Judges 10:15

And the children of Israel said unto the LORD, We have sinned: do thou unto us whatsoever seemeth good unto thee; deliver us only, we pray thee, this day.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(15) Deliver us only, we pray thee, this day.—The invariable cry of the soul in trouble. With the former half of the verse comp. 1Samuel 3:18; 1Samuel 15:26.

Benson Commentary

Jdg 10:15. Do thou unto us, &c. — Do not give us up into the hands of these cruel men, but do thou chastise us with thine own hand as much as thou pleasest, if we be not more faithful and constant to thee than we have hitherto been.

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

Do not give us up into the hands of these cruel men, but do thou chastise us with thine own hand as much as thou pleasest, to wit, if we be not more faithful and constant to thee than we have hitherto been.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And the children of Israel said unto the Lord, we have sinned,.... By serving other gods particularly; and they seemed to have a true sense of their sin, and their confessions of it to be ingenuous, by what follows:

do thou unto us whatsoever seemeth good unto thee; inflict what punishment he would upon them, as famine or pestilence, they could not but own it would be just and righteous, and what their sins deserved:

deliver us only, we pray thee, this day; out of the hands of men; they chose rather to fall into the hands of God; and however he thought fit to deal with them, they entreated that this once he would save them out of the hands of their enemies.

Geneva Study Bible

And the children of Israel said unto the LORD, We have sinned: do thou unto us whatsoever seemeth good unto thee; deliver us only, we pray thee, {e} this day.

(e) That is, from this present danger.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

15. For the submission to Jehovah’s will cf. 1 Samuel 3:18, 2 Samuel 15:26.

Judges 10:15

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Therefore the Lord would not save them any more. They might get help from the gods whom they had chosen for themselves. The Israelites should now experience what Moses had foretold in his song (Deuteronomy 32:37-38). This divine threat had its proper effect. The Israelites confessed their sins, submitted thoroughly to the chastisement of God, and simply prayed for salvation; nor did they content themselves with merely promising, they put away the strange gods and served Jehovah, i.e., they devoted themselves again with sincerity to His service, and so were seriously converted to the living God. "Then was His (Jehovah's) soul impatient (תּקצר, as in Numbers 21:4) because of the troubles of Israel;" i.e., Jehovah could no longer look down upon the misery of Israel; He was obliged to help. The change in the purpose of God does not imply any changeableness in the divine nature; it simply concerns the attitude of God towards His people, or the manifestation of the divine love to man. In order to bend the sinner at all, the love of God must withdraw its helping hand and make men feel the consequences of their sin and rebelliousness, that they may forsake their evil ways and turn to the Lord their God. When this end has been attained, the same divine love manifests itself as pitying and helping grace. Punishments and benefits flow from the love of God, and have for their object the happiness and well-being of men.