Judges 6:31 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Joash said, Will ye plead for Baal? Why are you so zealous in pleading for that Baal for whose worship you suffer such grievous calamities at this day? It is plain that Joash had been a worshipper of Baal, having gone with the stream, as we find the altar of Baal on his estate; but probably he was now convinced of his sin and folly by Gideon, being made acquainted with the appearance of the angel to him, and of the divine commission which he had received. Hence he resolutely declares himself on the side of the God of Israel, and when the people demanded that his son should be put to death for casting down the altar of Baal, he boldly demands, according to the law of Moses, that whatever man should plead for Baal should be put to death, idolatry being a capital offence. While it is yet morning That is, immediately; for it was in the morning, as we learn from Judges 6:28, that this tumult was made. If he be a god, let him plead for himself As the God of Israel hath often done when any indignity or injury hath been done him. But Baal hath now showed, that he is neither able to help you nor himself; and therefore is not worthy to be served any longer. This resolute answer was necessary to stop the torrent of the people's fury; and it was drawn from him by the sense of his son's extreme danger, and by the confidence he had that God would plead his son's cause, and use him for the rescue of his people. It is probable that, by what Joash now said, the eyes of the people were opened, to see how impotent the god was whom they had worshipped; as, by comparing it with what they had heard the God of Israel had frequently done in vindication of his honour, they might well conclude how inferior he was to Jehovah, the one living and true God, or rather, in the language of Scripture, that he was nothing, a mere nonentity.