Eglon Gathering Ammon and Amalek - Judges 3:13

In the book of Judges we learned how, “the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the LORD: and the LORD strengthened Eglon the king of Moab against Israel, because they had done evil in the sight of the LORD”, and in chapter three and verse thirteen of Judges, we learn how “Eglon”, “gathered unto him the children of Ammon and Amalek” where we read,

And he gathered unto him the children of Ammon and Amalek, and went and smote Israel, 

and possessed the city of palm trees.

The verse reads, “And he gathered unto him the children of Ammon and Amalek, and went and smote Israel, …” The writer began with the words, “and he gathered unto him” which means “and he, Eglon, assembled and collected together to him, Eglon” “the children of Ammon” or “the offspring and progeny belonging to Ammon whose name means ‘tribal’ and was a people dwelling in Transjordan descended from Lot through Ben-ammi” “and Amalek” whose name means ‘dweller in a valley’ and was the son of Eliphaz by his concubine Timnah, grandson of Esau, and progenitor of a tribe of people in southern Canaan”, “and went and smote Israel” or “and departed, proceeded and moved and hit, beat, struck and killed Israel whose name means ‘God prevails’ and is the name of the descendants and the nation of the descendants of Jacob”. The writer shared how “Eglon” assembled the offspring of “Ammon and Amalek”, proceeded forward and hit, beat and killed “Israel”.

The verse goes on to say, “… and possessed the city of palm trees.” The writer continued with the words, “and possessed the city” which means “and seized, dispossessed, disinherited and occupied the dwelling place, abode and habitation” “of the palm trees” or “pertaining to the date palm trees”. The writer shared how “Eglon” alongside “Ammon and Amalek” seized the dwelling place of the date palms. 

When we consider the words in this verse, we learn how “Eglon” assembled “Ammon and Amelek” to help him conquer the people of “Israel”, and he was successful. He seized the dwelling place of “palm trees”, and now “Israel” was suffering the consequences of their bad behavior. God gave us His law as a means of protecting us from difficulties and harm, and when we obey Him, we are benefitted by it. When we disobey Him like “Israel”, we will experience troubles that are unnecessary. God sent His Son Jesus into the world to die on the cross for the sins of all mankind and raised him from the dead after three days so when we put our faith and trust in Him we will be forgiven of our sins, granted everlasting life and equipped with His Holy Spirit who will guide us into all truth and give us the ability to obey Him and avoid being “conquered” by our hating foes. (See John 3:16; 16:13; Acts 1:8; Romans 8:37)

Next time we learn how, “the children of Israel served Eglon the king of Moab eighteen years”, so read ahead, and we shall join together then.

Until tomorrow…there is more…

See more devotionals on the website "thewordfortodaywithray.com" or look for the daily devotional book “Equipped for Battle – From Generation to Generation”, the marriage book “So, You Want to Be Married”, “One Year in the Sermon on the Mount” and the new poetry book "Random Mushrooms Volumes I and II" and the new novel "Elizabeth County" in all major bookstore sites, http://www.amazon.com ; http://www.barnesandnobles.com ; download to e-books, and find it locally at www.mrzlc.com/bookstore. All references are from "Strongs Concordance".