had delivered them out of the hands of all their enemies on every side:
35 Neither showed they kindness to the house of Jerubbaal, namely, Gideon, according to all the goodness which he had showed unto Israel.
17.
What was Baal-berith and where was his temple? Jdg. 8:33
Baal-berith was the god of Berith, where his temple was located. He was worshiped in Shechem, where the covenant was made. After Gideon died, the Israelites turned their back on God. They worshiped many false gods, but they evidently made Baal-berith their chief god. The word signifies the covenant Baal. In Jdg. 9:46 the name is changed to El-berith, the covenant god. The covenant was an agreement made by the god with his worshipers and Baal-berith was probably known among the Canaanites as a covenant-keeping god. The form of worship must have been vile, as the people went whoring after Baalim.
18.
What was the special notice made of Israels attitude toward Gideon? Jdg. 8:35
The children of Israel not only forgot their covenant with Jehovah who had delivered them out of the hands of all their enemies on every side; but in addition to this, they also forgot the good work of Gideon. They should have remembered how good Gideon had been to them and been faithful to the ways in which he had taught them to go. When men turn their backs on righteousness, their lives are out of harmony both with God and with man, They lower their standards of morals and ethics as well as lose their reverence for that which is holy.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(33) Turned again.Ad vomitum recdierunt (Serarius) (Psa. 106:13; Psa. 106:21).
Went a whoring after Baalim.It was shown again afterwards, in the reign of Ahab, how rapidly unauthorised symbols degenerate into positive idolatry. After all that had occurred it would have been impossible for a Jerubbaal to be a Baal-worshipper, but his little deflection from the appointed ritual soon became a wide divergence from the national faith.
Made Baal-berith their god.Baal-berith means Lord of the covenant. The Hebrew will bear the meaning given it by some of the versions: They made a covenant with Baal that he should be their god (comp. Jos. 24:25, Heb.), but the E.V. is probably correct. Bochart vainly tries to represent Baal-berith as some female deity of Berytus.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
33. As soon as Gideon was dead Compare Jdg 2:19, note. Gideon’s own example had been a snare to Israel; but in spite of all that, there was so much of uprightness and goodness in his character that he restrained the people from idolatry all his days. Here mark the downward tendency of a questionable example. False, and even evil, opinions and practices may be held by some great minds with apparent innocence and harmlessness, but prove the ruin of others who presume to follow in their steps.
Baal-berith The covenant Baal. The name indicates that these Israelites entered into covenant with Baal, just as Israel, under Moses, had entered into covenant with Jehovah. From Jdg 9:4; Jdg 9:46, we learn that there was at Shechem a temple or house for his worship. He thus became to them the most sacred of deities, the god in whose name they might solemnize their oaths, thus corresponding with the of the Greeks, and the Deus Fidius of the Romans.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And so it was that, as soon as Gideon was dead, the children of Israel turned again, and went a-whoring after the Baalim, and made Baalberith their god.’
This is illustrated further in Judges 9. It was partially the result of his many wives, as Judges 9 demonstrates. Baal-berith, ‘lord of the covenant’, was the Shechemite god. He is probably to be equated with El-berith, ‘god of the covenant’ (Jdg 9:46). The Shechemites are later called ‘the sons of Hamor (the ass)’. At Mari the ass was associated with covenant making. Seemingly among the Amorites a covenant had to be sealed by the sacrifice of an ass. The same seems to have applied here with the Shechemites in their covenant with Baal-berith.
There is no record of Shechem ever being captured by Joshua and it may be that their worship of ‘the lord of the covenant’ had convinced Joshua that they were true worshippers of Yahweh so that they were welcomed to participate in the covenant ceremony at Shechem (Joshua 24). Indeed Yahweh and Baal-berith may well have been equated. But if so this had now degenerated back to worship with Baalistic tendencies under that name. The result was that the accession of Abimelech led to the children of Israel again turning to Baal worship.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Jdg 8:33. Went a whoring after Baalim As the same expression is made use of in Jdg 8:27 with regard to Gideon’s ephod, we may reasonably conclude, that, in the former case, they were guilty of idolatry, by worshipping the true God in an improper manner, and contrary to his immediate commands; as, in the latter, they were guilty of idolatry by worshipping false gods: an observation which confirms the opinion that we have advanced in the note on the former part of the 27th verse, concerning the ephod.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Apostasy from God, and ingratitude to man
Jdg 8:33-35
33And it came to pass as soon as Gideon was dead, that the children [sons] of Israel turned again, and went a whoring after [the] Baalim, and made Baal-berith their god. 34And the children [sons] of Israel remembered not the Lord [Jehovah] their God, who had delivered them out of the hands of all their enemies on every 35side: Neither showed they kindness to the house of Jerubbaal, namely, Gideon [Jerubbaal Gideon],26 according to all the goodness27 which he had showed unto Israel.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
[1 Jdg 8:35.The word namely is added by the translators, who supposed, as Bertheau does, that the writer designed once more to point out the identity of Gideon with Jerubbaal. Cf. the Com.Tr.]
