Judges 1:34

And the Amorites forced the children of Dan into the mountain: for they would not suffer them to come down to the valley:

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(34) The Amorites.—They were the Highlanders of Palestine (Joshua 10:6; Numbers 13:29; Deuteronomy 1:44).

Forced.—Literally “squeezed” or “pressed.”

Forced the children of Dan into the mountain.—The condition of this tribe was, therefore, the worst of all. So far from reducing under tribute the Canaanites of its assigned possession, as the central tribes did, the Danites did not even succeed in establishing a tolerated neutrality among them, like the northern tribes, but were driven into a few mountain-strongholds. It was probably this failure, and the consequent pressure of space under which the tribe laboured, which induced them to undertake the successful northern expedition alluded to in Joshua 19:47 and described in Judges 18

Benson Commentary

Jdg 1:34-35. They would not suffer them to come down into the valley —

That is, into the plain country; which was the occasion of that expedition for the obtaining of territory elsewhere, of which we read Joshua 19:47, and Jdg 18:2. The hand of the house of Joseph prevailed — That is, of the Ephraimites, who helped their brethren the Danites against the Amorites.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

1:21-36 The people of Israel were very careless of their duty and interest. Owing to slothfulness and cowardice, they would not be at the pains to complete their conquests. It was also owing to their covetousness: they were willing to let the Canaanites live among them, that they might make advantage of them. They had not the dread and detestation of idolatry they ought to have had. The same unbelief that kept their fathers forty years out of Canaan, kept them now out of the full possession of it. Distrust of the power and promise of God deprived them of advantages, and brought them into troubles. Thus many a believer who begins well is hindered. His graces languish, his lusts revive, Satan plies him with suitable temptations, the world recovers its hold; he brings guilt into his conscience, anguish into his heart, discredit on his character, and reproach on the gospel. Though he may have sharp rebukes, and be so recovered that he does not perish, yet he will have deeply to lament his folly through his remaining days; and upon his dying bed to mourn over the opportunities of glorifying God and serving the church he has lost. We can have no fellowship with the enemies of God within us or around us, but to our hurt; therefore our only wisdom is to maintain unceasing war against them.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The Amorites are usually found in the mountain Numbers 13:29; Joshua 10:6. Here they dwell in the valley, of which the monuments of Rameses III show them to have been in possession when that monarch invaded Syria. It was their great strength in this district, and their forcible detention of the territory of Dan, which led to the expedition of the Danites Judges 18. The house of Joseph lent their powerful aid in subduing them, probably in the times of the Judges.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

27-36. The same course of subjugation was carried on in the other tribes to a partial extent, and with varying success. Many of the natives, no doubt, during the progress of this exterminating war, saved themselves by flight and became, it is thought, the first colonists in Greece, Italy, and other countries. But a large portion made a stout resistance and retained possession of their old abodes in Canaan. In other cases, when the natives were vanquished, avarice led the Israelites to spare the idolaters, contrary to the express command of God; and their disobedience to His orders in this matter involved them in many troubles which this book describes.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Into the plain country; which was the occasion of that expedition for the getting of new quarters; of which we read Jos 19 Jud 18.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And the Amorites forced the children of Dan into the mountain,.... Into the mountainous part of the tribe of Dan; the most noted mountains in it were Sear and Baalah, which lay on the border of Judah, Joshua 15:10; Joppa in this tribe was built on an high rock, and so Gibbethon, as its name seems to import, perhaps was built on a hill or mountain, as were the cities after mentioned:

for they would not suffer them to come down to the valley; which lay between Joppa and Caesarea, the plain of Sharon, in which were Lydda, Jamnia, &c. which belonged to their tribe, and they afterwards enjoyed; See Gill on Joshua 19:48.

Geneva Study Bible

And the Amorites forced the children of Dan into the mountain: for they would not suffer them to come down to the valley:

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

34, 35. The fortunes of Dan

34. Dan, we may infer, attempted to settle in the N.W. corner of Judah, on the rich land (‘the valley’) between the hills and the coast. But the native population forced them back into the hills; in chs. 13, 16, 18 we find Danite settlements at Zorah and Eshtaol in the Valley of Sorek (Wadi eṣ-Ṣarâr), in Jdg 1:34 the places which Dan tried to occupy are in the next valley to the N., that of Ayyâlôn (W. Selmân—Merj ibn ‘Umar); these quarters, however, proved too strait for them, and, probably not long after the present period, a part of the tribe was driven to seek a home in the north (18), where they are settled in the time of Deborah (Jdg 5:17). It is possible that the migration was due to pressure from the Philistines.

the Amorites] Elsewhere in this chap., as always in J, the pre-Israelite inhabitants are called Canaanites, while Amorites is the name used by E and D; the text of Jdg 1:34-36 no doubt originally had ‘Canaanites.’ There is no sufficient reason to suppose that these verses come from a different document (cf. 34 with 19 ‘hill country … valley,’ 35 with 27b, 23, 30, 33).

forced] The same Hebr. word as in Jdg 4:3, Jdg 10:12 ‘oppress’; Amos 6:14 ‘afflict.’

After this verse it is probable that Joshua 19:47 (corrected), a verse which is clearly an insertion in its present context, followed in the original narrative of J: ‘and the border of their inheritance was too strait for them (cf. 2 Kings 6:1 in Hebr.), and the children of Dan went up and fought with Lesham (= Laish, Jdg 18:29) and took it, and smote it with the edge of the sword, and possessed it and dwelt in it; and they called Lesham, Dan, after the name of Dan their father.’ Perhaps this verse was struck out here, because the episode is narrated at length in the Appendix, ch. 18. At the beginning of Joshua 19:47 the LXX seem to have translated a text which commenced with ‘And the sons of Dan did not dispossess the Amorites …’ If this sentence stood originally in the present document, it would conform Jdg 1:34, which begins abruptly, with Jdg 1:21; Jdg 1:29 ff.

Judges 1:34

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Still less were the Danites able to drive the Canaanites out of their inheritance. On the contrary, the Amorites forced Dan up into the mountains, and would not suffer them to come down into the plain. But the territory allotted to the Danytes was almost all in the plain (see at Joshua 19:40). If, therefore, they were forced out of that, they were almost entirely excluded from their inheritance. The Amorites emboldened themselves (see at Deuteronomy 1:5) to dwell in Har-cheres, Ajalon, and Shaalbim. On the last two places see Joshua 19:42, where Ir-shemesh is also mentioned. This combination, and still more the meaning of the names Har-cheres, i.e., sun-mountain, and Ir-shemesh, i.e., sun-town, make the conjecture a very probable one, that Har-cheres is only another name for Ir-shemesh, i.e., the present Ain Shems (see at Joshua 15:10, and Rob. Pal. iii. pp. 17, 18). This pressure on the part of the Amorites induced a portion of the Danites to emigrate, and seek for an inheritance in the north of Palestine (see Judges 18). On the other hand, the Amorites were gradually made tributary by the powerful tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, who bounded Dan on the north. "The hand of the house of Joseph lay heavy," sc., upon the Amorites in the towns already named on the borders of Ephraim. For the expression itself, comp. 1 Samuel 5:6; Psalm 32:4.