Teks -- Judges 21:4 (NET)

21:4 The next morning the people got up early and built an altar there. They offered up burnt sacrifices and token of peace.

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per frasa)

Wesley: Jdg 21:4 - An altar

Not for a monument of the victory, but for sacrifices, as the next words shew. There might be in that place more altars than one, when the multitude of sacrifices be required, which was the case, 1Ki 8:64, and probably at this time, when all the tribes being met, they had many sacrifices to offer, some in common for all, and some peculiar to every tribe.

JFB: Jdg 21:2-5 - the people came to the house of God, . . . and lifted up their voices, and wept sore

The characteristic fickleness of the Israelites was not long in being displayed; for scarcely had they cooled from the fierceness of their sanguinary vengeance, than they began to relent and rushed to the opposite extreme of self-accusation and grief at the desolation which their impetuous zeal had produced. Their victory saddened and humbled them. Their feelings on the occasion were expressed by a public and solemn service of expiation at the house of God. And yet this extraordinary observance, though it enabled them to find vent for their painful emotions, did not afford them full relief, for they were fettered by the obligation of a religious vow, heightened by the addition of a solemn anathema on every violator of the oath. There is no previous record of this oath; but the purport of it was, that they would treat the perpetrators of this Gibeah atrocity in the same way as the Canaanites, who were doomed to destruction; and the entering into this solemn league was of a piece with the rest of their inconsiderate conduct in this whole affair.

Clarke: Jdg 21:4 - Built there an altar

Built there an altar - This affords some evidence that this was not a regular place of worship, else an altar would have been found in the place; and their act was not according to the law, as may be seen in several places of the Pentateuch. But there was neither king nor law among them, and they did whatever appeared right in their own eyes.

TSK: Jdg 21:4 - rose early // built there

rose early : Psa 78:34, Psa 78:35; Hos 5:15

built there : Jdg 6:26; Exo 20:24, Exo 20:25; 2Sa 24:18, 2Sa 24:25; 1Ki 8:64; Heb 13:10

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per Ayat)

Poole: Jdg 21:4 - Built there an altar // Quest // Answ

Built there an altar not for a monument of the victory, as some say, but for sacrifices, as the next words show.

Quest. What need was there of this, when the ordinary altar was there, to which also they seem to be restrained, Deu 16:2 ?

Answ They are not there restrained to one altar, but to one place of worship, as is expressed; and therefore there might be in that place more altars than one, when the multitude of sacrifices so required, which was the case 1Ki 8:61 ; and probably at this time, when all the tribes being met, they had many sacrifices to offer, some in common for all, and some peculiar to every tribe. Nay, other altars might be, and ofttimes were, erected in other places, by David, direction or dispensation; as Jud 6:21,26 1Sa 7:9,17 11:15 16:2,5 .

Haydock: Jdg 21:4 - Altar

Altar, within the tabernacle, to suffice for the number of victims as Solomon did; (3 Kings viii. 64.; Tirinus) or out of the court, by God's dispensation, as they were defiled with blood; (Numbers xxxi. 24.; Calmet) though this is not certain, as four months elapsed between the battle and the reconciliation of the remaining Israelites with their brethren: (chap. xx. 47.) so that during that interval, they might have committed the massacres in the different cities, and still have had time to be purified seven days, as the law required, before they could be allowed to enter the camp or the tabernacle. (Haydock) ---

Some think that one altar was prescribed only during the sojournment in the desert. See Serarius. (Menochius)

Gill: Jdg 21:4 - And it came to pass on the morrow, that the people rose early // and built there an altar // and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings

And it came to pass on the morrow, that the people rose early,.... The day after their fasting and prayer, and a sense of their present case and circumstances being deeply impressed upon their minds, they rose early in the morning to acts of devotion, and exercises of religion, hoping that being in the way of their duty, the difficulties with which they were perplexed would be removed:

and built there an altar; if this place was Bethel, as Kimchi reasons, there Jacob had built an altar; but that in such a course of years might have been demolished: and if it was Shiloh, there was the tabernacle, and so the altar of the Lord there; wherefore this either signifies the repairing of that, being in ruins, which is not likely, since it was but lately used, Jdg 20:26 or the building of a new one, which to do in the tabernacle was not unlawful, especially when the number of sacrifices required it, which it is highly probable was the case now, as it was at the dedication of the temple, 1Ki 8:64 though the above mentioned writer thinks, that building an altar signifies, as in many places, only seeking the Lord; but the use for which it was built is expressed:

and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings; both to atone for the sins they had been guilty of in the prosecution of the war, and to return thanks for victory given, and to implore fresh favours to be bestowed upon them.