Nevertheless the LORD raised up judges, which delivered them out of the hand of those that spoiled them.
Which delivered them out of the hand of those that spoiled them. The judges who governed Israel were strictly God's vicegerents in the government of the people, He being the supreme ruler. These who were thus elevated retained the dignity, at first apparently during the public crisis only, but afterward so long as they lived; but there was no regular, unbroken succession of judges until the days of Samuel, who had transmitted the judicial office as hereditary to his sons. Individuals, prompted by the inward irresistible impulse of God's Spirit, when they witnessed the depressed state of their country, were roused to achieve its deliverance. It was usually accompanied by a special call; and the people, seeing them endowed with extraordinary courage or strength, accepted them as delegates of heaven, and submitted to their sway. Frequently they were appointed only for a particular district, and their authority extended no further than over the people whose interests they were commissioned to protect. They were without pomp, equipage, or emoluments attached to the office. They had no power to make laws, because these were given by God; nor to explain them, because that was the province of the priests; but they were officially upholders of the law, defenders of religion, avengers of all crimes, particularly of idolatry and its attendant vices. The name Shophetim was probably borrowed from their Canaanite or Phoenician neighbours. The Carthaginians called such rulers Suffetes.