Judges 3:11

And the land had rest forty years,.... As it should seem from the time of this deliverance; though, according to Ben Gersom and Abarbinel, the eight years' servitude are to be included in them; and…

The land - means here, as in Jdg 1:2, not the whole land of Canaan, but the part concerned, probably the land of the tribe of Judah. Forty years, here and elsewhere, is (like fourscore years, Jdg…

We now come to the records of the government of the particular judges, the first of which was Othniel, in whom the story of this book is knit to that of Joshua, for even in Joshua's time Othniel began…

And the land had rest forty years A formula of the editor, to whom the chronological scheme of the Book is due; cf. Jdg 3:3; Jdg 5:31; Jdg 8:28; and Jos 11:23; Jos 14:15.