SAMGAR (Heb. Samgar). - Judge of Israel. The only mention of him is in Judg. 3:31, where it is said that "he was after Ehud" (v.), the second Israelite judge, and that "he struck down 600 Philistines with an ox goad" and thus "saved Israel"; furthermore in the Song of Deborah (ibid. 5:6).

The fact that in the sequence of the book of Judges, immediately after the aforementioned notice about S., the narrative resumes from the second judge Ehud is one of the proofs of the certain fact that some judges did not have permanent and long-lasting authority over all Israel. In the particular case it is possible that this was an occasional episode: e.g., that S. was at his work and defended himself from a "raid" (of reconnaissance by the Philistines?) with the only means at his disposal.

The name S. seems Hurrian: the Hurrians in the age of the Judges dominated in Āram Nahārajim, from which they made raids as far as Canaan (cf. Judg. 3:8).

Bibliography

BIBL.: E. Taeubler, Cushan-Rishataim (Jud. 3, 8-10), in Hebrew Union College annual, 20 (1947), pp. 137-42.

Giovanni Rinaldi

@incollection{ec10_samgar_ebr_samgar, author = {Rinaldi, Giovanni}, title = {Samgar (Ebr. Samgar)}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {X}, pages = {1740--1741}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1953}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/samgar-ebr-samgar} }

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