What is the context?
One verse records Shamgar son of Anath striking down six hundred Philistines with an oxgoad and saving Israel. An oxgoad is a tool for directing oxen; Brown–Driver–Briggs identifies the Hebrew word מַלְמֵד, malmed (mahl-MAID), as an oxgoad. The striking detail is that an agricultural tool serves in this rescue.
The account gives no length for Shamgar’s leadership, no account of his call, and no detailed battle scene. He appears again in Deborah’s song, which recalls the insecurity of travel in his days (Judges 5:6–8). Those few details are worth keeping distinct from reconstructions of his background.
How is this passage commonly understood?
Wesley and Henry draw attention to God accomplishing rescue through an unlikely means. They compare the oxgoad with Samson’s later use of a donkey’s jawbone: an ordinary object is sufficient when God supplies the strength. Their suggestions that Shamgar had just been plowing explain how the tool might have been at hand, but the verse itself does not describe what he was doing before the encounter.
Gill acknowledges how little is known of Shamgar’s family and tribe. He also discusses different possibilities for fitting his service into the surrounding accounts. The brief notice establishes that he saved Israel; it leaves his full life story and the exact timing unstated.
What is our position?
We don't have a position on this passage yet. When our study reaches a conclusion the text supports, it will appear here.