Overview of Judges
TITLE
The title refers to the leaders Israel had from the time of the elders who outlived Joshua until the time of the monarchy. Their principal purpose is best expressed in 2:16: “Then the Lord raised up judges, who saved them out of the hands of . . . raiders.” Since it was God who permitted the oppressions and raised up deliverers, he himself was Israel’s ultimate Judge and Deliverer (11:27; see8:23, where Gideon, a judge, insists that the Lord is Israel’s true ruler).
AUTHOR AND DATE
Although tradition ascribes the book to Samuel, the author is actually unknown. It is possible that Samuel assembled some of the accounts from the period of the judges and that such prophets as Nathan and Gad, both of whom were associated with David’s court, had a hand in shaping and editing the material (see 1Ch 29:29).
The date of composition is also unknown, but it was undoubtedly during the monarchy. The frequent expression “In those days Israel had no king” (17:6; 18:1; 19:1; 21:25) suggests a date after the establishment of the monarchy. The observation that the Jebusites still controlled Jerusalem (1:21) has been taken to indicate a time before David’s capture of the city c. 1000 b.c. (see 2Sa 5:6–10). But the new conditions in Israel alluded to in chs. 17–21 suggest a time after the Davidic dynasty had been effectively established (tenth century b.c.).
THEMES AND THEOLOGY
The book of Judges depicts the life of Israel in the promised land from the death of Joshua to the rise of the monarchy. On the one hand, it is an account of frequent apostasy, provoking divine chastening. On the other hand, it tells of urgent appeals to God in times of crisis, moving the Lord to raise up leaders (judges) through whom he throws off foreign oppressors and restores the land to peace.
With Israel’s conquest of the promised land through the leadership of Joshua, many of the covenant promises God had made to their ancestors were fulfilled (see Jos 21:43–45). The Lord’s land, where Israel was to enter into rest, lay under their feet; it remained only for them to occupy it, to displace the Canaanites and to cleanse it of paganism. The time had come for Israel to be the kingdom of God in the form of an established commonwealth on earth.
But in Canaan Israel quickly forgot the acts of God that had given them birth and had established them in the land. Consequently they lost sight of their unique identity as God’s people, chosen and called to be his army and the loyal citizens of his emerging kingdom. They settled down and attached themselves to Canaan’s peoples together with Canaanite morals, gods, and religious beliefs and practices as readily as to Canaan’s agriculture and social life.
Throughout Judges the fundamental issue is the lordship of God in Israel, especially Israel’s acknowledgment of and loyalty to his rule. His kingship over Israel had been uniquely established by the covenant at Sinai (Ex 19–24), which was later renewed by Moses on the plains of Moab (Dt 29) and by Joshua at Shechem (Jos 24). The author accuses Israel of having rejected the kingship of the Lord again and again. They stopped fighting the Lord’s battles, turned to the gods of Canaan to secure the blessings of family, flocks and fields, and abandoned God’s laws for daily living. In the very center of the cycle of the judges (see Outline), Gideon had to remind Israel that the Lord was their King (see note on 8:23). The recurring lament, and indictment, of chs. 17–21 (see Outline) is: “In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit” (see note on 17:6). The primary reference here is doubtless to the earthly mediators of the Lord’s rule (i.e., human kings), but the implicit charge is that Israel did not truly acknowledge or obey her heavenly King either.
Only by the Lord’s sovereign use of foreign oppression to chasten his people—thereby implementing the covenant curses (see Lev 26:14–45; Dt 28:15–68)—and by his raising up deliverers when his people cried out to him did he maintain his kingship in Israel and preserve his embryonic kingdom from extinction. Israel’s flawed condition was graphically exposed; they continued to need new saving acts by God in order to enter into the promised rest (see note on Jos 1:13).
Out of the recurring cycles of disobedience, foreign oppression, cries of distress, and deliverance (see 2:11–19; Ne 9:26–31) emerges another important theme—the covenant faithfulness of the Lord. The amazing patience and long-suffering of God are no better demonstrated than during this unsettled period.
Remarkably, this age of Israel’s failure, following directly on the redemptive events that came through Moses and Joshua, is in a special way the OT age of the Spirit. God’s Spirit enabled people to accomplish feats of victory in the Lord’s war against the powers that threatened his kingdom (see 3:10; 6:34; 11:29; 13:25; 14:6,19; 15:14; see also 1Sa 10:6,10; 11:6; 16:13). This same Spirit, poured out on the church following the redemptive work of the second Joshua (Jesus), empowered the people of the Lord to begin the task of preaching the gospel to all nations and of advancing the kingdom of God (see notes on Ac 1:2,8).
