“After Ehud came Shamgar the son of ‘Anat, who killed 600 P’lishtim with an oxgoad; and he too rescued Israel.”-Judges 3:31
The last verse of Judges chapter 3 briefly tells us about the next Judge who came on the scene.
And when I say “briefly”, I ain’t kidding.
We’re only given one sentence.
But that sentence speaks volumes.
We’re told the name of this Judge was Shamgar and he hailed from the family of Anath.
Whoa, let’s just stop there right now.
Because Shamgar is not a Hebrew name.
It is a Hurrian name.
And the family name ANATH is also not a Hebrew name.
Anath was actually a well known goddess of sex and war.
So here we have a Hebrew man chosen by God to deliver Israel going by completely non-Hebrew names.
What gives?
Well, this is evidence of just how much the pagan culture of the Canaanites had impacted Israel.
Otherwise, how do you explain the existence of an Israelite whose father’s family name was made in honor of a heathen deity?
And who he himself went by a gentile name?
Yet, in spite of this, God still chose him to deliver Israel from the Philistines.
And he must have been one helluva a warrior.
Because we’re told he slaughtered 600 Philistines using only an ox goad as a weapon.
Notice I used the phrase “as a weapon”.
Keep in mind, since Israel’s conquerers confiscated all traditional weapons such as swords, spears and bow and arrows, the Hebrews really had no choice but to use improvised weapons when they wanted to battle against their enemies.
What exactly was an ox goad?
At first glance, it actually looked like a weapon because it was a long wooden pole about 9 feet in length with a sharp metal point on one end and a sharpened or chiseled end on the other.
Under normal circumstances, true to its name, an ox goad was used to tame groups of oxen and keep them in order.
It was this tool that Shamgar used to kill 600 men.
This reminds us of how Samson killed a ton of Philistines using nothing but the jawbone of a donkey.
Now Shamgar is a perfect example of how it’s not so easy to define the attributes of a Judge.
We’re given scant information about him.
There’s no mention of God putting His Spirit upon Shamgar.
He is never even referred to as a judge.
And we don’t even know for how long he ruled.
He’s simply called a savior of Israel.
And we’re told he came on the scene AFTER Ehud.
We’re not even sure if this means after Ehud died.
Because the first verse of the next chapter says…“But after Ehud had died, the people of Israel again did what was evil from Adonai’s perspective”.
And then we’re told… “So Adonai handed them over to Yavin king of Kena‘an. He ruled from Hatzor; and the commander of his army was Sisra, who lived in Haroshet-HaGoyim”.
One thought is he was a contemporary of Ehud who operated in a different territory of Israel while Ehud was still alive.
Since the Philistines resided along the coast of Mediterranean Sea, they were in a good location to harass the tribes of Dan and Judah.
This was the opposite side of the territory where Moab had taken over certain parts of Canaan.
These facts support the idea that the judgement periods of Ehud and Shamgar probably overlapped with each other.
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