[2 Jdg 8:35.: Dr. Cassel: trotz aller Wohlthat, notwithstanding all the good. The notwithstanding lies perhaps in the thought, but not in the language.Tr.]
EXEGETICAL AND DOCTRINAL
Jdg 8:33-34. And it came to pass as soon as Gideon was dead. The fact soon became manifest that the people had been raised only by the personal character of Gideon; he is scarcely dead, before they fall back again. The narrator says sharply , they returned. The same word which elsewhere describes the turning of the people towards God, is here used to indicate their passion for sin. Ad vomitum redierunt, as Serarius well remarks.
And went a whoring after the Baalim, and made Baal-berith their god. Nothing could put the stupid thoughtlessness of the people in a stronger light. They have become great and free through victory over Baal; and now they again run after him. Jerubbaalthe contender with Baalhas just died, and they enter into covenant with Baal (see on Jdg 9:4). That the nations in the Baal-covenant (Baal-berith) kept the peace towards them, was because Jehovah had given them victory,and lo! they make idols their god! The error of Gideon, in supposing that by setting up his ephod he could preserve the people, now shows itself Since he is dead, in whom they conceived their salvation to be personified, they think neither of the spoils out of which the ephod was made, nor of him who procured them. Ingratitude is the parent of all unbelief. Thankfulness comes from thought.28 Israel thinks not on the God who has delivered it from all its enemies; how then should it think on the human hero when he has passed away. They withhold obedience from the God of their fathers; what recognition can they have for the house of their benefactor. The ephod, to be sure, was still in Ophrah; but who that despises the sanctuary of Moses and Joshua, will respect this private institute of Gideon, when his voice has ceased to be heard.
Jdg 8:35. Neither showed they kindness to the house of Jerubbaal Gideon. In the name Jerubbaal, all the heros meritorious service, and its great results, are enunciated. For that reason the narrator mentions it here. It serves to aggravate the sinfulness of Israels ingratitude, and to show that he who enters the service of Baal, will also ignore his obligations towards those who contend with Baal. The people are unwilling to be reminded that to fight against Baal brings prosperity. They seek to forget everything that admonishes to repentance. It has always been the case, that those who apostatize from God, do not do well by the house of God.Notwithstanding all the benefits which he had shown unto Israel. The narrator intimates that the endeavor of Gideon to perpetuate, by means of the ephod, the religious and godly memory of his deeds, was altogether vain. For let no one imagine that where Gods own deeds fail to command remembrance and gratitude, those of men, however deserving, can maintain themselves against the sinful sophistry of unbelief.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
[Henry: Gideon being dead, the Israelites found themselves under no restraint, and went after Baalim. They went first after another ephod (Jdg 8:27), for which Gideon had himself given them too much occasion, and now they went after another god. False worships made way for false deities.Scott: As we all need so much mercy from our God, we should learn the more patiently to bear the ingratitude of our fellow-sinners, and the unsuitable returns we meet with for our poor services, and to resolve, after the divine example, not to be overcome of evil, but to overcome evil with good.Tr.]
Footnotes:
[26][Jdg 8:35.The word namely is added by the translators, who supposed, as Bertheau does, that the writer designed once more to point out the identity of Gideon with Jerubbaal. Cf. the Com.Tr.]
[27][Jdg 8:35.: Dr. Cassel: trotz aller Wohlthat, notwithstanding all the good. The notwithstanding lies perhaps in the thought, but not in the language.Tr.]
