And after him was Shamgar the son of Anath, which slew of the Philistines six hundred men with an ox goad: and he also delivered Israel. After him was Shamgar. No notice is given of the tribe or family of this judge; and from the Philistines being the enemy that roused him into public service, the suffering seems to have been local-confined to some of the western tribes.
Slew ... six hundred men with an ox-goad, х malmad (H4451) habaaqaar (H1241), from laamad (H3925), to beat with a rod, to strike, also to teach, to train (cf. Hosea 10:11); Septuagint, en too arotropodi toon booon, a plowshare]. This implement is eight feet long, and at the larger end about six inches in circumference. It is armed at the lesser end with a sharp prong for driving the cattle, and on the other with a small iron paddle for removing the clay which encumbers the plow in working. Buckingham describes it thus, as he saw it used in his journey from Soor (Tyre) to Acre-`Oxen were yoked in pairs, and the plow was small and of a simple construction, so that it seemed necessary for two to follow each other in the same furrow, as they invariably did. The farmer holding the plow with one hand, by a handle like that of a walking crutch, bore in the other a goad of seven or eight feet in length, armed with a sharp point of iron at one end, and at the other with a plate of the same metal, shaped like a caulking chisel, One attendant only was necessary for each plow, as he who guided it with one hand spurred the oxen with the point of the goad, and cleansed the earth from the plowshare by its spaded heel with the other.' Such an instrument, wielded by a strong arm, would do no mean execution. We may suppose, however, because the notice is very fragmentary, that Shamgar was only the leader of a band of peasants, who, by means of such implements of labour as they could lay hold of at the moment, achieved this heroic exploit recorded.