Charles Ellicott Commentary Judges 3:31

"And after him was Shamgar the son of Anath, who smote of the Philistines six hundred men with an ox-goad: and he also saved Israel." — Judges 3:31 (ASV)

Shamgar. —Mentioned here alone, and alluded to in Judges 5:6.

The son of Anath. —There was a Beth-anath in Naphtali, but Shamgar could hardly have belonged to Northern Israel. We know nothing of Shamgar’s tribe or family. However, since neither his name nor that of his father is Jewish, it has been conjectured that he may have been a Kenite. This conjecture derives some confirmation from his juxtaposition with Jael in Judges 5:6.

The name Shamgar means “name of a stranger” (compare Gershom, “a stranger there”). Samgar-Nebo is the name of a Babylonian general (Jeremiah 39:3).

Six hundred men. —It has been most needlessly assumed that he killed them single-handedly, and not, as is probable, at the head of a band of peasants armed with the same rude weapons as himself. If he killed 600 with his own hand, the whole number that perished would almost certainly have been added.

Indeed, there is no impossibility (even apart from Divine assistance, which is implied though not expressly attributed to him) in the supposition that in a battle lasting more than one day, a single chief might have killed this number with his own hand. For instance, we are told that in a night battle against Moawijah, Ali raised a shout each time he had killed an enemy, and his voice was heard 300 times in one night. A story closely resembling that of Shamgar is also told about a Swedish peasant.

However, the question here is merely one of interpretation. Nothing is more common in Scripture, as in all literature, than to say that a leader personally did what was done under his leadership; for example, Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands (1 Samuel 18:7).

With an ox goad. —The Septuagint (Codex B) and Vulgate have “with a ploughshare,” and the Alexandrian Codex of the Septuagint renders it “besides the oxen.” These translations are not tenable. The phrase occurs here alone—bemalmad ha bâkâr; literally, “with a thing to teach oxen.” There can be little doubt that an ox-goad is meant.

In the East, ox-goads are sometimes formidable implements, eight feet long, and pointed with a strong, sharp iron head. Their use—since whips were not used for cattle—is alluded to in 1 Samuel 13:21 and Acts 9:5. Being disarmed, the Israelites would have been unable to find any more effective weapon (Judges 5:6; Judges 5:8).

Disarmament was the universal policy in ancient days (1 Samuel 13:19), and this reduced the Israelites to using inventive skill with very simple weapons (1 Samuel 17:40; 1 Samuel 17:43). Samson had nothing better than the jawbone of an ass (Judges 15:15).

Similarly, the Thracian king Lycurgus is said to have chased the Bacchanals with an ox-goad (bouplêgi, II. 6.134), and that in this very neighborhood (“near Carmel,” Nonnus, Dionysiaca 20). The Athenians, in their painting of Marathon in the Pœcile, represented the gigantic rustic, Echetlus, who was supposed to have killed so many of the Persians, with his ploughshare (Pausanias 1.15.4). Compare Homer, Iliad 6.134.

He also delivered Israel. —Josephus (Antiquities 5.4.3), following some Jewish hagadah, says that Shamgar was chosen as judge but died in the first year of his office. This may have been a mere inference from his being passed over in Judges 4:1. Josephus does not mention his deed of prowess.