Bible Strands
Judges 3:11
So the land had rest for forty years, until Othniel son of Kenaz died.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator records this statement immediately after Othniel’s Spirit-empowered victory over Cushan-rishathaim, marking the conclusion of his judicial tenure. It addresses the broader audience of Israel regarding the national condition following military deliverance.
The words — The Hebrew phrase וַ/תִּשְקֹ֥ט הָ/אָ֖רֶץ (va./tish.Kot ha./'A.retz) literally renders “and the land was at peace.” This term denotes a cessation of hostilities and political stability rather than spiritual tranquility.
The thread — This formula for post-deliverance stability recurs in Judges 3:30 and Judges 5:31, while Joshua 11:23 establishes the pattern of land rest following conquest. The repeated structure highlights a cyclical pattern of judgment, deliverance, and temporary peace in the conquest narratives.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that political peace is contingent on divine judgment and human leadership, not inherent national virtue. It requires the reader to track how each period of rest directly precedes the next cycle of apostasy and oppression.
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 land had rest forty years. And Othniel the son of Kenaz died.
Cross-references
- Joshua 11:23 So Joshua took the entire land, in keeping with all that the LORD had spoken to Moses. And Joshua gave it as an inheritance to Israel according to the allotments to their tribes. Then the land had rest from war.
- Judges 3:30 So Moab was subdued under the hand of Israel that day, and the land had rest for eighty years.
- Judges 5:31 So may all Your enemies perish, O LORD! But may those who love You shine like the sun at its brightest.” And the land had rest for forty years.
- Judges 8:28 In this way Midian was subdued before the Israelites and did not raise its head again. So the land had rest for forty years in the days of Gideon,
- Esther 9:22 as the days on which the Jews gained rest from their enemies and the month in which their sorrow turned to joy and their mourning into a holiday. He wrote that these were to be days of feasting and joy, of sending gifts to one another and to the poor.
- Joshua 15:17 So Othniel son of Caleb’s brother Kenaz captured the city, and Caleb gave his daughter Acsah to him in marriage.
- Judges 3:9 But when the Israelites cried out to the LORD, He raised up Othniel son of Caleb’s younger brother Kenaz as a deliverer to save them.
- 1 Chronicles 4:13 The sons of Kenaz: Othniel and Seraiah. The sons of Othniel: Hathath and Meonothai.