And that year they vexed and oppressed the children of Israel: eighteen years, all the children of Israel that [were] on the other side Jordan in the land of the Amorites, which [is] in Gilead.
Ver. 8. And that year they vexed and crushed the children, &c.] That year, quo scilicet desciverunt a cultu divino, a wherein they fell off from God's true worship, b their bonds were increased: the Ammonites before, and the Philistines behind, devoured Israel with open mouth. "For all this his anger was not turned away, but his hand was stretched out still." Isa 9:12 We read in the Turkish history, that when Solyman II saw a company of his Christian subjects, many thousands, fall down before him, and hold up the forefinger, as their manner of conversion to Mohammedanism is, he asked, What moved them to turn? They replied, It was to be eased of their heavy taxations. He, disdaining that baseness, or not willing to lose in tribute for an unsound accession in religion, rejected their conversion, and doubled their taxations.
a Vatab.
b Or, that year, that is, the last of the eighteen of their oppressing Israel