Matthew Henry on Judges 8:29–end
We have here the conclusion of the story of Gideon. 1. He lived privately, Jdg 8:29. He was not puffed up with his great honours, did not covet a palace or castle to dwell in, but retired to the house he had lived in before his elevation. Thus that brave Roman Who was called from the plough upon a sudden occasion to command the army when the action was over returned to his plough again. 2. His family was multiplied. He had many wives (therein he transgressed the law); by them he had seventy sons (Jdg 8:30), but by a concubine he had one whom he named Abimelech (which signifies, my father a king), that proved the ruin of his family, Jdg 8:31. 3. He died in honour, in a good old age, when he h…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Judges 8:28
MIDIAN SUBDUED. (Jdg 8:28)
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 (Psa 83:11).
Next: Judges Chapter 9
John Gill on Judges 8:30
And Gideon had seventy sons of his body begotten,.... Not after his victories, for it is plain he had children before; mention is made of Jether, his firstborn, as a youth able to draw a sword, and slay with it, Judges 8:20 but this was the number of all his sons, both before and after, and a large number it was; and the phrase "of his body begotten", or "that went out of his thigh" is used to show that they were his own sons, begotten in wedlock, and not sons that he had taken into his family by adoption, or that he was father-in-law to, having married a woman or women that had sons by a former husband; but these were all his own:
for he had many wives; which, though not agreeable to the o…
Read the whole note in the consoleKeil & Delitzsch on Judges 8:28-32
