1 Samuel 12:11

And the Lord sent Jerubbaal,.... Or Gideon, as the Targum, for Jerubbaal was the name given to Gideon, when he first became a judge, Jude 6:32 and Bedan; if this was one of the judges, he must have

And the LORD sent Jerubbaal, and Bedan, and Jephthah, and Samuel, and delivered you out of the hand of your enemies on every side, and ye dwelled safe. Bedan.

Bedan is certainly one of the judges; and because there is no judge so called in the Book of Judges, it is reasonably concluded that this was one of the judges there mentioned having two names, as was very frequent. And this was either, first, Samson, as most interpreters believe, who is called Bedan, i.e. in Dan, or of Dan, or the son of Dan, one of the tribe, to signify that they had no reason to distrust that God, who could, and did, raise so eminent a saviour out of so obscure a tribe. Or, secondly, Jair the Gileadite, of whom ; which may seem best to agree, first, With the time and order of the judges; for Jair was before Jephthah, but Samson was after him. Secondly, With other scriptures; for among the sons of a more ancient and a famous Jair, of whom see , we meet with one called Bedan, , which name seems here given to Jair the judge, to distinguish him from that first Jair. Thirdly, With he following words, which show that this Bedan was one of those judges who delivered them out of the hand of their enemies an every side, and made them to dwell safely; which seems not so properly to agree to Samson, who did only begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines, as was foretold of him, , as to Jair, who kept them in peace and safety, in the midst of all their enemies, as may be gathered from ; and so did all the rest of the judges here mentioned. And Samuel; he speaks of himself in the third person, which is frequent in the Hebrew tongue, as ,10,11 Da 1:6 . And he mentions himself not through vain ostentation, but for his own just and necessary vindication, and for the justification and enforcement of his following reproof, to show that he had not degenerated from his predecessors, nor had been so inconsiderable and unprofitable to them, as to give them any occasion to contrive or desire this change of government in his days. Ye dwelled safe; so that it was no necessity, but mere wantonness, that made you desire a change.

1 Samuel 12:11 And the LORD sent Jerubbaal, and Bedan, and Jephthah, and Samuel, and delivered you out of the hand of your enemies on every side, and ye dwelled safe.Ver. 11. And Bedan.] That is, Barak, according to the Septuagint. Others, Jair; but most likely Samson, as hath been noted. And Samuel.] He mentioneth himself, not out of vain glory, but to aggravate their ingratitude toward him, by whom they had been so lately and memorably delivered.

(11) And the Lord sent Jerubbaal.—Again the speaker only names a few of the God-sent deliverers, just the most prominent of their great and famous heroes. Gideon was surnamed Jerubbaal out of scorn and derision for the Phœnician deity: “Let Baal then strive or contend with me, Gideon.” Bedan.—This name does not occur in the record of the “judges.” We meet with it only in 1 Chronicles 7:17, as a name of one of the descendants of Machir the Manassite, but this Bedan of the Chronicles seems to have been a person of no importance. The LXX. and the Syriac, the two most ancient versions, read, instead of Bedan, Barak. The letters forming these two names in the Hebrew are very similar, and a scribe might easily have written the one for the other, and the mistake might well have been perpetuated—at least, this is probable. The famous Hebrew commentator, Rabbi D. Kimchi, suggests Bedan is written for Ben-Dan, the son of Dan the Danite. that is. Samson. The list of Hebrew heroes in Hebrews 11:32 noticeably connects Barak with Gideon and Jephthah. Wordsworth curiously prefers to leave the unknown name of Bedan in the hero catalogue, because he argues “that in this very obscurity of the name we have a confirmation of the genuineness of the speech. A forger would not have ventured to insert a name which occurs nowhere else.” And Samuel.—The Syriac Version substitutes Samson for Samuel, finding, doubtless, a difficulty in the quotation of his own name by the speaker. But the other versions uniformly agree with the Hebrew text, and in truth Samuel could well cite himself a signal instance of God’s loving pity in sending deliverance, conscious as he was of his own high mission. No judge had accomplished such great things for the people, and none had received more general recognition. It was a most fitting name to bring in at the close of his list.

Verse 11. Jerubbaal] That is, Gideon. And Bedan: instead of Bedan, whose name occurs nowhere else as a judge or deliverer of Israel, the Septuagint have Barak; the same reading is found in the Syriac and Arabic. The Targum has Samson. Many commentators are of this opinion; but Calmet thinks that Jair is intended, who judged Israel twenty-two years, Judges 10:3. Instead of Samuel the Syriac and Arabic have Samson; and it is most natural to suppose that Samuel does not mention himself in this place. St. Paul's authority confirms these alterations: The time would fail me, says he, to tell of Gideon, of Barak, of Samson, of Jephthah, of David, &c.

11. And the Lord sent, &c.] Four typical deliverers of the nation are mentioned. (1) Jerubbaal, who brought the Midianite oppression to an end (Judges 6-8). His original name Gideon was changed to Jerubbaal (= let Baal plead) for his bold act of piety in destroying the altar of Baal (Judges 6:31-32). (2) Bedan. This name is not found in the book of Judges, but as that book is not a complete history, Bedan may possibly have been the name of a judge not mentioned there. But more probably Bedan is a copyist’s error for Barak, which is the reading of the Sept. and Syriac. The letters of the two words are much alike. In this case the reference will be to the deliverance from the Canaanite oppression already mentioned (Judges 4:6 ff.). Bedan has also been explained as a name of Samson, either = Ben-Dan, i.e. the son of Dan or Danite (Judges 13:2): or as a bye-name = corpulent. (3) Jephthah the Gileadite, who routed the Ammonites (Judges 11). (4) Samuel. That Samuel should thus mention himself need not surprise us if we remember (a) that the apparent abruptness of the mention is due to the condensation of the narrative, which gives only a summary of the original speech: (b) that he has resigned his office, and standing as it were outside the era of the Judges, he reviews it as a whole: (c) that in order to point his rebuke of the Israelites for ingratitude to Jehovah in asking a king, it was necessary to prove that He had not forsaken them, but had continued His deliverances down to the present.

Bedan - No such name occurs among the Judges who delivered Israel. Some versions and commentators read “Barak,” the form of the letters of both words being in Hebrew somewhat similar.

11. Bedan — We have no record of any judge in Israel of this name, and interpreters have accordingly resorted to various conjectures as to the person meant.