Judges 3:5

And the children of Israel dwelt among the Canaanites, Hittites, and Amorites, and Perizzites, and Hivites, and Jebusites:

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(5) Dwelt among the Canaanites . . .—These nations are enumerated also in Exodus 33:2; Exodus 34:1. In Joshua 24:11 the Girgashites are added; in Ezra 9:1 the Ammonites and Moabites. (See Notes on those places.) At this verse begins the second great section of the book (Judges 3:5-16), which Prof. Cassel summarises as “a history of sin repeating itself, and of Divine Grace constantly devising new remedies.”

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

3:1-7 As the Israelites were a type of the church on earth, they were not to be idle and slothful. The Lord was pleased to try them by the remains of the devoted nations they spared. Temptations and trials detect the wickedness of the hearts of sinners; and strengthen he graces of believers in their daily conflict with Satan, sin, and this evil world. They must live in this world, but they are not of it, and are forbidden to conform to it. This marks the difference between the followers of Christ and mere professors. The friendship of the world is more fatal than its enmity; the latter can only kill the body, but the former murders many precious souls.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Lords - Seranim, a title used exclusively of the princes of the five Philistine cities. The title is probably of Phoenician origin.

Joshua appears to have smitten and subdued the Hivites as far north as Baal-Gad, in the valley of Lebanon under Mount Hermon Joshua 11:17; Joshua 12:7, but no further Joshua 13:5. There was an unsubdued Hivite population to the north of Baal-hermon (probably Baal-Gad under Hermon, since it is not synonymous with Hermon; see 1 Chronicles 5:23), to the entering in of Hamath: i. e. in the fertile valley of Coele-Syria. Hamath is always spoken of as the extreme northern boundary of the land of Canaan. It was the gate of approach to Canaan from Babylon, and all the north Zechariah 9:2; Jeremiah 39:5. It formed part of the dominions of Solomon 2 Chronicles 8:4, and of the future inheritance of Israel, as described in vision by Ezekiel EZechariah 47:16.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

Jud 3:5-7. By Communion with These the Israelites Commit Idolatry.

5-7. the children of Israel dwelt among the Canaanites—The two peoples by degrees came to be on habits of intercourse. Reciprocal alliances were formed by marriage till the Israelites, relaxing the austerity of their principles, showed a growing conformity to the manners and worship of their idolatrous neighbors.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And the children of Israel dwelt among the Canaanites,.... As if they had been only sojourners with them, and not conquerors of them; and dwelt by sufferance, and not as proprietors and owners; such were their sloth and indolence, and such the advantage the inhabitants of the land got over them through it, and through their compliances with them; and this was the case not only of one sort of them, the Canaanites, but of the rest:

the Hittites, and Amorites, and Perizzites, and Hivites, and Jebusites; who all had cities in the several parts of the land, with whom the children of Israel were mixed, and with whom they were permitted to dwell.

Geneva Study Bible

And the children of Israel dwelt among the Canaanites, Hittites, and Amorites, and Perizzites, and Hivites, and Jebusites:

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

5. In contrast to Jdg 3:3 the nations here represent the entire population of W. Palestine. Such is the significance of this conventional list of the six (Exodus 3:8 + 8 times) or the seven (with the Girgashites, +Deuteronomy 7:12 times) races of Canaan, in JE and the Deut. writers. The connexion of Jdg 3:5-6 with the foregoing may be this: the nations were left to test Israel (Jdg 2:20-22, Jdg 3:1); but Israel, once settled among them (Jdg 3:5), did not stand the test (Jdg 3:6).

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 5. - The Canaanites, etc. The same enumeration of the tribes of the Canaanites as in Exodus 34:11. Judges 3:5

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

But the Israelites did not stand the test. Dwelling in the midst of the Canaanites, of whom six tribes are enumerated, as in Exodus 3:8, Exodus 3:17, etc. (see at Deuteronomy 7:1), they contracted marriages with them, and served their gods, contrary to the express prohibition of the Lord in Exodus 34:16; Exodus 23:24, and Deuteronomy 7:3-4.