Articles
“What About Shamgar?”
After him was Shamgar the son of Anath, who killed 600 of the Philistines with an ox goad, and he also saved Israel.
Judges 3:31
For some reason, the writer of Judges slips Shamgar between Ehud and Deborah with a single verse (though note Judges 5:6). What can we learn from this judge’s obscure and abbreviated account?
First, his roots. The name “Shamgar” seems to be non-Israelite in origin. It appears in the Nuzi texts, a series of Mesopotamian legal documents written in Akkadian on cuneiform tablets dating back to the Patriarchal age. Shamgar was “the son of Anath.” This also is a mystery. Does “Anath” refer to the Canaanite goddess of the same name? If so, it may indicate that Shamgar was, at least at one time, a worshiper of Anath, in which case we take “son” not in a biological sense but in a theological sense, as being a follower of Anath (see Mt. 5:9). “Anath” could have simply been Shamgar’s father’s name or the place where he was from. Perhaps Shamgar was a resident of Beth-anath in Galilee (Josh. 19:38; Jdg. 1:33) or the one down in Judah (Josh. 15:59) or “Anathoth,” one of the cities of refuge (Josh. 21:18). This is all guesswork and not very profitable but, taken together, it is possible that Shamgar was not an Israelite.
Second, his weapon. We can be more sure about Shamgar’s “ox goad,” a long wooden stick with a sharp spike attached to the end used to drive oxen. Sometimes the opposite end of the ox goad was fashioned into a small spade or iron paddle for cleaning the plow. Shamgar used this makeshift spear to great effect, killing 600 Philistines. Judges contains an odd assortment of tools used to deliver God’s people. Shamgar’s ox goad joins Ehud’s custom dagger (3:16), Jael’s hammer (4:21), Gideon’s trumpets and torches (7:16), the unnamed woman’s millstone (9:53) and Samson’s donkey jaw (15:15). The only weapon designed to kill was Ehud’s dagger. The rest are improvised instruments of deliverance.
What are we to make of Shamgar and his ox goad? Other than him being a farmer, which most people were in those days, it speaks to God’s ability to use any means to rescue his people. The bottom line is, literally, that Shamgar “also saved Israel.” Does it matter if he had possible Canaanite connections? Does it matter if he was an Israelite or not? Does it matter that we don’t know much about him? At the end of the day, it’s not about Shamgar but about the God of heaven and earth who has limitless resources to rescue his people. Such a God can save “by many or by few” (1 Sam. 14:6), by saints or by pagans. With God, Gideon’s 300 are more than enough to defeat the locust-swarm of Midianites. With God, the walls of Jericho fall flat without a stick of dynamite. If God can raise up the pagan king Cyrus to lead exiled Israel back home (Isa. 45:1-7), then he can raise up Shamgar to save them from the Philistines. God’s glory, wisdom and power shine all the more brightly against the drab backdrop of apparent human weakness and obscurity. Let’s not forget that Jesus was from Nazareth. To quote the former blind man: “Why, this is an amazing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes” (Jn. 9:30). We don’t know much about Shamgar but it is enough to know that God used him to save his people.
Matthew Henry states it nicely: “See here, (1.) That God can make those eminently serviceable to his glory and his church’s good whose extraction, education, and employment, are very mean and obscure. He that has the residue of the Spirit could, when he pleased, make ploughmen judges and generals, and fishermen apostles. (2.) It is no matter how weak the weapon is if God direct and strengthen the arm. An ox-goad, when God pleases, shall do more than Goliath’s sword. And sometimes he chooses to work by such unlikely means, that the excellency of power may appear to be of God.” (Commentary on the Whole Bible, 6 vols, 2:138).
