Judges 8:35

Neither shewed they kindness to the house of Jerubbaal, namely, Gideon, according to all the goodness which he had shewed unto Israel.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(35) Jerubbaal, namely, Gideon.—It is doubtful whether we should not join the two names (Jerubbaal-Gideon), as in the Vulgate. Both names may be here allusive. He had been the “hewer” of their enemies and a “pleader against Baal,” yet they were ungrateful to him, and apostatised to Baal-worship.

According to all the goodness which he had shewed unto Israel.—See Judges 9:17-18.

Benson Commentary

Jdg 8:35. Neither showed they kindness to the house of Gideon — No wonder they were so ungrateful to the family of this illustrious man, when they were so forgetful of the God of all their mercies; according to the goodness he had showed unto Israel — In hazarding his life for their service, and accomplishing a glorious deliverance in their favour; and in leaving them in the full enjoyment of their liberty, by refusing the despotic power with which they offered to invest him, and in governing them for the space of so many years with so much prudence, that he left them in a happy state of tranquillity, having the worship of the true God established among them when he died.

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

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Neither showed they kindness to the house of Jerubbaal, namely Gideon,.... But, on the contrary, great unkindness and cruelty, slaying his seventy sons, as related in the following chapter:

according to all the goodness which he had showed unto Israel; in exposing his life to danger for their sake, in delivering them out of the hands of their oppressors, in administering justice to them, in protecting them in their civil and religious liberties, and leaving them in the quiet and peaceable possession of them.

Geneva Study Bible

Neither {r} shewed they kindness to the house of Jerubbaal, namely, Gideon, according to all the goodness which he had shewed unto Israel.

(r) They were unmindful of God and unkind to him, by whom they had received so great a benefit.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 35. - Neither showed they kindness, etc. Forgetfulness of God is often the parent of ingratitude to men. The heart of stone which is not touched by the love of Christ is also insensible to the kindness of man.



Judges 8:35

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

In this relapse into the worship of Baal they not only forgot Jehovah, their Deliverer from all their foes, but also the benefits which they owed to Gideon, and showed no kindness to his house in return for all the good which he had shown to Israel. The expression Jerubbaal-Gideon is chosen by the historian here, not for the purely outward purpose of laying express emphasis upon the identity of Gideon and Jerubbaal (Bertheau), but to point to what Gideon, the Baal-fighter, had justly deserved from the people of Israel.