Righteous Shamgar

Scriptural Account

Shamgar appears in only two verses of the Book of Judges. Judges 3:31 records that, as the son of Anath, he struck down six hundred Philistines with an oxgoad and so delivered Israel. He is named again in Judges 5:6, within the Song of Deborah, as a figure belonging to an earlier time when the roads lay abandoned and travelers kept to winding byways.

Unlike the accounts of the other judges, the notice of Shamgar carries no formal introduction or conclusion and gives no length of rule; the text does not state in so many words that he judged Israel. The Hebrew word rendered 'oxgoad' occurs only here in Scripture.

Name and Background

Little is known of Shamgar's origin, and several points remain uncertain. His name has been thought to be of Hittite or Hurrian derivation rather than Hebrew, and some have questioned whether he was an Israelite at all. The epithet 'son of Anath' is also found on ancient inscribed arrowheads, which has led to the suggestion that it may have served as a warrior's title rather than a strict statement of parentage. Anath was a goddess of war in the ancient Near East, and names invoking her were used across the region.

These remain matters of scholarly conjecture; Scripture itself supplies only his name, his epithet, and the deed for which he is remembered.

Commemoration

Shamgar is numbered among the Holy Forefathers, the Old Testament righteous and ancestors of Christ honored together on the Sunday before the Nativity. On this Sunday the Orthodox Church remembers the patriarchs, prophets, and judges who lived before and under the Law, recognizing their place in the lineage leading to the birth of Christ.