His hand prevailed - We are not told or what nature this war was, but it was most decisive; and the consequence was an undisturbed peace of forty years, during the whole life of Othniel. By the Spirit of the Lord coming upon him, the Chaldee understands the spirit of prophecy; others understand the spirit of fortitude and extraordinary courage, as opposed to the spirit of fear or faintness of heart; but as Othniel was judge, and had many offices to fulfill besides that of a general, he had need of the Spirit of God, in the proper sense of the word, to enable him to guide and govern this most refractory and fickle people; and his receiving it for these purposes, shows that the political state of the Jews was still a theocracy. No man attempted to do any thing in that state without the immediate inspiration of God, the pretension to which was always justified by the event.

the land

Judges 3:30 So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel. And the land had rest fourscore years.

Judges 5:31 So let all your enemies perish, O LORD: but let them that love him be as the sun when he goes forth in his might...

Judges 8:28 Thus was Midian subdued before the children of Israel, so that they lifted up their heads no more...

Joshua 11:23 So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the LORD said to Moses...

Esther 9:22 As the days wherein the Jews rested from their enemies, and the month which was turned to them from sorrow to joy...

Othniel

Judges 3:9 And when the children of Israel cried to the LORD, the LORD raised up a deliverer to the children of Israel, who delivered them...

Joshua 15:17 And Othniel the son of Kenaz, the brother of Caleb, took it: and he gave him Achsah his daughter to wife.

1 Chronicles 4:13 And the sons of Kenaz; Othniel, and Seraiah: and the sons of Othniel; Hathath.

"This Then is the Message which we have Heard of Him, and Declare unto You, that God is Light,"
1 John i. 5.--"This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light," &c. The great design of the gospel is to make up the breach of man's joy, and open up the way to the fulness of it, and therefore it is the good news and glad tidings of great joy, the only best message that ever came to the world. Now it shows unto us the channel that this river of gladness and joy runs into, it discovers what is the way of the conveyance of it to the soul, and what are …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning