Bible Strands
Judges 10:8
who that very year harassed and oppressed the Israelites, and they did so for eighteen years to all the Israelites on the other side of the Jordan in Gilead, the land of the Amorites.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Judges 10:7 establishes that God’s anger resulted in Israel’s surrender to the Philistines and Ammonites. Judges 10:8 then records the Ammonites’ immediate and prolonged campaign against the Israelites, occurring between Jair’s death and the Ammonites’ crossing of the Jordan to fight Judah, Benjamin, and Ephraim.
The words — The Hebrew text uses וַֽיִּרְעֲצוּ (va.yir'a.Tzu) and וַיְרֹצְצוּ (va.yero.Tzu) to describe the enemy's actions as "shattered" and "crushed" the people of Israel. These terms appear alongside בַּשָּׁנָה הַהִיא (ba.sha.Nah ha.Hi') meaning "in that very year" and שְׁמֹנֶה (she.mo.Neh) meaning "eight," emphasizing sudden and sustained violence.
The thread — The pattern of sudden, unrelenting oppression in Judges 10:8 echoes the warning in Isaiah 30:13 about a breach that will collapse suddenly. It also parallels the structural warning in 1 Thessalonians 5:3 where destruction arrives without warning to those assuming peace.
Why it lands — The text states that the enemy harassed and oppressed Israel for eighteen years across Gilead, the land of the Amorites. A reader must note that sustained national distress follows divine judgment and precedes the broader military crisis described in Judges 10:9.
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 that year they vexed and oppressed the children of Israel: eighteen years, all the children of Israel that were on the other side Jordan in the land of the Amorites, which is in Gilead.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 30:13 this iniquity of yours is like a breach about to fail, a bulge in a high wall, whose collapse will come suddenly—in an instant!
- 1 Thessalonians 5:3 While people are saying, “Peace and security,” destruction will come upon them suddenly, like labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.
- Judges 10:5 When Jair died, he was buried in Kamon.