[28][The German is, Dank kommt vom Denken. It is interesting to observe, whether the author meant to suggest it or not, that the remark is sound etymology as well as psychology. Grimm (Wrterb. ii. pp. 727, 927) derives both dank and denken from the lost root dinke, danc, dnken, expressive of an action of the mind, a movement and up-lifting of the soul. Thank and think belong, of course, to the same root.Tr.]
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
What an awful representation do the Scriptures of God afford, of the total depravity and corruption of the heart. In all ages it breaks out. Lord, what is man? Baal-berith, in the original, signifies, the Lord of a Covenant; as if Israel had covenanted with an idol to their ruin.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Jdg 8:33 And it came to pass, as soon as Gideon was dead, that the children of Israel turned again, and went a whoring after Baalim, and made Baalberith their god.
Ver. 33. As soon as Gideon was dead. ] So great a mischief, many times, is the death of a good governor.
And made Baalberith their god.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
as soon: Jdg 2:7-10, Jdg 2:17, Jdg 2:19, Jos 24:31, 2Ki 12:2, 2Ch 24:17, 2Ch 24:18
went: Jdg 8:27, Jdg 2:17, Exo 34:15, Exo 34:16, Jer 3:9
Baalberith: Literally, “the lord of the covenant.” Jdg 9:4, Jdg 9:46
Reciprocal: 1Ch 5:25 – and went 2Ch 17:3 – sought Jer 23:27 – as
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jdg 8:33. As soon as, &c. Whereby we see the temper of this people, who did no longer cleave to God, than they were in a manner constrained to it, by the presence and authority of the judges. Baalim This was the general name including all their idols, one of which here follows: Baal- berith That is, the Lord of the covenant; so called, either from the covenant wherewith the worshippers of this god bound themselves to maintain his worship, or defend one another therein; or rather, because he was reputed the god and judge of all covenants, and promises, and contracts, to whom it belonged to maintain them, and to punish the violators of them; and such a god both the Grecians and the Romans had.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
8:33 And it came to pass, as soon as Gideon was dead, that the children of Israel turned again, and went a whoring after Baalim, and made {q} Baalberith their god.
(q) That is, Baal, to whom they had bound themselves by covenant.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
2. Israel’s departure from Yahweh 8:33-35
After Gideon’s death, the Israelites again wandered from the Lord (cf. Jdg 3:7; Jdg 3:12; Jdg 4:1; Jdg 6:1; Jdg 10:6; Jdg 13:1). They even made a covenant with Baal in disobedience to God’s Law. "Baal-berith" (Jdg 8:33) means "Baal of the covenant." Ironically Shechem, the town where the Israelites had twice renewed their covenant with Yahweh after they entered the land (Joshua 8; Joshua 24), became a site and center of this Baal worship (Jdg 9:46).
"In line with common practice, the covenant-making function of Yahweh was simply transferred to Baal so that he, not Yahweh, was viewed as the god who made Shechem a holy place." [Note: Merrill, Kingdom of . . ., p. 169.]
Perhaps the site had been sacred to the Canaanites before the Israelites took it over and "converted" it. Now it was back in Canaanite hands. [Note: Martin Noth, The History of Israel, pp. 98-99.]
The Israelites in time forgot Yahweh and His many deliverances of them, as well as the family of Gideon, their hero who had proved that Baal could not contend for himself (Jdg 8:35; cf. Jdg 6:31-32).
"Gideon personifies the typical Israelite in the period of the judges. He is more than half Canaanite in his outlook. He does not know how to relate to God. He does not want to get involved in the Lord’s work. He is not beyond using his position for personal gain and influence.
". . . recognizing the deficiencies in the man thrusts into sharper relief the contrasting patience and mercy of God . . .
"Gideon is a man God used in spite of himself. He is a rough vessel if ever there was one. But God is determined to get His work done. In the absence of genuinely qualified leadership, He will use surprising vessels." [Note: Block, "Gideon . . .," p. 27.]
Most of the major judges in the Book of Judges lacked character that we would call "above reproach" (1Ti 3:2). God uses vessels unto dishonor as well as vessels unto honor to accomplish His work (2Ti 2:20-21). This in no way justifies ungodliness. It simply magnifies the sovereignty and grace of God in using rough material if He chooses to do so for His own purposes.