Judges 10:12

The Zidonians also, and the Amalekites, and the Maonites, did oppress you; and ye cried to me, and I delivered you out of their hand.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(12) The Sidonians.—Judges 3:3; Judges 18:7-28. Nothing very definite is recorded of deliverance from the Sidonians; but (as we have seen) the narrative of the book is typical rather than exhaustive. (Comp. Psalm 106:42-43.)

The Amalekites.—Exodus 17:8, Exod. 6:33, Exodus 3:13.

The Maonites.—As the LXX. here read Madian (and in some MSS. Canaan; Vulg., Chanaan), it seems probable that there has been an early corruption of the text. In the Arabic version we have “Moabites.” There was a town Maon in the desert of Judah (Joshua 15:55; 1Samuel 23:24; 1Samuel 25:2), but this cannot be meant. There is also a Beth Meon in the tribe of Reuben (Numbers 22:38; Baal Meon, Jeremiah 48:23), and a Meon in Arabia Petræa. Mehunims are also mentioned in 2Chronicles 26:7, and Meonim in 1Chronicles 4:41. If this is an allusion to some disaster of which we have no record given we must suppose that Meon was once the capital of some tribe which subsequently dwindled into insignificance.

Benson Commentary

Jdg 10:12. The Zidonians — We do not read of any oppression of Israel, particularly, by the Zidonians. But many things were done which are not recorded. The Maonites — Either, first, those who lived in or near the wilderness of Maon, in the south of Judah, 1 Samuel 23:25; 1 Samuel 25:2; whether Edomites or others. Or, secondly, the Mehunims, a people living near the Arabians, of whom see 2 Chronicles 26:7. For in the Hebrew, the letters of both names are the same, only the one is the singular, the other the plural number.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

10:10-18 God is able to multiply men's punishments according to the numbers of their sins and idols. But there is hope when sinners cry to the Lord for help, and lament their ungodliness as well as their more open transgressions. It is necessary, in true repentance, that there be a full conviction that those things cannot help us which we have set in competition with God. They acknowledged what they deserved, yet prayed to God not to deal with them according to their deserts. We must submit to God's justice, with a hope in his mercy. True repentance is not only for sin, but from sin. As the disobedience and misery of a child are a grief to a tender father, so the provocations of God's people are a grief to him. From him mercy never can be sought in vain. Let then the trembling sinner, and the almost despairing backslider, cease from debating about God's secret purposes, or from expecting to find hope from former experiences. Let them cast themselves on the mercy of God our Saviour, humble themselves under his hand, seek deliverance from the powers of darkness, separate themselves from sin, and from occasions of it, use the means of grace diligently, and wait the Lord's time, and so they shall certainly rejoice in his mercy.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The Zidonians - An allusion to the time of Barak, when the Zidonians doubtless formed part of the great confederacy of Canaanites under Jabin king of Hazor. See Joshua 11:8.

The Amalekites - In the time of Gideon (marginal reference).

The Maonites - Probably one of the tribes of the "children of the East," who came with the Midianites and Amalekites in the time of Gideon, and may have been conspicuous for their hostility to Israel, and for the greatness of their discomfiture, though the record has not been preserved. The name is "Mehununs" in 2 Chronicles 26:7.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

12. Maonites—that is, "Midianites."

Matthew Poole's Commentary

The Zidonians also; for though we do not read of any oppression of Israel, particularly, by the Zidonians, yet there might be such a thing; as many things were said and done, both in the Old and New Testament, which are not recorded there; or they might join their forces with the king of Mesopotamia, Judges 3:8, or with some other of their oppressors; for it is certain these were left among others to prove Israel, Judges 3:1-3. Of

the Amalekites, see Judges 3:13 6:3.

Maonites; either, first, Those who lived in or near the wilderness of Maon, in the south of Judah, 1 Samuel 23:25 25:2, whether Edomites or other. Or, secondly, The Mehunims, a people living near the Arabians, of whom 2 Chronicles 26:7. For in the Hebrew the letters of both names are the same, only the one is the singular, the other the plural number. Or, thirdly, The Midianites, whose oppression he would not omit; it being usual for one and the same person or persons to have two names; although the Midianites may be comprehended under the Amalekites, with whom they were joined, Judges 6:3,33. Or, fourthly, Some other people now unknown, and not expressed elsewhere in Scripture.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

The Zidonians also,.... Who were left in the land to distress them, though there is no particular mention of them, and of the distress they gave them, and of their deliverance from it, which yet is not at all to be questioned:

and the Amalekites; both quickly after they came out of Egypt, Exodus 17:13 and when they were come into the land of Canaan, joining the Moabites and the Midianites against them, Judges 3:13.

and the Maonites did oppress you; meaning either the old inhabitants of Maon, a city in the mountains of Judah, near to which was a wilderness of this name, Joshua 15:55 or rather a people of Arabia, called by Strabo (z), and Diodorus Siculus (a), Minaeans, the same with Mehunim, mentioned with the Arabians, 2 Chronicles 26:7 and who perhaps came along with the Midianites, when they oppressed Israel; though some have thought of the old inhabitants of Bethmeon and Baalmeon, Numbers 32:38.

and ye cried unto me, and I delivered you out of their hands; all those mercies and deliverances are mentioned to aggravate their sins, that notwithstanding the Lord hath so often and eminently appeared for them, yet they deserted him and his worship, and fell into idolatry. Jarchi observes, that here are seven salvations or deliverances mentioned in opposition to the seven sorts of false gods or idols they had served, Judges 10:6.

