Bible Strands
Judges 10:7
So the anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and He sold them into the hands of the Philistines and Ammonites,
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator records Yahweh’s judgment immediately after Israel’s repeated idolatry and covenant abandonment in Judges 10:6. This statement marks the pivot between Israel’s spiritual apostasy and the eighteen-year military oppression detailed in Judges 10:8.
The words — The text employs וַיִּחַר (va-yi-char, "and it burned") paired with אַף ('af, "anger") to describe Yahweh’s intense wrath, and וַיִּמְכֹּרֵם (va-yim-kerem, "and He sold them") to denote the transfer of Israel’s fate into enemy control. These terms frame the judgment as a deliberate judicial transaction rather than an incidental military defeat.
The thread — This sequence of divine anger followed by enemy delivery recurs in Judges 2:14 and 1 Samuel 12:9, where covenant failure similarly results in Yahweh handing Israel over to oppressors. The pattern aligns with Deuteronomy 32:16, which ties the provocation of foreign gods directly to the stirring of divine jealousy and subsequent judgment.
Why it lands — The verse requires the reader to accept that covenant betrayal produces concrete historical consequences rather than mere spiritual disapproval. It demands the recognition that political and military subjugation in the narrative is the direct, stated outcome of abandoning exclusive loyalty to Yahweh.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel, and he sold them into the hands of the Philistines, and into the hands of the children of Ammon.
Cross-references
- Judges 2:14 Then the anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and He delivered them into the hands of those who plundered them. He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, whom they were no longer able to resist.
- Deuteronomy 32:16 They provoked His jealousy with foreign gods; they enraged Him with abominations.
- 1 Samuel 12:9 But they forgot the LORD their God, and He sold them into the hand of Sisera the commander of the army of Hazor, and into the hands of the Philistines and the king of Moab, who fought against them.
- Deuteronomy 29:20 The LORD will never be willing to forgive him. Instead, His anger and jealousy will burn against that man, and every curse written in this book will fall upon him. The LORD will blot out his name from under heaven
- Deuteronomy 31:16 And the LORD said to Moses, “You will soon rest with your fathers, and these people will rise up and prostitute themselves with the foreign gods of the land they are entering. They will forsake Me and break the covenant I have made with them.
- Judges 4:2 So the LORD sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. The commander of his forces was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth-hagoyim.
- Psalms 44:12 You sell Your people for nothing; no profit do You gain from their sale.
- Psalms 74:1 A Maskil of Asaph. Why have You rejected us forever, O God? Why does Your anger smolder against the sheep of Your pasture?
- Isaiah 50:1 This is what the LORD says: “Where is your mother’s certificate of divorce with which I sent her away? Or to which of My creditors did I sell you? Look, you were sold for your iniquities, and for your transgressions your mother was sent away.
- Nahum 1:2 The LORD is a jealous and avenging God; the LORD is avenging and full of wrath. The LORD takes vengeance on His foes and reserves wrath for His enemies.