(14) The anger of the Lord was hot.--(Psalm 78:59.) The language of the sad summary which follows should be compared with that of very similar passages which we find in various parts of the Bible (Psalm 106:34-45; Deuteronomy 32; 2 Kings 17; 2Kings 24:2-4; 2Chronicles 36:11-21; Jeremiah 11:2-10).

He sold them.--We find the same expression in Judges 3:8; Judges 4:2; Judges 10:7; Deuteronomy 32:33; Psalm 44:12; Isaiah 1:1; comp. 2Kings 17:20.

So that they could not any longer stand.--Comp. Leviticus 26:17, "Ye shall be slain before your enemies"; Deuteronomy 28:15-68.

Verses 14, 15. - The anger of the Lord, etc. These verses contain an awful view of the wrath of God excited by wilful sin, and are a practical illustration of Exodus 20:5: "I am a jealous God." Compare Psalm 79:5, which shows how closely allied the notions of anger and jealousy are in Hebrew. He sold them. A forcible expression, implying the handing over of the people into the hands of their enemies, as if God had no more any property in them or concern about them; as if he said, "Ye are not my people, and I am not your God;" as if he said to the heathen, "Take them, and do as you will with them; they are yours, not mine" (see Leviticus 26. and Deuteronomy 28.). As the Lord had sworn, etc., showing that God fulfilled his threatenings as well as his promises.

2:6-23 We have a general idea of the course of things in Israel, during the time of the Judges. The nation made themselves as mean and miserable by forsaking God, as they would have been great and happy if they had continued faithful to him. Their punishment answered to the evil they had done. They served the gods of the nations round about them, even the meanest, and God made them serve the princes of the nations round about them, even the meanest. Those who have found God true to his promises, may be sure that he will be as true to his threatenings. He might in justice have abandoned them, but he could not for pity do it. The Lord was with the judges when he raised them up, and so they became saviours. In the days of the greatest distress of the church, there shall be some whom God will find or make fit to help it. The Israelites were not thoroughly reformed; so mad were they upon their idols, and so obstinately bent to backslide. Thus those who have forsaken the good ways of God, which they have once known and professed, commonly grow most daring and desperate in sin, and have their hearts hardened. Their punishment was, that the Canaanites were spared, and so they were beaten with their own rod. Men cherish and indulge their corrupt appetites and passions; therefore God justly leaves them to themselves, under the power of their sins, which will be their ruin. God has told us how deceitful and desperately wicked our hearts are, but we are not willing to believe it, until by making bold with temptation we find it true by sad experience. We need to examine how matters stand with ourselves, and to pray without ceasing, that we may be rooted and grounded in love, and that Christ may dwell in our hearts by faith. Let us declare war against every sin, and follow after holiness all our days.And the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel,.... For the idolatries they were guilty of; it burned within him, it broke forth, and was poured out like fire on them, and consumed them; see Nahum 1:6,

and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them; that rifled their houses, and plundered them of their goods and substance:

and he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about; the is, delivered them into their hands, who carried them captive, where they were as men sold for slaves; see Psalm 44:12; and this was in just retaliation, that as they had said themselves to work wickedness, the Lord sold them into the hands of their enemies for their wickedness; and, as they had followed the gods of the people round about them, so he delivered them up, into the hands of their enemies round about them, as the Mesopotamians, Moabites, Midianites, Philistines, and Ammonites:

so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies; but turned their backs on them, and fled whenever engaged in war with them.