(12) The Sidonians.--Judges 3:3; Judges 18:7-28. Nothing very definite is recorded of deliverance from the Sidonians; but (as we have seen) the narrative of the book is typical rather than exhaustive. (Comp. Psalm 106:42-43.)
The Maonites.--As the LXX. here read Madian (and in some MSS. Canaan; Vulg., Chanaan), it seems probable that there has been an early corruption of the text. In the Arabic version we have "Moabites." There was a town Maon in the desert of Judah (Joshua 15:55; 1 Samuel 23:24; 1 Samuel 25:2), but this cannot be meant. There is also a Beth Meon in the tribe of Reuben (Numbers 22:38; Baal Meon, Jeremiah 48:23), and a Meon in Arabia Petraea. Mehunims are also mentioned in 2 Chronicles 26:7, and Meonim in 1 Chronicles 4:41. If this is an allusion to some disaster of which we have no record given we must suppose that Meon was once the capital of some tribe which subsequently dwindled into insignificance.
Verse 12. - The Zidonians also. This allusion is not clear; it may mean the subjects of Jabin king of Canaan, as the northern Canaanites are called Zidonians in ch. 18:7; and this agrees with the order in which the deliverance from the Zidonians is here mentioned, next to that from the Philistines, and would be strengthened by the conjecture that has been made, that Harosheth (Judges 4:2) was the great workshop in which the tributary Israelites wrought in cutting down timber, etc. for the Phoenician ships; or it may allude to some unrecorded oppression. The Amalekites, who were in alliance with the Midianites (Judges 6:3, 33), as previously with the Moabites (Judges 3:13) and with the Canaanites (Judges 4:14), and whose signal defeat seems to have given the name to the mount of the Amalekites (Judges 12:15). The Maonites. It is thought by many that the true reading is that preserved in the Septuagint, viz., the Midianites, which, being the greatest of all the foes of Israel, could scarcely be omitted here (see chs. 6, 7, 8.). If Maonites or Maon is the true reading, they would be the same people as the Mehunim, mentioned 2 Chronicles 26:7 (Maon, sing., and Meunim, plur.).
10:10-18 God is able to multiply men's punishments according to the numbers of their sins and idols. But there is hope when sinners cry to the Lord for help, and lament their ungodliness as well as their more open transgressions. It is necessary, in true repentance, that there be a full conviction that those things cannot help us which we have set in competition with God. They acknowledged what they deserved, yet prayed to God not to deal with them according to their deserts. We must submit to God's justice, with a hope in his mercy. True repentance is not only for sin, but from sin. As the disobedience and misery of a child are a grief to a tender father, so the provocations of God's people are a grief to him. From him mercy never can be sought in vain. Let then the trembling sinner, and the almost despairing backslider, cease from debating about God's secret purposes, or from expecting to find hope from former experiences. Let them cast themselves on the mercy of God our Saviour, humble themselves under his hand, seek deliverance from the powers of darkness, separate themselves from sin, and from occasions of it, use the means of grace diligently, and wait the Lord's time, and so they shall certainly rejoice in his mercy.
The Zidonians also,.... Who were left in the land to distress them, though there is no particular mention of them, and of the distress they gave them, and of their deliverance from it, which yet is not at all to be questioned:
and the Amalekites; both quickly after they came out of Egypt, Exodus 17:13 and when they were come into the land of Canaan, joining the Moabites and the Midianites against them, Judges 3:13.
and the Maonites did oppress you; meaning either the old inhabitants of Maon, a city in the mountains of Judah, near to which was a wilderness of this name, Joshua 15:55 or rather a people of Arabia, called by Strabo (z), and Diodorus Siculus (a), Minaeans, the same with Mehunim, mentioned with the Arabians, 2 Chronicles 26:7 and who perhaps came along with the Midianites, when they oppressed Israel; though some have thought of the old inhabitants of Bethmeon and Baalmeon, Numbers 32:38.
and ye cried unto me, and I delivered you out of their hands; all those mercies and deliverances are mentioned to aggravate their sins, that notwithstanding the Lord hath so often and eminently appeared for them, yet they deserted him and his worship, and fell into idolatry. Jarchi observes, that here are seven salvations or deliverances mentioned in opposition to the seven sorts of false gods or idols they had served, Judges 10:6.
(z) Geograph. l. 16. p. 528. (a) Bibliothec. l. 3. p. 176.
The Amalekites.--Exodus 17:8, Exod. 6:33, Exodus 3:13.
The Maonites.--As the LXX. here read Madian (and in some MSS. Canaan; Vulg., Chanaan), it seems probable that there has been an early corruption of the text. In the Arabic version we have "Moabites." There was a town Maon in the desert of Judah (Joshua 15:55; 1 Samuel 23:24; 1 Samuel 25:2), but this cannot be meant. There is also a Beth Meon in the tribe of Reuben (Numbers 22:38; Baal Meon, Jeremiah 48:23), and a Meon in Arabia Petraea. Mehunims are also mentioned in 2 Chronicles 26:7, and Meonim in 1 Chronicles 4:41. If this is an allusion to some disaster of which we have no record given we must suppose that Meon was once the capital of some tribe which subsequently dwindled into insignificance.
and the Amalekites; both quickly after they came out of Egypt, Exodus 17:13 and when they were come into the land of Canaan, joining the Moabites and the Midianites against them, Judges 3:13.
and the Maonites did oppress you; meaning either the old inhabitants of Maon, a city in the mountains of Judah, near to which was a wilderness of this name, Joshua 15:55 or rather a people of Arabia, called by Strabo (z), and Diodorus Siculus (a), Minaeans, the same with Mehunim, mentioned with the Arabians, 2 Chronicles 26:7 and who perhaps came along with the Midianites, when they oppressed Israel; though some have thought of the old inhabitants of Bethmeon and Baalmeon, Numbers 32:38.
and ye cried unto me, and I delivered you out of their hands; all those mercies and deliverances are mentioned to aggravate their sins, that notwithstanding the Lord hath so often and eminently appeared for them, yet they deserted him and his worship, and fell into idolatry. Jarchi observes, that here are seven salvations or deliverances mentioned in opposition to the seven sorts of false gods or idols they had served, Judges 10:6.
(z) Geograph. l. 16. p. 528. (a) Bibliothec. l. 3. p. 176.