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 Baalberith their god.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(33) Turned again.—Ad vomitum recdierunt (Serarius) (Psalm 106:13; Psalm 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. Joshua 24:25, Heb.), but the E.V. is probably correct. Bochart vainly tries to represent Baal-berith as some female deity of Berytus.

Benson Commentary

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.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

8:29-35 As soon as Gideon was dead, who kept the people to the worship of the God of Israel, they found themselves under no restraint; then they went after Baalim, and showed no kindness to the family of Gideon. No wonder if those who forget their God, forget their friends. Yet conscious of our own ingratitude to the Lord, and observing that of mankind in general, we should learn to be patient under any unkind returns we meet with for our poor services, and resolve, after the Divine example, not to be overcome of evil, but to overcome evil with good.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

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.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

Jud 8:28. Midian Subdued.

28. Thus was Midian subdued before the children of Israel—This invasion of the Arab hordes into Canaan was as alarming and desolating as the irruption of the Huns into Europe. It was the severest scourge ever inflicted upon Israel; and both it and the deliverance under Gideon lived for centuries in the minds of the people (Ps 83:11).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

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.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

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, Judges 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 Gill on Judges 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.

Geneva Study Bible

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.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

33. made Baal-berith their god] Baal-bĕrîth (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.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 33. - And it came to pass, etc. Cf. Judges 2:11, 12, 19; Judges 3:7; Judges 4:1; Judges 5:1; Judges 10:6; Judges 13:1. Baal-berith. See Judges 2:13, note. He was like the Ζευς Ορκιος of the Greeks, the god of covenants. Judges 8:33

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Judges 8:33-35 form the introduction to the history of Gideon's sons.

Judges 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 (Judges 6:25.), and worshipped Baal-berith as their God. Baal-berith, the covenant Baal (equivalent to El-berith, the covenant god, Judges 9:46), is not Baal as the god of covenants, but, according to Genesis 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 Judges 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).