Shamgar (Hastings' Dictionary)

Son of Anath, and i'udge in the south of Israel between Ehud and )eborah. He slew 600 Philistines with an ox- goad (Jg 3" 5'). The name is Assyr. like Samgar- nebo (Jer 39^), and is a shortened form of some such name as Sumgir-Bel, ' be gracious, O Bel,' with the divine name omitted. Anath is also the Assyr. -Bab. Anatu, the wife of the god Anu (see, however. Babylonia, vol. i. p.

215"'), unless we are to read Ben-anath, ' the son of Anatu,' which is the name of a Canaanite in one of the Tel el- Amama tablets. Tlie names show that Bab. influence lingered in the south of Palestine for some time after the period of the Tel el-Amarna tablets, when Bab. names were not uncommon there (see Moore's Judges, p. 106). A. H. Sayce.