Judges 3:31 - Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

Judges 3:31. The Exploit of Shamgar. The absence of D's formulæ, and of a chronological scheme, suggests that this verse was introduced by an editor who wished to bring the number of the Judges up to ten, not counting Abimelech worthy to rank as one. The verse interrupts the flow of the narrative observe when Ehud was dead in Judges 4:2. Shamgar ben Anath is a foreign and heathenish name, Anath being a goddess whose name is found on an Egyptian stele now in the British Museum; and a reference to Shamgar in the Song of Deborah suggests that he had been an oppressor rather than a deliverer of Israel (cf. Moore, 143). The ox-goad, with which Shamgar performed his exploit, is a pole from 6 to 8 ft. long, tipped with an iron spike.