Judges 12:8–15

Judges 12:8–15: Ibzan, Elon and Abdon

Synopsis

The NIV includes these three judges under one heading, so I’ll do the same. The next three judges of Israel were:

• Ibzan:
  • Ibzan had thirty sons and thirty daughters. But they all found spouses outside of his clan; I’m not sure if this is against the LORD’s command or not. (I admit to not paying close attention to laws about land passing to other tribes.)
  • He led Israel for seven years.
• Elon:
  • He led Israel for ten years.
• Abdon:
  • I’ll just quote verse 14a, for this: “He had forty sons and thirty grandsons, who rode on seventy donkeys.”
  • He led Israel for eight years.

Thoughts

I don’t really have much in the way of thoughts on these three judges, except that it’s strange that Abdon had forty sons, but only thirty grandsons. Did the LORD not bless some of Abdon’s sons with children of their own? Or is the passage just not mentioning daughters, even though it did mention Ibzan’s daughters? (And I’m still not sure of the significance that Abdon’s sons and grandsons all rode donkeys.)