BACKGROUND
Fixing precise dates for the judges is difficult and complex. The dating system followed here is based primarily on 1Ki 6:1, which speaks of an interval of 480 years between the exodus and the fourth year of Solomon’s reign. This would place the exodus c. 1446 b.c. and the period of the judges between c. 1380 and the rise of Saul, c. 1050. Jephthah’s statement that Israel had occupied Heshbon for 300 years (11:26) generally agrees with these dates. And the reference to “Israel” in the Merneptah Stele demonstrates that Israel was established in Canaan before 1210 b.c. (see chart, p. xxiii).
Some maintain, however, that the number 480 in 1Ki 6:1 is somewhat artificial, arrived at by multiplying 12 (perhaps in reference to the 12 judges) by 40 (a conventional number of years for a generation). They point out the frequent use of the round numbers 10, 20, 40 and 80 in the book of Judges itself. A later date for the exodus would of course require a much shorter period of time for the judges (see Introduction to Exodus: Chronology; see also note on 1Ki 6:1).
LITERARY FEATURES
Even a quick reading of Judges discloses its basic threefold division: (1) a prologue (1:1—3:6), (2) a main body (3:7—16:31) and (3) an epilogue (chs. 17–21). Closer study brings to light a more complex structure, with interwoven themes that bind the whole into an intricately designed portrayal of the character of an age.
The remaining five cycles form the following narrative units, each of which focuses on one of the major judges:
Ehud (3:12–30), a lone hero from the tribe of Benjamin who delivers Israel from oppression from the east.
Deborah (chs. 4–5), a woman from one of the Joseph tribes (Ephraim, west of the Jordan) who judges at a time when Israel is being overrun by a coalition of Canaanites under Sisera.
Gideon and his son Abimelech (chs. 6–9), whose story forms the central account. In many ways Gideon is the ideal judge, evoking memory of Moses, while his son is the very antithesis of a responsible and faithful judge.
Jephthah (10:6—12:7), a social outcast from the other Joseph tribe (Manasseh, east of the Jordan) who judges at a time when Israel is being threatened by a coalition of powers under the king of Ammon.
Samson (chs. 13–16), a lone hero from the tribe of Dan who delivers Israel from oppression from the west.
The arrangement of these narrative units is significant. The central accounts of Gideon (the Lord’s ideal judge) and Abimelech (the anti-judge) are bracketed by the parallel narratives of the woman Deborah and the social outcast Jephthah—which in turn are framed by the stories of the lone heroes Ehud and Samson. In this way even the structure focuses attention on the crucial issue of the period of the judges: Israel’s attraction to the Baals of Canaan (shown by Abimelech; see note on 9:1–57) versus the Lord’s kingship over his people (encouraged by Gideon; see note on 8:23).
The epilogue (chs. 17–21) characterizes the era in yet another way, depicting religious and moral corruption on the part of individuals, cities and tribes. Like the introduction, it has two divisions that are neither chronologically related nor expressly dated to the careers of specific judges. The events must have taken place, however, rather early in the period of the judges (see notes on18:30; 20:1,28).
By dating the events of the epilogue only in relationship to the monarchy (see the recurring refrain in 17:6; 18:1; 19:1; 21:25), the author contrasts the age of the judges with the better time that the monarchy inaugurated, undoubtedly having in view the rule of David and his dynasty (see note on 17:1—21:25). The book mentions two instances of the Lord’s assigning leadership to the tribe of Judah: (1) in driving out the Canaanites (1:1–2), and (2) in disciplining a tribe in Israel (20:18). The author views the ruler from the tribe of Judah as the savior of the nation.OUTLINE
Prologue: Incomplete Conquest and Apostasy (1:1—3:6)
First Episode: Israel’s Failure to Purge the Land (1:1—2:5)
Second Episode: God’s Dealings with Israel’s Rebellion (2:6—3:6)
Oppression and Deliverance (3:7—16:31)
Epilogue: Religious and Moral Disorder (chs. 17–21)
First Episode (chs. 17–18; see 17:6; 18:1)
Second Episode (chs. 19–21; see 19:1; 21:25)
Gibeah’s corruption of morals (ch. 19)
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