Bible Strands
Judges 3:13
After enlisting the Ammonites and Amalekites to join forces with him, Eglon attacked and defeated Israel, taking possession of the City of Palms.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator describes Eglon’s campaign immediately after the Lord surrenders Israel to him due to their repeated evil. This event occurs between Israel’s apostasy and the start of their eighteen-year subjugation.
The words — וַ/יֶּאֱסֹ֣ף (va/i.ye.'e.Sof) translates literally as “and he gathered,” denoting the assembly of foreign forces. וַ/יַּךְ֙ (va/i.yaKh) means “and he attacked,” marking the execution of the military strike against Israel.
The thread — The “City of Palms” designation for Jericho recurs in Judges 1:16 and Deuteronomy 34:3. The reference to Amalek connects to Judges 5:14, which identifies Amalek as an ancestral root of Ephraim rather than a mobilized tribe.
Why it lands — The text demonstrates that covenant failure results in the direct transfer of political and military authority to a foreign coalition. It requires the reader to recognize the structural pattern of sin, surrender, and prolonged oppression without softening the narrative’s causal logic.
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 he gathered unto him the children of Ammon and Amalek, and went and smote Israel, and possessed the city of palm trees.
Cross-references
- Judges 1:16 Now the descendants of Moses’ father-in-law, the Kenite, went up with the men of Judah from the City of Palms to the Wilderness of Judah in the Negev near Arad. They went to live among the people.
- Deuteronomy 34:3 the Negev, and the region from the Valley of Jericho (the City of Palms) all the way to Zoar.
- Judges 5:14 Some came from Ephraim, with their roots in Amalek; Benjamin came with your people after you. The commanders came down from Machir, the bearers of the marshal’s staff from Zebulun.
- Psalms 83:6 the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites, of Moab and the Hagrites,