The Philistines from the maritime plain had made incursions into the Hebrew upland for the purposes of plunder, when Shamgar, the son of Anath, otherwise unknown, headed an uprising for the purpose of freeing the land from this oppression. Shamgar repelled the invasion by slaying 600 men with an ox goad, a formidable weapon sometimes ten feet long. He was probably contemporary for a time with Deborah and Barak (Judg. 3:31; 5:6).
Shamgar takes pride in what he succeeded in achieving in all these posts, especially the introduction, as Advocate-General, of private lawyers and an appeals system into a military court system previously based largely on discretionary decisions.
Shamgar emphasises that the law must be expeditious, or else it creates great evils: "If you do not believe in the system, you always find ways to circumvent it, to find alternatives.
Shamgar is unambiguous in rebutting any such extravagant conception of war crimes: "I don’t know what the reports say, but I don’t regard the settlements as war crimes.
Shamgar, as the son of Anath, was associated with affliction and answers, and so was Christ.
Shamgar’s enemies were the Philistines, and they represent apostasy, the word that describes deliberate rejection of the knowledge of God, and acceptance of error instead.
Shamgar’s slaughter of six hundred of the Philistines points to Christ’s destruction of Satan and all his demon hordes at Calvary.
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