(z) Geograph. l. 16. p. 528. (a) Bibliothec. l. 3. p. 176.

Geneva Study Bible

The Zidonians also, and the Amalekites, and the Maonites, did oppress you; and ye cried to me, and I delivered you out of their hand.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

12. The Zidonians … Amalekites … Maonites] The generalizing list of oppressors is continued. The Zidonians, i.e. Phoenicians (Jdg 3:3 n.), do not appear elsewhere in this character; perhaps the name was suggested by Jdg 10:6. The Amalekites are mentioned as allies of Moab in Jdg 3:13, and of Midian in Jdg 6:3 (see note); cf. Exodus 17:8-16 E. The Maonites (Maon is the form here) probably = the Meunim, 1 Chronicles 4:41, 2 Chronicles 20:1 (RVm.), 2 Chronicles 26:7—all late passages; the Meunim, who are referred to as hostile to Israel, were an Arab race inhabiting the Edomite country; their name survives in Ma‘ân, 6 hours S.E. of Petra. Perhaps the post-exilic editor included Maon in this list as being an enemy familiar to later times. On the supposed connexion between the Maonites (Meunim) and the Minaeans see HDB. s.v. The LXX reads Midian here, and many scholars adopt the correction; but it is suspiciously obvious.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 12. - The Zidonians also. This allusion is not clear; it may mean the subjects of Jabin king of Canaan, as the northern Canaanites are called Zidonians in ch. 18:7; and this agrees with the order in which the deliverance from the Zidonians is here mentioned, next to that from the Philistines, and would be strengthened by the conjecture that has been made, that Harosheth (Judges 4:2) was the great workshop in which the tributary Israelites wrought in cutting down timber, etc. for the Phoenician ships; or it may allude to some unrecorded oppression. The Amalekites, who were in alliance with the Midianites (Judges 6:3, 33), as previously with the Moabites (Judges 3:13) and with the Canaanites (Judges 4:14), and whose signal defeat seems to have given the name to the mount of the Amalekites (Judges 12:15). The Maonites. It is thought by many that the true reading is that preserved in the Septuagint, viz., the Midianites, which, being the greatest of all the foes of Israel, could scarcely be omitted here (see chs. 6, 7, 8.). If Maonites or Maon is the true reading, they would be the same people as the Mehunim, mentioned 2 Chronicles 26:7 (Maon, sing., and Meunim, plur.). Judges 10:12

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

When the Israelites cried in their distress to the Lord, "We have sinned against Thee, namely, that we have forsaken our God and served the Baals," the Lord first of all reminded them of the manifestations of His grace (Judges 10:11, Judges 10:12), and then pointed out to them their faithless apostasy and the worthlessness of their idols (Judges 10:13, Judges 10:14). וכי, "and indeed that," describes the sin more minutely, and there is no necessity to remove it from the text-an act which is neither warranted by its absence from several MSS nor by its omission from the Sept., the Syriac, and the Vulgate. Baalim is a general term used to denote all the false gods, as in Judges 2:11. This answer on the part of God to the prayer of the Israelites for help is not to be regarded as having been given through an extraordinary manifestation (theophany), or through the medium of a prophet, for that would certainly have been recorded; but it was evidently given in front of the tabernacle, where the people had called upon the Lord, and either came through the high priest, or else through an inward voice in which God spoke to the hearts of the people, i.e., through the voice of their own consciences, by which God recalled to their memories and impressed upon their hearts first of all His own gracious acts, and then their faithless apostasy. There is an anakolouthon in the words of God. The construction which is commenced with ממּצרים is dropped at וגו וצידונים in Judges 10:12; and the verb הושׁעתּי, which answers to the beginning of the clause, is brought up afterwards in the form of an apodosis with אתכם ואושׁיעה. "Did I not deliver you (1) from the Egyptians (cf. Exodus 1-14); (2) from the Amorites (cf. Numbers 21:3); (3) from the Ammonites (who oppressed Israel along with the Moabites in the time of Ehud, Judges 3:12.); (4) from the Philistines (through Shamgar: see 1 Samuel 12:9, where the Philistines are mentioned between Sisera and Moab); (5) from the Sidonians (among whom probably the northern Canaanites under Jabin are included, as Sidon, according to Judges 18:7, Judges 18:28, appears to have exercised a kind of principality or protectorate over the northern tribes of Canaan); (6) from the Amalekites (who attacked the Israelites even at Horeb, Exodus 17:8., and afterwards invaded the land of Israel both with the Moabites, Judges 3:13, and also with the Midianites, Judges 6:3); and (7) from the Midianites?" (see Judges 6-7). The last is the reading of the lxx in Cod. Al. and Vat., viz., Μαδιάμ; whereas Ald. and Compl. read Χαναάν, also the Vulgate. In the Masoretic text, on the other hand, we have Maon. Were this the original and true reading, we might perhaps think of the Mehunim, who are mentioned in 2 Chronicles 26:7 along with Philistines and Arabians (cf. 1 Chronicles 4:41), and are supposed to have been inhabitants of the city of Maan on the Syrian pilgrim road to the east of Petra (Burckhardt, Syr. pp. 734 and 1035: see Ewald, Gesch. i. pp. 321, 322). But there is very little probability in this supposition, as we cannot possibly see how so small a people could have oppressed Israel so grievously at that time, that the deliverance from their oppression could be mentioned here; whilst it would be very strange that nothing should be said about the terrible oppression of the Midianites and the wonderful deliverance from that oppression effected by Gideon. Consequently the Septuagint (Μαδιάμ) appears to have preserve the original text.