Judges 12:14

And he had forty sons and thirty nephews, that rode on threescore and ten ass colts: and he judged Israel eight years.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(14) Thirty nephews.—The Hebrew has “sons of sons” (benî bhanîm), and the word nephews in our version always means “grandsons” (nepoles), e.g., in Job 18:19, Isaiah 14:22, 1Timothy 5:4, as in old English generally; similarly nieces means “granddaughters” in Wiclif’s Bible (Genesis 31:43, &c). “The Emperor Augustus . . . saw ere he died the nephew of his niece, that is to say, his progenie to the fourth degree of lineal descent” (Holland’s Pliny, vii. 13; Bible Word Book).

That rode on threescore and ten ass colts.—Riding on asses’ foals in trappings of state implies that they were all wealthy and distinguished persons (Judges 10:4)—perhaps, like the Turkish pennon on the horsetail, that they commanded a division (Ewald, 2:38, 39). Again the LXX. euphemise the ass-colts into the grand and poetic word pōlous. Josephus says that Abdon used to ride in state with his seventy sons and grandsons, “who were all very skilful in riding horses.”

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

12:8-15 We have here a short account of three more of the judges of Israel. The happiest life of individuals, and the happiest state of society, is that which affords the fewest remarkable events. To live in credit and quiet, to be peacefully useful to those around us, to possess a clear conscience; but, above all, and without which nothing can avail, to enjoy communion with God our Saviour while we live, and to die at peace with God and man, form the substance of all that a wise man can desire.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

A Pirathonite - He was, therefore, an Ephraimite 1 Chronicles 27:14. Its name still lingers in "Feratah," 6 miles west of Shechem. The 25 years, apparently consecutive, occupied by the judgeship of Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon, seem to have been very uneventful and prosperous, since the only record of them, preserved in the annals of their country, relates to the flourishing families and peaceful magnificence of two of the number.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

7. Jephthah died—After a government of six years, this mighty man of valor died; and however difficult it may be for us to understand some passages in his history, he has been ranked by apostolic authority among the worthies of the ancient church. He was followed by a succession of minor judges, of whom the only memorials preserved relate to the number of their families and their state [Jud 12:8-15].

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And he had forty sons, and thirty nephews,.... Or sons' sons, that is, grandsons; so that he lived not only to see his sons married, but his grandchildren grown up to men's estate; since it follows:

that rode on seventy ass colts; who were either employed by him to ride about on these animals, which in those times were honourable; see Judges 5:10 to administer justice throughout the nation in their circuits; or rather, not following any trade, or being concerned in husbandry, or feeding cattle, but being men of estates, rode about like gentlemen:

and he judged Israel eight years; in his time it is said (b) the city of Troy was destroyed; so Eusebius (c), who calls this judge Labdon, though he elsewhere (d) places it in the times of Eli; See Gill on Judges 12:9.

(b) Juchasin, ut supra. (fol. 136. 1.) (c) Evangel. Praepar. l. 10. c. 11. p. 484. (d) Evangel. Praepar. l. 10. c. 11. p. 503.

Geneva Study Bible

And he had forty sons and thirty nephews, that rode on threescore and ten ass colts: and he judged Israel eight years.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 14. - Nephews. Rather, grandsons. Hebrew, son's son. The number of his family, and their being all mounted on asses, are indications of his wealth and state (see above, Judges 8:30; Judges 10:4), and perhaps also of peaceful and prosperous times. Judges 12:14

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

He was followed by the judge Abdon, the son of Hillel of Pirathon. This place, where Abdon died and was buried after holding the office of judge for eight years, was in the land of Ephraim, on the mountains of the Amalekites (Judges 12:15). It is mentioned in 2 Samuel 23:30 and 1 Chronicles 11:31 as the home of Benaiah the hero; it is the same as Φαραθώ (read Φαραθόν) in 1 Macc. 9:50, and Joseph. Ant. xiii. 1, 3, and has been preserved in the village of Ferta, about two hours and a half to the S.S.W. of Nabulus (see Rob. Bibl. Res. p. 134, and V. de Velde, Mem. p. 340). On the riding of his sons and daughters upon asses, see at Judges 10:4.